She shook her head like she was judging me. “Then why do it?”
I shrugged. “Because I like them.”
She nodded. “Okay.” The rest of the ride down was quiet mostly, except the babbling she now did to herself. I didn’t know if she was humming as well but either way she wasn’t asking me random ass questions.
While moving toward the car, I hit the locks to the door. Here was the moment of truth, wondering if I’d retained anything shown to me about this. It wasn’t until I sat her down that I realized she knew how to strap herself. She hit me with a “I got it, Daddy.”
Astonished, I sat here and watched her strap herself in. When she was finished, I checked to make sure she was secure, then closed the door and moved around the car. I hopped in on my side, pushing the button to start then looked at her in the back. She was already looking out of the window. I hated the hot pink hat with ears Caya had bought her. It was so damn girly and who the fuck walked around wearing a hat with ears.
I gave her one last look before shifting into reverse. My first stop was to grab her this damn tablet because she was aboutto either ask me for my phone or to turn the radio to those irritating ass nursery rhyme songs. I hated them because one, they had too many voices, and two, the shit was high pitched and overly fucking annoying. They were a huge contrast from my normal Jeezy.
“Daddy.”
“Yeah, lil mama?”
“Can we get ish cream?”
“Maybe. It’s cold as fuck though, Ro.”
“Okay.” She clapped her hands together looking out of the window.
I decided it was the perfect time to call my brother back. G answered on the first ring.
“Yo, where you at?” he asked immediately. Unlike Renny and Jade, G lived in the city and was much closer to me. It was less than a ten-minute drive for me.
“’Boutta run by the mall and grab some things for Romance. You know I’ve been meaning to replace that tablet.”
“Yeah. Don’t go in there and go overboard.”
I shook my head, smiling. “I’on know what you talking about, bro.”
“Yeah, okay. Grab me a charger for Bey’s computer. I’ll pay you for it. That lil mutt bit hers up last night. I think he thought it was mine.”
“You gonna leave her dog alone, man.”
“I don’t even be messing with the lil motherfucker. Where is my niece anyway?”
“In the back seat. She hears you.” I glanced in the mirror and she was still staring out of the window, not paying attention to anything in the car. That was good for now because I got to keep my phone.
“Why yeen tell me? Got me on this phone cur?—”
“She done heard cursing before and she’ll keep hearing it. Ask my sister if she’s still up for doing her hair? I ain’t ’bout to keep stressing ’bout putting ponytails in her fucking head and I don’t feel like driving all the way out to Caya.”
He snorted. “Yeah, she’s in there.”
We talked for the remainder of the ride. When I pulled up to the mall and shorty asked for my phone, I let him know I’d hit him when we were on our way to his house.
“We at a mall, Daddy.” She clapped her hands when I opened her door to get her.
“What you know about a mall?” I asked, eyes on her while I pulled her sweater down to cover her belly.
“We shop, Daddy, we shop.”
“Yeah alright. You got a job I don’t know about, lil mama? ’Cause who money are we spending?”
She giggled like I was sadly misspoken. “No, Daddy, we spend your money.”
Now that earned a laugh from me. I didn’t even respond because she was right.
