Hell, I wanted her to be.
“Man, stop taking from that lady and do for her. Act like Pops raised a man in your ass.”
He waved me off. “Shit, I tried. I told Olive to stop, and I could handle that part for her, but she said something about feeling weird taking food from her employee. I get coffee sometimes, but she’s so used to doing it all and being it all for herself and Jo-Jo that taking care of people is all she knows.”
I tilted my head to the side, remembering Jo-Jo’s dad was in the military.
Damn, so she’s out here all alone? Who takes care of her?
“Speaking of that, what’s the deal with Jo-Jo’s dad?”
Tunk shrugged as we both moved to exit the ferry.
“I don’t know much, just that he’s never here too often. He comes but it’s always only about his responsibility as a father. I mean, to my knowledge they’re cool though. Like on some friend shit. I’ve never even caught them in an argument. Why you ask though?”
Before I could respond, Neela and Ceona were running back toward Tunk and me.
“We checked, Daddy, all by ourselves,” Neela said as she wrapped her tiny arms around my legs.
Ceona still had an attitude and I knew I had to apologize for my behavior toward my baby girl.
“Thank you, my sweet girl. Did everything look good, Cece?” She nodded and I knew the best way to fix this situation was to do something I had been dying to do since she locked her number in my phone.
“Good, how about we call Jo-Jo and Ms. Liv to see if they’re free to go to the fair tomorrow night?” That had her eyes looking up to meet mine as a smile spread across her face.
Tunk mumbled to himself, probably something slick, as I pulled my phone out and hit her name, letting it ring a few times before her soft voice rang out. I quickly put it on speaker, then like a sucka ass muthafucka, I passed it to Ceona to do the hard part.
Scary ass.
We walked close together,hands brushing every other step. The temptation to grab and hold hers was wearing me down. The kids walked in front of us. Well, not Neela who was in the wagon Olive had thought about bringing for her. How she knew I wouldn’t be prepared had to be women’s intuition or something. We had just arrived at the fair here down in the Falls.
“Thank you for inviting us, Highland. Jo-Jo had just mentioned coming here. When we got home last night, I was going to suggest it to you when you called to schedule their next play date. But, of course, Ceona beat both of us. I don’t know about you, but I was tired of the park every day.”
“No problem. I don’t think we would be here right now if you turned us down. Cece was adamant about including you and Jo-Jo in this activity. I’m glad y’all were able to make it. It’s nice to have another person with us, well, people. Ya know you and Jo-Jo.” I was rambling and this was embarrassing.
Olive snickered lightly.
“I get what you mean. Jo-Jo’s dad lives out of the country, so if I don’t do this with my best friend Byrdie, then it’s just me and Jo-Jo. So, yeah, this is nice. And now I don’t have to try and squeeze my ass on those little rides with him, thanks to Ceona and Neela. Y’all came just in time.”
“And it’s a nice fat ass too.” I snapped my mouth shut as soon as I realized my inner thoughts escaped my mouth. I glanced over at Olive who was now rose red on her full cheeks, with her bottom lip in her mouth, doing her best to hide her smile while I closed my eyes, hoping to take back the last five seconds and my loose tongue.
Really, Highland, it’s a nice fat ass?
I mean, it is, but that’s not the point.
At this point, I couldn’t blame anyone but myself if this was Olive’s one and done time in my presence after that fucked up comment.
And judging by the silence, she might be contemplating that idea too, fool.
I had no idea why the hell I would say that shit, then I remembered the view of her ass the first opportunity I had time to gaze upon it. It made sense but was still far from appropriate to mention at this moment.
There was a pregnant pause before Olive cleared her throat and responded.
“Well, um…thank you. I don’t hear that too often these days. So, it’s nice to know I still got it. My career and Jo-Jo have completely ruled out any chance of a proper dating life.”
I found that hard to believe. Olive was beautiful. Wasn’t no way men hadn’t been letting her know just how breathtaking she was every chance they got.
Yeah, and you just sounded like the group leader of perverted fools. Fix that shit.
