14. Legacy
Legacy
“ A re you okay?” I asked as we lay in bed later that evening. It was my first time spending the night while Kayson was there.
Legend asked him how he felt about me spending the night, and he was excited.
He wanted to know if I would be spending the night in his bedroom, but Legend told him that I would not be.
I wanted to tell him that I was sleeping in the guest bedroom, but Legend was absolutely adamant about not lying to his son.
He explained to him that I would be spending the night, but I would be staying in his bedroom.
“I’m good. Why do you ask?” Legacy was lying on his back with his arm folded underneath his head. He stared at the TV as one of the players went up for a layup in the basketball game he watched.
I turned on my side and watched him. Dragging my fingernails down his chest, I dipped my finger into his belly button. He grabbed it and moved it.
I rolled my eyes and then slid my hand into his boxer briefs. I nestled my hand into his underwear and gripped his dick. It was warm and semi-turgid. I massaged him, and he glanced down at me.
“I can’t watch my game?”
“I want you to talk to me.”
“Ain’t nothing to talk about, baby. We’ve been talking all day.”
He turned his gaze back to the TV again. I sensed that something bothered him deeply, but I refused to give up until he shared his concerns with me. I was sure that whatever it was, it might have been overrated in his head. We could work through whatever problems arose if he just gave us a chance.
I danced my fingers across his belly and then walked them back and forth like dancing fingers. I dragged my fingers back up and combed them through the hairs of his beard. Moving in between his legs, I rested my head on his chest. My back was to his front.
“For real, Ace?”
“What?”
“You just gon’ put yo’ big head self up in front of the TV. You know I can’t see the TV with your big lighthouse ass head.”
I sat up and turned around before I smacked him in the chest. “Legend.”
“What?”
“That’s mean.”
“I’m just telling the truth.”
“The light though?”
“That shine you keep on ya big forehead. You can’t deny you got a big ass forehead, baby.”
My mouth dropped open, and I crawled from between his legs back to my side of the bed. Legend wrapped his arm around me and snatched me back close to his body. He burrowed his face into the side of my neck, and his beard tickled my shoulder.
I giggled and elbowed him. “No, let me go.”
“Nah, li’l baby. You wanted my attention. You got it all.”
He tickled me, and I fell out laughing again like I had earlier. He kept it up until I shrieked, “I’m gonna peeee.”
He laughed and replied, “Ya li’l ass betta not pee in my bed.”
“I can’t help it,” I replied with a snort of laughter.
He grabbed my arms, and I cringed, thinking he was about to tickle me.
He nudged my legs aside with his knees and positioned himself in between them.
Holding my arms above my head, he lowered his face and brushed his lips against mine.
I felt his erection growing as he pressed against the apex of my thighs.
“I love you, li’l baby.”
“I know you do,” I replied, poking my lips out so that he could kiss them.
Our kiss was soft and slow and grew in passion before I broke it off. “No, Legend.”
“No, what?”
“You can’t distract me from conversation by sexing me down.”
“Why not? You already know this dick is the good shit. I’ll have you walking ’round here like a damn zombie, ma.”
“Ohh shit! That ain’t good, Legend.” I wrinkled my nose.
“Nah, it’s real good. This dick will fuck you up so good you’ll be on an eternal high. Be like them people up in Kensington.”
“You talking ’bout them niggas up in Philly all messed up on fentanyl?”
“Yeah. Have ya little ass bent over like this.” He jumped out of the bed, struck a pose, and stared like he was zoned out.
I cracked up laughing so hard. “You’re stupid, Legend. I don’t want none of your dick if it’s gonna mess me up like that.”
“Bet. Remember that you said that,” he stated, jumped back into the bed, and grabbed the remote to turn the TV up.
My mouth dropped, and I smacked him on the chest.
“Man, what you do that for?”
“You played me.”
“Nah, li’l baby. You played ya self.”
I lay beside him again and turned on my side to face him. I watched him for what felt like twenty minutes before he turned to look at me. He caressed the side of my face and stared into my eyes.
“What’s on ya mind, pretty baby?”
“What did she do to you? You told me that your ex-wife hurt you, but in all the time that we’ve been together, you have never told me what she did. Did she cheat on you? Have a baby with another man?”
When his eyes closed, and the way his face cringed, I could tell that my words hurt him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, placing my hands on his chest. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
He remained silent for so long that I worried that he was angry with me. A tear escaped his eye a couple of minutes later, and that broke me. I wiped it away.
“Baby, what’s wrong? Please talk to me, Legend.” I cried, too, but I was crying for his pain.
He sniffled and sat up in bed, pressing his back against the headboard. I sat up beside him, and Legend wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer to him. I rested my head against his chest, and he interlocked our fingers.
“I loved Kali. I would move heaven and hell to give that woman the earth. From the moment that we met in college, she had my heart wrapped around her finger. We were married the first year after we graduated from college. Kayson was born four years ago, two years after we married. We loved him and made him the center of our world. We tried to have another one two years ago when Kayson was two.”
Legend cleared his throat, and my belly clenched, worried about what he would say. I lifted off his chest, grabbed a water bottle, and handed it to him. “Drink this, baby.”
He unscrewed the cap, guzzled it down, and then set the bottle on his nightstand. I rested on his chest again.
“She got pregnant, and we were so excited the entire pregnancy. I came home from work one day after she called me, begging me to come home. It was the middle of the day, and she was six months along. When I got there, the paramedics were there, attending to her. They said it was too late. She had miscarried our baby.”
My heart dropped, and I could not find the words to say.
I couldn’t express my sympathy and compassion for him.
I rubbed the space where his heart was and reached up and wiped his tears.
He continued crying and didn’t utter another word.
I pulled Legend into my arms because he was hurting badly.
There was nothing more heartbreaking than seeing a grown man cry.
“I love you,” I whispered. I repeated the sentiment several times, rubbing his back as I held him.
He sniffled, and I handed him the tissues to clean his face.
He cleared his throat and finished talking.
“It took a toll on our marriage. I tried to get us counseling, send her to therapy alone, and whatever else we needed to do. It didn’t work.
She filed for a divorce, and it was finalized a year ago.
Recently, I learned that three months after the miscarriage, she started having an affair with her boss. ”
“I’m so sorry, baby. I wish that I could take the pain away.”
He wiped his face but remained silent otherwise.
We held onto each other for several minutes before he pulled out of my embrace and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
I watched as he walked into the bathroom and shut and locked the door.
I finally understood his hesitation about having another child.
He was terrified of losing the child or his woman.