25. JB
JB
By Christmas Eve, Hannah had barely said more than ten words to me in three days. I couldn’t even blame all of it on pregnancy hormones. She had been acting like that ever since I told her Lee was pregnant.
I knew she wasn’t gon’ take the news well, but it wasn’t like I could keep it from her. Lee was having my baby. Hannah was gonna find out eventually, and I figured hearing it from me was better than hearing it somewhere else.
We argued, Hannah cried, I got pissed off, she got more pissed off because I was pissed off, and by the end of it she had told me she was done with House of Hannah.
Said once our daughter Jaliyah got here, she wanted to stay home with the kids anyway and didn’t feel like dealing with the shop no more.
Then she hit me with, “Give it back to Lee. That’s who you wanted in there anyway.”
She meant it to be smart. I thought it made sense.
Lee had been working out of that little spot in the back of somebody’s barbershop.
She was doing good from what I could tell, but Love-Lee had been hers before all this shit happened.
The building and equipment were still there, and her old clients knew where it was.
If Hannah didn’t want it and Lee needed it, then problem solved.
At least, that’s how I saw it.
Hannah clearly didn’t agree, because she hadn’t had much to say to me since. If it wasn’t about JJ or something she needed for the baby, she barely opened her mouth.
That morning, I walked into the kitchen and found her standing at the counter fixing JJ a plate. He was sitting at the table in Christmas pajamas watching something on his tablet while eating cereal like she wasn’t already making him real food.
“You want me to take him with me for a little while?” I asked.
Hannah didn’t look up. “Where you going?”
“Out.”
That got me a look.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
I opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. “You been saying nothing for three damn days.”
“And you still here.”
I looked at her as she slid some fruit onto JJ’s plate. I could already feel another argument coming, and I wasn’t doing this shit today.
“You need anything while I’m out?” I asked.
Hannah kept her attention on JJ’s plate. “No.”
“You sure?”
She finally looked at me. “Yes, JB.”
“Aight.”
I kissed JJ on the top of his head, grabbed my keys, and headed for the door.
“Tell Lee Merry Christmas for me.”
I stopped with my hand on the door and looked back. Hannah still had her back to me.
“I ain’t say I was going to see Lee.”
“You ain’t have to.”
“Hannah.”
She finally looked over her shoulder. “What?”
I let out a breath. “You the one said something.”
“And now I’m done.” She turned back toward the counter. “Go ahead, JB. I’m not doing this today.”
I stood there another second before shaking my head. “Aight.”
I walked out before either one of us started that shit back up again. I was already over it when I got in the truck. I pulled out my phone and called Lee, and she answered on the fourth ring.
“What?”
I laughed as I backed out of the driveway. “Damn. Merry Christmas to you too.”
“It’s Christmas Eve.”
“Same difference.”
“No, it ain’t.”
I shook my head. “What you doing?”
“Helping Mama get dinner ready.”
“You at Maisie's house?”
“Obviously.”
I pulled onto the street. “I’m finna swing by there.”
She was quiet for half a second. “For what?”
“I got something I want you to see.”
“No.”
I frowned. “Lee.”
“I’m serious. Whatever it is, I don’t wanna see it.”
“Man, don’t be stubborn. Just do this one thing for me. It’s Christmas Eve.”
“I already said no, JB. Don’t even waste your time driving over here.”
I knew exactly what would make her stop arguing.
“It’s for the baby.”
That did it.
She went quiet before finally asking, “What for the baby?”
“Just come with me.”
“JB.”
“Lee, I’m not finna do nothing to you. I got something I want you to see. That’s it.”
Another pause.
“How long?”
“Not long.”
“That don’t mean nothing coming from you.”
I smiled a little. “Twenty minutes.”
“You got twenty.”
“I’m on the way.”
I hung up before she could change her mind.
When I pulled into Maisie’s driveway a little while later, Lee was already coming out the front door with her coat on. She walked straight to the truck and climbed into the passenger seat before I could even think about getting out.
“Merry Christmas,” I said as she climbed in.
“Where we going?”
I looked over at her. “Hello to you too.”
“JB.”
“All right. Damn.”
She pulled the seat belt across herself. “And this better really have something to do with the baby.”
“It do.”
Technically.
I pulled away from the curb, and for the first couple minutes neither one of us said much. Christmas music played low through the speakers while Lee stared out the passenger window, and every now and then I caught myself looking over at her.
She wasn’t showing yet. If I didn’t know she was pregnant, I probably wouldn’t have noticed anything different, but I knew my baby was in there.
Ever since she told me, that shit had been stuck in my head. For years, I had thought that part of me and Lee was gone. We lost Junior, life kept moving, and by the time she came home, everything between us was already fucked up.
Now she was pregnant again, and it was mine. Somehow, she expected me to act like that didn’t change anything.
When I turned into the shopping center, Lee sat up straighter and looked through the windshield.
“No.”
I kept driving toward the storefront, and when she realized exactly where I was headed, she turned toward me.
“JB. No.”
I pulled into a spot directly in front of the shop and put the truck in park. House of Hannah was still written across the windows, big enough that there was no pretending she hadn’t seen it.
Lee stared at the building for a few seconds before looking back at me. “Why are we here?”
“Just listen.”
“I asked you why we here.”
I leaned back against the seat. “I talked to Hannah.”
Lee let out this little laugh that already had me irritated, like she knew whatever came next was about to be some bullshit.
“She don’t want the shop no more,” I told her. “She wanna stay home with the kids after Jaliyah come.”
Lee looked back toward the storefront. “Okay.”
“So we can put it back in your name.”
That got her attention. She turned fully toward me but didn’t say anything, so I kept going.
“Everything already set up. Your old clients know this location, and you ain’t gotta build nothing from scratch. You can come back here instead of working out the back of old dude's shop.”
The second the words left my mouth, I could tell I had said the wrong thing.
Lee’s face changed. “I don’t want it.”
I frowned. “What?”
“I said I don’t want it.”
“Lee, stop.”
“I’m serious.”
I turned toward her. “You telling me you’d rather work out that little room than have your whole shop back?”
Her eyes narrowed. “It’s not a little room. It’s my shop.”
“I ain’t mean it like that.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Man, come on.”
“No.” She pointed toward the building. “And I don’t want nothing Hannah done had.”
My jaw tightened before I could stop it.
Lee looked right at me. “That includes you.”
I turned my head toward her. “Now you just being disrespectful.”
“I’m being honest.”
“You really finna turn this down because Hannah's name on the window?”
“It ain’t about her name being on the window.”
“Then what is it?”
Lee sat back against the seat and folded her arms. “It’s about me not wanting anything from you.”
I sucked my teeth. That was the shit she kept saying now, like anything that came from me automatically came with some trap attached to it.
“I love where I’m at,” she continued. “You might think it’s some little hole in the wall because it ain’t big and flashy, but it’s mine. I pay my rent. I fixed it how I wanted it. Nobody can come take it from me because they mad or because they decided somebody else deserved it more.”
I looked at her, and I knew exactly what she was talking about. I just didn’t think that meant turning down a whole damn shop made sense.
“Nobody took your shop from you.”
Her head snapped toward me. “Really?”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Hannah bought it before the shit between me and her popped off.”
“Whatever.”
“I’m trying to give the shit back, Lee.”
“And I’m telling you I don’t want it.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t.”
“That ain’t a reason.”
“It’s enough of one.”
I leaned back and stared through the windshield, already getting tired of going in circles. Beside me, Lee folded her arms tighter.
“Take me back to Mama's house.”
I didn’t move.
“JB.”
I looked over at her. “Man, this that shit I be talking about.”
“What shit?”
“You be acting all stank now.”
Lee blinked at me. “Stank?”
“Yeah. Like you too good for shit now.”
She laughed, but there wasn’t nothing funny about it. “Because I don’t want nothing Hannah bought and put her name on?”
“Because you act like you don’t need nobody.”
“I don’t.”
I stared at her. “There you go.”
“What?”
“That shit right there.”
Lee shook her head and looked toward the window. “Take me home.”
“Nah, because you need to hear this.”
She turned back toward me. “I don’t need to hear nothing.”
“You gon’ learn.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Learn what?”
I pointed toward her stomach. “That this shit ain’t gon’ be easy. You walking around now talking about what you don’t need and what you gon’ do by yourself. Wait till this baby get here.”
Lee rolled her eyes. “Here we go.”
“Nah, I’m serious. Baby screaming at three in the morning, you tired, you ain’t slept, you gotta work. Diapers, bottles, doctor appointments. All that shit. You gon’ be singing a whole different tune.”
“Okay.”
“You gon’ be calling me.”
She looked at me like I had just proved her point. “That’s your child. Why wouldn’t I call you?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“No, it ain’t.” She shifted in her seat so she was facing me more. “You saying it like I’m supposed to need you as my man because I’ll need you as this baby’s daddy.”
“Same shit.”
“It is not the same.”
I shook my head. “You stubborn as hell.”
“And you don’t listen.”
“I’m trying to make sure you straight.”
“I am straight.”
“You think you are.”
“I know I am.”
I looked at her. “You got everything figured out?”
“No.”
That shut me up for a second.
Lee leaned a little closer. “I don’t have everything figured out. But I’ll figure it out.”
“By yourself?”
“If I have to.”
That irritated the fuck out of me. She kept talking like I was somebody she could take or leave whenever it suited her, like me being the father of her child didn’t change anything between us.
“You better hope I answer when you call.”
Lee went still. “What?”
The second I heard myself say it, I knew I should’ve kept my mouth shut. I looked away toward the windshield.
“You heard me.”
“No. Say it again.”
“You gon’ need help. I’m just saying.”
“No.” Her voice got sharper. “You said I better hope you answer.”
Before I could figure out how to clean that up, my phone started ringing through the truck speakers. Hannah’s name lit up across the dash.
I hit decline.
Lee looked at the screen and then at me, but she didn’t say anything yet.
A few seconds later, Hannah’s name lit up across the screen again. I declined it.
“Can you answer the phone for your baby mama?” Lee asked.
“She good.”
Lee frowned. “How you know?”
“Because.”
“That ain’t an answer.”
I shifted in my seat, already annoyed. “She probably calling about something with JJ.”
“Then answer.”
“I’m talking to you.”
“So?”
I turned toward her. “Can we finish one conversation?”
Before she could answer, my phone rang for the third time. Hannah’s name came right back across the screen.
I stared at it. She had barely wanted to speak to me for the last few days, and now all of a sudden she was blowing my phone up. Whatever she wanted could wait five damn minutes.
I hit decline again.
Lee watched me do it, then slowly shook her head. “I cannot believe I’m having a baby by you.”
I frowned. “What that supposed to mean?”
“It mean this could be me.”
“What?”
She pointed toward the dash. “You just told me I better hope you answer when I call, and now Hannah calling you over and over and you steady hitting decline.”
“That’s different.”
Lee stared at me. “How?”
“You ain’t Hannah.”
Her face changed like that answer had somehow made things worse. “That don’t make it better.”
“I ain’t say it did.”
“Then answer the damn phone.”
“It can wait.”
Right on cue, Hannah’s name lit up across the screen again.
I reached toward the dash, but Lee moved faster and hit the green button before I could stop her.
The ringing cut off, and I slowly turned my head toward her.
Lee pointed toward the screen like she had just done me some kind of favor.
I looked back toward the windshield, irritated as hell. “Man, what’s up?”
Nobody answered at first. All I could hear was somebody breathing through the speakers.
Then Hannah finally spoke.
“I’m in labor.”