“Nine,” he said.
I nodded, already thinking it through. “Instead of calling her, I’ll just stop by when you show her the house. I’m sure she could use a hug.”
He turned his head toward me and smiled. “That actually sounds like a really good idea. I’ll send you the address.”
“Okay,” I said quietly.
He reached over and pulled me closer and my body responded before my thoughts had time to interfere. I let myself sink into that comfort. Into us.
I closed my eyes, breathing him in the rhythm we’d memorized over fifteen plus years. And then, uninvited, Stacks crossed my mind.
Stop.
I tried to shake it off and focus on Kairo’s hands, his voice, and the way he always moved like he was worshiping my entire existence. But the harder I tried to push the thought away, the harder it came back. I thought about Stacks’ laugh and the way he just listened to me.
What the fuck is wrong with you?I said to myself.
Kairo is my husband. The man I loved. The man whose name is stitched into every version of my future. And yet my mind kept drifting to our conversation and the ease, the curiosity that had crossed a line I didn’t even realize I’d stepped over.
It scared me.
When Kairo lifted his head to kiss me, saying something sexy against my skin, my heart skipped, but not in the way it should have. All I could see was Stacks’ face, clear as day, like my mind was playing a cruel trick on me.
Panic rose in my chest.
I turned over quickly, needing to break the eye contact and distance myself from my own thoughts. I told myself it was just a position change. Hell, Kairo loved hitting it from the back anyway so he didn’t question it. I thought that would help, but it didn’t.
His hands were massaging my body as he kissed my neck and back, but instead of pulling me back into the moment, my mindbetrayed me again. I imagined what those hands might feel like if they belonged to someone else. Someone like Stacks.
Guilt slammed into me so hard it almost stole my breath.
Kairo kept whispering that he loved me.
“I love you too, baby,” I said back immediately, because I did. That part had never been a lie, and saying it out loud made something inside me crack. It confirmed what I already knew.
My friendship with Stacks couldn’t continue.
My mind wasn’t built to hold both of them. I wasn’t wired for emotional overlap or blurred lines. I saw what Niv and Coffee were talking about and how dangerous it was for me. How easily curiosity could turn into something I’d never forgive myself for.
I needed space in my mind since I’d given too much of it away.
14
Kairo
I pulled into the driveway of the house I was supposed to be showing Mrs. Nikki, the gravel crunching under my tires. My foot stayed on the brake because my body wasn’t ready to move even though my mind knew I had to. Sometimes I hated that work didn’t pause just because life was happening.
My phone was already pressed to my ear, listening to the chaos of our four-way call. That was Kendrix’s thing. He loved doing group calls for everything. Birthdays. Arguments. Random jokes. But that morning, it was different and no one was laughing.
“You heard anything else, Dai?” Kross asked.
Kordai exhaled on the other end. He was at my parents’ house when the call came in and rode with them to the hospital. “All I know is he’s stable right now. They ain’t saying much else. I’m waiting on Ma and Pops to come back to the waiting room. They only letting two people in at a time, and y’all aunties already up here acting a fool.”
That made us all laugh because we could picture the scene in our head.
Kendrix sucked his teeth. “They better not be up there acting out. I swear I’ll come up there and curse everybody out.”
We all laughed harder at that, knowing damn well he wouldn’t. Kendrix loved to talk tough, especially when it came to family, but he was the first one to go soft. Our aunties scared him just as much as they irritated him.
