Heavy watched after them with a rare half smile on his lips before stepping past Giselle into the living room. Her laptop had been left open on the coffee table, and he dropped onto her sofa and picked it up.
“What’s this?”
“Oh, just some designs I came up with.” She took another swallow of her coffee.
She’d designed an entire living room set in a lush blue material, and all the legs were in gold, making it look expensive as hell. Heavy studied the work then lifted his eyes to meet hers.
“These are dope.”
“They are very rough sketches I’m messing around with.” She brushed it off with a shrug.
Heavy scrolled through and saw that it was more than messing around. She’d come up with at least ten designs, all different but with her own personal touch. She had a signature style that he took note of.
“Not like I can do anything with them right now.”
“What you need to do this?” he queried, staring at a brown suede design for a sectional sofa that could be taken apart and arranged in different shapes.
Giselle cackled and set her mug on the table.
“Hmm, a space for one. I could use the extra bedroom here, but I wanted to turn that into an office space, and it’s not big enough for all the furniture and materials and tools I wouldneed. I also need money to buy the different fabrics and visit these thrift stores around. I don’t have any clientele anymore or anything like that, but I did talk to Elmo, and he said I could put exclusive pieces in the catalogue and see how they sell. I don’t know, though.” She scrunched up her nose.
“Why not?” Heavy pried.
“Call it fear, I guess. Knox Interior Designs was my baby. I loved that company and the people I worked with and did interior design for. The minute things went downhill, that all went with it. It’s like they all forgot who I was when everything got stripped away. I didn’t have any support. These were all Alonzo’s people, and if he wasn’t on board with anything, neither were they.”
Heavy placed the laptop on the table and sat forward. He caught a glimpse of the sadness behind her eyes and hated that a fuck nigga put it there. Still rightfully angry at Giselle, he didn’t let that outweigh the fact that he didn’t think she was a bad person. Before he could say anything, Heir and Harlee raced into the living room together with backpacks on their backs and rocking on the heels of their feet.
“We ready!” Harlee cheered.
Giselle listened as more cars pulled up outside her house. It was going to be a day. She heard Maisie and Crew talking shit with Lou, Gem, and that dude Solo not far behind them. Lou was the odd man out because clearly this Solo person had a thing for her sister. She thought it was cute because Gem was either oblivious or keeping him at arm’s length. Giselle wasn’t sure because she’d been very short with her since getting back and only came by to spend time with the twins.
“Look at them in their little matching outfits!” Maisie grinned, ambling into the house with everyone else.
Harlee and Heir were both in camo fatigues, Heir with cargo shorts and a black T-shirt with his little Nike Air Forces andHarlee in a khaki dress with the camo design on the skirt and black shorts under it. Giselle had braided her hair back into two French braids and slicked down her edges.
“We ready to go? I’m trying to hop on that new rollercoaster they put in.” Crew grinned, showing off the diamonds in his grill. “Mais said she ain’t getting on with me. G, you down?”
“Hell yeah.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Crew nodded and cut his eyes toward his wife. “Scary ass.”
“Whatever. I just prefer my rides to stay on the ground. You can have that other shit,” Maisie argued.
“Y’all sure know how to wake up the damn neighborhood.” Remi strolled out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“That’s yo’ kids, Ma.” Crew chuckled.
Prischa’s whip pulled up behind Crew’s Range Rover, and Remi cut her eyes at her nieces and daughters. She already knew between the four of them, they could be on the bullshit. Giselle picked up her cross-body Saks bag and draped it across her chest while Remi looked past her at Prischa getting out of her car with not only Pierre, but Henna and Viggo too.
“Do not go in those people’s park acting ghetto,” she warned.
“Ma, you talking to the wrong ones.” Crew chuckled.
“I mean it, Crew. There are going to be kids present today, so y’all need to put all that adult bullshit aside. It’s about them having fun today.”
“Bye, Auntie. Don’t change my house around too much.” Giselle kissed her cheek and started toward the door.
There was no denying that she was in the wrong. Prischa, Henna, and the world might feel a way about how she kept Heavy in the dark about their kids, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to keep allowing that to keep her from living. Far from perfect, Giselle also knew she wasn’t the devil either.
