Aldrich #2
My mama was fucking me up talking like this for real.
She was really going with the fact that me and Sterling were a done deal.
Yeah, she made me think thoughts, in a way no other woman had been able to since all this shit with Ami’s mother came out.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that shit after what I knew about myself.
With Sterling still being left in the dark about it, would she even want a man that might have a flashback of a night he couldn’t remember while she was fucking him?
If I acted up with her and treated her the way I had the other night?
“There are things in the way of us really even seeing where this could go, Ma.” I wasn’t going to spill my guts but I had to be real with her that she might honestly be disappointed and not get her way.
“Isn’t that your job? To evade the defense and get the score? I need you to take the prowess that’s made you rich on the field and apply it to your personal life.” She pushed my shoulder trying to hype me up and I had to smile at her attempt.
“I’ll do my best.”
“I know you will, baby.” She got quiet and then I watched as her eyes teared up slightly. “He would be so proud of how you’ve handled all of this, Aldrich. Your daddy is up in heaven wearing that big grin so proud of you.”
The tears were burning at the back of my eyes again and I swallowed my emotions back down before I spoke. “I’d believe it. I just hope he can keep his hands on me and guide me from up there since he can’t from down here.”
“Always.”
“What do you miss most about him?”
Her face broke into a broad but sad smile.
Her eyes went over to the pool and watched as the colors changed from where I had it lit up.
“Everything honestly. He used to randomly ask me to dance and it was always one of those things that would instantly brighten my day. Little things like that. We would laugh together. Commiserate over how y’all drove us crazy but we could never see life without any of you.
The same way I’m sure you’ll be calling me to lament about Ami when she grows up. ”
“I pray it stays that way.”
We stood in silence for a minute before the music that had been playing through the total-home speakers shifted and my father’s favorite song came on.
On cue, I opened the door to the house and led my mama back in so we could dance.
My brother and sister, despite being teenagers, had witnessed moments like this between my parents frequently.
We’d pretend the shit was gross but it was refreshing to see our parents openly love one another the way they did.
I finished dancing with my mama to Ribbon in the Sky and when she excused herself to the bathroom I knew she was going to shed the tears she didn’t think we knew she cried.
Losing my father to cancer the way we had knocked us all off our feet.
I was a senior in high school and my younger brother and sister had just gotten into middle school.
His cancer was so aggressive that in less than a year he was gone and our worlds were shattered.
Colon cancer was a muthafucka and it was one reason the foundation I set up paid for screening among African American men starting at thirty-five at no cost to them.
There’s a lot of red tape that was put in place to keep men from knowing something was wrong until it was too late.
I wanted to help prevent another family from going through what we did when we lost him.
“Dance with me, Ling.”
“Me?” She looked at my brother and sister, both of whom were just looking between the two of us like they’d been waiting on me to make my move. Mateo and Cassie were always doing their bratty younger sibling thing and I knew they would make a bigger deal out of this than necessary.
I jerked my head toward the slightly empty space in the middle of the floor where I’d danced with my mother. “Yeah, you sitting on the sidelines come on and dance.”
She hesitated but I hoped she realized I wasn’t about to take no for an answer.
I waited for her to get her mind right before she crept off the couch where she’d sat while I danced with my mama.
Mama came back in the room with slightly watery eyes just in time to grab the baby from her arms as I reached my hand out for her to take.
She came to me easily and put her hand in mine like it was second nature. I knew we’d gotten comfortable with each other since we’d been living together and doing the parenting thing but I didn’t think it would feel like this.
This was a mistake. Not the holding her, but doing this while there were other people around.
I was doing my best to control it but I knew Sterling could feel my dick pressing into her stomach.
That muthafucka had woken up as soon as I got a scent of her and her perfume.
I didn’t want her to think I didn’t want to dance but damn I was feeling some kinda way.
She hadn’t pulled away but she might be doing that because she felt pressured to stick around.
“I’m not doing a good job of keeping this professional am I?
” My lips brushed against her ear as I leaned over to speak to her.
I knew I wasn’t imagining the way her body shivered with the contact and damn I wish I was brave enough to pull back and look at her face to gauge her reaction.
Instead, I kept my cheek connected to the side of her head as we swayed.
“You mean with the way you’re poking me in front of your family and having me think thoughts? No, no, you’re not.” Ling was barely speaking over a whisper but I heard her loud and clear.
Damn, my mama is always right.
“What you thinking, Ling?” I leaned back, not to give us space but to watch her intently as we swayed to the music and my dick only got harder.
“Things I shouldn’t especially with your mama and impressionable children around.” She was speaking softly and barely moving her mouth not wanting someone reading her lips.
“I can bet Mateo is doing way more than I am right now and if my little sister is then I gotta go hunting for somebody’s son.”
She laughed and it lit up her entire face.
Sterling’s skin always had that healthy I just got a facial glow about it and when she smiled it was even brighter.
Like the angels were putting a spotlight on her just in case people couldn’t already see how special she was.
“Not you having a double standard. I pray you not gonna be like that with Ami.”
I damn near gagged at the thought of somebody trying to get at my baby girl. That was just the visual I needed for me to get my man under control. “I’m sure you’re going to keep me from screwing up with stuff like that. It ain’t like you're going anywhere.”
Her lips parted like she wanted to refute the statement but there was no future that I didn’t see Sterling in. “Aldrich, you might—”
I ignored her and pulled her close again cause she was about to fuck up the vibe and say something I didn’t wanna hear. “Nah, we're not doing that what if or you doing that self-conscious thing. We're here and we're vibing and that’s all that I need right now.”
“Why don’t y’all go out tonight?”
I looked up from where my face had been in my phone and saw the scheming look my mama wore.
We’d been chilling after Mama insisted that she cook and the four of us went to the workout room in the house to get some exercise in.
My brother and sister were both athletes: my brother in baseball and my sister in volleyball, so fitness was something important to all of us.
Sterling had tried to linger behind with Ami but Cassie had no issue begging her to come and work out with us.
She’d been on the treadmill while we trained and I hated that she might’ve done it because she was self-conscious.
By the time we were done, we’d been listening to music, talking about our childhood and I loved how she was laughing and joking with us.
But this right here…taking her out on a date might be a step too far for both of us.
“Mama—”
Sonya was shaking her head not even pretending to hear anything I was about to say.
“Don’t mama me. That girl has been here day in and day out since this baby came home from the hospital.
That’s two months straight. You’re getting ready to start your season in a few weeks and you both need to let your hair down.
You wouldn’t mind taking her with you, would you? ”
Hell nah I wouldn’t mind taking Sterling’s fine ass out.
And that was the problem. The growing attraction I had to her was taking over.
Seeing her with my daughter, having her in my space and her looking the way she did wasn’t helping me keep shit professional between us.
Her stamp was all over every room in my house.
Everyday I got back home there was some new touch to it that made it cozy.
Some beautiful part of her personality that she had on display. And I loved it.
No matter how badly I wanted to keep her at arm’s length I was drawn to her.
We wrestled co-parenting together in a sense because she lived in my house.
She cooked my meals and she hung out with my people.
We’d had a few early-season unofficial practices and my people had come out to watch.
Sterling had joined them and she seemed to fit right in.
My mama listened to whatever Sterling had to say in regard to Ami like Sterling was the mama.
Hell, she was if I was being real. And that wasn’t a good thing to feel because it made me want to slide my dick in her even more than I usually did.
Which was absolutely a terrible way to be feeling.
Who knew I had a kink for women being good mothers?
“I wouldn’t mind, but I’m not sure if she was going to go. Sterling seems like a real low-key kinda—”
“Sterling, can you come here, please?”