Chapter 17
It was the laughter for me. The way it hung in the air like it signed a lease, paying rent in joy and furnishing every corner with peace.
Leila was in the middle of telling one of her dramatic stories, hands flying, hoop earrings catching the light.
“And I told that woman at Henderson’s, ‘Baby, if you touch my buggy one more time, you gon’ be riding in it!’”
The whole room erupted. Jason slapped his thigh, cackling. “Ain’t nobody believe you said that, Leila. You probably smiled and helped her put the juice in there.”
Leila gasped like he’d accused her of treason. “Excuse you! I said it with my chest. Loud. From the diaphragm.” She demonstrated, sticking her chest out far.
Jonell hollered, “Sis, you look like a gospel singer hitting the big note.”
Jazz nearly doubled over, her cackle bouncing off the walls like it had wings. She leaned into Chambers, her locs falling across his arm. “Lawd, if Leila don’t sit down somewhere…”
Chambers grinned, chewing his gum, leaning just close enough to Jazz that the air between them buzzed. “You laughing a little too hard, beauty. Don’t let me find out you co-signin’ her Henderson’s gangster stories.”
Jazz rolled her eyes, but the smile tugged anyway, soft at the edges. “Boy, please. You couldn’t handle me at Henderson’s or anywhere else.”
“Try me,” Chambers shot back, low and smooth.
Leila fanned the air. “Oooh! Y’all flirting in my face right now, and I like it. Somebody hand me popcorn!”
Jonell nearly choked on her drink, giggling. “This is better than the soaps. Somebody cue the theme music.”
Meanwhile, EJ’s little feet pattered across the hardwood, fast-fast-slow, like his joy had choreography.
Spider-Man cape flapping, he zoomed around Jason’s long legs, then darted under the table, nearly knocking into Amira, who shrieked and laughed as she tried to catch him.
Their giggles overlapped until it sounded like music, the kind of sound that made a house feel like home.
The room was alive with voices, teasing, inside jokes overlapping like harmonies.
“Leila, you ain’t never won a fight in your life.”
“Jason, don’t get dropped in front of your wife!”
“Jazz, you gon’ let Chambers talk to you like that?”
“Jonell, stop instigating before somebody flips the table.”
And through it all, EJ’s cape whooshing, Amira’s giggles chasing behind, Jazz’s cackle, Leila’s theatrics, Jason’s bass-heavy laugh; laughter hung in the air like scripture, like something sacred. Like joy had come home and put its name on the lease.
I was trying not to fall apart from how good it all felt.
I kept making plates because I needed my hands to be busy because, whenever Elias stared too long, my heart did a stupid skip like it didn’t have sense.
He was too much when he was quiet. Too handsome when he was loud.
Too mine when he leaned in the doorway with his arms folded like he was both the safety and the danger.
Jason caught me on the way to the sink and bumped my shoulder. “You good, Mama Nay?”
I smiled. “Yeah. Why you say my name like that?”
“Because it still feels new, and it fits like custom. I’m proud of you, sis.” He lowered his voice, eyes softening. “You deserve this many people in a room plotting on your happiness. Don’t second-guess it.”
I swallowed. I didn’t cry. Not yet. “I’m trying,” I said. “I am.”
“Try less. Receive more.” He kissed my forehead. “Now, go rescue your man from staring at you like you’re the last plate at the cookout.”
I turned, and he wasn’t staring. He was gone. My stomach dipped.
“Where’d Elias—”
“Outside,” Jazz said, lips curling like she knew a secret. She folded a napkin, tossed it just to toss it, eyes glinting. “He said he’d be right back.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “What are y’all doing?”
“Eating,” Jonell said, a little too steady. “And minding our business.”
Lies. All liars. But beautiful ones, nonetheless.
I hadn’t seen Elias this restless in weeks.
He was trying to play it cool, but I caught him tapping his foot, smoothing his jacket like he wasn’t wearing a plain white tee, touching his pocket like something inside was alive.
I figured it was cop instincts. My man was always scanning exits, counting heads, but tonight? It felt like something else.
Chambers was still cracking jokes, Dre had just gotten back into the country and was shamelessly trying to flirt with Jonell while pretending not to, and Leila kept egging it on.
But Elias barely laughed. His eyes kept skipping back to EJ, who was running around in his Spider-Man cape with Jason’s hat on backward.
My heart swelled at the sight. They were mine, my little family stitched together by love and survival.
“Why so serious, Detective Fine Shyt?” I teased in my Joker voice, nudging his side.
He smirked, low and secret. “You’ll see.”
Before I could push, Jonell popped up like she was announcing something. “Alright, y’all, let’s take this party to Little Legends. EJ wants to show Auntie Jonell his classroom, and I’m excited to see it.”
“Yaaaay!” EJ jumped up and down, and Amira followed suit.
I raised an eyebrow. That was random. But everyone jumped up, suddenly too eager. Suspicious as hell.
However, if my baby boy wanted to show off his classroom, who was I to stop his black boy joy?