Sylvia
“YOU REALLY ONLY have eyes for him, huh?”
My head snapped up to find that Maggie Cunningham was staring at me with a big smile on her face.
Her face was fuller than the last time we’d seen one another since she had a little Cunningham baking.
She looked so pretty in her brightly colored sundress and her hair in a big curly puff.
The deep melanin spots on her face were uncovered and I understood how being loved deeply could make you even more confident in yourself.
“I’m sorry?”
She nodded toward the direction of Hassan with a knowing look on her face. “Your eyes track him the ways that mine track JJ. I never saw you looking at Dave that way.”
I scoffed because it was offensive as hell to put Hassan and Dave in the same sentence. “Dave never gave me much of a reason to look at him that way.”
“But he does?”
I smiled thinking of all the ways that Hassan had shown me he was all about me and my kids in the last few months. “Hassan is a good man. A little wild and a Beacon. The one family I thought I’d never date, but here I am.”
“They’re not all bad.” Maggie was the consummate nice girl which is why it was so shocking that she’d dealt with that bitch Bianca on any level. But then again, nice girls try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
“Not bad, but they’re kinda wild. Every one of us has a story of a Beacon raising hell when we were growing up.”
“Was Hassan your wild child?” Her eyes sparkled and I knew it was because she wanted our story to end like hers and JJ’s. They’d been in one another’s orbit for years but never made a move until two years ago. Now they were married and expecting their first baby together.
“No, his cousin Cass was.”
“Casanova Beacon?” I could hear and see her surprise at the idea that laid back Cass was wild but that calm about him had only developed recently.
“One and the same. You forget that I’m older than you are by a few years. It’s shocking that you’ve heard that name.”
“Cass Beacon is legendary.”
“Infamous more like it. I’m shocked he’s not out here causing hell.”
“So Hassan was the good guy?”
“I wouldn’t know. He moved away before you probably even remembered him. We lost contact especially as I was focused on the free use dick that’s running around here.”
Maggie covered her mouth with her hand trying not to laugh but lost the battle when I did. “Not Free Use.”
“Yeah, free use. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about him. Just like she has. I want nothing more than for her to leave me out of their shit. Unfortunately my kids have to be around both of them so I can’t forget they exist.”
Maggie was watching Bianca who seemed hell bent on looking me in my mouth. She’d been shooting daggers at me since her so called man had tried to approach mine on what I was sure was some bullshit. “You think that she’s going to make a scene?”
“He’s literally over there talking to someone else so I would say it’s only a matter of time.
” Dave was making his rounds and had managed to linger in the faces of a lot of the women in the tents he’d stepped into.
I felt bad that Bianca was just sitting there being ignored but this was the life she asked for.
“Hey, Sylvia. Baby, should you still be on your feet?” JJ Cunningham gave me a friendly nod before he immediately started fawning over his wife. Maggie gave him a bashful smile and they were adorable to see. His arm went immediately around her shoulders and she leaned into him with a smile.
Damn, is that how I look around Hassan?
“I’m good I was just talking to Sylvia.”
“JJ, I know it’s been a minute but I’m sorry for how I showed out that day.” I didn’t want him to think I was unrepentant about how I’d behaved. I hadn’t broached the topic with him the few times I’d seen him over the last few years because I wasn’t healed enough then to be remorseful.
JJ only smiled and waved me off in that jovial nature that he and his family all seemed to possess.
“Sylvia, if we weren’t on school grounds I would’ve helped you with Dave. I mean you handled them both by yourself, Laila Ali.”
I dropped my head in my hands embarrassed. “Please don’t be like that.”
His laugh bellowed out as he kissed his wife on the head. “It’s all good. Your man is making his way over here and I gotta get my wife to our tent before my mama and hers cuss me out for letting her overheat.” JJ nodded toward Hassan who did the same before he led his wife back to their families.
Hassan wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled the side of my neck. It was hot as hell out here but I didn’t mind him being this close. Open affection in public wasn’t something I was used to since I’d never had it before but I felt like giggling at the way Hassan’s lips on my neck made me feel.
“I’m doing my best to keep my shit together.”
Those good feelings evaporated when I could hear how serious his tone was. “What’s wrong?”
I attempted to turn around but he kept my back pressed to his front as he swayed to the music that was being played by the band in the distance. “That nigga Dave just got a lot of slick shit to say and I’mma help him out with it if he keeps on.”
Dave was like a dark cloud that seemed to hunt out my joy and rain on it. The beautiful thing about it was that Hassan had me covered every time he tried. I was just tired of this man having to. “I don’t understand why he won’t leave me alone. He’s in a relationship, I’m single—”
Hassan laughed sarcastically in my neck before he said, “The fuck you are.”
“Hassan!”
He turned me around with his hands still gripped on my hips but his eyes focused on me intensely.
I swore I needed to ask him if he’d had his damaged eye surgically repaired like Lucas Bishop from the X-men.
There were times I swore he was studying me with it like it was still receiving data from the world.
“Is there anything about the way I fuck you, cater to you, and treat you that says you’re single? ”
I could hear Jada and her man laughing and I wasn’t sure when they’d even walked over here. I hung my head shamed cause I couldn’t believe he was talking freely like this. “Well, we hadn’t—”
“We hadn’t what, Sisi? I’ve met your babies.
You trusted me enough with them and you don’t just deal with anyone.
My fucking heart hasn’t been mine for years and I’m sorry that you ended up with that bitch.
But I’m here now and I’m not leaving. So nah, you’re not single, Sylvia. Not by a long shot.”
“You claiming me?”
His face frowned up like he was irritated with having to repeat himself but was willing to do it for me.
“Fucking right. I was giving you the time to adjust but clearly that was the wrong move. My granny said I was playing you too soft but I gave you too much credit. Clearly I should’ve treated your ass like the slow muthafucka you faking to be. ”
I laughed at him because he was doing too damn much. He knew I wasn’t going to assume shit but he was right. He’d showed and proved his desire for me at every turn. “You talked to your granny about me?”
I was wondering why that lady had stopped me and held onto my hand for so long after we paid our respects to the innumerable number of Beacons that were filling the park.
Now more of her words made sense about looking after myself even more than her grandson because his job was to cover me physically while I covered him emotionally.
“Hell yeah. If I said anything to my mama she’d already start looking for her mother of the groom dress.”
“She can’t be serious.”
He pecked me on the lips eyes dancing with mischievousness. “Dead ass. That lady is itching for grandbabies and when you’re ready I hope you know that the kids will have another set of grandparents that love them. Shit, I should probably let her go ahead and look.”
I knew he wasn’t joking because his face was soft but serious and both of his eyes were brighter than normal.
“There’s a whole lot of Beacons in this town. They could get their fix from someone else’s babies.”
“Yeah, they could. But those babies aren’t our babies. When I bring you home they aren’t going to want to let you or them go. Get ready to fight with them over sending the kids to Atlanta for the summer.”
My chest warmed thinking about people battling to spend time with my kids. Still he needed to know the Montrose family wasn’t about that life. “You think my family is going to go for that?”
Hassan rolled his eyes and shrugged like we were going to have to figure something out. “Them niggas gone have to learn how to share.”
He kissed me again and I felt like I was on cloud nine. Of course my joy couldn’t last long.
“This really what you doing, Sylvie?” I turned to see Dave scowling at us like we were doing something wrong.
“Sylvia, nigga. She warned you about that shit.” I knew that Dave had said that to get on our nerves and it worked. My hand went to Hassan’s chest but he ignored me and slid me behind him protectively.
“Why are you still talking to me? None of this has anything to do with you. No matter how bad you want to be in this, you’re not. That’s my wife and those are my kids.” He stepped up into Hassan’s face and I was doing my best to get in between them.
“You bet not think bout getting in between them niggas, Sylvia Elise!” I looked over and saw Bug’s ass walking toward me with a frown on her face I could see despite her sunglasses.
She must have just gotten here and it was a terrible time for her ass to come.
The last thing she would do was calm down a situation and I now had to worry about keeping two people calm.
I turned my attention back to Dave because my brothers were now walking behind Bug which meant shit was now going to be exponentially more violent.