Driving Heat by Zuri Day Read Free Book Online

could cut through cloth.”
    “That’s why it’s called the Windy City.”
    “Windy is the air that sways palm leaves or helps a kite float in the air. What I felt that night went way beyond windy.”
    “It can get pretty intense.”
    “Sounds like your son is a smart young man.”
    “I think so.”
    “I never appreciated all my parents did until Tyra came to live with me. Raising kids is hard work when two people are doing it. By yourself it’s even more difficult. Add to it the fact that I’m raising a daughter and the responsibility seems overwhelming at times.”
    “I have similar feelings when it comes to raising a son.”
    “My hats are off to all the single mothers out there who’ve held it down. It’s a labor of love, though. I’d do it all over again, except I’d choose a different mother. Not that I chose this one to tell you the truth.”
    “Baby mama drama?”
    “You don’t know the half.”
    “Actually, I do, except with me it’s less about drama and more about . . . well, it’s about the pitfalls of having a parent missing from a child’s life.”
    “Sounds like there’s a story there.”
    “Yes.”
    “Sounds like one you don’t care to share.”
    “Correct.”
    Byron slowly nodded, eyeing her with interest as his curiosity grew. “I can respect that. What is one of your biggest challenges dealing with him? With my daughter, it’s clothes and the styles she wants to wear! Why do they make outfits for ten-year-olds as if they’re eighteen?”
    “Unfortunately, fashion is largely driven by a pop culture that pays little attention to the term age appropriate. Look at the people singing the music she loves or the shows she enjoys watching on TV. They’re probably the ones she’s emulating, and they’re probably not much older than her.” Cynthia took a sip of coffee. “Jock straps.”
    The roll on its way to Byron’s mouth was stopped halfway there. “Excuse me?”
    “One of the challenges in being a single mother raising a son. I have no personal knowledge of that particular apparatus.”
    Byron’s look was that of a confident man. “It just so happens I’m an apparatus expert. What would you like to know?”
    The two continued chatting and getting to know each other. One topic flowed into another without effort and before either of them knew it, two hours had gone by. Cynthia left for her hair appointment. Byron headed over to his parents’ house to watch what remained of the game. Both left having experienced the unexpected. For Byron, it was that Cynthia wasn’t as uppity as he thought she was, and even more beautiful when relaxed and smiling. For Cynthia, it was that they had so much in common, and since he wasn’t her client’s immediate family . . . that she’d agreed to join him for dinner tomorrow night.

8
    Anyone listening to the cacophony that greeted Byron as he stepped into the Carter household would have thought there were thirty people in the Carter living room. Instead, it was just his dad (the loudest), three brothers, Tyra, and a cousin who was around Tyra’s age. As he entered, they ran out of the room in search of more age-appropriate, girly entertainment. Byron greeted them and then entered the living room and immediately made his presence known.
    “How can y’all hear the TV with all this hollering?” he yelled loud enough to be heard over the din. “Stop all this yakkity-yak. I’m here to watch the game!”
    “Shut up, fool. You’re louder than anybody!”
    “Nobody cares why you’re here.”
    “You bad, come over and shut me up!”
    “Hey, big brother, we learned from the best.”
    “Byron, go sit down.”
    Barry, the youngest son, delivered this command and got bopped upside the head for his trouble. Byron sat down beside him. “Shut the hell up.”
    “Hey!” Elizabeth “Mom Liz” Carter walked into the room wearing a scowl. “Cut out all this ruckus! And stop all that got damn cussing in my house!”
    The room erupted into