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She gave a small nod, like that was the answer she wanted to hear. “Then at some point, you have to let the woman you are today answer for herself.”
Daddy cleared his throat and Mama looked at him.
“And don’t listen to your father.”
His eyebrows shot up. “The hell?”
“You shut up.”
Daddy leaned back in his chair. “I was trying to help.”
Mama gave him a look. “You’ve done enough helping.”
Daddy stood from his seat then. “Your mama’s right.”
“Nobody asked you,” all three of us said together.
He sat back down. “Damn.”
Klair reached across the table and squeezed my hand. Then she said, “For the record, I don’t think you’re Mama.”
I looked at her. “Thank you.”
“Or Daddy.”
“Even better,” I said.
Daddy sucked his teeth.
Klair ignored him. “But don’t do that thing you do.”
“What thing?” I asked, frowning.
“Act like I’m somehow more evolved because I don’t experience romantic attraction.”
I looked at her and she squeezed my hand again.
“I’m not single because I watched Daddy cheat and got scared of love.”
“I know.”
“I’m single because I just like being single.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“And if somebody offered me the healthiest, most emotionally mature relationship on Earth tomorrow, I’d still probably ask them to leave my house.”
That made me smile.
“But,” she continued, “watching them did teach me something.”
She nodded toward our parents and daddy immediately looked offended.
“What?” I asked.
“That I don’t have to want something just because everyone else tells me I’m supposed to have it, and maybe that made you spend too much time thinking about what kind of woman that man turned you into.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
