5. Better than Good #3
“Bezai,” Toni whined against him, nipples poking his chest before he cuffed her chin and kissed her with enough passion to ruin her panties.
“Aight, I hate to eat and run, but I gotta go swoop Rhema up so we can go look at this house. I’m thinking of putting a bid on it, but I want to know what her and the girls think,” Jewel said from the front of the apartment as Bull pulled Toni into the living room.
With how he was feeling, he was ready to put his wife through the mattress and release some tension. She stepped into the kitchen to check on the kids, and Bull watched her while Eazy walked Jewel to the door.
“Jewel,” Bull called after him.
Pausing in the open door with Eazy standing nearby, Jewel turned.
“Stay on point.”
“You already know. We won’t get caught slipping twice. Real shit, though, we just playing it cool with Niva and Oracle too?” He checked with them.
“Let’s call it a grace period. Give muhfuckas a chance to get comfortable,” Bull acknowledged, shrugging with his hands in his pants pockets.
“Then wake they shit up,” Eazy chimed in.
“Aight. Ma texted me on the way here too. She said she's expecting to see every last one of ya at Summit and Taci’s for dinner tomorrow. Six pm,” Jewel added on his way out the door.
“We heading out, too. Going to grab some shit from our spot and take over to the house so we can stay with Brenda for a little while. I need to keep an eye on her.”
Eazy nodded. “Damn sure understand that.”
“I ain’t gotta tell you to keep ya eyes and ears open.”
“Nope,” Eazy responded, popping the p extra hard.
Toni wrangled both kids after washing their hands from syrup and sauntered to the door where Bull and Eazy gathered.
“So, Lotus agreed to be the nanny. In like two weeks. She’s going to fill a sub job she already committed to at the school, then she can start working for us,” Toni informed Bull, unable to contain her excitement.
She didn’t have friends or real family aside from him and the kids.
It was obvious that’s exactly what Jewel and Eazy were to him, so in her eyes, they were too.
Which meant Lotus was also in the inner circle and Toni was glad to finally have someone genuine around her.
She’d been surrounded by snakes and vultures her whole life.
“I told her we could talk about it and discuss salary and draw up an official contract for her. The sooner she starts, the sooner I can start working on my foundation.”
“I’m with that. The kids already fucking with her.”
“Congratulations on the baby, by the way,” Toni told Eazy.
“’Preciate it.”
“Come on, say bye Uncle Eazy,” Toni encouraged the kids on the way to the door, scooping her Dior bag off the couch.
“Bye Uncle Eazy!” Jou Jou and Breeze waved together.
Bull trailed them into the hall, with Toni scurrying to meet up with the kids at the elevator. Eazy dapped his boy up when Lotus appeared from the bedroom. She changed into tights with an off the shoulder vintage rock band top and a pair of Chanel slides.
“Lo, Toni told me about the arrangement. Shoot her your email so I can have the contract drawn up, and you can look everything over and just give me an official start date.”
“Thanks, Bull. I do have a resume, references, the whole nine. I’m a professional.”
“Okay, well attach it with the contract when you send it back.” He shrugged. “If Toni green lit it, I’m good. I trust her, especially when it comes to our babies. Congratulations on the new addition.”
“Thank you.” She smiled and Eazy nudged him out the door before closing and locking it. When he faced Lotus, he looked her up and down, hiking a curious brow.
“The fuck you think you going?”
“Damn, you my handler now?” She reared her neck and turned her nose up.
“I wanted to grab some groceries. You cooked the last of the breakfast food, and I refuse to order in every other day. Plus, it seems like the only food this baby likes is what you cook. Everything else leaves me sick and gagging. So, name some of your specialties. Or you could send me a list.” She grabbed her Marc Jacobs bag off a chair in the living room and slung it over her shoulder.
“Or, I could take you to the store.”
“Really? I thought we were supposed to be playing it cool? Normal?”
“Shit, taking my pregnant woman to the grocery store is about as normal as you can fucking get, Lo. Let me get dressed real quick.”
She huffed and shook her head. He was so annoying, but she couldn’t lie; she enjoyed how attentive he was.
Eazy didn’t have to be told how to handle Lotus.
For the first time, she had someone who paid attention to her needs sometimes before she even did.
It was effortless with them. Which sometimes worried her. The other shoe was bound to drop.
Eazy whipped his old school into the lot of Pointe Market and Grocer and parked.
Lotus sat beside him, purse in her lap, scrolling her phone at the list she’d made on the way over after talking to him.
She was so damn pretty, and all she had was her little individual lashes popping, a little eye liner, and a lip liner with gloss.
She caught Eazy watching her and scowled. He thought that shit was sexy as hell. Annoying her was one of his favorite new things in life. Making her smile was too.
“What you looking at, weirdo?”
Eazy leaned toward her, and Lotus caught a flutter of butterflies in her belly as his juicy, supple mouth latched onto hers. Minty fresh breath greeted her, and his tongue eased in gradually, eliciting a soft moan from her. When they parted, his eyes searched hers and Lotus simpered.
“I’m not cooking this food. That’s your new job.”
Eazy sucked his teeth. “I’m also moving in until further notice. Gotta keep an eye on you. Sucking down those gummy worms like that. You know how much sugar in that shit, Lo?” He looked her over and picked up the empty plastic packaging she’d left in the seat.
“Oh, my God! You are not moving in with me!” She reached for the door handle and pushed it open.
Eazy got out on the other side, and Lotus slammed her door shut after slinging her bag over her shoulder.
“Say whatever the fuck you want.”
“I’m not a child! You can’t tell me what to do!” she barked, catching the attention of a few of the shoppers coming outside the store or just arriving.
“You carrying my fucking child though, Lo,” Eazy reminded her before squinting at something past her that caught his attention.
Niva and Oracle pushed a cart full of groceries nearby, close enough to hear him and Lotus arguing and for Niva to peep him with another woman.
Clearly someone knew how to rattle him. Eazy was never the type to go back and forth or argue.
He’d shut down before he engaged in that shit.
He kept a huge part of himself closed off to Niva.
She knew it was just unhealed childhood trauma, but at times it didn’t sit right when the one you bared your soul to couldn’t reciprocate.
She’d caught a moment between him and Lotus, and a slight twinge pulled at her heart.
It wasn’t even what he said to her. It was how he said it.
The aggressive, yet careful tone in his voice.
His dark eyes narrowing on her but still sparkling amorously at the same time. He hadn’t ever looked at her like that.
“What are you looking at?” Lotus swung her glance over her shoulder and caught Oracle and Niva watching them as he popped the trunk to the Lexus they were pushing.
Lotus squinted when he popped the trunk to the Lexus they were pushing. Unsure, she would bet her last dollar that the blonde with the pixie cut was Niva. She looked at Eazy while with another man like she’d dropped her fucking dime. Eazy pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffled.
“Let’s just go in here and get this food, aight?”
He walked ahead of Lo, right past Niva and Oracle like he hadn’t known them both for most of his fucking life.
“E, it’s like that?” Oracle questioned.
“Lo, this is Oracle. This is Giniva.” Eazy introduced them for the sake of Lotus knowing exactly what the fuck they looked like if she crossed paths with them again. His arm slid protectively around her.
“Right,” Lotus mumbled. “Hello.”
“Couldn’t help but overhear the news. Congratulations on the baby,” Niva said with a tight smile, eyes flicking to Eazy as if she were convicting him.
He wasn’t hers. Not anymore. She’d made that choice years ago and had to live with it.
Never did she imagine she’d be in his midst again, with a pregnant girlfriend no less.
“Thank you,” Lotus replied, brows knitting together because she hadn’t expected that from her.
“Look, E, I ain’t trying to be on no bullshit,” Oracle chimed in. “We boys. Grew up together. Prospect is my home too. I see now I fucked up. Made some bad choices. All I’m trying to do is make up for ’em.”
“I ain’t even gon’ hold you.” Eazy shook his head. “I don’t trust you. Neither one of you. Do whatever you want with that. I ain’t here to appease your guilty fucking conscience either. See you around.” He pulled Lotus away, not wanting to spend any more time with either of them than he had to.