6. Staten #3
I roamed her thick ass in her simple look and tucked my bottom lip between my teeth just as I got a text message.
Picking up my phone off the dresser, I saw that it was Nadia.
I hadn’t heard from her or the kids since earlier.
I figured they were just catching up and breaking her pockets for once, which was fine with me.
She was letting me know they would be staying up at the main house tonight so I shouldn’t wait up.
I wasn’t worried about that. As long as my kids were happy and safe, it was the only thing that mattered.
“Looks like Tavi and Saga are staying the night at Rossi’s tonight. It’s just us.” I slipped the device into the pocket of my denim jeans and strolled over to the doorway.
Easing my arms around her waist, I pulled her toward me and knelt to capture her glossy lips.
“You OK with that?” Cambrie checked with me.
“Yeah,” I told her, brows coming together in assurance.
“That’s they mama and grandma. It gives me a break from all four of them.
That’s the good thing about being back here in the Bluffs.
Family is close, and my kids didn’t have that in Chicago.
We might be a little dysfunctional, but we still there for each other. Even when we don’t see eye to eye.”
“That sounds nice. Your kids are lucky to have that, and you.” She reached up and tugged on my beard before standing on her toes and kissing me. “Now can we please go? I am starving after you depleted me earlier.”
“Word to that.” I playfully slapped her ass before giving it a squeeze. “Come on.”
After making sure both kids were secure in the back of my truck, I started it up and pulled away from the house with Cambrie riding shotgun and applying gloss in the visor mirror.
Tasty Co was a small bar and grill type place, but it was family friendly, and they had good food, so I was with it.
As mentioned, I didn’t get a lot of time with Piaget and Rogue without their older siblings around.
The two of them were a lot more chill when it was just them.
Half an hour later, I parked in the lot of the restaurant and shut my truck off.
The sky was gray, and the scent of rain lingered in the air as we all piled out of my whip.
Cambrie grabbed both kids’ hands and checked the parking lot to make sure no cars were coming our way before crossing over to the main entrance of the establishment.
I held the door open for all of them, and a young brown-skinned girl with honey-blonde curls approached us in her white blouse and black pencil skirt.
She smiled wide, eyes filling with appreciation when they swept over me.
“How many?” she asked, glancing at the tablet in her hand and acting like she didn’t see Cambrie standing there with the kids.
“Four.”
“Okay, right this way.” She hugged the tablet to her chest and stepped past me.
Baby was tall and built like a WNBA player, toned and muscular in all the right places as she tried to sway her hips a little harder. Cambrie only rolled her eyes and shook her head in annoyance as we trailed her through the crowd until we were near an empty booth.
“My name is Janiyah. Here is your table. Can I start you with anything to drink?” she asked.
“I want lemonade!” Rogue declared.
“I want a Dr Pepper!” Piaget followed.
Janiyah tapped at her screen before bringing her eyes up. A hint of a grin lifted the corners of her mouth before she licked her juicy ass soup coolers.
“And what can I get for you?” she checked with me.
“You can get rid of all that thirst in your tone, for one,” Cambrie chimed in, causing Janiyah’s head to snap in her direction.
Immediately, her face was flushed with embarrassment.
“I’ll take an iced tea to start. Calm down, mama.” I shot Cambrie a warning look.
“I want a daquiri, with an extra shot. Strawberry. You got that?”
“I got it,” Janiyah whispered, keeping her focus on the tablet screen. “Have a seat. I’ll get those drinks right over.”
As we began to take our seats, some light-skinned nigga was near our booth.
The minute his eyes landed on Cambrie, he looked like he wanted to disappear.
Baby barely bat an eye, but there was something familiar there.
She knew this nigga. Intimately. The way his beady ass eyes raked over her told me everything.
“Cambrie?” he voiced, shocked as a pregnant chick slid up next to him.
“Who dis nigga?” Rogue motioned to the fuckboy.
“Rogue,” Cambrie tittered, resting her hands on his shoulders before crossing them casually across his chest and pulling him into her.
“Ain’t seen you since?—”
“Plum tased you at my apartment when you came over trying to get back in my good graces?” she finished for him calmly. “I’ve been busy.”
“I can see that.” He twisted his mouth and looked me and my children over resentfully.
His very pregnant woman was clearly thrown from the statement when she reared her neck and glared at him.
“Sayer, what the fuck!”
“Baby, it wasn’t even like that.” He reached for her, not at all convincing, and she immediately yanked away with a mean scowl.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” she screamed, grabbing her lower belly and doubling over suddenly. “Shit!”
“Ugh! What the hell is that?” Rogue turned his nose up and pointed at the green puddle of liquid gathering around her ankles.
“My water just broke,” Lil Mama whimpered. “Oh my God!”
“Shit!” Homie backed up with his hands on his head and panic flickering in his eyes.
“I guess you better go handle that. Let’s sit down.” Cambrie barely looked their way before nudging Rogue along to take a seat.
She helped Rogue out of his jacket and into the booth on her side while I did the same with Piaget on mine.
“That lady about to have that baby, ain’t she?” Piaget questioned, picking up a menu after settling the leather seat.
“Looks like it. Rogue, you need to watch your mouth.” Cambrie eased out of her jacket and draped it over the back of the booth with Rogue’s.
She picked up her menu, briefly looking over the front before lifting her eyes to me, then Piaget beside me.
“I think we need to start with some potato skins and spinach dip,” she suggested.
“I want chicken tenders and fries,” Rogue said, leaning forward with an elbow on the table and looking over his menu.
“You always want tenders and fries. Don’t you want some wings or something else, RoRo?”
“I’ll try the barbecue sauce. That’s as far as we taking this, Cam.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes, and he went back to his menu like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Rogue didn’t even interact with his own mama so organically.
Cyra toted him around like a little accessory when she had him, if she wasn’t dropping him off with one of her weird ass friends.
I had to nip that shit in the bud expeditiously.
Although my son had a mouth on him, his impression of Cambrie on day one had him gone.
She didn’t talk to him like a child. She challenged his little views and gave him something to think about, which was slowly opening him up to other things and behaviors.
I noticed he’d stopped drawing on my walls and being extra destructive too.
“Daddy, is Cambrie your girlfriend now?” Piaget queried, angling her head toward me.
I’d set my phone down on the table, and an alert suddenly lit it up.
“Yeah, that’s me, Piaget. Tell all ya friends, OK?” I leaned in and kissed the top of her head before leaning forward to check my phone.
I saw that it was Ivo texting me to see what was up.
“This nigga,” I grumbled.
“What’s wrong?” Cambrie closed her menu and set it down on the table.
She was on some casual shit in a pair of thin sweats and a tight white baby tee.
With a pair of big hoop earrings in her ears and nothing but a clear coat of gloss across her bow-shaped lips, I couldn’t help but smile.
This woman had captivated me from day one.
The first time I saw her, I fully understood the phrase ‘take my breath away.’ It had never happened before, but she had me from that first glance.
Her showing up on my doorstep the next day was nothing but God.
“Ivo wants me to come through. He ain’t at home though, and this shit messy. I don’t know if I should even be involving myself.”
“What’s going on?” she leaned forward and whispered.
Rogue and Piaget had both occupied themselves with mine and Cambrie’s phones, so they were tuned out.
“P, you decide what you want?” I glanced at my beautiful baby girl, and she nodded with her eyes still on the phone screen.
“Yup. The grilled chicken sandwich with fries. Daddy, make sure they add cheese on my sandwich.” She averted her eyes enough to lock with mine to let me know she was serious about that addition.
Piaget liked cheese on every damn thing, and it drove me crazy.
Shaking my head, I paused when a waiter approached our section.
We ordered, and I let the kids get back in their zone while me and Cambrie sipped our cocktails.
She wanted to try the daquiri special and ended up ordering a whole other drink while I sipped my whiskey.
“First of all, I don’t want you to think that I condone what’s going on. I just know my brother a lot better than anybody else. We haven’t been tight in forever, but slowly, we’re making our way back.”
“Okay. Now you got me curious as hell.” Resting her arm against her cheek, she slowly eased forward.
“So back in the day, bro had this thing for this chick, Emerald. Now he’s married to Jordan, who used to be friends with her.” I felt like I was gossiping like a bitch.
I just didn’t want there to be any surprises or for her to get questioned about some shit and possibly slip up without even knowing it. With a lifted brow, she popped her neck back and scoffed at the information.
“First of all, Girl Code . . . but go on.” She waved her hand.
“Jordan and Ivo can’t conceive, so they got a surrogate. Emerald is the surrogate.”
“Get the fuck out of here!”
“Ivo don’t know what the fuck he doing. He wants Emerald, but he can’t just cut ties with Jordan. Shit is crazy. Nigga went out and got Emerald her own place, and that’s where he is now.”
“So we would be with him and the side chick,” Cambrie surmised.
“Basically.”
“Wow.” She sat with that for a minute before her gaze shifted back to me. “I don’t know what to say, but I will say that something is off about Jordan.”
“What you mean?”
“Please. She is wired tight, and it was long before she latched on to Ivo. He’s her savior.
It’s why aside from Rossi, his biggest female influence, pleasing him is the only other thing that matters to her.
She doesn’t even think for herself. It’s all based on this image of perfection.
I mean, he loves her, but it’s more of a protector role disguised in love and unity.
Now that you mention this other girl, I bet it all ties into his feelings surrounding Jordan,” she concluded.
“That shit kind of sexy.”
“What are you talking about?” She pouted cutely and picked up her drink.
“How you read people, but don’t say nothing. Shit a skill, mama.”
“I don’t mean to go into therapist mode. I just can’t help it sometimes. I’m cool with going to hang out if you want though.”
“You sure? This nigga putting us all in a position where we have to lie.”
“Tell him he better practice some discretion with his niece and nephew around then.” Cambrie gripped her straw between her fingers and brought it to her lips for a sip. “We are not responsible for what comes out of their mouths.”