Hassan
“WHY YOU LOOK so fucking nervous?”
I looked at the man who everyone assumed I was related to. We were both dark skinned with locs and of course people didn’t bother to distinguish between any of our features to realize we were two different men. But it worked well for us when we were doing work.
“Smoke, I know that you just started to act like a real boy and all that, but how can you even judge me.”
“Judge you? Bruh, I’m just trying to figure out what the hell is going on with you. Like you said, you’re the normal one out of us. You have the normal family life and shit. You should be able to figure out how to do this romance shit without needing help.”
We’d linked up outside of town at some of the land the family owned to keep our skills sharp. I might have been off duty but I would never slack on the tools that would keep me alive in the field.
I holstered my gun staring at him confused. “So you ain’t gone help me out at all?”
“Bruh, if you ask me I’d tell you to snatch up her ex and nail that nigga to a cross and drag him through the center of town. Or do him like they did Cersei and toss bottles, knives and throwing stars at his ass.” He had his rifle at his side staring at me like I was the problem.
“They threw food at the bitch, not knives.” I located my target again and fired off another round.
“You wanted my advice, right?”
I scoffed and he had the nerve to look offended. “Yeah. Don’t know what the fuck I was thinking.”
“Go ask JJ’s ass. You know me and Sweets don’t do normal gifts. Hell, who in our crew does anything normal, ’San?”
I could only nod because Smoke was right. I was much lower in the order than he was.
“I’ll figure something out. The last thing I want to do is come off as a fuck boy ‘cause she just dealt with one. I’m not trying to buy her either despite the fact that I want to spoil her. With everything that’s going on I want her to know I’m in this shit for real.”
“Okay so tell her just like you told me.”
“Coming on too strong probably ain’t the move.”
“Nigga, what the fuck you want me to do? You are sitting here going back and forth for no reason. Damn, let me go find Sweets so she can sit on my face. I ain’t have to do none of this shit when I met her.
We just worked. Why y’all so busy making shit complicated?
Just fucking be and be done with it.” His face was blank but his annoyance with me and Sylvia having emotions was clear.
I looked at this anti-social nigga and had to admit he had a point. I was going to overthink this shit and fuck it up completely.
“I needed to hear that ‘cause I was really going to fuck this up.”
“See, you wanted advice and now you got it.”
“Thank you for that.”
“No problem. So what are you going to do?” We both started packing up all our equipment ready to head out.
“Follow my heart and shit I guess. I keep telling myself shit is going too fast but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like I’m right where I want to be. And making things official and permanent with Sylvia feels right.”
“Cool. When you ready to get the steps started with adopting her kids just let me know.”
“Her people are lawyers so I wouldn’t need your help with that.” We looked at each other and my suspicions grew the longer I watched the mild humor dance on his face. “My nigga, how were you going to help with me adopting her kids when they got a daddy?”
“You must’ve gotten soft since you been back. Did you forget what I said about kidnapping his ass and putting him on a cross? He get out of hand and we can put his ass in a ditch or feed him to some hogs.”
“I couldn’t do that to them. That’s still their father.”
Smoke huffed which was about as expressive as he got. “And he acting like a bitch. You don’t need that to rub off on them kids. Have the boy emulating that shit or the lil girl trying to find a nigga like that right?”
I be damned if his crazy ass wasn’t making sense. I had to wonder if I hated Dave this much or if Smoke’s ass was raising valid points.
“Let me beat his ass first to see if he’s even redeemable. If not then we’ll handle it your way.”
I could tell from the way one corner of his mouth lifted he was hoping Dave continued to fuck up. “Anyway I’m out. I got a special lady I gotta see before I get home to my family. I’ll get up with you later.”
“Grandma!”
I walked into her front door off the wide front porch.
As usual, the screen door was unlocked despite how many times we’d all begged her to stop doing it.
My grandma didn’t give a fuck about intruders because despite her age she was still a damn good shot.
Our family’s house was one of the bigger ones downtown once the original Beacons got too plentiful to stay on the hotel’s property.
We’d spanned out into multiple generations but this place was always considered home.
Many generations of my family had been raised within these walls and my fondest memories of my childhood were playing around with my cousins outside before coming in to sit down for Sunday dinner.
“Hassan, I know your Black ass ain’t walking up in my house hollerin’, boy!”
The irony of my grandma yelling at me about yelling was lost as she rounded the corner from the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hands. “You ain’t too big for me to pop your ass.”
“Granny, I was just letting you know I was here.”
“Your big ass is hard to miss, boy. Now come give me some sugar and tell me what’s wrong.”
“Why does something have to be wrong.”
“Hassan, shut up bothering me. My stories bout to come on and I’m not gone miss finding out if this baby is half vampire, half witch or half werewolf when it’s born.
” My granny was wearing her house dress and her hair was in rollers.
She only came up to my shoulder and was still relatively fit to be heading toward eighty.
I looked at her wondering if my granny was watching some weird ass supernatural porn or something like that. “Granny, what you watching up in here?”
“Nunya business, Hassan. Now, tell me what’s going on.
” She motioned for me to follow her and I did passing by photos of the family that lined the halls.
We’d gotten so big the photos were hung from ceiling to damn near the floor in some spots.
We entered the kitchen and Granny pointed to a stool silently commanding me to sit down.
Her famous tea cakes were sitting on a plate in the center and I grabbed one of the napkins beside the plate so I could enjoy them.
The tea cakes were more crispy on the outside but still soft in the center just how I liked them. All of us grandkids liked our tea cakes made a different way so I knew she’d made these specifically for me.
I bit into the cookie that tasted like my childhood and smiled up at her. “You knew I was coming?”
“Had a dream. Your grandaddy was talking to me about you. That meant you were coming to get something off your chest. I just didn’t know when.” She went about making my plate like talking to my grandaddy was the most normal thing in the world.
I nodded because they’d always had that type of connection and I didn’t doubt that death couldn’t break their bond.
“It’s about Sylvia.”
She smiled, her wrinkles shifting as she piled my plate high. “Tell me something I don’t know. You’ve been running around Beacon Grove with that girl the last few months giving her ex husband’s ass the fits. I ain’t have a problem with his mama but Dave’s always been an arrogant little bastard.”
“Granny.”
“You think I forgot how he tried to fight you back in ’07? I haven’t and I never will.”
“You must be where we get that grudge shit from.”
She pointed the spoon she’d used to scoop out the potato salad toward me. “You not too big, Hassan.”
“That’s my fault. Anyway, yes, I want to be with her but I hate feeling like it’s too soon. A few years back, we saw one another and spent time together—”
My granny fluttered her fingers to get me to hurry up. “I already know you probably turned that girl every which way but loose. Get on past that.”
I should’ve been shamed but I couldn’t help the arrogant grin that came over my face.
She only rolled her eyes because she knew how we all were.
She sat my plate in front of me and then moved to the fridge to get me something to drink.
No matter how often I told my granny I could fend for myself she insisted on doing it.
I was sure she missed having someone to take care of.
“I had to leave for work and she felt like I was running game when I got back.”
“Were you?” I could see my granny’s hackles going up like she was going to cuss me out for Sisi.
“Hel—no, ma’am I’m not.” I dug into my plate and just like I knew it was slappin’.
“Then stop worrying about time, baby. All you have to do is be the man that you’re supposed to be and everything else will fall into place. You have feelings for her that strong?”
“I’m falling in love, Granny.”
She leaned over and stroked my cheek with the softest look on her face.
“You’ve been in love, Hassan. You’ve just finally found your right thing at the right time.
That’s called divine timing. I know you’ll have a little bit of a challenge getting through her hurt but you will.
I can already see she’s much happier since you’ve been back.
So whatever you did in the past don’t matter.
She’s happy and you’re happy. Stick with that and nothing else matters. ”
“I appreciate that, granny.”
“Besides you need to marry her before the babies come.”
I damn near choked on the ribs I was eating. Granny’s face didn’t change which had my heart racing. “Babies? What babies, granny?”
“Your granddaddy said y’all gone have ‘bout three more to go along with her two. Too busy playing soldier and letting those fools hurt you to settle down. But the tine is right now.”
I couldn’t front like it wasn’t a possibility that I could have gotten Sisi pregnant.
We were being careless as fuck. Or maybe intentional as fuck was the better term.
Since that first night we reconnected I hadn’t used condoms. It wasn’t even a discussion.
I’d pull out as often as I could but she knew when I didn’t.
I knew the consequences of not doing so and was going to be happy with them as long as they were with her.
“You gone be happy to be a great granny?” Even saying it made it feel like a guarantee instead of a possibility.
“Of course. The older two ain’t got much by the way of a daddy and I’m proud of you for stepping in the way you have. Not like I expected anything less.” She patted my hand and having my granny proud of me made me sit up taller.
“Thank you, granny.”
“Now come on let’s get this food.”
“Food?”
“Yeah. I made some food for the family so y’all didn’t have to cook tonight. Casanova is going to pick his up later.”
Cass’s ass was spoiled by everyone in the family and I wasn’t sure why cause he wasn’t the youngest. It was even worse with his mama and I wasn’t sure how his siblings dealt with his ass.
“Stop cooking for his grown ass, Granny. He gotta figure it out.”
“I do what I want, Hassan Michael Beacon. Talking to me like you can boss me around. You save it for the lil Montrose girl you can’t get up off of.
And don’t get her no lil token ring either.
The last thing I want is them old biddies at Bingo trying to make it seem like my great grand wasn’t a welcome addition.
It’s bad enough Geraldine’s nosy ass lives next door to her.
You put a diamond on her hand that has everybody around here talking for all the right reasons, you hear me boy.
” She was pointing that finger at me like she did when she would yell at us to stop running in her house.
Or when she wanted us to go outside and get a switch ‘cause we’d fucked up.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good. I expect to see all y’all over here real soon playing with me. Now come so you can finish eating, pack up your stuff and I can put you out.”
“It’s like that granny?”
“Sannie I love you but I raised my kids and y’all are too damn loud and plentiful for me. Come get this food so I can go watch this lil magical cretin being born.”