I rolled my eyes as he pointed down to his shoeless feet as I fixed my hair. “Nobody should be wearing outside shoes in the house, Aldrich. Ami will be mobile before you know it and the last thing you want is her licking the bottom of a shoe that's been walking through who knows what.”
“Gotdamn that’s a visual I ain’t need. I agreed with you off you knowing more but now I got visions of my baby eating dookie crumbs and I wanna throw up.”
“You’re a mess, Aldrich.”
A young man walked up with a smile on his face and a clipboard in his hand.
“Just sign right here for me, please, sir.”
“‘Preciate it.”
“We also had the car seat installed inside to your specifications but I’m sure you’re going to have someone check it out again. We had it double-checked with the fire department to ensure it was done correctly if that eases your mind.” The man was wearing a suit and didn’t look like a car salesman, but I hadn’t been to a dealership so I wasn’t exactly sure what they looked like. And Aldrich probably didn’t go to a regular place to get this car, even though it wouldn’t be considered a top-tier luxury car by most people.
Aldrich grinned and handed the paperwork back. I could tell by the way he didn’t look at anything that he’d paid cash for this car and was just signing the release forms. “It does, but we’re still going to look at it.”
“I don’t know from personal experience but I understand wanting everything to be safe.” He held out the keys and Aldrich nodded toward me. With a nod of understanding, the keys were moved to me and I took them but I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. I was sure that a bunch of NDAs had been signed before this company was hired but I didn’t like the idea of someone thinking there was more between us than there was. Despite whatever might be there, it could be nothing and I didn’t want there to be questions about me lingering. Call it a lifetime of PR training and having to be perfect but I wasn’t in the mood to change the narrative about what this was later.
They made small talk as Aldrich looked over the car to ensure everything was good and then they shook hands and the flatbed rolled back down the driveway. Once they turned around the bend, the trees that kept the front of the house hidden blocked them from view. It wasn’t until then that Aldrich walked back toward me.
“I got Ami when she gets up, go take your car for a ride.”
CHAPTER NINE
Messy
ALDRICH
STERLING WAS STRESSED out.
It wasn’t hard to tell by the way she’d been running around for the last few weeks. When I clarified that I wasn’t doing a lot for my folks coming, because I knew my mother would handle it when she got here, I was met with her panic over the idea that the house wasn’t ready. Did I find it funny that she was worried that it would reflect badly on me that the house wasn’t together? Yes. Because it wasn’t a big deal. There were four other bedrooms besides the ones that she and Ami used and I hadn’t gotten around to doing anything with them. I gave her permission to do whatever she wanted just like with Ami’s room. I felt bad for putting these decisions on her but she seemed to thrive in making these types of decisions. She sent me over ideas and within a few days the deliveries had started. The same mattress that she had ordered for her bed, one that I quickly copped because that shit was nice as hell, had been placed on all the guest beds she’d ordered. The headboards were upholstered and each room was unique but still had this really nice hotel room vibe to it. She’d done these floral arrangements and put out welcome baskets and stuff and I was just feeling worthless because I hadn’t thought to do anything like this. I had no issue with letting her do what she wanted because she seemed to thrive getting it all together, but I felt bad for only answering one or two questions about my people and then letting her have at it.
By the time I’d gotten back from picking my family up, she already had dinner on the table. I can’t lie that I felt some shitin my chest with the way she was just handling everything but I knew I was taking advantage of her kindness. Ling was a giver and if circumstances were different I’d be more than happy to take. But she worked for me and I needed to talk to her agency to up her pay or give her a bonus or something since she was doing far more than her job description at this point.
Maybe she’ll let me gift her those diamond earrings I got her as a thank you instead of an I’m sorry. “She’s beautiful,mijo.”
I knew my mama was gonna start the second she laid eyes on Sterling. Her eyes lit up and I could tell she was enjoying watching how Sterling had already bonded with Ami. Despite being there to take care of my daughter, Sterling was cognizant of my family wanting to see her and hold her even though I could tell she would get anxious when the baby was too far away from her at times. She was already attached and my baby was too. Hell, so was I, which was surprising given how things had started out with us. I was grateful things had gotten better with us and I knew a lot of that was owed to the woman that was currently lying on the floor doing tummy time with my little sister Cassie and my baby.
I’d stepped out on the back patio through the door off the den near our rooms and my mama had no issue following. My mother had a slightly lighter skin tone than me and was probably around Sterling’s height. Folks always told her she looked like Sheryl Lee Ralph because she had the same wide smile and big dimples that she’d passed on to me. Her hair was a shoulder-length style she’d had it in most of my life.
I nodded at her assessment of Ling because I couldn’t deny what anyone could see with their own two eyes. “She is. Super smart and very intelligent. She will be an outstanding role model to help Ami.”
“Role model to help?” My mama was looking at me like I was full of shit and I was trying not to laugh. She was aBlack woman who’d had the audacity to marry a Dominican man whose family was not all that open to her being their son’s wife. My father to his credit hadn’t given a damn what they thought. My grandmother was always saying little things about my mother. According to her and my father, he had had enough and cut off his whole family. It was crazy because my mother had lighter skin than anyone in my father’s family. They were just hoping that with his smarts and education he would try toblanqueamiento, which was marrying someone lighter to raise the social standing of the family. People can talk all that shit they want about there not being a race issue in the Dominican Republic. Ask Haitians about the treatment they get from Dominicans. It was worse for my mother because not only was she Black but she was also American. Her good job and high status within the community didn’t mean shit to them. She’d taken to calling memijoafter my father died. She said that she wanted to keep the spirit of the endearment he used to call us alive even though he wasn’t.
“Yeah, I think the agency did a good job.” I kept my eyes off of her and on the pool that I had cleaned earlier this week so that my siblings could enjoy it. My Black ass hadn’t been crazy enough to have that shit cleaned when there was no one else here. My seeing all that body Sterling had in a bathing suit would’ve had me thinking thoughts I shouldn’t have. Thoughts I had already been having and I needed to stop.
“Richie,mijo, don’t you have a degree?” She acted like she hadn’t insisted on my getting my degree despite my having been drafted. Sonya Dinero wore the biggest smile on her face after my name was called. The picture of her holding my degree outside of the coliseum was framed in my office right up there with my trophies that I’d accumulated over my career. Real talk, it was my proudest moment.
I chuckled at her question cause I knew she was about to talk shit. “Yes.”
She folded her arms and snaked her neck at me and I could hear her saying silentlyacting like I ain’t raise you right.“Then why are you over here acting like you’re stupid? I’m more than sure that your book smarts translate into street smarts and I say that because you are my son. I didn’t raise a fool.”
I was fighting a smile cause I was gone troll her for as long as I could. “What are you trying to say?”
My mother rolled her eyes again and looked like she wanted to pop me in the back of the head. “That you have feelings for her.”
My eyes looked immediately behind me toward Sterling because this lady hadn’t been here for a full day yet and she was already seeing too damn much. “What would give you that idea?”
Her silence softened and I was almost afraid of what she was going to say. “I see how you watch her. I know what that looks like because as I watch the videos of when your father was alive and he looked at me the same way.”
