Liam grinned at me.
I then jerked my head to the side yard.“Go, ask one of themto hang with you.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.I know for a fact your grandfather would killfor an excuse to get away from an engagement party he didn’t want to have inthe first place.He thinks Kenneth is touched.”
Another grin, this one bigger, because Liam agreed about thetouched part, then with ball under his arm, he dashed off.
This spoke volumes.
My boy, he liked his alone times.I’d noticed it more andmore when he started to get older.He was just one of those people who weregood in their own company.And he was like his mom.A reader.
Even so, he had those times where he wanted to be social.
But what boys liked to do together wasn’t an awful lot likewhat girls liked to do, especially grown-up girls.I couldn’t mix him a mojitoand dish about Lena’s boyfriends with him.
He needed a man in his life.
He needed his father.
And again, that was not for now, and I was getting fed upwith thenot fornows.
But that wasn’t for now either.
I followed my son, and fast, because I had to be there totake Talia if he picked Tony first, because Tony doted on his daughter, and heloved Liam, but I wasn’t sure he’d give her up for basketball.
Darius had been a great basketball player, though heexcelled at football.Got a scholarship to Yale that was academic, but theyscouted him for the team, and he’d had a place on it before he turned his backon all that when Mister Morris died.
He should be shooting hoops with his son.
But I couldn’t do anything about that.
For now.
I was in my nightie, putting lotion on my elbows,when the screen lit up on my phone sitting on the nightstand.
It said M.M.M.Calling.
When I’d programmed it in, I thought it was cute.
But now, it just reminded me not only that I could not typeDarius’s name into my phone, just in case someone saw it who shouldn’t, butalso, I couldn’t type in what M.M.M.meant—My Main Man—because he was that,just no one knew it.And if they saw it, I’d have uncomfortable questions toanswer that I had no answers I could give.
Questions about Darius.
And maybe among those no ones who didn’t know who My MainMan was, was Darius.
I flipped the phone open and put it to my ear.“Hey.”
“Hey, baby.I got nothing.”
“Sorry?”
“About Lena’s man.That Kenneth guy.White folk would callhim a douche, and I gotta say, that works for him, but other than that, he’sgot nothing wrong with him.”
I sat on the side of the bed, murmuring, “Damn.”
“At least he’s not a cheater or a low-level dealer,” Dariustried to placate me.
