Geechie exhaled. “We good?”
Adair hesitated but extended his hand. “We straight but don’t ever disrespect her again.”
“Fair.”
They clasped hands, quick and hard. Before he could return to the couch, Pam appeared in the doorway. Her face was unreadable, but her arms were folded in that mama stance that meantsomethingwas about to be addressed.
“Sabine. Adair. Can I talk to y’all for a minute?” she said, already walking toward the den. The two exchanged a glance and followed. Once they were inside the quiet space, Pam closed the door gently.
She didn’t sit.
She didn’t speak right away.
Just looked at them.
Both of them.
Together.
Then finally: “I know y’all grown. Y’all don’t owe me your relationship play-by-plays but that boy,mygrandbaby, is alwayswatching and whether y’all know it or not, the whole family watches too.”
“I understand,” Sabine nodded.
“Do you?” Pam raised an eyebrow. “Because y’all done been through hell and came out on opposite ends. And now you lookin’ all cozy and fine again, but that kind of shift, it stirs things up. Not just for you two, but for everybody who had to watch y’all fall apart in the first place.”
“Ma,” Adair rubbed the side of his face. “I mean we grown, do we really gotta?—”
“Oh you grown?” she leaned away. “Now y’all grown but for the last few years, y’all ain’t acted grown. Y’all put me in the middle, showed me parts of yaselves I was surprised to see and yet, I can’t ask what the hell this is?!”
“Ma—”
“Pam, I mean, Ma?—”
“Hell naw, this hardheaded nigga that I pushed outmybody tellin’ me this ain’t my business? No, no, itismy business because when both y’all asses couldn’t even face each other, who was the middleman? Picking up the slack onbothends for that boy because his parents couldn’t get it together! I gave y’all some grace because I knew it would take some time cause y’all was so young gettin’ together and I told Adair he should’ve waited but he was so in love he couldn’t see straight. And I ain’t mad at that, ‘cause Lord knows love’ll make you brave and stupid all at the same time. But I told him…I told himmarriage don’t fix immaturity. Babies don’t fix broken things and when it all came tumblin’ down, who was left tryin’ to patch the pieces for that baby?” She pointed toward the backyard where Ade’s laughter floated in from the open window. “Iwas. I was the one explaining why Daddy wasn’t there yet. Why Mommy didn’t want to talk on the phone when he gave it to her. Why y’all couldn’t be in the same damn room without it turning into somecold silence or a fight y’all thought he didn’t hear. So yeah, I got a right to ask whatthisis because if y’all just playin’, or just lonely, or just tryin’ to feel somethin’ familiar, I need you to say that. Tome.” Pam’s voice cracked then. Just a little but she didn’t let herself fall apart. “Because Ilovey’all. Both of y’all but Iadorethat little boy and I’ll be damned if I sit quiet and watch him get his hopes up just to watch ‘em drop again.”
The silence that followed was pressing. Like truth had taken up space in the room and neither of them had figured out how to breathe around it yet.
Sabine felt it first in her chest, a familiar tightness, the kind that came when someone said something so real it pierced the armor you didn’t even know you were still wearing. Her eyes shifted toward the window, to the sound of Ade’s carefree laughter bouncing off the breeze, and a dull ache formed just under her ribs.
Ade really was watching,she thought. Always had been. Even when they tried to shield him. Even when she told herself he was too little to understand. Pam’s words peeled back all her reasons, all her rationalizations, and exposed the one thing she didn’t want to face: if she couldn’t be sure of this—ofthem—she had no business letting her son believe it was whole again.
Across from her, Adair’s jaw was tight, his eyes low, fists gently curled at his sides. Not defensive. Not angry. Just...a man being reminded of every time he fell short and why he couldn’t afford to again.She’s right,he thought.His mother had always been right.
Pam had never sugarcoated anything, not even when he didn’t want to hear it. Especiallythen. And now? Now, it wasn’t just a lecture. It was a mirror and in it, he saw himself—young, headstrong, in love, and foolish enough to think the weight of marriage, kids, and ambition wouldn’t crush the things he failed to nurture.
Adair reached for Sabine’s hand and she didn’t pull away. He breathed a sigh of relief; it was telling him that although their past wasn’t an easy thing to overcome, still, she was here. Willing. Standing beside him.
Sabine was the first to speak, her voice soft.
“You’re not wrong,” she said. “None of what you said was wrong. This wasn’t…planned. Not like this and I don’t know where it’s going. I really don’t but I’ve seen him trying. I’ve felt it and I know what it means to him.” She glanced at Adair then, her voice trembling a little. “And it means something to me too but I’m scared because Iwasbroken and being around him again, feeling all this again…it’s like finding the pieces but not being sure they fit the same way.”
Adair squeezed her hand, then finally spoke.
“I’m not tryna fit the same way,” he said. “I’m tryna be better. For her. For me. For our son.” He looked at his mother now. “I know what I lost and I know I can’t ask anybody to believe in me overnight but I ain’t playin’, Ma. I’m not lookin’ for nostalgia. I’m lookin’ for the woman I should’ve protected better and loved harder the first time. If she’ll have me again.”
Pam didn’t respond right away. Her eyes moved between them. Then she exhaled slowly and gave one of those long, tired nods that mothers do when they still love you, but they’rewatching.
“Then move like it,” she said. “And I don’t mean showin’ up hand-in-hand at family parties or lettin’ Ade catch y’all kissin’. I mean showin’ up. With honesty. With humility. Withwork.”