Chapter 25
Courtney
I can’t believe the state of my wig,” Sasha said as she pressed on her wrap where it was tightly tied in the front to keep
the lace from lifting any more.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Sash, you started with me.”
“That sounds like victim blamin’.”
I chuckled as I wrapped my arms around her tighter. “It’s just stating facts, baby. I was chillin’ in bed minding my business.
You came out the bathroom, dropped your robe, and proceeded to jump my bones. Not my fault you didn’t wrap your hair up first.”
The last part was nearly swallowed up by my yawn.
“I just got this install done.”
The whine in her voice brought a smile to my face. Her newest look was a copper-tone, shoulder-length bob-style joint, which
was sleek and sexy. It was a little frizzy now, but nothing some flat-ironing couldn’t fix.
“Am I supposed to apologize for puttin’ it on you? Because . . . I’m not.”
Her sudden movement startled me as Sasha moved from being curled up on my side to lying on top of me.
She folded her hands on my chest and propped her chin up on them.
In the darkness I couldn’t really make out her expression, but I could see a vague outline of her face.
I reached up to trace the contour of her jawline.
“No, I know, never apologize for puttin’ me through the mattress.”
“And I won’t.”
She kissed the bottom of my chin. “Shameless.”
Sasha repositioned herself by my side, and I slipped my arm around her waist as she snuggled into a comfortable position.
Both our breathing became steady, and I was happy to let a peaceful, well-earned sleep overcome me.
“I’m sorry.”
The words were spoken so softly I almost missed them. “Huh?”
There was a moment of silence, and I thought maybe I imagined it.
But then she spoke again. “I’m sorry.”
I was very confused. We’d had a good night—hell, it’d been a good day for the most part—so a random apology was unexpected.
“For what?”
“The fight.”
My body was in shutdown mode, which made my brain slower to process information, but I could not come up with a single reason
for what she was saying.
“Baby, we didn’t fight. What are you talking about?”
Again, silence stretched on, and the Sandman was ferrying me off to dreamland when she spoke again. “About the clinic. Lettin’
you think I had gone.”
My eyes popped open and I blinked a few times in the darkness, trying to catch up on the conversation she was trying to have.
“What, huh?”
“I shouldn’t have done that.”
I pressed my lips to the top of her head, making contact with the satin of her bonnet. “Clearly I didn’t do a good job,” I
said through a yawn.
“Job with what?”
“Puttin’ you to sleep.”
She lightly smacked the top of my arm. “Court, I’m bein’ serious.”
I had no idea why this was on her mind right now, but I knew I couldn’t properly engage with the way I was struggling to keep
myself awake. “Sorry.” I stifled another yawn. “I don’t want you to think I’m brushing you off, but I’m not super coherent
right now, baby, and if you want this to be a real conversation, I can’t promise you I’m going to be all here for it.”
There was silence for a moment, and I thought I’d upset her, until she reached back to stroke my cheek. “I understand. We
can talk in the mornin’. I just wanted you to know I was sorry.”
I snuggled closer to her, tightening my arm around her waist, and hummed out a sound I hoped came across as agreement.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too.”
Sasha sat curled up on the couch brushing Vuitton while I cleaned up the rest of our breakfast dishes. “Has Mya booked her
flight yet?”
“Um, you know, I’m not sure since she said she was gonna pay for it herself. But hope so because them prices creep up quick
and I really don’t wanna make that drive to go get her ass.”
She had a car thanks to one of the rare times our parents actually wanted to step up and do something, but I wasn’t keen on
her making the drive alone. And Mya wasn’t much of a road-tripper, so she preferred catching a flight whenever possible.
“She’s still coming, right?”
I popped the pod in the dishwasher then started it. “Of course. I don’t know why she wouldn’t.”
“I don’t know, she may have gotten herself a lil’ boo thang and decided to spend Christmas with him.” I shot my wife a “the
hell she would” look, which only made her laugh. “She is grown, Courtney.”
“She ain’t that damn grown,” I grumbled as I dried my hands.
“Court. What?” she said through more laughs.
“She needs to be focused on school and this lil’ job she got now. It shouldn’t leave her no time to be having a ‘boo thang.’”
“Courtney! Do you hear how you sound right now?”
“Yes, I hear exactly how I sound. I sound like a concerned sister who is going to make sure that some little dick don’t be
messing up my sister’s future.”
“What if it’s not little?” She couldn’t even keep a straight face long enough to get the question out.
I frowned at her. “You know what . . .”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Sasha said through more giggles.
“Whatever.” I picked up my phone off the island and fired off a text to Mya.
I knew I sounded overprotective, and probably a little unrealistic at times. It was hard not to be when I’d basically been
taking care of Mya her whole life. However, she was fully enjoying her college years, which I wanted her to. More than that,
I knew my sister was focused and had a good head on her shoulders.
She responded almost immediately with a screenshot of her flight information and an eye roll emoji, saying she sent this information to me a week ago.
I frowned. I didn’t remember getting it, but my head had been all over the place with everything going on with me and Sasha.
I scrolled up in our text chain and didn’t see it.
More confused, I went to the group chat with the three of us.
“Ha, you just as bad as me.”
“The hell I am. I’m the cool big sis.”
I rolled my eyes at her then walked closer so she could see my phone. “No, woman, about the flight.”
“Ohh, damn. Not we both forgot she sent this.”
“We’ve had a lot going on.”
She met my gaze and simply nodded. Vuitton stretched then hopped up onto the back cushion to paw at me for attention as if
he wasn’t just getting it before he decided to move.
“You were perfectly fine where you were,” I complained as I gave in to his demands all the same.
Sasha shifted to fold her arms on the top of the cushion. “Maybe he likes your hands.”
“Or he’s just spoiled.”
“You say that about everybody.”
I picked him up and placed him beside her before planting a quick kiss on her pouting lips. “Doesn’t make me wrong.”
“Anyway. I’m excited.” She walked her fingers up and down my cast while chewing on the corner of her bottom lip.
I sat on the back of the sofa. “What’s up?”
The corner of her mouth lifted in a half smile as she continued scratching her nails on the rough material of my cast. “Why
would you think somethin’ was up?”
“Because you about to chew your lip off as per usual.” I leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to the corner. “And I kinda
like them, so I’d like you to not.”
Her half smile briefly turned into a full one. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Where else . . . oh.”
“Yeah, that makes me terrible, doesn’t it?”
I rocked my head from side to side instead of answering right away. “Maybe a little.”
She playfully swatted at my arm. “You were supposed to say no.”
“Hey,” I laughed. “You’re the one who just basically said you’re glad my wrist is broken.”
Sasha’s eyes went wide, and I had to move back as she unceremoniously scrambled over the sofa. “That’s not, well, not entirely—”
She covered her face with her hands and let out a noise that was a mix of a whine and a groan. “I am terrible.”
Laughing, I pulled her to me. “I’m glad I’m here too. We can call it a lemonade-from-lemons situation.”
As soon as I registered what I’d said, it hit me how true the words were. Getting injured sucked. Being idle wasn’t my strong
suit, and I still worried about not having income. But when Sasha smiled up at me, her entire face beamed with happiness.
An expression, a mood I loved seeing on her. Having a broken wrist probably saved my marriage.
“Do you have any plans today?”
“Spend the rest of the day in bed with you,” I answered, leaning to place a kiss at the corner of her mouth.
“You not tired of me?” she asked with a coy smile. “I mean after all the work you put in coverin’ my body in your marks.”
“Never.” I stepped back and looked her up and down. “And it’s not covered yet, but it can be.” She giggled while swatting
my hand away as I reached out to stroke the large hickie on the side of her neck.
“Good to know you’re not bored with me. And I’ll happily let you continue to use me as your canvas—” She paused to run her
fingers along her inner thigh. “Later. I wanna go Christmas tree shoppin’.”
“What do you mean? Christmas tree shopping? We have one out in the garage.”
“That’s a fake one.”
“But it works, right?”
“I mean, yeah, but you’re here. This is gonna be our first Christmas in our house. Plus, Mya will be here soon as classes
end, and she’s spending her whole break with us.”
Sasha was starting the hard sell on this new tree idea. It was a familiar situation where she threw out all the reasons why
to cut off my objections to spending money we didn’t need to spend.
“So, we need a new tree for her? My is twenty-one, I don’t think cares that much.” I really wasn’t trying to be difficult,
or fall back into old habits, but I wasn’t following Sasha’s logic.
My wife let out a long sigh. “Do you realize that I’ve never spent Christmas in our house? I put up the tree and I decorate
because I want to, but every year I go to Big Mama’s on Christmas Eve. I’ve never woken up on Christmas Day here because it’s
just too sad because you’re not here.”
“Oh, um, I didn’t realize.”
I knew she spent the holiday with her grandmother since I never flew home during the short break in games. I remembered the
fight we had when I told her I wasn’t going to be home. I’d never put much stock in Christmas, so it hadn’t been a big deal