He gave me his blessing to take them back to Dallas. I told him that I wanted to surprise them.
“What’s up Griz. I wasn’t expecting you. Come in. What you doing out here? Business?” Raja smiled.
“Yo ass scared to fly, so I came to get y’all. Go pack enough for at least two weeks. I’ll handle the rest of whatever you need once you’re there. I know that Deuce is going to be happy as hell to see y’all. He was just talking about Baby Deuce next appointment next month.. you know he can’t go too long without seeing his nephew.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said.
“I know, but I wanted to, so I did.” said. “Go get ready?”
I went to Marcellus office and talk to him briefly. He already had his wife’s bags packed and ready to go. She side-eyed him for that, she said that he was really trying to get rid of her. I couldn’tdo anything but laugh. I took her bags to the front, and waited for Raja and baby boy to be ready.
The drive back was good. Baby Deuce slept most of it, strapped into his seat making the small sounds that newborns made that you didn’t expect to affect you as much as they did. Raja talked for stretches and went quiet for stretches and I didn’t force either one. She had a sadness to her that wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon and I wasn’t naive enough to think conversation was going to fix that. She missed Dank in a way that had become part of her structure. You could see it in the way she moved, in the pauses she took, in the way her eyes went somewhere private sometimes right in the middle of talking about something ordinary. Momma Caldwell slept the entire ride, I couldn’t get a word out of her.
During the ride, I kept thinking of what Raja’s life had become. She was so happy and full of life with Dank. She was different now. But being around Malani for a few weeks would do her good. I could see it. When we pulled up and she walked into Deuce’s house and the two of them connected in that specific way that women who understood loss connected with each other. Something loosened in Raja’s face that I hadn’t seen loosen in a long time. Malani showed her genuine love and compassion. I loved to see that.
Deuce was so happy to see that I’d brought the people he loved to him. He thanked me a million times. His momma made herself at home immediately and was giving me grocery list. I told her ass to take that up with her son. Ifshe wasn’t gonna be at my house cooking, I wasn’t gonna be going to the store getting no groceries. So sorry mama.
Watching this nigga Deuce walk around with two babies in his arms was a sight to see. Deuce loved them babies more than anything. Hell, I did too. They were the next generation and I was proud to witness it from the very beginning.
—
Deuce grabbed me on the second day, pulled me to the side while Raja was with Malani and the babies were down.
“You good?” he asked.
“I’m good.”
“So why you buying a house?”
I looked at him.
He looked back at me. “Brendon, your realtor called the accountant, the accountant called me. They are in the process of verifying funds. You got it, but why now?
You been renting since you got to Dallas. Now you want to buy two properties in cash.” He tilted his head. “There’s more to this story.”
“It’s just time,” I said. “We’re settled here. Makes sense to put roots down.”
“Mmhm.” He wasn’t buying it. “And the second property?”
“Investment.”
He looked at me for a long moment and I could see him deciding whether to push it. He decided not to. “Just be careful,” he said. “Whatever it is. Sneaky ass nigga”
“Always.” I laughed.
He nodded and that was the end of it. That was one of the things I respected most about Deuce. He knew when to ask and when to let a man handle his own business.
—
Now that things were settled down. It was time for me to finish Ivy ass. She thought that she got to dictate how and when she was going to deal with me, but that wasn’t the case. I have still been ignoring her, and she still have been calling like crazy. It was no fun when the rabbit had the gun.
The dinner at Dakota’s was everything I needed it to be.
I watched Ivy walk up to that table in that black dress and watched her face when she registered who was standing there and it was worth every day of silence I had put between us.
She recovered fast, I gave her that, snapped into composure almost immediately. But I had seen it. That half second where everything she had been feeling for the past ten days crossed her face at once before she locked it down.
She interrogated me across that table with her fiancé sitting right there and I let her because every question she asked me told me something about where her head was. She wanted to know about the wife. Whether I had someone. Whether I had been playing her the same way she was playing me. The relief that moved through her face when I clarified the situation, even though she tried to cover it immediately, was something I was going to keep.
