You’re All I Need

Prologue

The Darkest Day

“She is so beautiful. My lil chocolate grandbaby.” Irene was smitten with her three-month-old granddaughter.

She wasn’t happy when her son came to her at eighteen to tell her that he’d gotten his seventeen-year-old girlfriend pregnant. There were so many issues with it all. The first, of course, was that they were teenagers. Their teenage asses shouldn’t have been sexually active in the first place.

Secondly, Travis, Irene’s son, was in the streets heavily.

She didn’t say much about it, because, at the end of the day, it was the main reason they were able to be alright.

When their son was twelve years old, her husband Chance died in a bad car accident that she was also involved in.

While the car accident had killed him, it permanently disabled Irene.

Chance provided a great life for them, and Travis learned his street ways from his father.

The disability check that Irene received didn’t even cover the basic bills in the house.

Travis jumped off the porch at fourteen and hadn’t looked back since.

With Travis’s street ways, it baffled his mother how he’d met his child’s mother.

Travis and she didn’t attend the same high school, and he didn’t go to church.

That was where that little girl spent all her time when she wasn’t at school with her parents.

The Bulbs were an overly religious family.

They were what Irene described as too heavenly minded to do any earthly good. Those people were incorrigible.

“Ma, you’ve had her all day. Let me get my baby girl,” Travis fussed. “You know she loves her daddy too.” He reached out to take his daughter from his mother.

Irene handed her over begrudgingly. She loved having her grandbaby in her arms, but she loved to see her son love on his daughter more. Brenda, or BB, and James Bulb did not allow Travis around their daughter while she was pregnant. In their eyes, more Brenda than James, he was the devil incarnate.

They were surprised when they got the call from James to come to the hospital after the baby was born.

The biggest surprise was that they wanted Travis and Irene to take baby girl with them.

They wanted nothing to do with the baby and didn’t want their daughter to have anything to do with her either.

She simply wasn’t ready to be a mother. Irene had no problem with that and was happy to take her grandbaby with them.

When it was solidified that they would take the baby, Irene sat down with her son to give him the layout of the land. Yes, she loved her chocolate drop, but she would not be 100 percent responsible for her care. Travis stepped up to the plate in a big way.

In the three months since he had his daughter, he made sure he took on the bulk of the responsibility. He still did his thing to make sure that he, his mother, and daughter ate. He learned how to delegate so that he could be in the house with his daughter more.

Travis looked at his baby with amazement.

He was happy that, at the least, her mother named her the name that he suggested.

Gorjess Irene Bulb was a beauty. He wanted her to have his last name, but BB thought it wasn’t a good idea.

Her claim was that it would make him look bad since he was nineteen and her daughter was seventeen.

That was foolish to Irene because Travis had just turned nineteen three months before the baby was born.

Furthermore, they were ashamed of the baby, so why would they want the baby to have the same last name as them?

The battle now was that he wanted his name on the birth certificate.

They were giving him hell about that. The Bulbs knew that Travis would be hesitant to go to the courts behind the whole situation because of his occupation.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department had been itching for a valid reason to get into Travis Carter’s business.

It was the same for his father, Chance, before he died.

“Wait, is that her smelling like a damn city dump?” Travis asked. “The fuck! Why it smells like that?”

Irene laughed at the dramatics of her son. “That’s her mama’s breast milk. It runs through her. I’m about to give her little ass some cereal to hold her.”

“I gotta change that? Mama, I might die. My baby needs me. I can’t die,” he whined.

Irene looked at him like he was crazy. “Boy, if you don’t change that baby’s diaper. Hurry up too. Her little ass stinks like hell.”

Travis huffed as he got up to take his daughter to her room to change her diaper.

He walked into her room and laid her on the changing table that sat on top of the dresser.

He took a moment to look around with a smile.

Irene had a thing for butterflies, so they took over the decor.

Gorjess even wore a butterfly bangle and necklace.

“Let’s change this stinky diaper,” he said to his daughter, who cooed and smiled. She was such a happy baby. It took him longer than it should have to change her diaper, but it was a liquified mess. Once she was clean, he took a moment to play with her.

When he got back out to the living room where his mother was, he was shocked to see Gorjess’s mother. “Ari, what’s up? What you doing here? You bring more milk?”

He admired her beauty, which was what attracted him to her.

As churchy as her family was, Ari had a habit of climbing out of her window in the late hours of the night to hang with the hoodrats and misfits.

That was how he was introduced to her. She wore the good girl mask with perfection.

Her pregnancy blew that mask off her face and out of the water.

Her parents hid her well though to save themselves the disgrace from their Baptist church congregation. There was no way the head of the usher board and a trustee could be looked upon as less than because their daughter was a pregnant, teen whore. Well, that was more BB’s feelings than James’s.

“Hey, Travis. I wanted to know if it was alright with y’all if I could keep her for the weekend. I talked to my parents, and they said it was fine. They are going out of town for a revival, so they won’t be around. They figured if I have Gorjess that I’ll be too busy to get into stuff,” she said.

Irene chuckled. Those Bulbs were something else. She would keep her mouth closed, though, and let her son handle it.

Travis glared at Ari blankly. “So, you only want your daughter to occupy your time at your parents’ request. Not because you just want to spend time with your daughter.”

When Ari came over to drop off milk, she sat with Gorjess for maybe ten minutes. That was only if her mother wasn’t with her. BB was a saved ass bitch. There was no Jesus in her, no matter how much she prayed, read her bible, and ran around the church while she spoke in tongues.

“Travis, please. You know things would be different if it wasn’t for my parents.

They take care of me, so I’m beholden to them.

I can’t take care of myself, and they refuse to take care of a bastard baby.

” Ari held her hands up in surrender. “That’s what they call her, not me.

I just want to spend time with my baby girl,” she begged as a tear left her eye.

Irene’s heart went out to Ari. She understood the hardship of a teen mother. She and Chance had Travis at the tender ages of fourteen and fifteen. The odds were against them, and that was what drove Chance to the streets. Whether it was hook, crook, or steal, he took care of his family.

When Travis looked at his mother for silent approval, she gave it. Neither of them wanted to keep a mother from her daughter. “I guess it will be alright since your people won’t be there. Ari, if I call, you better fucking answer. I don’t give a damn if it’s two o’clock in God’s morning.”

With a wide smile and a slight hop, she said, “Okay, I will. I promise!” When he asked her if she had any supplies for the baby, she shook her head with shame.

He had her follow him to her room so that a bag could be packed. Ari’s gasp was loud when she entered Gorjess’s bedroom. It was her first time going past the living room. “Oh my God, this is beautiful. You really love her.”

Travis’s head snapped in her direction. “What the fuck do you mean I really love her? Of course I love my damn daughter. She’s been with me since she was born. Let me ask, do you love her?”

“Yes, I love my daughter. Why do you think I insisted on providing my breast milk? I read that it was best for babies,” she justified. “I know this situation is crazy, but please know that I love my daughter.”

He didn’t respond as he placed Gorjess in her crib to pack her bag.

He made sure he packed more than enough.

His princess was prone to diaper blowouts.

As he packed, he explained things to her.

“Ari, if you need help or anything, call me. I don’t care what time it is.

Do not give her a warm bottle. She likes it at room temperature. ”

Ari typed notes into her phone. She would get this right if it killed her. She had a lot to prove to Irene and Travis. “I got it. I will call you if I need anything.”

After the bag was packed, he gave Gorjess to her, then they walked outside together.

He needed to put the car seat into her car.

He showed her how to place her in and take her out properly.

He wasn’t sure what he would do without his baby for a whole weekend.

He stood on the curb as Ari drove away with his heart in human form in her back seat. Well, we will see how this goes.

Sunday Afternoon . . .

It was Sunday, finally. Gorjess was due back by five, and Ari’s parents were due in around eight.

From what Irene and Travis could tell, Ari did well this weekend.

She only called them twice for help. Travis wanted to call her every hour on the hour, but Irene told him not to do that because it could give her anxiety.

Irene missed her grandbaby something fierce. She didn’t know what to do with herself without Gorjess. That little girl had become a part of their daily routine. She couldn’t wait to hold that baby in her hands.

“Have you talked to that girl today?” she asked Travis when he walked into the kitchen.

She was in the middle of cooking Sunday dinner.

She made sure that she made mashed potatoes and gravy for Gorjess.

That baby loved her grandma’s mashed potatoes and gravy.

She wasn’t even going to get started on her bread pudding.

Travis plopped down on the seat at the kitchen island. “Yeah, I just talked to her like thirty minutes ago. She said Gorjess was down for a nap. She was about to pack her stuff, and she would bring her back when she wakes up.”

“I got my baby’s mashed potatoes ready,” Irene said with a smile. “Oh, and this baked chicken is so tender, she can have some of this too. She’s gonna be kicking her feet.”

Her son shook his head. His mother didn’t care about what the doctor said was proper for the baby to eat.

Irene fed her grandbaby just like she fed her son and had no quarrels about it.

If anyone else did, then that was their issue.

“Mama, the doctor told us that Gorjess was overweight for her age. I wonder why?”

“Boy, I fed you the same shit. Look at you, healthy as an ox. Go find something to do with your life.” She waved her son off.

He laughed before he told her that he would be in his room on his game system.

The house that they lived in was a five-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom home.

When Chance died, it was being built as a gift to Irene.

The house was already paid for, so they moved forward with the construction and finished the house.

Irene could never see herself anywhere else, and she told her son that he could stay as long as he wanted.

He planned to stay at least until Gorjess started school.

Time had gotten away from Travis as he played his game. His mother came in his room to inquire about where her grandbaby was. He told her that he would call her. When he dialed the number, he got a disconnect notice. “What the fuck?”

He checked the number and tried it again. When he got the same result, he shot up out of his seat. “Ma!” He yelled on his way to the front of the house. “Her phone says that it’s disconnected.”

Irene’s head tilted, eyes squinted, and her right brow arched. “What the fuck did you just say to me? Nope, that’s not going to work for me.” She stood from her seat. “Let’s go!”

They rushed out of the house into Travis’s SUV. The Bulbs lived on the north side of Charlotte whereas the Carters lived on the south. It took them about twenty minutes to get to their house at the speed that Travis drove.

There were no cars in the driveway, which was a problem because they didn’t have a garage. Travis jumped out as soon as he turned the engine off. He stomped to the door, then banged on it. There was no answer.

“Travis, it looks like there’s nothing in there,” Irene said with her hands cuffed around her eyes while she looked through the window. “There’s no furniture.”

They had him fucked up. He took a step back, lifted his foot, and kicked the door in. When he stormed in, it was like his mother said. The front rooms were empty. He walked throughout the house. All of the rooms were fucking empty. “Travis!”

He rushed to the front. His mother was in the kitchen. She held a piece of paper in her hand, and there were tears streaming down her face. Travis snatched the paper from her. His heart dropped to his feet when he read the words. This couldn’t be right. Nah, this shit couldn’t be right.

Travis,

I’m sorry, but she’s mine.

-Ari