Jazz: Vol 3 of the Still Waters Series

Chapter 20

I had just finished washing dishes for Claire and was drying my hands, about to head home, when Remmey walked up beside me and put his hand lightly onto my back.

"You want to stay?"

I just looked at him. I wasn't sure what he was asking.

Remmey took the towel gently out of my hands and tossed it onto the kitchen counter. Then he rested both hands on my waist.

A familiar nervous energy hit me, but not in a good way, and I instantly wanted his hands off me. Remmey read my face and pulled away.

He started walking toward the front door and nodded for me to follow him. When we got outside, Remmey sat down on the porch steps and I sat down beside him.

"Jazz. I never touch your sister." I nodded. "She ain't what I want." I nodded again. "Your daddy...he won't take her back." He paused and leaned over to put his hand on my knee. I didn't look down at it or anywhere else but his eyes. "So, I got her." He licked his lips as his eyes trailed across my face. "But I got her like...she my daughter. Not like she my wife."

He waited for me to say something, anything, but I didn't have anything to say.

"He...put her out. Yo' daddy. Right after they took you. Wally B told her to go to Carl's, right before they took him, too." Remmey stared into my eyes. "But Carl, he..." Remmey felt my knee tense up beneath his hand. He sat back and pulled his hand away. "He didn't touch your sister either, Jazz," he said quickly. "But the baby...made her thick. Like a grown woman. She started lookin' good to him and she...didn't like the way he was lookin' at her. He made her feel...scared. Pregnant. She didn't feel safe with him..."

I stared wordlessly at Remmey's mouth like I was reading the words that he was saying to me.

"She told the young boy and he went and got her and tried to keep her at his Granny house without her knowin'. Want nowhere to hide her. That's why he didn't get her in the first place. Wally B took care of her first..."

Remmey's eyes searched mine as he watched me follow the story with him. He knew that I had been trying to read the missing year in someone...anyone's eyes, just to find out what happened to my sister.

"The young boy Granny found out." Remmey was still watching me, waiting for me to say something. I still had nothing to say. "Christian Granny almost slapped ya' sistah, Jazz. Pregnant. But he grabbed her hand and stopped her. She..." He shook his head like the story got complicated after that, and then he gave me the short version. "She sent him home to his mama." Remmey looked into my eyes. "He comin' back soon as he get enough money."

I nodded.

I knew what that meant.

Christian was probably taking care of Remmey's business while Remmey was taking care of Christian's. I shook my head. Christian wasn't cut out for that and Remmey knew it.

"After that Claire went back to Carl. Wally B was already...gone. On some other shit." I frowned. Remmey frowned, too. "She didn't have nowhere else to go, Jazz. But next time Wally B called Carl from in there," Remmey motioned over his shoulder like he was pointing somewhere. I knew what he meant. "Carl told him she couldn't stay wit' him no more. She..." Remmey's frown deepened. "He...just...was thinkin' 'bout her too much." He rushed the last part of the sentence. I nodded and my frown deepened, too. "Wally B say she didn't have nowhere to go and he needed me here. To take care of more than just your sister. A whole lot needed to get straight around here, not just that."

He paused.

"Ya' sistah been through a lot, Jazz. A lot. She need you. Real bad."

My eyes never left Remmey's.

He was telling the truth.

I knew he was.

"So, I came back." Remmey scooted closer to me and took my hand in his.

I let him.

"You different," he murmured quietly and continued to gaze into my eyes. I didn't back down or look away. "You so different."

He ran his fingers softly over my hair and then held my hand again.

We spent the rest of that evening watching the sun set in silence.