Reek laughed. “He’s bringing her around like he’s trying to get her used to her new family.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t even deny it. She fit, and that was the part that caught me off guard. It wasn’t forced. She wasn’t acting starstruck. She just existed with us like she belonged.
Saint leaned in closer. “You serious about her?”
I took a sip and let the liquor burn long enough to buy me a second. “I’m serious.”
Legend nodded slowly like he’d already known. “That’s what it look like.”
“It wasn’t my plan to go hard,” I admitted. “Not this fast.”
Icon glanced at me. “Why not?”
“Because of her business relationship with Aria and Voss. I didn’t want to blur lines, mess up her opportunity, or have herthinking I was only attached to her because it benefited me.” I paused, then told the truth because I knew it was all over my face. “But I couldn’t help it.”
Reek’s grin widened. “Because of that pussy.”
Saint slapped his hands together like he’d been waiting on that. “There it is!”
I shot him a look. “Yeah.... Because of that pussy.”
Legend barked out a laugh. “My boy said that pussy shifted his spirit.”
“It did,” I said, not embarrassed. “I felt her and knew I was in trouble.”
Icon’s eyes stayed on me. “So, is she the one?”
“Yeah, is she the one, Sincere?” When Saint shot me a smirk, I knew he was about to be on bullshit. “You about to get married for real this time?”
I stared into my glass for a second before I answered. “Maybe.”
Saint made a sound like he was impressed. “Mmumph.”
“But I felt like that before. And I was wrong.”
Big A’s eyes flicked to mine for half a second, and I caught something that looked like guilt before he wiped it off his face.
Me and him had had to navigate a few awkward moments. Tempo’s name would come up, or somebody would crack a joke, and there would be that half-second where the room remembered how we got here. But I wasn’t bitter, and me and Big A were real niggas before anything. So, we respected each other enough to let those moments pass as quickly as they came.
Legend nodded toward the women. “When you know, you know.”
“Yeah?” Saint asked, teasing. “How you know, Legend? When you kept fucking up with Aria, and she almost didn’t take yo’ hot-headed ass back?”
Legend smirked. “Nah. I knew because even when she pissed me off, I still wanted to fix it. I didn’t want to replace her. I wanted to understand her.”
“I knew with Livia because she made me feel calm,” Icon explained. “Everything in my life was chaos, and she was peace. I didn’t want peace anywhere else.”
Saint snorted. “I knew with Zahra because she not scared of me. Everybody else tiptoe around me. She tell me about myself like she got good health insurance.”
They all laughed.
Big A’s posture shifted. “I knew with Tempo because…” He stopped, then went on. “Because she always felt like mine.”
The circle went quiet for a second. It wasn’t dramatic, but the awkwardness was there again.
Big A shook his head, forcing a laugh. “And because I can’t breathe right if she mad at me.”
Legend saved him without making it a big deal. “That’s how it be.”
