Chapter 8
Hours after Coye dropped me off, I was on my couch wrapping my niece’s gifts. He told me what time he would be at my place to pick me up, and I was anxious again.
I still couldn’t get over us having sex. It was some damn good sex, too. Spending time with Coye helped me temporarily forget what was going on with my father. It was wrong of us to sneak around, but it was kinda fun as well.
I liked that he didn’t let my brother make him afraid to approach me.
I’d dated dudes in the past who were afraid of my brother, and I never understood why.
Jordan wasn’t a punk, but he also didn’t go around acting like he beat up people for fun.
I couldn’t help to think that things would be bad whenever Jordan found out.
Coye didn’t seem too worried, so I would just go with the flow.
By the time I wrapped the last gift, my doorbell rang. I put everything in one big gift bag, then went to answer the door for Coye.
“I don’t think you could look bad in anything,” he said as soon as I opened the door.
“Thank you.” I blushed as heat crept up my neck.
My outfit was nothing special. I wore beige and green fatigue pants with a brown hoodie.
My sneakers were a burnt orange to go with the vest I planned on putting on over it.
The party was inside, and I wanted to be comfortable.
My sister-in-law mentioned it would be a bouncy house in the yard, and I already knew Brielle would have me playing and shit with her and her friends.
“You need me to carry anything?” Coye asked as he stepped inside.
“I just have this bag right here.” I pointed at the gift bag.
“Cool,” he said as he picked the bag up.
We walked out of the house, and he opened the door for me when we got to his car.
After he put the gift bag in the truck, he got in and pulled away from the curb.
I glanced at him as he had one hand on the wheel and the other on the gear shift thingy. The black hoodie with the black sweatpants on him looked good as hell. I licked my lips, thinking about the things he did to me the night before.
“What’s on your mind, Babygirl?”
“Huh? Nothing.” I quickly turned my attention to the road.
“You’re a bad liar, River.” He diverted his attention to me for a second.
I debated on telling him what was on my mind, lie, or just completely change the subject. I decided to go with the latter.
“Do you want kids of your own someday? And if so, how many?”
“I do, and I want at least four. How about you?”
“At least two.”
Sometimes I wondered if I would become a mother because of how my past relationships had gone.
I didn’t want to be a single mother. Even though my parents weren’t together, my father never made my mom feel like she was doing everything alone.
Granted, she spent the most time with us because we lived with her, but my dad was never too far.
When I was in high school, I lived with my dad because he lived in an area with a better high school.
The rest of the ride was spent talking about things like our favorite colors, music, and movies, even though he knew some of my favorite things already.
I never knew that he didn’t have a favorite color, but I also noticed that a lot of the men I encountered in life didn’t have one either. Maybe it was more of a female thing.
It was easy talking to him because he’d been around for such a long time, but everything was still new.
We discussed our beliefs about religion and a little bit about politics. We both shared some common values, such as the importance of family and the ability to communicate effectively with our partner.
Before I knew it, we’d arrived at my brother’s house.
“This is about to be bad,” I muttered as Coye put the car in park.
Coye put his hand on my knee and rubbed it. His touch slightly settled the flutters in my stomach.
“It’s only going to be bad if you let it. We gonna be good. They may not even notice.”
“If you say so.”
He gently squeezed my knee and smiled.
“I know so.” He opened the car door and got out.
Once he got the gifts from the trunk, he came around and opened my door. It was a good thing the party was held inside because that gave us less of a chance of being caught.
I walked ahead of Coye, trying to keep enough distance to make it not look obvious. Hopefully, nobody would notice my car wasn’t parked outside.
“Relax, baby,” Coye whispered in my ear just as I opened the front door.
Of course, my brother was the first person to spot us. I didn’t miss the frown on his face.
“I know y’all didn’t come here together,” Jordan said, making everyone else look at us. “It better not be anything going on here.” He pointed between the two of us.
“Chill, bro. Where should I put this stuff?” Coye asked, holding up the gift bags.
My brother looked at us again skeptically but didn’t say anything else. I was glad Coye spoke up because I didn’t know what to say. A part of me wanted to take heed to his warning, but I wasn’t ready to stop talking to Coye just yet.
“Auntie!” Brielle came running toward me at full speed.
I bent down and scooped her into my arms. “Happy birthday!” I hugged her and kissed her cheeks.
“Thank you! You got me some gifts?” she asked as I released her.
“Of course I did.” I tapped her nose, and she ran off to speak to Coye.
I made my rounds, speaking to everyone.
“Hey, Daddy.” I sat next to my dad on the couch as he ate a plate of food.
He looked like he’d lost weight since the last time I saw him. I didn’t like the way he looked, and it worried me. I’d done good not thinking about it as much, but seeing him like this made it come to the forefront.
“Hey, Babygirl. How are you feeling?”
I twisted my nose because it stung a little. It felt like I would cry, and I didn’t want to ruin my niece’s party. My father’s voice didn’t sound as strong as it usually did.
“I’m okay.” I didn’t want to say too much, and my voice quivered. “How are you?”
“I’m as good as I can be. Just happy to spend time with you all. Brielle is so happy because of all the gifts she got.” He chuckled.
I shook my head and laughed. “She’s so spoiled.”
I looked around the room and caught Coye looking at me as Brielle showed him something one of her friends got her. Sometimes she acted like she liked him more than me. Coye winked at me, and I quickly turned my attention back to my father. I was glad that he had his eyes on his plate and not me.
“Like someone else I know,” my father said as he looked up.
“I plead the fifth.”
We both laughed and started talking about something else. He seemed to be in good spirits, and it made me happy, but at the same time, I was sad because I didn’t know how much longer he would be around. The thought of that made me sick to my stomach.
Instead of focusing on it, I spent time enjoying my family and making sure my niece had the best birthday.