14. Lee #3
Hannah’s head snapped toward JB. “Are you fucking serious right now?”
“Stay out of it, Hannah.”
“How the fuck am I supposed to stay out of it? I’m standing right here.”
JB ignored her. His eyes stayed on me. “How long?”
“There is no fucking how long. Van is my friend.”
“That nigga had his arms around you.”
“Because I was trying to beat her ass!”
“And he real comfortable putting his fucking hands on you.”
I stared at him. “You know what? Fuck you.”
I turned away from him, but JB’s attention shifted right back to Van.
“You knew she had a man?”
Van looked at him. “That has nothing to do with me.”
“The fuck it don’t.”
“JB.” I stepped back into his line of sight. “Leave him the fuck alone.”
His eyes cut to me. “Why you defending him?”
“I’m not defending nobody! I’m trying to figure out how the fuck you got all this energy for Van when I just found out you got a whole child.”
“Lee-”
“No, answer me. Where the fuck was all this mouth when I asked you about your son? Where was it when I asked if you loved her?”
JB’s jaw tightened, and I shook my head. “Exactly.”
He stared at me for a second before shaking his head like somehow I was the one who had pissed him off. “Nah, fuck that. You out here with another nigga, letting him put his hands on you, and I’m supposed to just ignore that shit?”
I actually looked around because there was no way this nigga was serious. People were still walking past us with pumpkins and cups of cider, giving us quick looks before pretending they weren’t listening.
“You watched him grab me because I was trying to fight Hannah.”
“I’m not just talking about that. You came here with him.”
“So?”
“So how the fuck you think that look?”
A laugh came out of me. “How it look?”
“Yeah, how it look. You dressed up, at a pumpkin patch with some nigga I ain’t never seen before, and he comfortable as hell around you.”
“You have lost your fucking mind.”
“I’m just supposed to take your word that ain’t shit going on?”
Van spoke from beside me before I could answer. “She already told you what it is.”
JB’s eyes snapped to him. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Then keep me out of it.”
“I tried to, until I looked up and you had your fucking arms around my woman.”
Van looked at him for a long second. “She was trying to fight a pregnant woman.”
“I know what the fuck she was doing.”
“Then you know why I grabbed her.”
Something about how calm Van was only seemed to piss JB off more. He stepped around me, putting his attention fully on him now.
“You got a lot to say for somebody this shit ain’t got nothing to do with.”
Van didn’t move. “You’re the one who keeps talking to me.”
“JB, leave him alone,” I said.
He ignored me. “You brought her here?”
“Yeah.”
“And now what? You taking her home too?”
Van glanced at me before looking back at him. “If she wants to go, yeah.”
“The fuck you are.”
I stepped between them. “Yes, the fuck he is. I came with Van. I’m leaving with Van.”
JB looked at me like I had slapped him. “So that’s what we doing now?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You choosing this nigga over me?”
There it was. Somehow, in less than five minutes, he had managed to take me finding out about his whole other family and turn it into me choosing another man over him.
“I’m not choosing nobody over you, JB. I’m trying to leave a fucking pumpkin patch.”
“With him.”
“Yes, with him!”
JB gave a humorless laugh and looked at Van again. “You feeling real comfortable right now.”
Van’s face barely changed. “Man, I’m standing here.”
“That’s all you doing?”
“That’s all I need to do.”
JB stepped closer, and Van stayed where he was.
“JB,” I warned.
Neither one of them looked at me. JB got close enough that I could see the anger working through him, but Van still didn’t back up.
He wasn’t puffing his chest out or trying to prove anything either, and I think that made it worse.
JB was used to people knowing when to get the fuck out his way. Van clearly wasn’t one of them.
“You might wanna back up,” JB told him.
Van looked at him. “I’m good.”
JB’s hand dropped toward his waistband. I knew that move before he even got there.
“JB.” My whole body tensed.
Van went still, but he didn’t step back.
I moved closer, keeping my eyes on JB’s hand. “Jabari, don’t you fucking do that.”
I stepped between them so fast I nearly bumped into JB. His hand was still at his waist, and when I looked around, people nearby had started moving away from us. A woman pulled two little kids back toward the hayride, and somebody farther down the row already had a phone in their hand.
“Take your hand off that fucking gun.”
“Lee, move,” JB said.
“No.”
“Move.”
I shoved my hand against his chest. “Look around you! You finna pull a gun out at a fucking pumpkin patch because another man won’t act scared of you?”
His eyes stayed over my shoulder on Van.
I pointed toward Hannah. “Your son standing right there watching his daddy reach for a fucking gun.”
That got him. JB finally looked past me. JJ was pressed against Hannah, staring at him, and whatever anger had been on her face was gone now.