She waved me off as she kissed her teeth.
“Heffa, you can’t stop a damn thing this way. I’m not understanding what talking to your baby daddy gotta do with my pockets, but whatever. I’m already thinking about my next shopping trip. Ooh, I have to tell Callie. She loves a good reason to shop for babies.” Her hands were moving before she even finished the sentence. I groaned, doing my best to release my frustration as I dropped my head, going back into my bowl, adding more whipped cream on top. I couldn’t even fuss at her telling her twin sister Callie because Hollis told her everything.
I knew nothing I said from this point on would matter when it came to these two no way. My focus was on telling Harlan and praying he was ready for this next step in our relationship.
“Well anyway, let’s focus on the cute announcements. Ooh, we can do onesies for the grans and maybe, a hey daddy shirt or something for baby daddy.” Johnni was already on her phone looking up ideas. I playfully rolled my eyes because some of them were cute.
“Don’t you feel like those types of things are for planned pregnancies? I don’t think any of that is needed. Why I can’t just hand over the sonogram and sayhey, we fucked up and now we’re having a baby,” I said, eating more of the ice cream that tasted too good right now.
Johnni shook her head. “Absolutely the fuck not. This is your moment, do whatever you want and however for that matter. Planned or not, this is your first, don’t skip shit. If you want both a baby shower and a gender reveal, we’ll do both. If you even want a baby name reveal, Mickey, do it. Now hand over that sonogram. We want to see our niece or nephew.” She geeked out as she clapped her hands a few times before doing the gimme motion.
I looked at Hollis whose face held just as much excitement as Johnni’s right now. I reached into my purse and pulled out the pictures Dr. Compton had taken of the baby.
I passed it over and awws filled the air.
“Oh my gosh, my baby is having our baby,” Johnni said, wrapping her arms around me again, making me smile.
“Wait, don’t leave me out.” Hollis said, joining our hug. At this moment, with my girls’ support, I felt like I could handle anything. I chose to ignore my gut feeling that my world was about to change forever.
Chapter
Three
Burkeley Morgan
I looked at the time before a car pulled into the spot next to me. I was parked at The Shoppes to blend in with the other shoppers and cars since this was the request from my client. I got out and moved to their passenger seat, not speaking. I hit the record button on my phone to make evidence to cover my own ass, especially since we were in a parking lot. This was normally why I held my meetings in my office, well outside of meeting with a lawyer whenever they called. Since they were also professionals, I had no problem linking at their office whenever they needed me to collect basic information. But for cases like this, sometimes my clients felt it was best if they moved in silence or careful as they called it. I always got a kick out of it.
“Are you sure?” That was all I said. Not too much needed to be said. Nine times out of ten I had the full story by the time we got to this stage of the game. This woman looked at me with tense eyes. I could tell she was nervous but it was confirmed when she opened her mouth to speak and her voice began to shake.
“Yes. I believe he’s cheating on me. That ungrateful asshole. I’ve given him fifteen years.” I nodded as she passed me anenvelope filled with cash to cover my services. A lot of private eye work was independent and always involved a spouse trying to catch their other half in a compromising situation. Occasionally I got a company out of the country or state checking up on an employee.
“Hey, relax. I promise, if he’s doing anything, I will catch him up for you. Give me a couple weeks. I’ll be in touch once I have everything for you,” I said. I went to get out of the car. Her hand on my forearm stopped me. I looked down at it before I put my eyes on hers.
“I’m sorry, I just want to make sure you’re discreet, right?” I smirked as I put my hand on hers, tapping it a couple times for reassurance.
“I give you my word. No one will know you met with me nor will your husband see me coming or going. Again, I’ll be in touch.” This time when I moved to get out, she didn’t stop me. I was in and out in less than five minutes, back in my car and pulling away. I grabbed my phone, stopping the recording and snapping a picture of her license plate before I left the area.
Once I made it back to my home office, I counted the cash before I sat down to make the official file for this case. After I had it together, I made my way inside to find my brother Art sitting at my kitchen island helping himself to a meal that our mom Anna had prepped for me.
I snorted while I shook my head, grabbing a bottle of water out of the pantry. I hated cold bottles and preferred to drink them at room temperature.
“Yo, didn’t Anna stock y’all refrigerator up too? Why you always in my shit eating my food?” I asked before I cracked the bottle and downed the water.
“She did, but I swear she always gives you more, because ain’t no way I’m out before stock up day every week.” I chuckled. It wasn’t true. Art was the baby boy and came with a wife,Amber. I was sure Anna made sure to include extra meals for both. Hell, they still went over to our parents’ house weekly for dinner.
“Anyway, I know that ain’t the reason you’re at my spot this early in the morning. What's going on?” I asked.
“Damn, now I gotta want something. I can’t just pop up to see my brother? What kind of family do you take me for?”
“Hell no. You’re the want something kind. So what’s up?”
Art kissed his teeth as he waved me off but opened his mouth to let bullshit fly right now.
“Well, as you know, the holidays are coming up and with this being Amber and mine’s first together as a married couple, we wanted to do this a little bit differently. Ya know, start some new traditions and whatnot.”
I let out an annoyed sigh, telling him to talk fast because I was already over whatever it was.
“And now you’re rushing me? I’m not feeling the brotherly love in here, BK.”
