She hesitated but I hoped she realized I wasn’t about to take no for an answer. I waited for her to get her mind right before she crept off the couch where she’d sat while I danced with my mama. Mama came back in the room with slightly watery eyes just in time to grab the baby from her arms as I reached my hand out for her to take.
She came to me easily and put her hand in mine like it was second nature. I knew we’d gotten comfortable with each other since we’d been living together and doing the parenting thing but I didn’t think it would feel like this.
This was a mistake. Not the holding her, but doing this while there were other people around. I was doing my best to control it but I knew Sterling could feel my dick pressing into her stomach. That muthafucka had woken up as soon as I got a scent of her and her perfume. I didn’t want her to think I didn’t want to dance but damn I was feeling some kinda way. She hadn’t pulled away but she might be doing that because she felt pressured to stick around.
“I’m not doing a good job of keeping this professional am I?” My lips brushed against her ear as I leaned over to speak to her. I knew I wasn’t imagining the way her body shivered with the contact and damn I wish I was brave enough to pull back and look at her face to gauge her reaction. Instead, I kept my cheek connected to the side of her head as we swayed.
“You mean with the way you’re poking me in front of your family and having me think thoughts? No, no, you’re not.” Ling was barely speaking over a whisper but I heard her loud and clear.
Damn, my mama is always right.
“What you thinking, Ling?” I leaned back, not to give us space but to watch her intently as we swayed to the music and my dick only got harder.
“Things I shouldn’t especially with your mama and impressionable children around.” She was speaking softly and barely moving her mouth not wanting someone reading her lips.
“I can bet Mateo is doing way more than I am right now and if my little sister is then I gotta go hunting for somebody’s son.”
She laughed and it lit up her entire face. Sterling’s skin always had that healthy I just got a facial glow about it and when she smiled it was even brighter. Like the angels were putting a spotlight on her just in case people couldn’t already see how special she was. “Not you having a double standard. I pray you not gonna be like that with Ami.”
I damn near gagged at the thought of somebody trying to get at my baby girl. That was just the visual I needed for me to get my man under control. “I’m sure you’re going to keep me from screwing up with stuff like that. It ain’t like you're going anywhere.”
Her lips parted like she wanted to refute the statement but there was no future that I didn’t see Sterling in. “Aldrich, you might—”
I ignored her and pulled her close again cause she was about to fuck up the vibe and say something I didn’t wanna hear. “Nah, we're not doing that what if or you doing that self-conscious thing. We're here and we're vibing and that’s all that I need right now.”
“Why don’t y’all go out tonight?”
I looked up from where my face had been in my phone and saw the scheming look my mama wore. We’d been chilling after Mama insisted that she cook and the four of us went to the workout room in the house to get some exercise in. My brother and sister were both athletes: my brother in baseball and my sister in volleyball, so fitness was something important to all of us. Sterling had tried to linger behind with Ami but Cassie had no issue begging her to come and work out with us. She’d been on the treadmill while we trained and I hated that she might’ve done it because she was self-conscious. By the time we were done, we’d been listening to music, talking about our childhood and I loved how she was laughing and joking with us. But this right here…taking her out on a date might be a step too far for both of us.
“Mama—”
Sonya was shaking her head not even pretending to hear anything I was about to say. “Don’t mama me. That girl has been here day in and day out since this baby came home from the hospital. That’s two months straight. You’re getting ready to start your season in a few weeks and you both need to let your hair down. You wouldn’t mind taking her with you, would you?”
Hell nah I wouldn’t mind taking Sterling’s fine ass out. And that was the problem. The growing attraction I had to her wastaking over. Seeing her with my daughter, having her in my space and her looking the way she did wasn’t helping me keep shit professional between us. Her stamp was all over every room in my house. Everyday I got back home there was some new touch to it that made it cozy. Some beautiful part of her personality that she had on display. And I loved it.
No matter how badly I wanted to keep her at arm’s length I was drawn to her. We wrestled co-parenting together in a sense because she lived in my house. She cooked my meals and she hung out with my people. We’d had a few early-season unofficial practices and my people had come out to watch. Sterling had joined them and she seemed to fit right in. My mama listened to whatever Sterling had to say in regard to Ami like Sterling was the mama. Hell, she was if I was being real. And that wasn’t a good thing to feel because it made me want to slide my dick in her even more than I usually did. Which was absolutely a terrible way to be feeling.
Who knew I had a kink for women being good mothers?
“I wouldn’t mind, but I’m not sure if she was going to go. Sterling seems like a real low-key kinda—”
“Sterling, can you come here, please?”
My mama raised her voice only slightly so as not to wake Ami who was bouncing on her chest. Despite her saying she couldn’t stop what she had on back home, she was clearly enjoying the time she had with her grandbaby. Because Matteo and Cassie were coming into their senior year they both had sport camps this summer so she was trying to soak in as much time with Ami as she could. If Ami wasn’t being held by Ling, my mama had her or one of my siblings. Real talk, I can’t remember the last time I’d held my baby or been the one to rock her to sleep. Crazy how quickly that changed.
Sterling walked in with a smile on her face and it only brightened when she looked at Ami. “Yes ma’am?”
My mama cocked her head and turned to me expectantly. I felt put on the spot, the same way I did when she wanted me to do something cute in front of my relatives. “Richie.”
I glanced at Sterling and looked back at my mama silently begging her to chill. “Ma—”
“Aldrich!” She spoke as sharply as she could without waking up the baby. Mama cut her eye at me and then smiled sweetly at Sterling. “I’m going to lay her down so the two of you can talk, sugar.” When she walked past Sterling she gave her hand a squeeze before turning to glare at me before she walked away.
Sterling looked nervous and seemed to shift from one foot to the other. She was in a cotton sweatshirt, cotton shorts and long socks. It had only been a few weeks and I could tell that Sterling was more comfortable with herself since we started working out together. The downside of my suggesting lifting was that her body was getting even crazier than it was before. I could see her ass from the front in these shorts and it was a thing of beauty.
“Have I done something wrong?”
“No. Why would you think that?”
