Chapter 7
SEVEN
Loco.
I’d just texted Sy and my road manager to confirm the dates for my upcoming appearances on Breeze’s tour when I glanced up and saw my mother exiting the jet.
I quickly locked my phone and tossed it on the seat before climbing from my car to go meet her.
I pulled her tiny body into a tight embrace before taking her bag and escorting her to my car.
I helped her inside before putting her bags in the trunk then hopping in the driver’s side and taking off.
“How was the flight over?” I glanced her way and asked.
“Perfect. I love that jet.” She smiled.
I smiled back and nodded. “Yeah, Kyng shit nice as hell.”
“It is,” she agreed. “You know your father wasn’t happy about me leaving him.”
“He’ll be aight.” I chuckled. “I be needin’ my mama sometimes too.”
“I’ve spoiled the both of you too much.” She shook her head. “What’s going on that you needed me to come ASAP?”
I hadn’t told her exactly why I needed her to come out this way because I knew if I told her via text or over the phone she would have jumped to conclusions and started asking hella questions. In hindsight though, she might actually start swinging on a nigga now that we were in person.
“I need your help with something.”
“What have you gotten into this time, Makhai Matthews?”
“Damn, Ma,” I grinned and looked in her direction briefly. “I ain’t did nothin’.”
“You always do something.” She shook her head. “What is it this time? You better not have gotten one of these heffa’s pregnant and brining me out here to meet your baby.”
“Well—”
“Boy, you better be lying! I will whip your ass right now, Makhai!” She started going off.
“Chill, ma!” I laughed and blocked her little ass hand. “I ain’t get one of these hoes pregnant.”
“You better not have,” she pointed. “I am not playing with you. I haven’t seen one woman that you’ve dealt with that I’d be okay with you procreating with.”
“Ma, that’s cap. I been with some bad b—good women.”
“Name one, Makhai.” She turned slightly to lean against the door. When I didn’t answer right away she said, “Exactly. They’re always pretty, but never anyone that you see forever with. Otherwise, you would have brought one of them home by now.”
In my whole thirty-two years of life, I’d never brought a woman home to meet my parents.
Not even when I was a lil’ nigga. I wasn’t ever having that shit.
I was always into too much and was way too paranoid to allow mothafuckas to know where my folks laid their heads.
Mothafuckas ain’t even knew who my mama and daddy were for a long ass time for real until my pops got into politics.
At that point, I upped security because if something was to happen to my people, shit would get deadly for everybody.
“Aight, Ma, damn, we ain’t here to discuss my future baby mama’s.” I grinned.
“I’m not even going to entertain you, Makhai.”
“Naw for real, I do need you to help me with a baby,” I said, turning serious. “I met this girl, and she just found out about a baby girl…”
“She just found out about her own baby?” she quizzed. “That doesn’t even sound right.”
“That’s because that’s not right, Ma. Let a nigga finish talkin’ before you start jumpin’ to conclusions.”
“Keep on.” She jokingly slapped the back of my head.
“But I met a woman at the club a few weeks ago. She really wasn’t tryna give me a chance at first, but you know ya boy worked his magic.”
“AKA you made her give you a chance?”
“No, Ma,” I grinned.
“I know you, Makhai, but keep going.”
“Yeah, so I pulled up on her to see what was up and just kick it when she got a call from the hospital telling her that she needed to get there. When she was on the phone, I could tell it was serious, but she was also looking confused, so I offered to take her to make sure things were legit and nobody was on BS. While she was there, she learned that her sister had a baby and left her at the hospital.”
I heard my mother gasp. “Oh, no. Why would she do that?”
“Apparently she’s an addict,” I answered, glancing her way noticing her expression turn sad.
My mother went through something similar when she was younger with her older brother who died of a drug overdose.
He didn’t have a baby or no shit like that, but he damn sure fell victim to the streets.
The shit broke her heart all of those years ago, but it motivated her to help others who were dealing with addiction.
She volunteered a lot and donated a shit ton of money to plenty of organizations.
I didn’t hit her and have her come out here to help Diamond’s sister, I wanted her to help me help Diamond, but now that she’d learned what was going on, I had no doubt that she was gon’ try to look out for her sister too.
“What do you need me to do, Khai?”
“I know shorty ain’t left that hospital.
She ain’t want to leave the baby and shit, but she don’t have nothing for the child at her crib.
I wanted to look out and buy what the baby’s gon’ need to help her out.
She gon’ be dealing with enough trying to care for a newborn.
I just want to make it easier for her however I can. ”
She nodded. “Okay. We can do that. Does she know what you’re doing?”
“Yeah, I told her I was gon’ look out. I just didn’t say how.”
“Alright, Makhai, we need to talk to her first.”
“Ma.”
“I know you’ve already insisted that you were helping, but where will we put all of the things you want to get for her and the baby?”
I hadn’t even thought of that. I was just gon’ buy the shit then figure the rest out later.
“You want me to call her?” I asked.
“Yes, but ask her if it’s okay for us to come by the hospital. I want to ask her a few things.”
I nodded and called her, putting the call on speaker from the screen on the dash. I hadn’t actually used her number yet, so I hoped her ass answered. I didn’t want to blow her up while my mama was in the whip with me, but I also wasn’t above the shit.
The moment her soft ass voice flowed through my car speakers my heart fluttered. Her shit was so angelic sounding. I never gave a fuck how a bitch sounded before, but I could listen to Diamond’s pretty ass all day for real.
“Hello?” she said for a second time and my mom nudged me.
“You miss me?”
“Makhai?” she quizzed.
“Better not be missin’ another nigga.”
“Since you mysteriously showed up at my home without me giving you my address, I won’t’ ask how you got my number.”
“Good, we don’t need to be wastin’ time with irrelevant shit anyways.”
“What is it, Makhai?”
“You still at the hospital?”
“Why?”
“I’m ‘bout to pull up on you.”
“No you’re not.”
“Yeah, I am. In like ten minutes.” I plugged the address in my navigation to get the exact time. “Never mind, eight minutes.”
“Makhai, I said no,” she spat lowly. “I’m dealing with a lot right now…”
“And?”
“And I said no.” Her little ass went off.
I was about to say something back but my mother said, “Makhai, stop, she is dealing with something traumatic.”
“Who the fuck is that?” Diamond snapped. “I know you’re not sharing my business with any of your hoes, nigga.”
“Of course not. That’s my mama.”
“Oh my G—” the line went dead before she could finish her sentence letting me know that she’d hung up.
I wasn’t going to do it right away because she did have her shit going on, but I was gon’ for sure check her ass about hanging the fuck up on me. I played about a lot of shit but disrespect wasn’t one of those things.
I reached for the dash to dial her number back, and when she answered her tone was completely different.
“I cannot stand you. I hope you know that.”
“I ain’t even do nothin’.” I laughed. “You was too busy runnin’ ya mouth and havin’ that nasty attitude, I couldn’t put you up on game.”
“Can she still hear me?”
“I can,” my mother answered and smiled.
“I am so sorry about that. Your son stresses me out, and on top of that I’m dealing with some family stuff…”
“No apology necessary, baby. I know my child.” My mother chuckled. “Is it okay if we come by? I was the one that told him to ask you.”
Diamond was quiet for a few seconds before agreeing, letting us know she’d meet us in the parking garage because she didn’t want to deal with a bunch of people.
I knew that was code for not wanting to deal with fans bombarding us.
I felt it because the shit definitely got on my nerves, but she wasn’t gon’ be hiding me from the public and shit for too long.
I called to let her know we were downstairs once I’d parked, then I got out to wait for her to come down.
I had my mama wait in the car because it was hot as shit, and in case we were spotted I didn’t want anyone running up on her.
I’d had my run ins with the media and paparazzi, but there would be hell to pay if something happened to my dukes while we were out.
I spotted Diamond’s little ass strutting across the parking garage, so I went to meet her.
Not being able to resist, I pulled her into my embrace when she was close.
Surprisingly, she let me. It could have been because my mother was not too far away, more than likely watching, but I didn’t care.
I was glad she allowed me to be in her space.
“Who the fuck you hangin’ up on and shit?” I peered down at her pretty ass.
She’d been home at some point because she changed her clothes and slicked her hair down. She looked good as hell in just some leggings and an oversized shirt with her pretty ass toes on display in her sandals. It made no sense how effortlessly bad she was.
“Boy, get off of me.” She smiled and nudged me away. “I am still going to curse you out for having me on speaker with your mom in the car with you.”
“Need to watch ya mouth.”
“Whatever. What are you doing here anyway? And you brought your mom?” she whispered as if my mama could hear us.
“Yeah, I needed her help with something, but she wanted to meet my future wife.”
“Negro, you wish.” She playfully rolled her eyes.
“I do for real.” I smirked. “But naw, I told her about ya situation and how I wanted to help, but she wanted to meet you first to make sure everything was straight.”
“How are you trying to help exactly, Makhai?” She looked up at me.
I easily got lost in her brown eyes. Even though she was obviously dealing with a lot, they were still bright as hell. I was glad to see she was holding up well.
“Just getting a few things for you and baby girl. I wasn’t gon’ have nowhere to take the shit because you ain’t gave me a key yet.”
She scoffed. “You will never get a key to my house, fool. Move.”
She playfully pushed me out of the way and walked toward my ride. I turned around just in time to enjoy the view too. That ass was moving like water. She was a small ass woman, but she had the perfect amount of everything making it easy to visualize how I planned to have my way with her.
I hustled to catch up with her when she made it to my ride. Stepping around her, I pulled the passenger door open so that my mother could get out then made introductions.
“Damn, I didn’t think we’d be at this stage so early, but oh well—Diamond, this ya mother-in-law, Margaret, but everyone calls her Marge. Ma, ya new daughter-in-law, Diamond.”
“Makhai, hush and move,” My mother used her shoulder to bump me out of the way then hugged Diamond. “It’s nice to meet you, sweetheart.”
“Likewise.” Diamond pulled back and smiled. “I apologize again for earlier. Your son just has a way of bringing out the worst parts of me and I barely know him.”
“He’s my son, so if no one else gets it, I do.”
“Fuck is that supposed to mean?” I frowned.
“It means I know who I raised, little boy.” She playfully rolled her eyes before focusing on Diamond again. “Can you come with us?”
Diamond’s brows furrowed as she looked between my mom and I. “And leave the baby?”
“For a little,” my mom smiled. “My son wants to gift the nursery to you, and I’d feel more comfortable if you were there to let us know exactly what you want.”
“But I can’t,” she replied sounding low key panicked. “Nobody will be here with Keona.”
“That’s the baby’s name?” I asked and she nodded.
“My sister hadn’t named her, so I did. It means God’s precious gift.” She smiled.
“I like that.” I confessed. “She hella precious for real.”
“Thank you.”
“Diamond, she has a team of nurses that I’m sure are dedicated to her care around the clock. And I’m sure social services has been up here, right?”
Diamond nodded and dropped her head. “They came to drug test me and let me know they’d be doing an extensive background check to ensure that she’ll be in the best care.”
“Alright then, you need to prepare your home for her,” my mother said giving her a warm smile. “They won’t let you bring her with you if you can’t show them that she has a safe place to come home to.”
“I—you’re right.”
“Just go up and let them know that you’ll be stepping out for a little while.”
“I’ll go with you.” I offered, but she declined.
“Andrea came down when I did, I’ll call her to see if she’s gone back up yet.”
She pulled out her phone to call the nurse we’d met last night.
Based on Diamond’s responses, she was already back upstairs and cool with her leaving.
She kept reiterating that she wouldn’t be gone long and it sounded like Andrea was assuring her that she was fine.
I didn’t know her, but she seemed genuine, so I trusted that baby girl would be fine for a few hours.
Diamond ended her call a few seconds later letting us know that she was good to go for a few hours. She also called her best friend to tell her what she was about to do and asked her to go to the hospital when she got off in case she wasn’t back yet.
When she was done handling her business, I opened the door for both her and my mother then allowed them to drag me around the city to damn near every store they fucking had.