Luxe
A few days later
I sat there, drumming my fingertips against the end table, staring into space.
Why was I this drawn to this man? After not even wanting to deal with a man, I’d gone to wanting to drink every bit of this man’s bath water, and for what?
It was driving me insane how much I wanted to be around him.
The care he showed for me when dealing with me didn’t make it no better. I couldn’t read him.
It was fucking with me because I didn’t know if he felt the same way about me, or if any of this was even real in the first place. Maybe I’d been around Ghost for so long that I assumed I was developing feelings for him. Was my mind playing tricks on me?
My ringing phone is what brought me from my thoughts. Grabbing it off the sofa alongside me, I saw that it was Wren calling. Swiping, I placed it on speaker.
“Yeah?”
“Luxe, what were you doing?”
“Nothing right now.”
Wren sighed and replied, “Can I ask a huge favor of you?”
“What?”
I scratched the side of my thigh, waiting to see what she wanted.
“The nanny is sick with the flu. Maniac and I had a date tonight. I was wondering if you can come over and watch the kids for a few hours. I promise not to be out all night.”
Since I knew for a fact that I didn’t have anything else better to do than sit in this apartment for the rest of the night, I said, “Sure. Why not?”
“Thank you so much! You’re a lifesaver!”
I wouldn’t call me all that . . . “I’m getting up now. I’ll be there soon.”
“Thanks a million.”
The call disconnected, and I got up from the couch. Stopping by Ghost’s bedroom, I knocked on the door. I didn’t want to get any more surprises.
“Yeah?”
Opening the door, I poked my head inside and said, “We have to go to Maniac’s. They are going out, and Wren asked me to keep the kids for a bit.”
“Okay.” Without hesitation, he got up from the edge of the bed. That’s one thing I loved about Ghost. He let me do whatever I wanted and never disagreed with me, knowing that he had to be right there with me.
“Let me toss something on right quick,” I told him and pulled his door back up behind me.
When I got in my room, I found a pair of tights and a T-shirt. Since I was going to be dealing with kids, I didn’t need to be all fancy. This attire will work perfectly fine.
By the time I came out the room, Ghost was in the living room, waiting for me. “Have you ever babysat children before?” I asked him as I headed for the front door with him right on my heels.
“How hard can it be?”
I snickered because Kairose was something else to watch. I loved my niece to death, but she damn sure was Maniac’s daughter.
We went straight to their house. Wren and Maniac were already dressed when we got inside. “Y’all look nice,” I made known as I removed Massimo from Wren’s arms.
“Thanks. We need this night,” Wren said and then pecked Massimo on the forehead.
“Where’s Kairose?” I questioned her.
“Somewhere upstairs,” Maniac answered and then grabbed Wren by the hand and led her toward the door.
They left out the house, and I went upstairs to find my niece.
I bet she was gon’ be excited to see me.
I entered her bedroom with Massimo on my hip to find Kairose lying on her back on the floor with her iPad up to her face.
These children and their tablets these days.
This was the exact reason why they didn’t want to go outside anymore.
I set Massimo down on the floor and went over and took her tablet from her. She smacked her lips at first, but when she realized it was me, she hopped to her feet and wrapped her arms around my legs.
“Tee Luxe!” escaped her lips, and a smile overtook my face.
Kairose always got excited whenever she saw me. She was the firstborn. My baby for real. I think we understood each other so much because she was the firstborn of her generation. She acted a lot like me as well.
“You hungry? Let’s go fix y’all something to eat.”
I took her by the hand and grabbed Massimo. We all went downstairs to the kitchen. Ghost was sitting on the living room sofa looking crazy as we passed the door. Kairose leaned all the way back just to get a glimpse of him.
“Uh, Luxe, who is that man?”
“He’s here to protect us,” I told her and continued on to the kitchen.
I wasn’t in the mood to cook anything extravagant, so I decided to just make everyone sandwich melts. It was either that or the kids would be eating air fried chicken nuggets. They weren’t really picky eaters, which was great.
Kairose sat down at the kitchen table, and I placed Massimo in his seat and then went over to the refrigerator to grab everything I was going to need to make the sandwiches.
I guess while I was in here, I’d be nice and fix Ghost one as well, even though we still aren’t on the best of terms. He had yet to apologize to me about having that girl Chris over.
I knew that it sounded crazy for me to be expecting an apology when that was his place, and we aren’t even together, but I guess I just thought that he’d have more respect for me.
“Ghost!” I yelled his name as I grabbed the skillet from out the cabinet. A few seconds later, he appeared in the doorway. “Do you want a sandwich?”
“I’m not hungry.”
I rolled my eyes because he was standing here lying through his teeth. He hadn’t eaten anything before we left the house, and I bet if I was standing over there by him, I’d hear his stomach growling.
“I’ma make you one anyway. Sit down,” I instructed him and continued to make the sandwiches so that I could put them over into the frying pan.
Once I was done, I poured the kids some chips onto their plates and placed them on the table in front of them. Then I went into the refrigerator and grabbed them a Capri Sun juice and gave it to them as well.
Grabbing my plate, I sat down on the opposite end of the island with two stools in between Ghost and me. He had to know that I was still feeling some type of way.
Once we were done eating, the kids and I went into the den. Massimo didn’t last long before he fell asleep. Ghost had gone back into the living room by himself with his funny acting ass.
“Why do he look so mean?” Kairose leaned over and asked me.
“Huh?” I looked around the room, and no one was in here with us. “Who are you talking about?”
“Ghost. He looks mean.”
“He is mean, baby,” I told her, remembering how he’d hurt my feelings. “He was mean to me and haven’t apologized yet.”
Kairose frowned and then got up from the sofa. She went over to the toy bin, and that was when I saw her pull one of the Nerf guns out. She grabbed another and came back over to where I was. “Here.”
“What are you about to do with this?”
With a straight face, she said, “We gonna mess him up,” and then ran out the den.
I erupted in laughter and got up and went behind her. When I found her, she stood in the living room doorway with the Nerf gun hanging in her hand as she stared at Ghost, who wasn’t even paying her any attention. He was occupied with something on his phone.
“Meanie!” was the only thing Kairose said before she started shooting at him. Ghost was caught completely off guard. Lifting my hand, I shot at him as well. Ghost’s arm rose to his face to stop the bullets from hitting him there.
“What the hell,” he said, but that didn’t stop us. We continued until we didn’t have any more ammo.
Kairose tossed her Nerf gun to the side and charged Ghost. Her lil fists were flying all over the place. I dropped straight to the floor and was crying laughing.
“Oh, so you sent her in here to do yo’ dirty work, huh?” Ghost asked as Kairose beat his ass.
I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and said, “That’s right, baby, whup him.”
Kairose was gon’ be hell when she got older. I’d hate to see a guy mess her over. She wasn’t gon’ need her daddy or uncles or brother with the way she was handling Ghost.
“Okay. I’m tired,” Kairose said when she stepped back away from Ghost. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room with my apple juice.”
Ghost mugged me as Kairose bounced past me. I gave him the bird finger and left out of the living room behind her.
A couple hours had passed. It was time to get the children in bed.
Massimo had long been in his bed since he fell asleep earlier.
I gave Kairose a bath and settled her into her bed.
She had me grab a book to read to her until she fell asleep.
This was Wren’s child 100 percent. She didn’t play about her little books.
Slipping from underneath her, I covered her up, placed her book back on the shelf, turned off her light, and eased out of her bedroom, making sure to crack the door behind me. Soon as I turned around, I was sprayed down with water. I lifted my hand to my face to shield it. A gasp left my lips.
“You thought you was just gon’ get away with shooting me, huh?
” Ghost asked as he continued to spray me.
My shirt was soaking wet by the time he was done.
His eyes zeroed in on my breasts. I was certain my nipples were showing extremely well through my shirt, seeing how I didn’t have on a bra.
His dick pitched a tent in his pants. Here he was, trying to get me back and fucked himself up.
I closed in on him and grabbed his hard dick. “That’s what your ass get,” I said and released him and then headed for Wren’s bedroom to find me a shirt to put on.