Page 308 of When a Soul Cries

Zari had both hands over her face. “Please hang up the damn phone.”

Rome was still laughing, which only made Ma madder.

Then she looked at the speedometer.

Her eyes widened.

“Khalil Devereaux, are you doing a hundred miles an hour?”

I glanced down.

One-oh-one.

“Oh.”

“OH?”

I eased my foot off the gas while Zari nearly folded over laughing again.

Rome finally managed to get himself together. “Kai.”

“What?”

His voice sobered. “Y'all close?”

I checked the GPS.

Fourteen minutes.

“Yeah, bro. We close.”

“Good.”

Something in the way he said it made me smile.

My big brother was nervous.

Roman fucking Devereaux.

The same man who could walk into a business meeting and have everybody else questioning themselves. The same brother who'd stood beside me when my whole life could've disappeared behind prison walls. The same nigga who'd dragged himself out of the streets, helped me do the same, and built a life neither one of us could've imagined when we were younger.

Now he was nervous about marrying Sol.

Life was funny as hell.

A few months ago, neither of us knew these women.

Rome walked into Cash Market and met Sol.

I met Zari at a gas station while she was rushing a sick Halo to the doctor.

Now Sol was about to become my sister-in-law. Halo had already somehow become family before anybody made it official.

And Zari…

My eyes drifted toward the rearview mirror.

She was looking down at her phone, smiling at something, curls falling around her face.