Epilogue
I grabbed my wife’s hand as we stormed through the front doors of our daughter’s school.
We were on a mission. These teachers had us fucked up at this damn school, and the principal?
He was about to see the wrath of a menace, and that menace wouldn’t even be me.
I glanced at Icelynn who had fire dancing in her eyes.
When she had our daughter six years ago, she turned into the biggest mama bear, and it was so sexy to see.
Not to mention the way her hips spread and her stacked body. My baby was a sight to see.
We were familiar with the principal’s office, so we made it there in no time. Icelynn didn’t even knock. She simply pushed the door open. Our daughter, Scottlynn, sat in a chair in front of the principal’s desk, kicking her feet and looking at the ground. The sight of her sad face pissed me off.
“The fuck do my daughter keep getting sent to your funky ass office? I don’t see any other snotty-nosed kid up in here anytime I’m here. Kinda shit y’all playin’ at?” Icelynn barked.
As soon as she saw her mother, Scottlynn ran for her.
Our daughter was a mommy’s girl through and through, but we still had a strong bond too.
She might gravitate toward her mama more, but that little girl was my mini me through and through.
It made me so proud when a year ago, she asked to get her hair loc’d up just like mine.
She looked like me too. And if people thought Icelynn and I bickered a lot, boy, they hadn’t seen me and Scottlynn go at it.
Since she was able to talk, we bickered like siblings instead of father and daughter.
But my baby knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
She could get any and everything up out of me.
“Now, Mrs. Slater—”
“Don’t Mrs. Slater my wife. You better listen when she’s talkin’,” I snapped.
“Like I was saying, . . . why do she be the only mothafucka in here?”
The principal stayed silent, and I eyed him viciously. He finally spoke up, his tone timid. “Can I speak now?”
“You ain’t hear my wife ask you a damn question?”
The principal sighed like we were inconveniencing him. My jaw clenched.
“Scottlynn was bullying another kid,” the principal finally said.
“Couldn’t be that. Scotty doesn’t bully. Ain’t that right, baby?” Icelynn asked as she rubbed her hand over our daughter’s curly hair. Scottlyn looked up at Icelynn innocently and nodded with big brown eyes. She melted my damn heart. “See? You’re mistaken. Maybe the other kid is just a bitch.”
The principal sputtered. “You . . . you can’t call a kid that.”
“Why not?” Icelynn asked, and then her eyes narrowed.
“Nah. You know what I think? I think you’re the bitch.
We pay good-ass money to send our daughter to this fuck-ass school.
Aren’t we funding that new funky-ass gym y’all are building?
” The principal nodded meekly. “Yeah, that’s right.
” Icelynn slammed her hand down on his desk.
“Not anymore, nigga! And as of today, Scotty no longer goes here.”
Icelynn grabbed Scottlynn’s hand and walked past me and out the door. I shook my head at the principal in disgust. “My daughter a bully? Nigga, is you insane?”
I muttered to myself all the way to the car. Once we were all inside, I looked in the rearview mirror at Scottlynn. It was only eleven in the morning. Shorty didn’t even make it a full day. That was okay, though. More time for us to spend together as a family. “You want ice cream, princess?”
Her little smile made my entire life worth it.
“Yes, please.”
She was so polite. I couldn’t understand where they got off saying my daughter bullied anyone.
I pulled out of my parking spot as Icelynn spoke. “What happened at school today, baby?”
I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Scottlynn’s eyes grow wide. “Jimmy kept picking on me, so I kicked him in the knee.”
“As you should have.” The thought of any little boy picking on my daughter pissed me off. I would have kicked him in his knee too.
“And then Doris told me my shoes were ugly, so I pinched her eyebrow.”
“Kinda name is Doris?” I asked.
“Her eyebrow, baby? Really?”
Scottlynn nodded. “I wanted to pull the hairs out so she didn’t have any eyebrows anymore.”
Icelynn shrugged. “Anything else?”
“Brandom got the last juice box, so I punched him in the back of the head.”
I snorted, and Icelynn shook her head.
“Okay, maybe that one was bullying,” I said.
Icelynn nodded and turned in her seat. “Baby, what do we always tell you? You can’t hit someone unprovoked.”
“But it was voked, Mommy,” Scottlynn argued.
“How?” I asked. I always got a kick out of hearing her logic.
Scottlynn tried to explain her logic to me, and then we spent the rest of the ride arguing about it.
When we finally got into the ice-cream parlor, it was crowded, and Scottlynn was close to tears because I argued her down so well.
I held her hand and chuckled. That little girl was a damn force to be reckoned with.
It was okay that I humbled her little ass from time to time, especially if she was punching niggas for a damn juice box, unprovoked.
What could I say? She was our daughter through and through.
As we waited in line, Icelynn leaned her head on my shoulder.
“You good, Juicy?”
“More than good. Just tired.”
My baby had expanded her little waxing business. She didn’t take male clients anymore, but she had more than enough female clients, and she even had multiple employees under her now. I was so proud.
“Too tired to give me some of that juice box when we get home?” I teased.
She giggled. “Remember when we met, and you acted like you ain’t even like me? Like you could live without this juice box?” she asked as she gazed up at me with joy dancing in her eyes.
“I acted like that? You were the one running from me every other day.”
Because I couldn’t remember a time where I ever thought I could live without her or her juice box.
She snorted. “Was not.”
We both knew that was a lie. We were both trippin’ way back when, but these days, there wasn’t a person on the planet that could tear us apart.
Icelynn was mine from the moment I laid eyes on her.
It just took us a minute to figure shit out, but once we did, there was no looking back.
I wouldn’t trade her or Scottlynn for anything in the world.
I pulled her into me and kissed her nose before I pulled back and looked into her pretty brown eyes. I would never get tired of looking at her. Luckily for me, I had an entire lifetime to drink as much of her in as I wanted. I patted her ass and grinned.
“I’m just glad you finally Know Your Place.”
The end