Chapter 7
“You are about to be banned from grandpa duty, old man,” Smoke said as they walked into my house. “Every time I look around these days, you calling us to come get these kids.”
The kids were out of school for a teacher work day, so they’d been with me all day long.
“Boy, I said I was spending time with them today. Ain’t nobody asked to spend the night and Pop Pop had a long day.”
“Let me find out you getting old and cantankerous.”
Quaid chuckled and patted his shoulder. “That’s a big word for Elmo.”
Smoke snatched away from him. “Nigga, shut up. You wanna know another word? Beat. As in I will beat you the fuck you up. Don’t make me have to put these paws on you, dawg.”
“I’m not worried about that. All I have to do is outrun your big ass.”
“I bet you can’t outrun these bullets.”
“Aye now!” I said, clapping my hands. “Don’t bring that shit in here. I am not in the mood for all that bickering.”
Deuce snickered. “Yeah, he’s getting old. You know old people don’t like unnecessary noise.”
“You niggas would be lucky to live to get to my age. All the bullshit y’all drug me through a few years ago? It’s a wonder I ain’t dead. I can finally enjoy my retirement and part of that enjoyment means y’all coming to get your kids when I call you.”
Maceo kissed his teeth. “You talking all this shit but guess who is gonna be calling them on that damn tablet an hour from now.”
“Right,” Kerrion agreed. “The moment one of them starts crying for him to get them, he’s gonna be knocking on our door.”
Titan chuckled. “You really are the biggest sucker about these kids, Senior. Don’t stand on no kind of business.”
They all started laughing and talking at once.
I walked away, leaving them in the foyer.
The kids were running around out back, so I headed out there.
My backyard looked like a damn daycare playground at this point.
I had swings, a treehouse, a seesaw, slides and a sand pit. The kids had toys all over the place.
I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled. “Aye y’all! Time to clean up! Time to go!”
They all looked at me, and immediately, KJ and the twins started crying.
Sydney ran to me and threw her arms around my legs. “No, Papa!”
“I’m not ready to go!” Serena wailed, following suit.
“Baby girls, you’ve been with Papa all day.”
They started crying harder. Most of the littles gathered around me asking why they had to leave. My sons found this shit funny. They stood back with their arms crossed and grins on their faces. I palmed my face because it really was hard to say no to these babies.
Smoke chuckled as he finally intervened. “A’ight girls. Come on. Daddy will take you to Pixels and Pizza for dinner.”
Most of the littles scrambled to their fathers, begging to go as well. The older ones didn’t care one way or the other. Darlyn stood with her arms crossed and her lip poked out.
“I don’t wanna go,” she said.
“Baby, Papa needs some adult time. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She held a frown on her pretty face as she stomped off to her daddy. As soon as he picked her up, she started crying. They threw me a glare as they filed back into the house. Korri and Nayelli stopped to hug and kiss me.
“See you later, Papa,” they both said.
“See you later, girls.”
I followed them inside. As everybody else headed for the front door, I took a left turn into my sunroom. Sitting on the couch, I pulled my stash box from the coffee table drawer and rolled up a fat ass blunt. Sparking it up, I relaxed into my seat and took a long pull from it.
Damn, I needed this shit.
I thought the kids would be a nice distraction from the thoughts plaguing my head for the last week.
Since that kiss Steph and I shared in the maze, all I could think about was her.
All the old feelings I refused to let myself feel came rushing to the surface with a vengeance.
I hadn’t seen or spoken to her since then and that was probably for the best because I’d end up doing some shit I couldn’t take back.
I’d been in the sunroom for about twenty minutes when my phone started ringing. I looked to see it was Blake’s ass.
“What?” I answered.
“Don’t answer the phone like that.”
“What do you want?”
“What are you doing?”
“I was trying to enjoy my peace and quiet now that these bad ass kids are gone.”
“Nobody told you to be a babysitter.”
“I love my grandkids. Papa is their best friend.”
“I love mine too, but them lil’ fuckers gotta go with their mammy and pappy at the end of the night. Poppa gotta have a life too.”
I rolled my eyes as though he could see me. “We see where that got you. Again, what do you want?”
“I was calling to see if you wanted to ride with me to this little hole in the wall tonight.”
“You following Jeanie again?”
“Fuck you.”
I shook my head. Since his wife left him a few years ago, he’d been on this kick of trying to get her back.
She’d served him with divorce papers at least six times and he wouldn’t sign that shit.
For him, it was ‘til death do us part. Jeanie decided she would show him better than she could tell him.
She got in the gym. Lost a bunch of weight and started wearing these little ass clothes.
Even I had to admit she looked good in that shit for a woman her age.
Blake hated it. She was hanging out with her girlfriends, going on solo vacations and dating.
She’d even moved off the compound and into a place of her own.
The woman was doing her, and he was doing what he could about it.
“You need to leave that woman alone, Blake. Just give her the damn divorce.”
“Hell no. I’ma wear her down.”
“You stopped cheating?”
“It’s not cheating if we aren’t together.”
“So let me get this straight. Y’all aren’t together when you’re fucking other women, but when she does her own thing, that’s still your wife?”
“You coming or not, muthafucka?”
I laughed. “Fine. I’ll come, if for nothing than to see this shit blow up in your face once again.”
“It’s not. I saw the way she was looking at me at the birthday party.”
“What looks were you seeing because all I saw on her face was a look of disgust. That woman doesn’t want you, man. When are you gonna let that shit go?”
“Tonight is gonna be the night. I can feel it.”
“Okay, well when you’re feeling it in your chest ‘cause she turned you down once again, I don’t wanna hear it.”
“Just be ready at eight.”
“I hear you.”
I disconnected the call and lit another blunt. This was going to be interesting.
I walked into the hole in the wall with Blake around eight twenty.
It was Friday night, so the place was packed.
Being who we were, we didn’t have a problem finding a spot, however.
Blake’s thirsty ass wanted to sit where he could survey the whole space for Jeanie.
All I could do was shake my head at him as he made a group vacate their spot so we could sit down.
“You should be ashamed of yourself, with your old ass,” I said as the server cleared and wiped down the table.
“Fuck you. Aye, baby. Bring a bottle of brown over here. I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s not some cheap shit.”
“Yes, sir.”
I watched as he watched her ass while she walked away. It was damn shame he was still up to his old tricks while simultaneously stalking his wife.
I shook my head. “That’s why your ass is here now. A wandering eye and a friendly dick.”
Blake glared at me. “I know your friendly dick ass ain’t talking. Need I remind you that you have six kids by four women?” He looked around. “There goes one of them right there.”
I followed his gaze to see Stephanie sitting alone, sipping on a cocktail and talking on the phone.
The white strapless dress complimented her golden brown skin and hugged her Coke bottle curves in ways that made me jealous.
Who was I kidding? Any article of clothing that graced her body made me jealous.
Her salt and pepper tresses held soft curls.
Her nails and toes matched the dress with a classic French manicure, and her face was free of makeup.
She was flawless.
Always had been. I licked my lips as I watched her laughing with whoever she was talking to. My brows furrowed. Who was responsible for making her smile like that? Was it another man? Was she meeting someone here?
I quickly had to shake that jealousy shit off because it really wasn’t my business. She was a single woman, free to do what she pleased with who she pleased. I couldn’t be out here acting like Blake’s ass… even if we did share a kiss that I could still feel against my lips.
I decided to go speak.
“I’ll be back,” I said, standing.
“Thirsty ass,” Blake mumbled as I walked away.
I made my way across the crowded room to her table. Her head was down and she was looking into her phone, smiling and talking. As I slid into the booth beside her, she looked up at me and rolled her eyes.
“Who’s got you grinning like this?” I asked, not bothering to hide my annoyance.
She kissed her teeth as she turned the phone around to me. There on the screen was Darlyn. When she saw me, she frowned.
“Papa, I’m mad at you,” she said, folding her little arms.
“Why did you put my grandbabies out, Stanley?” Stephanie asked.
“Because I needed some adult time and your grandbabies and their cousins don’t listen.”
“Whose fault is that?”
“It ain’t mine.” I turned back to Darlyn, who still wore a frown. “Papa will come see you tomorrow, okay, princess?”
“Can we go to the toy store?”
I sighed. “Whatever you want, baby girl.”
She squealed. “Thank you, Papa! Daddy, Papa’s taking me to the toy store tomorrow!”
She dropped the phone in excitement. Stephanie shook her head.
“This is why they act like they do. You don’t stand on business, Stanley. Business stands on you.”
I grinned. “She wasn’t that bad, love.”
“Sucker.”
Deuce picked up the phone and came into view.
“Now how you evict my kids for being bad, then turn around and take them to the toy store?” he inquired.
“Mind your damn business. I’m your daddy.”