Chapter 19
NINETEEN
ASHANNI
“The dick must be off the charts for you to almost get killed twice.”
I frowned at Bali and shot her the finger. “Shut up, ho.”
She gave me a one-sided smile as she ate her stuffed chicken. I shoulder bumped her, then said, “And it is.”
She and Noni died in laughter. I had to join them, because the dick was definitely something to brag about.
Asad had gone to his dad’s house, and I decided to spend time with my girls.
Milana walked in with a huge smile on her face.
She had been practicing her ass off. I was so proud of her.
She was barebacking the fuck out of those horses.
She was definitely a young version of her mama.
She was built like her but had a darker complexion.
She wasn’t as dark complexioned as Uncle Ryder, but she was closer to his skin tone than she was to Aunt Tiffany’s.
“What’chu smiling at?” Noni asked.
“I got invited to the Bill Pickett Rodeo!”
We all clapped and cheered. I was so happy for her. She continued. “Karima and Rylan did too! The Hendersons gone be in that shit!”
We laughed and jumped around excitedly. When Aunt Chrissy joined us, we burst into laughter. She was happy for her baby. Rylan used to be so spoiled behind her. My daddy said niggas had to use the jaws of life to separate his ass from her. I could only laugh at his foolishness.
“I’m so proud of y’all!” I said as I picked Milana up.
She was about three or four inches taller than me, but she was so light I could run around the diner while holding her. The girl looked like a string bean with breasts.
“When is it?”
“In two months, right around the time school starts, in Fort Worth.”
“Sounds like a good time!”
After she was seated, she looked at the twins and smiled. “So the grand opening is tomorrow! Are y’all excited?”
Bali and Noni smiled big. “It’s still hard to believe that we are doctors now with our own practice at only twenty-six years old. So hell yeah, we’re excited!” Bali said.
I was so proud of my cousins. They were doing amazing things.
We were all building our legacy. The Hendersons would be here for generations to come, doing amazing things.
Before I could blink my eyes, I would be a whole grandmother in these streets, like Aunt Jen and Aunt Chrissy.
Seeing my mama morph into grandma mode with Jayceon was beautiful to see.
I’d already gotten used to calling her Nana Chas like him.
“I’ve also picked out bridesmaids dresses for a winter wedding!”
“Aww shit. It better not be on Christmas Eve, Milana. I ain’t got young kids no more, but I’ll be damned.”
We turned around to see Uncle Storm standing there. I chuckled, because I remembered how he, Remy, and SS set shit off at Nesha’s wedding. Lennox was looking like he wanted to choke that nigga.
Milana stood and hugged him. “Hey, Uncle Mayor. It’s gonna be two weekends before Christmas. You know we gotta get ready for the Christmas rodeo. Plus, I need time to honeymoon before Christmas.”
“Okay. I didn’t want you to end up on my bad side like Nesha’s ass.”
I noticed Nesha had walked in, and that was why he said that. She frowned slightly and rolled her eyes. “Never that, Uncle Mayor,” Milana said.
“A’ight, Let me go light a fire under Jen and Chrissy to make sure they getting the vittles ready for tomorrow. We gon’ turn up!”
I glanced at the twins, and they smiled. “We ready, Daddy Mayor!” Noni said proudly.
I slowly shook my head. When he walked off, I said, “I’m gon’ assume vittles is food.”
“Girl, where the hell you been? You ain’t never heard Grandpa say that shit?” Noni asked.
“I must have tuned that shit out. What are they cooking?”
“A fucking feast! So be prepared to eat yourself to sleep!” Bali said.
I shook my head again and laughed, happy that we were all in a good place, celebrating life.
As Rev. White dedicated the clinic to the Lord, and admonished the twins and Uncle Kenny’s accomplishments, I saw her.
I couldn’t even be bothered with making a disturbance, because frankly, I didn’t give a fuck.
I ran to her and hugged her so tight, then lifted her and spun around as the tears fell from my eyes.
When everyone saw who I was hugging, they ran to her too. When the twins got to her, they were both shedding tears of joy. “Maui! My God! I’m so glad you came!” Noni said.
“I wouldn’t have missed it. Y’all worked so hard for this moment.”
When they finally released her, Uncle Storm stood there with a frown on his face, Aunt Aspen right behind him.
Maui cowered somewhat in his presence. Aunt Aspen hugged her tightly, and SS stood there looking like a miniature cat five.
When Aunt Aspen released her, she looked up at her dad. “Hi, Daddy Mayor.”
Without an ounce of hesitancy, he scooped her up like she weighed nothing and hugged her so tightly.
We all missed her. It had been almost a month since we’d seen her.
When I glanced toward the street, I saw that Mythic was here too.
I cringed at the sight, because I didn’t know how Uncle Storm and SS would take him being here.
That nigga didn’t have an ounce of fear in him, so I knew he wouldn’t stay in the shadows.
Uncle Storm glanced that way, but he didn’t say anything.
Thank God. We all gathered back around Rev.
White, and Aunt Aspen apologized to him and the media for the interruption.
He continued as I stood next to my bestie, holding her hand, feeling the slight tremble in it.
I glanced at her, trying to see if I noticed any changes.
While she seemed happy to be here, she seemed nervous as well.
The brightness that was once in her eyes was gone also.
“You okay?” I said softly close to her ear.
When she turned to me, I could see the tears dying to break free. “I just missed y’all . . . the family.”
She was lying. I could always tell, and she knew that.
It was just her mannerisms that I couldn’t really explain.
It was like she was a little more tense or something when she was lying.
She said that to shut me up. I took a deep breath as she slid her hand away from mine. It was trembling uncontrollably.
After a couple minutes, while Rev. White was praying, she said, “Mythic knows SS called the cops on him. I don’t know how he knows, but he knows. I overheard him talking to someone about it.”
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I didn’t respond to her verbally, because I had no words. I grabbed her hand again and mine was trembling as much as hers was. When Rev. White said amen, Asad and Jayceon appeared next to me. He had to go to the bathroom. When Asad saw Maui, he smiled and hugged her.
The twins went up to the steps with huge smiles on their faces and said words of appreciation and thanks, then cut the ribbon to their clinic.
The applause was deafening. We all made our way inside and were in awe with what we saw.
This facility would be amazing to have right here in Big City Nome.
People from the surrounding areas, that didn’t want to go to Beaumont, could come here.
There was an emergency room, but it was small.
They probably wouldn’t handle extreme emergencies.
I thought they would have been able to take Mila, but they only had a few rooms to keep patients overnight.
I believed that was more for observation than anything.
Mila was still in the hospital in ICU. She lost a lot of blood, and it was touch and go for a while.
Despite what she did to me, I hoped she could get the mental health she needed before somebody killed her ass.
That was her warning shot . . . literally.
She had better thank God that Mr. Seneca had a heart and didn’t shoot her in hers.
I believed Mr. Ali was angry enough to hit her with a head shot right there in my house.
I probably would have still been dreaming about that shit.
I only had trouble sleeping for a couple of nights, then I was okay.
I was thankful that it didn’t traumatize me more than what it did.
She hopped her ass in the car with me at Walgreens and was talking all kinds of shit about me taking her family.
I was just happy that shit was over. Asad and I were able to come and go as we pleased now.
After touring the emergency room and clinical rooms, we went over to their private practice side.
One of them would primarily be the obstetrician and the other the gynecologist, but of course, they were both able to do both.
Bali and Noni were so excited to show us all the services they would be offering, and we were so excited right along with them, that we didn’t see Mythic had come inside and was talking to SS.
Carter Legend, Red Squared, Ace, PJ, my brothers, King, Kane, and Ryder J were all over there. My heartrate kicked up a notch, and I saw Bali and Noni notice them as well. Bali stormed over there, with Noni right behind her, and I was right behind them as well.
She barged right into the middle of their somewhat hostile circle.
“I don’t know what the fuck y’all got going on, but y’all will not disrupt one of the happiest days of our lives with that bullshit.
The media is here, and the last thing I need people to do is assume they are seeing a bunch of thugs.
No one will want to be in the vicinity of this place. ”
Noni added through clenched teeth, “With that being said, all of you get the fuck out. Right fucking now.”
I could see Mythic and SS mean mugging each other, but they left in two different directions. I slid my hand down my face as Maui walked over. “I’m sorry. He wouldn’t let me come without him.”
“And that’s the kind of bullshit you wanna subject yourself to, Maui?”
“It wasn’t forceful, Bali. He just wanted y’all to see that whatever concerns me concerns him too.”