“Is it safe to sit on this couch, my nigga?”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t. Shit gets a little wild down here.” Giovanni laughed and shut his eyes. Rolani screwed his face up but laughed because he respected it. That’s what he wanted. Someone who made home feel like more than a place to sleep. Someone who had him grinning in the middle of conversations, thinking about her.
“Dawgg,” Rolani joked, causing Giovanni to laugh and shrug. The brothers from another mother embraced. They’d been meaning to link up for weeks, but business had them both moving in different directions. That was the thing about making it out, the grind never stopped. You kept pushing because you knew how quickly shit could disappear.
Giovanni handed him a glass of Hennessy Paradis, because the man didn’t do basic. Rolani took a sip and let the burn settle.
He chalked up his custom pool cue and tossed Rolani the other. They spent the next hour running the table, dissecting the Signature Rims contract, talking numbers and negotiation points for the parking garage they planned to purchase.
“I like the idea of turning it into some private shit,” Giovanni said, sinking a stripe.
“How many niggas we know with nice cars that need somewhere safe to keep them?” Rolani lined up his shot.
“Too many.” Giovanni grinned.
“My first spot’s completely full. Slim and Lesley got that bitch packed with cars.” Rolani knocked in two balls back-to-back.
Southside Luxury Vault was already thriving, but now it was time for another location—and he wanted his boy to own this one with him.
Giovanni nodded, already calculating. “Let’s make it happen.”
“Bet.”
“You been good, nigga?” Giovanni switched gears, tone casual, but his eyes were doing that thing where they searched for the truth beneath the surface.
“Yeah, why?”
“Come on, bruh.” Giovanni lined up his break shot, balls scattering with a satisfying crack. “I know you, and I know losing Pearl been fucking with you heavy. We been so caught up in this money shit, I ain’t been checking in like I should’ve been.”
“Ole soft ass,” Rolani laughed, trying to deflect, but Giovanni waited him out. That was his gift—knowing when to push and when to be present.
Rolani took another sip, let the burn settle. Giovanni wasn’t wrong. The grief still lived in his chest, heavy some days, lighter others. But lately? Lately, it felt different. Manageable. Like he could breathe through it instead of drowning in it.
“I ‘preciate that, for real. But I’m good. Better than I've been in a minute, actually.” He paused, the words sitting on his tongue. “Real good. Like... life-changing good.”
Giovanni’s head snapped up. “Life-changing? The fuck that mean?”
Rolani set his drink down, met his boy’s eyes. “Kennedi’s pregnant.”
The pool cue clattered to the floor.
“She’s WHAT?” Giovanni’s voice went up an octave. “Pregnant? Like... with a baby? YOUR baby?”
“Yeah, that’s my baby, and my woman,” Rolani said, hitting his flexed bicep.
Pride. The good kind.
They sat in that beat for a second, the pool balls long forgotten. “Nigga, congratulations. When the fuck did this happen?” Giovanni asked.
Rolani had been waiting for the question. “From the plane, honestly. You set that shit up without even knowing it.” He could still see her face on the plane, the way she looked up at him, and that was it. “At the premiere, we kept catching each other’s eyes. It was like gravity or some shit. After that, David tried her, and I handled it. She invited me to her room. We ended up talking and then having breakfast. The rest was me not letting up. History.”
Giovanni’s eyebrows shot up, half impressed, half concerned. “You been moving low as a bitch. I ain’t expect this. I’m happy for you, though. You need a good woman on your side. And damn nigga a daddy?”
Rolani shrugged. “I don’t do this shit, G. I don’t catch feelings. Women come and go. But Kennedi feels like divine alignment.” Saying it out loud felt like stepping off a cliff. “She got me picturing the future. I’m thinking about Sunday dinners, Christmas mornings, teaching my kids to ride bikes. It’s wild, because you know a nigga picky.”
Giovanni whistled low. “And you been seeing her since we got back?”
Rolani’s jaw clenched at the memory of her trying to duck him. “She tried to run at first. Talking about it was just physical, all that bullshit. Like what we had was a moment she could file away and forget. Nah, baby, I came to collect.”
