Listening to them dug home the necessity of sisterhood. Having that woman best friend who listened to you whenever, and even if she didn’t understand your struggle, she still seemed to understand your struggle. There was nothing like that type of relationship.
When the men came back into the house, all three of them mugged us.
“Y’all in here laughing mighty damn loud and hard,” Shaun said.
“Just like y’all was minding y’all’s business out there, we can mind our business in here,” Yaya spoke.
Shaun chuckled, revealing his all-gold grill. His crazy was far beyond Zoo’s, which I found funny.
“Yo’ mouth smart? You look like you got a smart mouth,” he directed to me.
“Her mouth slicker than a muhfucka. Her and her big head ass sister,” Zoo chimed in.
My eyes narrowed on him.
“Oh, hell.” Stephan sighed. “Baby let’s go. G stay causin’ trouble, and I’m tryna sleep good tonight.”
Without hesitation, Mariah downed the rest of her drink, stood, and took her man’s hand. Damn. Just the way he bit into his lip when she made eye contact with him had me blushing. Out of the two men, Stephan was the reserved one. However, I didn’t put shit past him. Especially when his hazel-green eyes snapped to Zoo. Whatever that look meant, wasn’t good.
Yaya stood too. “We need to get together one day for brunch.”
“Absolutely,” I agreed.
Before they left, I held my hands out to see if baby Sion would come to me. With a big smile, she came into my arms.
“Aww,” Yaya and Mariah sang.
I followed them outside, talking baby gibberish to Sion. Never did I understand when a woman cried “baby fever” until now. Holding Sion brought out motherly instincts in me that I’d never experienced.
With Shaun, Stephan, and their wives gone, Zoo and I went back into the house.
“Do all the Smith men have nice eyes?”
He grumbled.
“You do, Baby. That’s one of the things that stands out about you.”
“My eyes?” He peered at me like I was crazy.
“Yes, your eyes, boo.”
His perplexed expression had me perplexed. After a minute of silence, he said, “Don’t repeat that shit, aight? Tell people it’s my personality or some shit. I’m a fuckin’ gangsta, Baby.”
Smacking my teeth, I pushed him out of my way, so I could go figure out what I was cooking his parents for dinner.
“And don’t think I won’t tell Naomi what you said about her.”
He cackled. “I’ain scared of her.”
“Hm. You’re scared of somebody. I’ve never seen you as quiet as I have around your cousins.” I pretended to stare off pensively.
“Shiidd, you got me fucked up,” he mumbled, which fueled my laughter. Even if what I said ruffled his feathers, he planted a kiss on my forehead before leaving the kitchen.
As much as he got on my damn nerves, Zoo was showing me that a relationship with him wasn’t so bad. He kept me on my toes at every turn, and our relationship wasn’t the normal everyday boredom that I thought being with a man would be. Zeus Smith was teaching me some things.
Over dinner, I smiled and cackled at everything Zoo did. He had the entire table in stitches, with his mom shaking her head at his antics. His dad only shrugged, knowing damn well how his son was a mess. Zoo’s mom fussed over his wound, although I had already handled it.
“You take such good care of my baby,” she said to me, warming my insides.
