Chapter 27 - Steel #2
My girls and my boy were here with me, so a nigga was feeling good.
I hadn’t bothered telling Neha what I’d done to her father.
She hadn’t mentioned it to me either, so I assumed his body hadn’t been found yet.
There would have been something on the local news, and I was sure her mother would have called her by now.
With the amount of dust settled in the storage room, I could tell no one ever went down there.
He was probably rotting away, as he should.
Currently, we were sitting outside with the rest of the family. Nayelli was running around with her cousins while I sat on the outside sectional with Neha next to me, tossing KJ in the air. His squeals brought a smile to my face as she pretended to eat his fat cheeks.
“He’s gonna throw up on your ass,” Deuce warned her.
“It won’t be the first time,” Neha said, finally putting him down. KJ pressed his face against hers and looked at me with a gummy grin.
“You getting too cozy with my woman, Fat Man,” I told him.
Smoke laughed. “Nah, I think he’s already stolen her. Look at his lil’ ass. Cupcaking hard.”
Neha giggled as she kissed his cheeks. “It’s enough of me to share.”
She leaned over to kiss me, but before our lips could connect, I felt KJ’s hand on my face, smacking the shit out of me with a squeal.
Shar laughed. “I guess it’s not.”
“Fat Man, you for real?” I asked, snatching my son up.
He screamed and reached for Neha again. When she took him, he rested his head on her breasts and stuck his thumb in his mouth.
“Wooow!” I exclaimed. “That’s how you do your daddy?”
“I mean, I’d wanna lay up on them titties too,” Shar commented.
Deuce gave her a look. “Sometimes you make me question if Kaylynn is the only lesbian in the family.”
She laughed. “What! I love women, and I appreciate a good set of titties and a fat ass, just like the rest of you. I’m a girl’s girl, Deucy.”
“Yeah, okay.”
I looked over their heads to see a few familiar faces coming through the back door. A laugh fell from my lips as I realized it was our mothers. They hadn’t made it to Sunday dinner like they promised my father the other week, but they were here now, and I knew they were about to get on his ass.
“Aw shit,” I said, motioning for everybody to look.
They walked in this bitch like Charlie’s Angels, searching the yard for my father.
“Ayo, Pop!” I yelled, catching his attention.
He was sitting with my uncles. When he looked up, I pointed at our mothers. A grin spread across his face as he saw his baby mamas. He stood and walked toward them. As he got closer, they whipped out those dish towels and took off after him. I’d never seen his old ass run so fast.
“Stop playing!” he yelled, trying to dodge them.
“Didn’t we tell you to keep that same energy?” Mama Steph yelled.
“You thought you were safe ’cause we didn’t show up the other week,” my mama said.
“Don’t run from this ass whupping, Stanley!” Mama Allison added.
Everybody was doubled over in laughter as they chased him through the yard. Pops tripped over one of the kids’ toys and hit the ground hard. Our mamas were on his ass with those dish towels, and all he could do was laugh and concede. The kids were cheering them on as they pointed and laughed.
“Get his ass, Mama!” Deuce yelled.
“I have never seen no shit like this,” Shar said, shaking her head. “Not they ganged up to beat their baby daddy ass.”
“At least it ain’t us,” Maceo said. “I’m tired of them damn dish towels. A nigga feels like he’s getting whupped with that shit.”
Once our mothers tired out, they walked away from Senior, leaving him on the ground laughing to himself. He got up off the ground and came over to us.
“So y’all just let your mamas whup my ass like that?” he asked.
My brothers and I shrugged.
“At least it wasn’t us this time,” I said. “You didn’t like that, did you?”
He grinned. “It ain’t the first time they jumped me.”
“Damn, Daddy,” Smoke exclaimed. “Your baby mamas been whupping your ass?”
“It’s all love.”
“Daddy, there was a little anger in that,” Salima said. “What did you do?”
“I ain’t do shit, baby girl. They are mad because this swole ass nigga ain’t tell them about Nayelli before he told me.”
“I mean, they already beat my ass with the dish towels. You just gotta take your L and move on, Senior.”
He turned to Neha. Jokingly, he said, “Technically, this is all on you, baby girl.”
She held up her hand in mock surrender. “I’ll take that.”
My mama and aunts made their way over to us. I mentally prepared myself to get cursed out again.
“Hey—” I started but was cut off.
“Shut up, Kerrion,” my mama said, pushing Senior out of the way as they came to stand in front of Neha.
“Hey, baby,” she said, stooping to kiss her cheek.
“Hey, Ms. Tavia.”
My mother scooped up KJ, who didn’t fuss with her.
“Neha, this is Stephanie, Deuce’s mama. And this is Allison, Maceo and Smoke’s mama.”
Neha smiled and extended a trembling hand. “It’s nice to meet you both,” she said softly.
I could tell she was nervous. We had all told her how close our mothers were, so I was sure she didn’t know what to expect from the other two.
Mama Steph looked down at her hand and shook it.
“Don’t be scared. We’re not gonna jump you,” she said. “That ass whupping was reserved specifically for Senior.”
She looked back at my father, who was too busy staring at her ass to even hear what she said. Deuce picked up a pillow and threw it at him, hitting him square in the face.
“Watch yourself, old man,” he warned him. “That’s my mama.”
Senior picked up the pillow and slapped the shit out of him with it.
“Nigga, she was my woman before she was your mama.”
“The difference is she’s always gonna be my mama, but she’s never gonna be your woman again. Tread lightly.”
“Anyway!” Mama Steph said, rolling her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Neha. Tavia has told us a lot about you. I hope we can get to know you since it looks like you’re gonna be around for a while.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You have my niece, so you’re welcome in my home, and you don’t have to bring his big ass with you.”
I frowned. “Damn, Mama Steph. It’s like that?”
“You’re still on my shit list right along with your baldheaded ass daddy.”
She frowned at Senior, and he only smiled.
“You know you can’t stay mad at me too long, baby.”
“Do you want to test that theory?”
“We share a child and grandchildren.”
“Deuce’s big ass is overgrown, Stanley. We don’t have to go through each other to see our son or our grandchildren.”
“He just wants to be in your face, Ma,” Deuce said, being messy. “I’ma tell Aaron to beat your ass about his wife.”
“So you want your stepfather to come up missing?”
My mama rolled her eyes. “Y’all can have your dick swinging contest by yourselves. Girls, come have drinks with us. Well, those of you that aren’t pregnant.”
Mama Allison smirked. “With the way they are reproducing over here, it’s no telling who isn’t pregnant. It’s okay to come up off your wives instead of inside them at times, boys.”
My brothers and I all spoke in protest because we didn’t need to hear our mothers talking like that. They ignored us as the girls laughed and stood to their feet. Each of them gave their man a kiss before walking off behind our mamas. Pops shook his head as he took a seat beside me.
“Damn, I love them,” he said, chuckling. “I spread my seeds to some good women.”
Maceo laughed. “Not you praising yourself for being a ho.”
“Fuck you,” Pops snapped. “I was faithful.”
Smoked laughed. “If you were faithful, then I was a virgin.”
“We all know you stuck your dick in anything that walked before you met Romi.” Pops pointed at Deuce.
“You were out here fingering my daughter-in-law on pool tables in rooms full of people.” He pointed to Maceo.
“Nigga, you were tricking on Shar for some pussy. And you,” he pointed at me.
“I can’t say too much about you because you kept your shit private until we met Donna.
Just know that I know you were out of here fucking too. ”
“See how niggas deflect when you call them on their shit?” I said.
“Any fucking way! You and Neha looking real cozy. KJ is in love.”
I grinned. “He is. He’s taken to her. Lil nigga says fuck me when he gets around her. Be giving her all my love.”
Pops chuckled. “Y’all were traitors for your mamas too. Especially Deuce. He’s still a traitor. I thought she popped the titty out your mouth a long time ago.”
Deuce smirked. “You just mad you ain’t seeing them anymore.”
It was Pop’s turn to smirk. “It doesn’t matter. I have mental snapshots. Probably a few visuals laying around somewhere.”
I didn’t think I’d ever seen my brother speechless. He sat there with a frown on his face and his mouth slightly agape, like he couldn’t believe our father had just said that.
“Aw, hell no!” He jumped to his feet. “Mama!”
We all laughed as he stormed toward his mother. When he made it over to her, he pulled her to her feet and off to the side, fussing about what our father had just said. Mama Steph’s eyes widened, and her head snapped in Senior’s direction. We watched as she went to a bush and pulled off a switch.
“I’m gonna kill you, Stanley!” she threatened, storming in our direction.
Pops broke into laughter as he sprang to his feet and ran away from the area with her right behind him.
I shook my head. That man was a whole fucking mess.
He loved getting a rise out of our mothers, especially her.
I guess since he couldn’t have her the way he wanted, he would take her however he could get it.