I pursed my lips together but I couldn’t help but grin as I agreed with him. “Okay, Mr. Dinero.”
He chuckled, and that damn smile broke out over his face again. I was sure he’d all but forgotten he was still holding his daughter. “Gotdamn, you got me on that one. See, you're funny as hell. I was worried you were going to be some weird ass super strict nanny like that chick from TV. But now I see you’re about to be on your Mary Poppins shit and I can relax.”
“I’m not about to fly around the room with a damn umbrella if that’s what you're thinking.” He had me messed up if he thought I was that type of caregiver.
“That ain’t part of the Black girl magic? Damn, I feel like I should get a discount or something. What you think, Ami baby? You think Ms. Sterling can fly?”
My ovaries were squeezing together at watching him coo with this little baby. To her credit she was staring at this man like she didn’t know who he was but there was a hint of recognition on his face that couldn’t be denied. When she started to kick her legs in agreement, his smile only got broader and I was losing my firm grip on professionalism.
“Ami knows what side her bottles come from so she's not about to go against me.”
“We gone have to change that, one two am feeding at a time then.” Aldrich spoke softly but his words held promise.
“Maybe so.”
We ended up staring at each other, just smiling, before a gurgling sound rang out through the room. I tried to warn him but he sniffed, coughed and then gagged slightly. “Tell me this smell isn’t coming from my baby?”
I had to cover my laughter with a cough as his face got tighter the longer she worked out whatever had been in her system. With the way he was holding her, he should’ve been concernedabout a blowout, but that was a joy I was going to let him experience on his own.
“Kids’ diapers do not smell like roses, Aldrich.”
“It shouldn’t smell like sewage either, gotdamn. Is this normal?” He looked truly baffled and the laughter I’d held in was now released just like Ami’s bowels.
“Completely.”
“Huh. Well, I’m about to head out—” He started to hand her over to me and I backed up so he couldn’t. “What you doing?”
I motioned between the two of them and then toward her changing table. “You're talking about two am feedings, but this right here is the trenches for real. Let’s see how you handle this first test of parenthood.”
ALDRICH
I’D BEEN FLIRTING with Sterling.
And real talk, that shit felt good as hell.
Which was a big fucking problem. I’d brought her into my life to make shit easier. To handle Ami so that having a baby wouldn’t become a distraction. But now I had an even bigger one taking care of the smaller one. There was no way I could push up on somebody I had living in my house but damn I swore that I was going to go crazy.
That was the issue right now. Sterling felt comfortable as fuck. She was seeing me do shit and act a certain way and she hadn’t criticized me. Hell, I knew the people who were my people would be side-eyeing how I was avoiding my daughter. I was still slightly fucked up about how things were going but it wasn’t her fault. Holding her today had me stuck. When she looked me dead in my face like, ‘nigga where you been?’ I felt guilty as fuck. Out of everyone in this situation, she was the one who was innocent and I had been avoiding her out of my own…trauma?
Damn I didn’t want to label it that.
I didn’t understand how some women did it. Nor how the laws would force some women to have their assaulter’s kid and then force them to co-parent with someone who had violated. I considered myself pro-woman before this because what normal man wasn’t pro-woman? But now? I might be a whole feminist out this muthafucka and start donating money to causes.
Still fucked up that it took some shit happening to me before I felt like this though.
I’d changed Ami’s diaper and I swore I was going to have her formula changed. There shouldn’t be a reason in this world for something that toxic to come out of a baby that fucking cute.
And my baby girl was beautiful. I felt like a narcissist saying it because she looked so much like me, but with her big doll-like eyes, head full of hair and the little gummy smile with her dimples? I’d put her head to head with any other baby out there and Amisha Sterling Dinero was going to come out on top.
I hadn’t lied when I told Sterling I had to head out today. I wanted to get more work in with my position coach and work with the rookie they’d drafted in the fifth round who I knew wanted my spot. I was all for making everyone better because it only helped me achieve my goals. Longevity in this game meant my ass couldn’t be the man on every running play so having someone to help ease the load who could come in and put in work benefitted me. I still needed to get in a workout since Sterling’s perfect ass could cook just as she said she could. That beef stew was my dinner and my lunch the next day and she’d had something waiting for me almost every night. If she didn’t cook then she’d order something in. I’d told her to just cook for herself because I planned to take the jit Chris Peppers out for dinner since I was going to work his ass like he owed me money on this field.
“What’s good, Money?”
When I glanced up, the head coach of the team, Douglas Stewart, better known as Stew, was walking toward me with his hand out. We dapped up and he pulled me toward him, patting me on the back. He’d been the one to insist on drafting me when he was named head coach and I had a special place in my heart for him for that alone.
“Not too much. Just about to run and work out with Chris since he wanted to put some work in.”
He grinned and nodded like he was proud of me before his face turned all business. “Bruh, I’m not talking about work. How’s the little one? The baby just got out of the hospital, right?”
