"Hey."

Tiana looked up and smiled at me. "Hey." Damn, she was beautiful.

She was sitting on the railroad tracks, just staring out at nothing when I walked up. Who knows how long she had been sitting there.

"It's done."

She smiled at me again...that smile...and searched my eyes for a safe place. I didn't have one to give her. Her smile faltered and she looked away quickly.

"Don't say shit."

"I won't."

I knew I didn't have to tell her that, but just in case Charity was still giving her a hard time at school and Tiana decided to open her mouth, for whatever reason, I wanted to make sure that Tiana couldn't say no one told her to keep it shut.

"The baby with Charity?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

I thought about how Tiana looked when she opened the door earlier that night and my mind started to wander again, but I had to stay focused.

"Listen..." I started to reach for her hand, but then changed my mind. She looked over at me like she already knew what I was about to say. "I..." My voice trailed off when her eyes started to glisten, but this had to be done. I hardened my voice and blanked my face out so she wouldn't know how much it was hurting me to cut her off. "I'm gonna be real busy for a while, so if you don't see me..."

She nodded and looked back over the city. When she wiped away a tear, and then another one, I stood up.

"Aight then."

She looked over at me and nodded. "Thanks, Kenney."

I nodded back and walked off. This shit was too stressful. Rico was right. There was no room for feelings in our business. I just had to stay focused and stack up enough paper to get us all the hell out of there.

Sighing I looked at my watch and doubled my steps. I had to find Remmey and Chauncey to help me clean that mess up before Rico came back out.