Chapter 8
S M O K E
I sat my ass in the chair in the corner of my room smoking my morning blunt and watching Lace sleep. She was naked on her stomach with half the covers kicked off, one leg bent, and that ass sitting right there in my face while her hair was all over my pillow.
I had somewhere to be, but I wasn’t in no damn rush to move. Waking up with Lace back in my bed after eight years had a nigga fucked up, and I wasn’t even gon’ lie about it.
I finally got my ass up to shower after like twenty minutes because Darius had already texted me twice about a delivery at one of our job sites.
Lace woke up while I was getting dressed and watched me pull my shirt over my head.
The way she smiled at me damn near had me taking that shit right back off.
She stretched under the covers and reached for her phone on the nightstand, but I leaned over, took that shit out of her hand, and kissed her before she could unlock it. “Keep yo’ ass in my bed.”
She laughed against my mouth. “We are not teenagers anymore. Besides, you know my mama would come looking for me.”
“Let her.”
“She needs my help at the diner today.”
“Loretta got enough damn help.”
“And yet somehow she still finds something for me to do every five minutes.” Lace kissed me again before pushing against my chest. “Go to work, Sherrod.”
I kissed her one more time before I moved away from the bed because I already knew where that shit was headed if I didn’t.
Loretta’s was damn near finished anyway, and all that was really left was putting everything back where it belonged and handling the last little shit before the festival.
Lace got dressed while I grabbed the rest of my shit and made sure Keyana was up getting ready for school.
We left the house together, and I dropped Lace off at her mama’s before heading to work, already knowing I would see her ass again later.
That shit had pretty much become our routine.
Lace handled whatever she had going on during the day, I handled my business, and once we were both done, we usually ended up together.
Sometimes she came to my house, and sometimes I went and got her, but we had been doing more than just sitting around fucking all damn night.
We hit the Bellhaven Outlet Mall one day because Lace wanted to look around, and somehow my ass ended up carrying bags while she went in damn near every store that caught her attention.
Another night, we grabbed food downtown and ended up at the escape room with Anthony and Keyana.
I wasn’t into that type of shit and only went because all three of their asses kept talking about it, but I had fun as fuck once we got in there.
Lace and Keyana were taking that shit way too serious, Anthony swore he knew every damn answer and barely knew shit, and I spent half the time laughing at their asses while still helping us get out.
Having Lace around me with Anthony and Keyana had been some real family type shit. I hadn’t realized how much I missed seeing her with them until I had all three of their asses together again, laughing and getting on my fuckin’ nerves like she had never left.
We had grabbed food from Greene’s another night and took it over to the basketball court at Bellhaven Community Park. We sat on one of the benches eating cheesesteaks and wings while some young niggas ran full-court in front of us.
Lace talked shit about damn near every missed shot, and I kept telling her ass she had never been nice enough at basketball to judge nobody.
We used to do the same shit back in the day, sitting at that court with some food and watching whoever was hooping, so doing it again with her felt good as fuck.
She had slept at my crib more than she had slept at her mama’s since Sunday, and everybody knew what the fuck was going on.
Keyana came downstairs one morning and found Lace sitting at the kitchen counter drinking coffee in one of my T-shirts.
She looked at both of us and kept her ass moving like seeing Lace in my kitchen first thing in the morning was normal.
Anthony came by later that night so I could look at some shit with his transmission, saw Lace’s bag sitting by the stairs, and started laughing before he even looked at me. I told his high ass to mind his fucking business before he got a chance to say shit.
Nobody was making shit weird, and I liked it that way.
Lace was around again. She ate with us, left some of her shit at my house, called me to see where I was, and came over whenever she felt like it.
I was getting used to waking up with her in my bed and knowing there was a good chance she would be right back in that mahfucka that night.
I knew we still had shit to figure out, but I wasn’t about to fuck up what we had going by pressing her about it every damn day.
By Friday, Loretta’s was finished, and that mahfucka looked good.
Loretta had changed her mind enough times to have me ready to cuss her ass out, but everything came together exactly how she wanted it. She had stayed on my ass through the whole renovation, so seeing her happy with it told me everything I needed to know.
Half of Bellhaven was already talking about coming through when she reopened for the festival. Lace had been helping her mama and the rest of the staff get everything ready, and I already knew that mahfucka was gonna be packed once those doors opened.
With Loretta’s done, I was back to bouncing between Cole Hardware, the construction jobs we already had going, and all the last-minute shit everybody suddenly needed before the festival.
Bellhaven did the same shit every year. Everybody knew when the festival was, but that last week always had motherfuckers calling me like they had just found out about it.
Cole Construction had some of the setup work at City Council Square and Bellhaven Community Park. We had already built and delivered the wooden vendor booths the town rented every year, then somebody changed the layout at the square after we'd put everything where they told us to.
Mike and Shawn were out there moving shit for the second time while Darius handled the temporary fencing and electrical access for the food vendors at the park.
I had spent most of my morning going back and forth between both spots while still dealing with regular jobs that didn’t have shit to do with the festival.
I was in my office on the top floor of Cole Construction going over an estimate when I heard Lace in the hallway asking one of my guys if I was in my office.
I heard him answer her, then her heels coming down the hall.
When she showed up in my doorway, I looked up and immediately forgot about the estimate in front of me.
She wore a fitted pantsuit that hugged every fucking curve, with a long leather coat hanging open over it, heels, and one of those expensive ass bags on her shoulder.
I still didn’t know what half the shit she wore was called, and I didn’t give a fuck.
Her ass looked good in it, and that was enough information for me.
“What you doin’ here?” I asked.
Solace walked into my office with a folder in her hand. “Good to see you too.”
I leaned back in my chair and looked her over again. “You know damn well I’m glad to see yo’ ass.”
She came around my desk and handed me the folder.
Loretta had volunteered her to help the festival committee with some shit, and they needed my signature confirming our setup would be finished before vendor check-in.
I already knew what the paperwork was about, so I signed where she showed me, handed it back, and went back to my desk.
When Lace reached for the folder, I grabbed her instead and pulled her between my legs. She put a hand on my shoulder while I wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her. My other hand went straight to her ass, and she kissed me back before pulling away and looking toward my open office door.
“Smoke, you’re at work.”
“And?”
She looked back at me, trying not to smile. “And you have employees.”
“They know I like ass.” I squeezed hers again before letting her go because I had shit to do, and keeping my hands on her was about to turn into a whole different problem.
Lace fixed her clothes and grabbed the folder. “I’ll see you.”
“You comin’ by tonight?”
“I might.”
I looked at her until she laughed. “That means yeah.”
“That means I might.”
“Whatever, Lace.” I watched her walk out of my office and kept watching until that ass disappeared down the hallway. I was still sitting there thinking about eating that pussy if she came over later when my phone started ringing on the desk.
I glanced at the screen wondering what she could’ve wanted. I hadn’t heard from Denisha since she left Bellhaven damn near two months ago, but that didn’t mean enough for me to think twice about answering. I picked up the phone and leaned back in my chair. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Smoke. You busy?” Something about the way she said it made me stop fucking around and sit up. Her voice didn’t sound right.
“I’m at work. What you need?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Then talk.”
“Not over the phone, Smoke.”
I frowned. Denisha had never needed to sit down and talk to me about shit before. Our whole situation worked because neither one of us required much from the other, and whatever had her calling me as soon as she got back clearly wasn’t about linking up to fuck. “What happened? You good?”
“Nothing happened. I just need to see you.”
“You back?”
“Got here last night.”
I rubbed my hand over my beard and looked toward the office door Solace had just walked through. “Aight. Come through the construction warehouse.”
“Okay. I’m like fifteen minutes away.”
“Bet.” She hung up, and I looked at my phone before putting it back on the desk.