12. Gia Rose
GIA ROSE
Gia Rose
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen Nylah this happy.
The smile hadn’t left her face all day. Not at breakfast. Not even when Pryce had already blown almost fifty dollars trying to win her some oversized stuffed animal she swore she didn’t even want.
The crazy part was, she was still standing beside him with the biggest grin on her face.
“One more try.”
Pryce looked at her like she’d completely lost her mind.
“Nylah Rose, if you think I’m about to spend another dollar trying to win this ugly ass bear, you got me fucked up.”
Nylah laughed so hard she nearly dropped the pretzel she’d been eating.
“You almost had it,” she told him.
“Almost don’t count.”
“It do.”
“No, it don’t.”
“Yes, it do.”
“No, it don’t.”
I rolled my eyes as they kept going back and forth, smiling to myself the entire time.
Watching them together still did something to me. Not because I was surprised, but because Pryce had been there long before any of this happened. Long before Maddox showed up. Long before DNA tests, therapy sessions, and secrets started changing all of our lives.
The man loved my daughter.
Anybody with eyes could see that.
He paid attention to the little things. The way she lit up talking about something new. The random facts she’d bring up out of nowhere. The tiny details most people forgot five minutes later.
Pryce remembered all of it.
He was the kind of man who showed up without being asked. The kind who made time, kept his word, and made sure Nylah never had to question whether she was loved.
I grinned.
No matter what happened moving forward, nobody could ever take those years away from him. Nobody could erase the bond they’d built or the love they’d shared, and I hoped they never would.
“Mom.”
Nylah’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
I looked over at her.
“What?”
“You listening?”
I smiled and shook my head.
“No.”
She let out the most dramatic sigh.
“See. That’s why I was talking to Pryce.”
Pryce didn’t miss a beat.
A grin spread across his face as he folded his arms across his chest.
“See? Somebody around here appreciate me.”
I rolled my eyes, pretending both of them got on my nerves when the truth couldn’t have been further from it.
Moments like this had quietly become my favorite. Life had been so chaotic lately that I’d started appreciating the little things in a way I never had before. The laughter. The teasing. Watching Nylah smile without a care in the world.
More than anything, I appreciated the normalcy.
God knew we needed it.
My phone vibrated against the table, but I ignored it at first. A few seconds later it buzzed again, then again after that, making me frown.
The only people who ever called me back-to-back were my mama and folks trying to sell me something I didn’t ask for, so I wasn’t exactly in a rush to answer. Still, after the third vibration, I reached for it.
The second I looked at the screen, I frowned.
It was Maddox.
Pryce must’ve noticed the change in my expression because his eyes dropped to my phone before meeting mine again.
“Maddox?” I just nodded. “You gonna answer?”
“Yeah.”
I stepped a few feet away from the table before accepting the call.
“Hey?”
“Hey.”
His voice sounded a little calmer than the last time he called.
“You got a minute?”
“I do.”
There was a brief pause before he spoke again.
“I was hoping I could talk to Nylah.”
My eyes shifted toward my daughter.
She was standing beside Pryce, completely wrapped up in whatever game they were playing. The two of them were laughing about something, and judging by the handful of tickets she’d just won, she was having the time of her life.
I automatically smiled.
“We’re out right now.”
“I figured.”
“She and Pryce having one of their days.”
“Well, I don’t wanna interrupt that.”
That response caught me off guard.
Most people would’ve asked to speak to her anyway, but Maddox didn’t.
“I appreciate that,” I admitted.
“I’ll catch her later.”
I looked back toward Nylah as she grabbed Pryce’s hand and started dragging him toward another game.
“She’d probably stop everything she’s doing if I told her you were on the phone.”
“I know,” he said with a soft chuckle. “That’s why I’m telling you not to.”
That surprised me, again.
“If it’s alright with you, tell her I’ll FaceTime her tonight.”
“I can do that.”
Another brief silence settled between us before Maddox cleared his throat.
“There was something else I wanted to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking…”
He paused for a second before continuing.
“I want Nylah to come to Atlanta.” I stayed quiet, letting him finish. “I think it’s time she meets everybody.”
My eyes followed Nylah as she laughed at something Pryce said.
Atlanta… Meet everybody.
That wasn’t a small request.
That meant his mama, his brothers, her brothers… It meant taking another step into a life she’d only recently discovered belonged to her.
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I’m asking.” Neither one of us said anything for a second. Then Maddox said, “Tell her I’ll call tonight.”
“I will.”
We ended the call, and when I slipped my phone back into my pocket, Nylah looked over at me.
“Who was that?”
I smiled.
“Your dad.”
Her whole face lit up.
“He said he’ll FaceTime you tonight.”
“Really?”
“Yes… Really.”
Pryce pulled out the chair across from me and sat down. He didn’t ask any questions, but one look at my face told him the conversation wasn’t over.
“What’d he say?” Pryce asked.
Nylah climbed into the chair beside him with a grin.
“We might go to Atlanta.”
Pryce’s eyebrows lifted.
“Might?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I told him I’d think about it.”
Nylah looked between us, her excitement fading just enough for me to know she was trying not to get her hopes up.
“So… that’s not a no?” Nylah asked.
I smiled.
“No. It ain’t a no.”
Her entire face lit up.
“I get to see my brothers?”
“Maybe.”
“And Mama Creed?”
I laughed.
“Maybe.”
She threw both hands in the air.
“I knew it!”
“You don’t know nothing,” I said, pointing at her. “All I said was I’d think about it.”
“I know,” she replied with the biggest smile on her face. “But I think you’re gonna say yes.”
Pryce laughed beside her.
“You already packed, ain’t you?”
She gasped dramatically.
“I ain’t packed.” Then she paused for a second. “I just know what outfits I’m taking.”
That earned a laugh from both of us.
The child had planned half the trip before I’d even made a decision.
Pryce shook his head, still smiling.
“Don’t let her get too excited.”
“I know…”
I looked over at Nylah as she launched into another speech about everything she wanted to do if we went to Atlanta, and for the first time all day, I realized this wasn’t just another trip in her mind.
This was family… Family she’d been waiting nine years to meet.
Later that night, Pryce and I were stretched out in bed with the television playing low in the background.
Neither one of us was really paying attention to it.
The day had worn us both out.
My phone lit up on the nightstand with an incoming call from Maddox.
Pryce glanced toward the screen before looking back at the television.
I reached over and answered.
“Hey.”
“Hey, what’s up? She still up?”
I looked toward the closed bedroom door across the hall before shaking my head.
“Nah. She been asleep for a little while.”
A few seconds passed before he spoke again.
“Damn.” The disappointment in his voice was obvious. “I told her I’d call.”
“I know.”
I let the silence sit for a second before speaking again.
“She was excited about it too.”
He let out a slow breath.
“I lost track of time.”
“I figured.”
“Tomorrow morning, before school, tell her to call me.”
I frowned. “That early?”
“Hell yeah… I’ll be up.”
“Okay. I will tell her…”
He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then, he said, “There was something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh, hell… What is it?”
“Nah, don’t do that.” Maddox laughed. “It ain’t nothing crazy or no shit like that.”
I didn’t say anything as, I don’t know why, but my heart pounded like crazy.
“So, I’ve been thinking about what we talked about earlier, and I know you said you’d think about letting her come to Atlanta, but I want you to know, I wasn’t talking about you letting her come here alone.
” He paused. Shit, he didn’t even have to tell me that, because that wasn’t about to happened, anyway.
Yet, I said nothing as I let him continue.
“I want you and ol’ dude to come, too… What’s his name? Pryce?”
I let out a light chuckled as I said, “Yes, that’s his name, and what you mean, you want us to come? Well, I’m coming if I decided to let Nylah come, but what you mean you want Pryce to come too.”
I cut my eyes at Pryce, and he was already looking at me, in confusion. He wasn’t trying to listen, but he wasn’t pretending he couldn’t hear me either.
“I’d like to talk to him.”
“What?” I damn near shouted before clearing my throat. “I mean, what?”
Part of me had expected that conversation to happen eventually. Even so, I was surprised to hear him say it.
“What kind of talk?”
He let out a laugh.
“Man, chill… Ain’t nobody tryna hurt yo’ nigga or no shit like that.” I sucked my teeth and roll my eyes as if he could see me. “It ain’t no bad blood or nothing.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
If there was one thing I knew about Pryce, it was that he wasn’t interested in two grown men trying to prove who had the bigger ego over a situation neither one of them created.
“I just think it’s time. Clearly, ain’t neither one of us going nowhere. Me or that nigga.”
I nodded but said nothing. Maddox was right. Maybe it was time.
Not for them to become friends, and definitely not for some picture-perfect blended family bullshit. It was simply time for two men who cared about the same little girl to finally sit down and have a conversation.
“I’ll let you know…”
“Fair enough.”
We talked for another couple of minutes before ending the call.
The second I set the phone back on the nightstand, Pryce asked what was said and I told him everything. He didn’t say anything right away as he turned back to the TV and started back watching it.
I continued staring at him, wondering what was running through his mind.
Did he want to have a sit down, man to man talk with Maddox… Or not.
If he didn’t, I would certainly feel some type of way about it.
If he says he needed time, I’d wonder time for what because it wasn’t like Maddox had come while we were dating and we had the one-night stand. So, honestly, I’d see no reason Pryce wouldn’t agree to it.
Then finally, he said, “I agree with him. It is time. I think we owe each other that much.”
I didn’t respond right away.
The two of them had spent months circling around each other and only crossing paths for a brief before Maddox stormed off. One was Nylah’s biological father. The other was the man who’d helped raise her. They both loved her, and they both wanted what was best for her.
At some point, that conversation needed to happen.
Maybe not for either one of them, but for Nylah.
“Okay…”
The conversation ended there as I snuggled back against his warm body.