“Thank you.” I blushed as heat crept up my neck.
My outfit was nothing special. I wore beige and green fatigue pants with a brown hoodie. My sneakers were a burnt orange to go with the vest I planned on putting on over it. The party was inside, and I wanted to be comfortable. My sister-in-law mentioned it would be a bouncy house in the yard, and I already knew Brielle would have me playing and shit with her and her friends.
“You need me to carry anything?” Coye asked as he stepped inside.
“I just have this bag right here.” I pointed at the gift bag.
“Cool,” he said as he picked the bag up.
We walked out of the house, and he opened the door for me when we got to his car.
After he put the gift bag in the truck, he got in and pulled away from the curb.
I glanced at him as he had one hand on the wheel and the other on the gear shift thingy. The black hoodie with the black sweatpants on him looked good as hell. I licked my lips, thinking about the things he did to me the night before.
“What’s on your mind, Babygirl?”
“Huh? Nothing.” I quickly turned my attention to the road.
“You’re a bad liar, River.” He diverted his attention to me for a second.
I debated on telling him what was on my mind, lie, or just completely change the subject. I decided to go with the latter.
“Do you want kids of your own someday? And if so, how many?”
“I do, and I want at least four. How about you?”
“At least two.”
Sometimes I wondered if I would become a mother because of how my past relationships had gone. I didn’t want to be a single mother. Even though my parents weren’t together, my father never made my mom feel like she was doing everything alone. Granted, she spent the most time with us because we lived with her, but my dad was never too far. When I was in high school, I lived with my dad because he lived in an area with a better high school.
The rest of the ride was spent talking about things like our favorite colors, music, and movies, even though he knew some of my favorite things already. I never knew that he didn’t have a favorite color, but I also noticed that a lot of the men I encountered in life didn’t have one either. Maybe it was more of a female thing.
It was easy talking to him because he’d been around for such a long time, but everything was still new.
We discussed our beliefs about religion and a little bit about politics. We both shared some common values, such as the importance of family and the ability to communicate effectively with our partner.
Before I knew it, we’d arrived at my brother’s house.
“This is about to be bad,” I muttered as Coye put the car in park.
Coye put his hand on my knee and rubbed it. His touch slightly settled the flutters in my stomach.
“It’s only going to be bad if you let it. We gonna be good. They may not even notice.”
“If you say so.”
He gently squeezed my knee and smiled.
“I know so.” He opened the car door and got out.
Once he got the gifts from the trunk, he came around and opened my door. It was a good thing the party was held inside because that gave us less of a chance of being caught.
I walked ahead of Coye, trying to keep enough distance to make it not look obvious. Hopefully, nobody would notice my car wasn’t parked outside.
“Relax, baby,” Coye whispered in my ear just as I opened the front door.
Of course, my brother was the first person to spot us. I didn’t miss the frown on his face.
