Chapter 5 #3
“We can order something to eat and watch a movie or something. After I wash this court smell off me,” Coast insisted.
“Go take care of yourself. I got my girl. I’ll find us a bottle of wine too.”
“Thanks, Nari.” Coast grabbed her fruit and headed back to take a shower.
She didn’t know how long she’d been in there, but she was wrinkled when she stepped out and slipped into a pair of leggings with a big off the shoulder vintage t-shirt over a tank top.
Barefoot, she padded through her home, picking up things she’d tossed about earlier in a frenzy when she was leaving the house.
Inari had kicked off her shoes and sat with Rara on the floor getting tummy time while scrolling her phone. It looked like she’d been crying. Coast also caught a whiff of something and glanced toward the kitchen.
“Are you cooking?”
“Girl, yes. I took Rara outside in her car seat for a second and took a few hits of the za and caught the munchies.”
“It smells good.” Coast’s face balled into pleasure.
“It’s one of Ayla’s recipes. Some baked chicken with rice, veggies, and this drizzle over it all that is amazing.
I think I got all the ingredients right.
I was scrolling through her videos to see if I could find a link and got lost down the rabbit hole.
Some days, I can’t even believe she’s gone,” she muttered.
Coast strolled over to join her, and the minute Iara saw her, she attempted to roll over onto her back. She always did that, then would throw a full on fit because she couldn’t roll her chunky butt back over. Coast told Mozzi it was just a ploy so someone would pick her up.
“It’s like… with my parents, I accepted it, and there was no open casket for them either because of the damage from that building crushing them to death.
We only had pictures to remember them by and whatever little home videos we had recorded over the years.
It was final. I knew they were gone. You know?
” Inari wiped a tear that had slipped to her top lip and glanced up at Coast as she took position on the couch beside her and tucked her feet.
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“This…” Inari shook her head. “This doesn’t feel right.
” Her wounded gaze drifted to Rara on the floor as she rolled onto her back and put her chunky fists in her mouth.
“And the baby. He would have just been born not long ago. A few months behind this one right here.” Inari palmed Iara’s belly and made her giggle cutely.
“I’m guessing it was a boy. I just had a feeling. ” She smiled through her misting eyes.
“I think it’s time to crack open that bottle of wine.” Coast sighed.
“I’m with you when you’re right.” Inari hopped up and padded over to the kitchen.
She checked the food in the oven, then grabbed the Pinot Noir and two glasses off the counter before sashaying back over to Coast. Once Coast was able to get Iara down for a nap, the two stepped outside on the patio to enjoy the view and have a smoke session.
Coast hadn’t been able to indulge in months.
She’d been breastfeeding too, so she rarely drank, and this was the first time she was able to enjoy a decent buzz.
About an hour and a half later, she went to pump and dump.
She checked on Iara, still sleeping on her back, hands up near her head, with her lips slightly parted as she snored lightly.
Smiling, she headed back to the living room and found Inari leaning back comfortably into the couch with her purse beside her.
She scrolled her phone and peered up at Coast when she sauntered by.
“Dane texted me. He wants to meet me for ice cream.” Inari sat forward, and Coast settled on the sectional across from her.
She tucked her legs and feet under and grabbed a blanket to drape over her frame.
“How is he doing?”
Inari half shrugged and tucked her phone into her purse.
“He keeps busy. School, practice, friends. I let him keep the car Danilo got him. I hate looking at the damn thing, but I’m trying to allow him his freedom and not hover.
I don’t know. It’s not the same, that’s for sure.
Something is fractured between us… and I don’t know if we’ll ever get it back. ”
“You will,” Coast insisted. “You are a good mother, Nari. You gave your son the life you didn’t have. He didn’t always have his father, but he had you. He fucked up, choosing Danilo over you. He knows that. I’m sure he wants to get back to what you used to be too. He texted you, right?”
“He probably wants to ask me for something.” Inari tittered, perking up when headlights flashed near the front of the house. “I put the rest of the food up and cleaned the kitchen for you.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Try to take care of yourself too, Coast. If you need a break, I am more than happy to keep her while you go do something alone, or go out on a date with your husband,” she suggested, listening to car doors slam shut.
Mozzi and his brothers’ voices echoed outside right before his keys jingled in the door, and he let them inside.
“Nigga supposed to be in rehab trying to shake that shit, not find a new bitch.” Mozzi cackled as Moose and Kong stumbled in behind him.
The three of them paused mid stride when they saw that Inari was also present. Mozzi held the Ocean Prime bag a little closer and admired Coast in her loungewear. She could turn up in any setting, but he loved her most when she was comfortable and carefree.
“Aw shit.” Mozzi snickered, shaking his head. “What’s up, Nari?”
“Don’t stop on my account.” She grabbed her Tory Burch bag, slung it over her shoulder, and then stood.
Eyes latching onto Moose, she let them linger over his appearance.
His eyes were low, so he’d definitely smoked some weed, but Moose never considered weed a drug.
He was blowing like Marley until the casket dropped.
Still, something was different. His skin was brighter, and he had even picked up a few pounds.
Of course, it was all muscle. His arms were even bigger than she remembered, with broader, more defined shoulders linked to them.
Licking his lips, he assessed her carefully, noticing the few changes.
Mainly the weight loss, at least fifteen pounds.
She still looked good, but he hoped she stopped where she was.
All her curves and extra cushion were what he loved about her.
“It’s good to see you, Nari.”
She hadn’t quite dealt with her feelings regarding Moose.
With him in rehab, it was more of an out-of-sight, out of mind kind of thing.
She missed him, and he had reached out while he was in there, she just didn’t return his calls or respond.
Moose was persistent, though, always dropping random and even funny messages, memes, or reels in her thread.
Inari couldn’t help but laugh sometimes because he really was a fool.
“Morgan, if I didn’t answer when you called or texted, what makes you think I want anything to do with you?”
“First of all, you miss me,” Moose spoke up, making Kong chuckle before bypassing him to the kitchen behind Mozzi.
He’d already sniffed out the meal Inari made and popped the top to the Tupperware lid.
“You’re loud and wrong.”
“Yeah, I aight, so why you won’t look at me then? Why you get so tight when I walked in?” Moose interrogated, reaching for his tank top and pulling it over his head.
He stood there in nothing but his basketball shorts and Nike Dunks, chiseled chest and abs on display, and damnit if he didn’t look good.
Catching the curve of his dick in his shorts, she shook her head and talked shit to her lady parts for even entertaining this shit.
Moose had cleaned up in more ways than one.
There was always this darkness simmering in his eyes since she’d known him.
Now she was able to see past that into something else. Another version of him, maybe?
“I spent all my time in therapy and working out. What you think?”
“I think you look fat,” she said, squinting and walking past Coast on the couch so she could get to the door.
“Damn sure got that girth.” Moose tucked his bottom lip between his teeth and grabbed his dick.
“He misses you.”
“Oh, my God, you are so nasty. What kind of rehab they send you to?” Coast quipped, turning up her nose.
Mozzi snickered and grabbed a fork from the dishrack so he could pick up some of the chicken in the dish. He knew better than to touch Coast’s food before she did. He didn’t want that smoke tonight.
“The kind with tennis courts and bad bitches who like to give you massages. They be fucking they therapists in there too.” Mozzi took a bite of the tender chicken, and Kong slid onto a stool.
“Hmm, sounds very healing,” Inari muttered, rolling her eyes.
She was more annoyed, but jealousy brewed in her chest thinking about him with someone else.
Morgan Blackmoor left a mark on her. A damn stain she couldn’t remove if she tried.
She still prayed for him and wanted him to be happy.
When she got unsolicited reports from Kong on how well he was doing, it made her smile.
It said a lot that he was willing to go get the help.
Most people didn’t think they needed to.
Moose grabbed her wrist when she bypassed him.
The resentment and fury she carried there months ago had diminished, and that made him happy.
He knew giving her space would possibly open the path to her heart again.
She looked down at his hands on her, then back into his eyes.
He quickly released her and surrendered with his hands.
“My bad. You still mad at me?”
“What you think?” she quipped.
“I think you need to give me a chance to make it up to you.”
“The only thing I want in this world, I can’t have back, Morgan.” Her voice cracked, and his face shifted somberly.
“I know. I hate I missed the funeral, but I been making sure to keep fresh flowers on her grave. Every time I sent them for Jane, I made sure Ayla got some too.”