Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan

Author:Kennedy Ryan [Ryan, Kennedy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Kennedy Ryan, contemporary romance
Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts, Inc
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kimba

“If this was Noah’s party at nine,” Mona says, “can you imagine this kid’s sweet sixteen?”

I laugh and scoop the last of the candy debris from Noah’s piñata out of the grass. “We’ll be that kid’s entourage by the time he’s sixteen.”

Mona glances around Ezra’s backyard and heaves a long sigh. “All done. Food’s put away. Place is clean. Everyone’s gone home. Ezra’s making sure four third-graders don’t kill each other and go to sleep.”

“Ezra’s lucky to have you.” I sit on the edge of the trampoline. “You’re like part of the family.”

Mona gives me a measured look before sitting beside me, the net enclosure at our backs. “Aiko, too. They’re all like family to me.”

“Well then, they’re all lucky to have you.”

Mona tips her head toward the fence that separates her backyard from this one. “Why don’t you come over for a glass…or bottle…of wine?”

“Raincheck?”

“You’re about to leave?” Mona probes.

“In a little bit, yeah.”

Her gaze drifts back toward the house. “This won’t end well, Kimba. It can’t.”

As much as she may be right, I hold on to Ezra’s frankness from earlier tonight. “You know him, Mona. Have you ever even suspected him of being unfaithful?”

“No, but you were never around.”

“That wouldn’t have made a difference.”

“I would have said that, too, before I saw him with you. Kimba, I know how a man looks at someone who is just a friend, and that is not how Ezra looks at you. I just hope no one else noticed. He’s a pillar of this community. A hero for these kids. I don’t want him throwing that away because he’s curious about what might have been.”

“I don’t want that either, and it won’t happen. We’re just talking, Mo. We haven’t seen each other in a very long time. We were best friends from the cradle. Just trust us, okay?”

“Okay.” Her one word lilts with notes of doubt and warning, but she turns toward the fence, unlatches the door and walks through to her side.

Once she returns to her house, it’s so quiet. Not even an hour ago, this yard was teeming with activity and music and food and partygoers. After Mona leaves, I only hear the lonely chirp of crickets.

“What are you doing here, Tru?” I ask aloud.

Ezra’s assurances, Mona’s warnings—none of them weigh more than the knowledge that lines the secret crevices of my own heart.

I want him.

But I would hate to hurt Noah, or tempt Ezra to cheat on Aiko. I don’t want to compromise my own convictions. So why the hell am I still here? He said I could trust him, but that’s not what I’m worried about.

I can’t trust myself.

I fall back through the split in the net enclosure, flopping onto the trampoline. The surface answers with a little bounce. That tiny hiccup of buoyancy lifts the heaviness, the doubt inside of me. With no audience but an empty backyard, I kick off my flats, stand on the trampoline and attempt one tentative hop. And then another. A bigger one that propels me higher and higher still.

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