I narrowed my gaze. “Just like you had Ora there at yours, right?”
“She didn’t stay with me, Summer. Nobody did.”
“You still fucked her in it,” I argued.
“Okay. Then we won’t stay in neither house. We can rent them out, or sell them. Shit, or you can turn your house back into your book headquarters. It really don’t matter. We got the resources, so shit like this aint about to be a issue. We gon get a new house. I’ll pay for it. As long as we together.”
I frowned. “You’ll pay for it? But I have my own money. I can contribute—”
“Summer, why do you do this shit? We know that you got your own money. It’s just no good with me. Accept that, cause it’s a battle that you’ll never win with me. Just consider yourself a very rich bitch, who can sit on every penny she makes. Save. For our kids’ kids.”
“Our kids, huh?” I gulped, as he quickly brought me back to reality. I was pregnant again, and scared out of my mind. “Ricky, what if something happens again? What if…what if I lose this one too?”
He shook his head. “That aint happening. I know that shit in my heart. Besides, the first time was just a freak accident. You fell. And if I gotta carry you everywhere we go, then I will. Cause you having this baby.”
I giggled. “Carry me? Boy, you can barely lift me when we’re fucking.”
“See?” He cut his eyes at me. “There you go with that lying shit again. Like I didn’t just have your ass up on my shoulders, yesterday.”
“Right. I almost forgot.” My clit thumped at the mere memory.
I guess that’s why I’d been so nervous when Harlem accompanied me to my mama’s. Ricky was losing his patience with me, when it came to breaking up with Harlem. And to pacify him, I had to give him a dose of Ms. Kitty daily. With no exceptions. So, the minute that Harlem crossed our parents’ threshold, I knew that our ending that day was inevitable.
“Yeah, we gone be straight, Summer. You, me, and the baby.” He reached over and palmed my stomach. “Just as long as you don’t play with me. With Harlem. Or any nigga from the past.”
“Right,” I sighed. “And same goes for you. But…we do need to stay rooted in reality. This all just happened, and Harlem literally walked out the door with nothing. So, he still has to move out—”
“That don’t mean that you gotta deal with him. A third-party can handle that. Like his assistant. Physically, you don’t need to be nowhere near that nigga, because you don’t know what’s going through his mind and we aint taking no chances.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“No. Aint no guess about it. And tomorrow you need to change everything he had access to. The locks. The codes. Even on the garage door.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Even though I doubt it’s that serious…”
Ricky stared at me.
“What?” I arched a brow.
“You clearly don’t read men as well as you think you do. Harlem definitely aint no gangsta. But he’s still a man, with hurt feelings. And sometimes, they are the most dangerous kind.”
Chapter 18
Six months later…
“I don’t know how y’all didn’t peep that. Summer was always courtside at most of Ricky’s games, wearinghisjersey. Then their weird asses both loved to run to their parents’ house, because apparently their mama and daddy knew that they were fucking…”
Holding my iPad, I was online, reading the comments underneath a video of Ora’s exaggerated story time, about me.
“This is crazy. She’s really doing a whole smear campaign,” I grumbled, as my mama parted another section of my hair to grease my scalp. “Making it sound like we were committing incest or something.”
My mama sighed. “I don’t know why you put yourself through that torture. I told you that remaining quiet gives her free reign to tell whatever story she wants. She’s controlling the narrative. Versus you getting out in front of this, as the storyteller you are, and giving the people your side.”
I looked back at her, as she sat slightly above me, on the couch. “You wouldn’t be embarrassed?”
She frowned. “For what?”
“About some of the stuff I did.”
