“See, piece of cake,” Rennix said from behind me.
Almost as soon as we went into the house, she heard the voice of the other kids and ran in that direction. I was cool with that because it gave me some time to at least attempt to ballpark this, even though I had a whole ass life in Crescent Falls. Of course I could up and leave as much as I pleased, but a child—my child—didn’t need that. She needed stability and not to be jumping around from house to house, moving too much. She needed a home and for her father to grow the fuck up.
“You look like you’re in here carrying the weight of the world.” Jade’s voice made me look away from the empty space I had been staring into since I’d walked in the door. It was the doorway she had run through to get to the other kids.
When my eyes landed on my sister, I smiled. My nephew was stretching her ass out and she complained about it every chance she got. “’Cause I am. What’s up, thickums?”
She mugged me before taking a seat on the bench in the foyer. “Apparently you. Do you wanna talk about it?”
“What is there to talk about, Jade? One minute I’m busting a mean ass nut back in the Falls and the next I’m a father. Matterof fact, lemme go deeper. A three-year-old, a child I gotta get to know, because instead of doing the right thing, her raggedy ass mama didn’t even tell me.”
“First, breathe. Nobody can tell you how to feel about this, because this is indeed a messed-up situation and I’m not gonna tell you it’s easy, but there is no better man for the job. That’s your child, Rem, and even though right now you might feel overwhelmed, things will come to you.”
I took a seat next to her. “How do you know I can even do this, Jade?”
“Because you’ve been trying to be my father since you met me. All of us. You keep it together when we’re all over the place. You have been doing that since you first got here and I didn’t know where you appeared from when you used to just walk up.” She smiled.
“I hear you.” Lowkey Jade gave the best fucking pep talks. She made things digestible and broke them down in a way that let you know all was possible.
“Now, I think it’s time you introduce me to my niece.”
I laughed. “She doesn’t even know I’m her father, Jade.”
She shook her head. “Well, I think it’s time we rectify that.”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, because I was, but it had to happen at some point, right? I had never been afraid of anything in my life until now.
Chapter
Two
Karim Ortega
You’re just a heartbreaker; won’t let you break mine.The moment I laid eyes on him I wanted to scream. Because how in the hell did he always know where I was when he was here? How did he know where to find me when my own family didn’t half of the time?
“You good, Karim?” Danial asked, pulling my attention back to the table where we were having breakfast.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just got distracted.” I blinked several times, praying to God he wasn’t on his way over here, but in true Reminisce fashion, he was at my table in less than ten seconds. My prayer didn’t even have time to make it past the ceiling. Then, to make matters worse, he knocked on the fucking table when I didn’t look in his direction.
“You ’boutta act like you don’t see me even though I’m standing right here, Rim?”
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, then glared up at him. Shit he looked good, perfect chocolate skin with those moisturized tattoos on the side of his face. “Yes, I was. What do you want?”
He laughed, then looked in Danial’s direction. “I need to talk to you for a minute. Tell your friend to give us a minute.”
“Uhh, sure,” Danial responded like a straight bitch, not even giving me the chance to tell Reminisce to fuck off. That fast I was turned off and decided not to blur the line between him being my personal trainer and someone I allowed into my bed.
“You fucking with niggas who wear leggings now, Rim?” Reminisce asked, taking a seat across from me with a pleased expression on his face.
“Even though it’s none of your concern, I’m not fucking him.”
“Good for him.” The way he looked at me had me wondering what the hell he was thinking. He had one of those poker faces like my brother’s, if not worse. Their expression was never truly blank, but extremely unreadable.
“Why are you here, Reminisce?”
“Just wanted to see you.” His eyes held sincerity and something else. I couldn’t figure that out if somebody paid me, because he was so emotionally unavailable he should have walked around with a fucking sign and not the graphic T-shirts he designed.
I sighed. “Now you’ve seen me. Can you g?—”
