Better for Us

Jaylen’s favorite breakfast was French toast, and considering the news that Ryla had to deliver this morning, she figured that she’d better step her game up from the Cap’n Crunch, cereal she let Jaylen eat on Saturday morning. “And check it out,” Ryla boasted. “I got you some strawberry syrup, powdered sugar and whipped cream.”

Jaylen jumped for joy. “Just like we put on the waffles. Is this a special day or something?”

Okay, maybe she went a bit overboard, but it wasn’t every day that a little girl met her father for the first time. Noel had been so angry last night that he hadn’t told her what time he would be back today. But she wasn’t concerned about that, because if she knew nothing else, she knew that Noel Carter would be ringing her doorbell at his earliest convenience today. “It’s not a special day, honey. But let’s hurry up and eat, because there is something I’d like to talk to you about.” Ryla turned and looked at her mom with imploring eyes. “Do you think you can hang out with us for a little while this morning?”

Juanita Evans-Berkley gave her daughter a big Texas smile as she sat her Coach purse down on the counter. “Are you kidding? For French toast with strawberry syrup, I’ll hang out with y’all all day.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Ryla said, grateful that she would have a shoulder to lean on today. “Well, ladies, help me set the table so we can eat.”

Ryla went to the refrigerator and took out the apple juice and orange juice, while Juanita took the plates out of the cabinet. Jaylen grabbed the napkins and forks. As Ryla put three glasses on the table her hand was shaking a bit.

Juanita glanced at Ryla. “Is everything okay?”

Ryla poured apple juice for Jaylen and then picked up the orange juice to pour herself and her mother a glass. “Sure, everything’s okay,” she said. But then the doorbell rang and Ryla almost dropped the juice. She gripped the orange juice bottle with a firmer hand and poured the juice in the glasses. She then put both juices back in the refrigerator and started chewing on her index finger.

“What’s wrong?” her mother asked.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Ryla hurriedly said. “Why do you think something’s wrong?”

“Well, for one thing, you’re chewing on your finger. You only do that when you’re trying to figure out how to get out of something. The doorbell has rung twice so far, but you haven’t yet moved an inch to answer it.”

Ryla took her finger out of her mouth and stepped away from the stove. “Can you fix Jaylen’s plate while I go and see who’s at the door?”

“Sure thing, hon,” her mother said with a lifted brow.

Ryla took baby steps all the way to the front door. She fully expected Noel to show up again today, but not at ten in the morning. She had hoped he would at least give her until noon to break the news to their daughter. But as she looked out the peephole at the double-fudge fine black man standing on her porch, her suspicions were confirmed. She had to take a moment to study his face before opening the door. From his short fade to the well-manicured goatee, to his Hershey’s Kiss chocolate skin, everything on Noel was perfection.

Well, everything but the scowl on his face as he pushed the buzzer several times in a row. Ryla swung the door open. “My goodness, do you really need to wake the neighborhood?”

“I’ve been standing here for five minutes. And I know it doesn’t take that long to get to the front door in your house.”

Was that supposed to be some sort of crack about the size of her house? She put her hand on her hip and protested, “I was busy. And you did come over here without calling first.”

“Do I have your number?” Noel rhetorically asked.

Noel’s voice was rising, so Ryla stepped out on the porch and closed the door behind her. “You might want to keep it down a bit.”

With nostrils flaring, Noel said, “I didn’t come over here to play games with you, Ryla. Is Jaylen home this morning or not?”

Nodding, she said, “She and my mother just arrived. But I haven’t had time to tell her about you yet.”

“When do you suppose you’ll get around to that?” he asked, in a sarcasm-infused tone.

“She’s eating breakfast right now. I was going to tell her as soon as she finished.” She tried to shoo him off the porch. “So, can you just come back in about an hour or two?”

Noel’s feet were firmly planted. “I’m not leaving until I meet Jaylen, so I hope you’ve fixed enough breakfast for me.”

“Why do you have to be such a bully? Can’t you understand that I need to break this to Jaylen gently?” Ryla knew that denying Jaylen the access to her father was wrong, even though her reason for doing so was to save her daughter from heartache later down the line. Ryla needed to clean up her own mess. She needed to make sure she didn’t do any further harm to her daughter.

“I thought you said that she’s been asking to meet me for a year now.” He looked at her as if they were having a “duh” moment. “The simplest thing to do would be for both of us to go in there, sit down with Jaylen and tell her how you kept her from me all these years.”

Ryla’s mouth fell open. “You wouldn’t dare do something like that.”

“You don’t think so...? Watch me.” Noel stepped away from Ryla and put his hand on the doorknob.

Ryla grabbed his arm. “Okay, okay, you win.”

He turned back around. “And what exactly have I won, Ryla?”

“You don’t have to leave. I’ll go inside and talk to Jaylen right now, just go back to your car for a minute.”

With a raised eyebrow he asked, “How long?”

“Give me ten minutes.” As he got ready to step off the porch, Ryla grabbed his arm again. “You won’t say anything bad about me to Jaylen, will you?”

“That depends,” Noel said with a devilish grin. “Have you been saying anything bad about me in all these years that you’ve had her to yourself?”

Shaking her head at the notion, Ryla said, “That’s ridiculous, Noel. I’ve never said a bad word about you to Jaylen!”

“Oh, you haven’t said anything bad about me to Jaylen, so just who have you been running me down to?”

Before Ryla could think of a way to avoid telling Noel that she had indeed been talking about him to her two closest friends, Danetta and Surry, the front door opened. Ryla swung around and, as if in slow motion, she watched Jaylen look up at Noel and make the connection.

Ryla panicked. “Go back in the house for a minute, Jaylen. Mommy is talking to someone right now,” Ryla said breathlessly.

But Jaylen swung open the screen door and jumped into Noel’s arms and kissed his face. “Daddy! I’m so glad you came. I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet you.” She kissed him again as she said, “Now I know why Mommy fixed my favorite breakfast. This is a special day.”

Chapter 4

Noel had experienced a lot of things in his thirty years on earth. He’d been a superstar on the basketball court since grade school, graduated college with honors, was a first-round draft pick, had earned a championship ring his second year in the NBA and had become a millionaire several times over. But he’d never experienced anything like the joy he was now feeling as Jaylen hugged and kissed him. He gave her a tight never-want-to-let-you-go kind of hug. And then Noel put her down and stepped back. He had to be mindful that the DNA test had yet to be done, and as far as he knew, Jaylen could belong to another man. It could’ve been Ryla’s sick, twisted mind that decided it would be a good thing to give another man’s child his middle name. Not knowing what else to do, Noel stuck his hand out and said, “Hi, I’m Noel Carter.”

Jaylen giggled as she shook her father’s hand. “Silly. I know who you are.”

That’s right, Noel reminded himself, Ryla did tell him that Jaylen kept an old photo of him and Ryla on her nightstand. “I wasn’t sure that you would recognize me from an old photo. I have aged a bit since then,” Noel said in a deeper, older man’s tone.

Jaylen laughed again as she told him, “I saw you on the TV, too. You look the same.”

Noel turned to Ryla for clarification on this. Had Jaylen been watching one of his old basketball games? Had Ryla taped his games and watched them as a way of having him around her...why hadn’t she just picked up the phone and called him?

“Jaylen and my mom went to Dallas for the weekend and she saw one of your ads for Congress. Congratulations, by the way. I guess you finally found a way to help your community.” Ryla was biting her finger again.

“Yeah, I’m finally pulling it all together,” he told her as he racked his brain, trying to remember when he’d shared this particular dream with Ryla.

The front door opened again, and with that same big Texas grin, Juanita Evans said, “Well, hello, Noel. It’s about time you showed up around here.” She opened the door wide. “Y’all might as well get off the porch and come on in the house. We can all sit down and catch up over breakfast.”

Jaylen grabbed Noel’s hand and began pulling him toward the door. “Come on, Daddy, we’ve got the bestest breakfast ever this morning.”

“French toast,” Juanita said.