“I commend you on all you’ve done here, sis.” I nodded as we rounded the corner and entered the cafeteria. “I don’t know if I would have the patience to do no shit like this.”
“We all know you wouldn’t, JJ.”
We shared a laugh as we got in line to get lunch. One of her cashiers had been eyeing a nigga since I walked in, and it wasmore than obvious she wanted a taste of my dick. She was a pretty girl, a little slim, but nice, nonetheless.
“Looks like you have an admirer…” She nodded in the girl’s direction as we continued to load our trays. “Sheena is going to kill you both.”
“Sheena will get her head dismembered from her body if she comes fucking with me.” I frowned, making her laugh. I was deadass serious, though. Sheena knew how far to take shit with me. “Lunch on you today? I’m the guest, after all.”
Rolling her eyes, she walked over toward the register and scanned her badge. The cashier kept cutting her eyes at me, but when I told her I was taken, she immediately apologized to Karlie and me.
“Now, why did you do that?” She giggled softly as she slid into the booth across from me. “She hasn’t been here long enough to know you’re my brother, and I know you don’t care that much about Sheena.”
“You’re right,” I said as I bit into my chicken wrap. I didn’t know who she had in the back cooking, but this shit was bussing. “I would never fuck anybody that works for you. Trust me, sis. You don’t want these problems at your place of business. These girls wouldn’t know how to act after getting some of this good loving.”
“Anywayyyyyy!” She dragged her words and frowned, throwing a balled-up napkin at me. “What brings you by,Dr. McKnight? How’s my favorite angel of death?”
Eyeing her, I said nothing as I continued to eat. While my sister didn’t know the shit I was into outside of working as a medical examiner, she knew that her brother wasn’t wrapped too tightly. There had been a time or two when I had to get some straightening with her and her old boyfriend, so she knew what I was capable of.
“Angel of death, huh?” I finally responded, drinking from my water bottle. “You know all of that but had the nerve to look long faced when I came in here. Don’t act like your brother won’t fuck up the world behind you, Karlie McKnight. You don’t have to tell me what’s going on, but I want you to promise me that if you ever feel like you need me, you won't hesitate to call. I will drop everything and come to you.”
She eyed me with suspicion. “What if you’re in the middle of conducting an autopsy?”
“That muthafucka is dead; he can wait.”
“Oh my gosh!” Her eyes went wide before her hand covered her face. “You don’t know what to say out of your mouth at times but thank you. I promise you, I’m fine. Just one of those days. Percy is getting on my nerves, and I think it’s time for us to go our separate ways.”
“I don’t know why you thought you could make it work with a nigga named Percy anyway.” I mugged her. “Nigga sounds like he wears pink panties and shit.”
Laughing uncontrollably, she cradled her stomach as I smirked at seeing her carefree. I knew my sister got stressed and emotional sometimes about the state of her life. She was successful and in good health, but at the age of thirty-three, she wanted to be married and have children. She felt as if her window of happiness was closing, but I kept telling her that everything would happen in God’s timing.
“You’re ridiculous!” she coughed out through a few more chuckles while wiping her eyes. “I needed that laugh.”
“How about we plan a vacation?” I told her as I wiped my hands on the napkin.
My phone was vibrating in my pocket, and when I pulled it out, I saw it was Jamir. He’d been handling some personal business for me, so I needed to call him back soon. Shifting my eyes back to Karlie, I watched her hum while eating hersalad. Since she hadn’t replied, I continued telling her about my thoughts on a possible vacation.
“I was thinking we could do a quick flight somewhere; whoever can free up their schedule. I know a lot of y’all have businesses you don’t want to stay away from, and that’s cool, but we need to get together and do something. We can do some weekend shit or on a holiday coming up. I think it’ll be dope.”
“That actually sounds?—”
“You know… When the girls began to whisper that Miss Karlie was having lunch with a fine man, I got excited because I just knew it wasn’t with Princess P.”
Looking up, I locked eyes with Jaycee. Still referred to as “Baby” by our family, she was just as much of a sister to me as Karlie. Not only because of how much I loved her, but also because of how much she looked like my father and Uncle Amir. Baby had her mother’s genes, too, making her all-around gorgeous, and I’d been whooping ass on every nigga that had sniffed her and Karlie’s way since Jaseon taught me how to fight.
The same way I didn’t play about Karlie was the same way I didn’t play about Jaycee.
“Hey, Baby.” I slid out of the booth and pulled her into my arms. Looking behind her, my eyes landed on my other little cousin, Malaya. Pulling her into my arms, I hugged and kissed her cheek too. “How you doing, Lay?”
“Hey, JJ!” She beamed at me, a smile perfectly situated on her face. She followed Jaycee and slid into the booth with us. “I was on the phone with Daddy when Baby said we had to come down here and be nosy. What y’all talking about?”
Lay was Uncle Mitch’s daughter and was probably the biggest troublemaker of the three. Even though she and her brother, Max, weren’t blood-related to us, we didn’t treat them any differently. Whenever one of them found themselves needing a helping hand in any way, we were right there rollingwith them. Lay was in need more than Max because she was quick to call us when one of her so-called niggas went wrong. We’d gotten on her ass about gaslighting these niggas, but her behavior didn’t stop us from fucking them up for treating her poorly.
“I just wanted to stop by and check in, is all. I thought I was going to get rid of y’all when I left Willow Springs, but here we are.”
Listening to the girls speak about what was going on in their lives, I couldn’t help but zone in and out of the conversation. Thinking about Blossom and TJ, my mind was plagued with tasting her and killing him. When I shifted my eyes back to my sister, she was telling our cousins about the possible vacation. Of course, they wanted to go to South Beach. These damn girls loved Miami so much, I was shocked they hadn’t relocated there yet.
I stayed with them a few more minutes before telling them I had business to attend to. Since the girls were going to plan the trip, we all agreed to have a group call later in the week to discuss. I handed over my credit card and told Karlie to book everything on it when the time came, and somehow that exchange equated to a shopping spree for the girls too. I would never tell them no, so I walked away from the booth smirking as I shook my head.
