I appreciated Tristian’s double down on the topic at hand. More than I didn’t want to think of my daughter being sexually active, I didn’t want to imagine her as a teenage mother. “This is not only about protecting my daughter’s virtue. It’s about protecting yours too. I’m putting trust in you as Maggie’s father and as a man to keep your word to me, Travis.”
Travis was silent for a beat. A small smile rose to his face. “Mr. Manfield, you can trust me.”
We would see if I could trust him with my daughter. It might be crazy for me to really trust a fourteen-year-old with my daughter, but it had to start somewhere. Yeah, I had no anticipation of this boy being Maggie’s forever, but I would treat him as if he would be. I wanted every boy that interacted with her to think of her as forever or leave her alone.
“That’s good.” I leaned my forearms on the table. “So, what are your plans for my baby girl?”
My Baby Girl’s First Valentine
Let’s Get Ready. . .
The night that Mega came home after his dinner with Travis and his father Tristian, he wasted no time to tell me about the conversation. Tears trickled down my cheeks during the entire conversation. I was done for after he told me Travis’s plan.
Mega was not the only one that was in his feelings about our daughter growing up. It was like she was this little baby that I carried in my arms who faked her sleep to be nosy. Now, my baby girl was fourteen and on her way to high school.
I knew it was a fairy tale thought that she find her forever love in high school. I felt like that was the best way to shield herfrom the heartbreak that was out here. High school sweetheart love didn’t seem to be a common thing these days. The softy in me wanted that for my baby and Kellie.
Today was the day of Maggie’s girlfriend proposal, and she was none the wiser. We’d been up and out of the house since eight this morning for our hair appointment. Now we were at the nail bar with Kellie, Shan, and Shanae. Shan knew about the plan because Travis asked us for help with it. I might have been more excited about tonight than Maggie was.
“Mama, do you like this color?” Maggie held up the nail color book and pointed at a very pretty light purple color. The color coincidentally matched the purple in the Coreland High baseball team’s logo.
I took the book from her to get a closer look. “Oh, this is such a pretty color. Are you going to get that on your toes too?”
“Do you think I should? Kellie, do you like this color?” She took the book from me to show the color to her best friend.I love their relationship.
Kellie looked at the color that Maggie pointed out then smiled wide. “Yes, that is perfect! It will make the jersey we made pop too!”
The girls had worked on a special baseball jersey that Maggie planned to wear tonight. It was a part of a new showcase for their business and a gift for Travis. From the pictures of the jersey, the girls would take pre-orders for the sports seasons. Shan and I hadn’t seen the creation yet.
“She’s right, Maggie,” Shanae agreed. “That color is a perfect match. Oh, y’all about to be busy after y’all start taking preorders. I’m willing to be available for a price if y’all need help.”
Shanae was a graduating senior. It was funny to everyone that although Ned was not her biological father, she had a lot of his attributes. Corleone was a firecracker like his mother.Shanae, on the other hand, was the quiet wallflower that if you got too close to without her permission, she would stick you with her thorns. What made her stand out more was that she was heavily involved with her mother’s pole dancing business.
On her eighteenth birthday, Shan allowed her to lead a class at the Coreland studio. Shanae took the pole dancing to another level because since she was eight, she took dance and gymnastics. She was an “en pointe” ballerina. Her plans were to attend Winthrop University in the fall to pursue her bachelor of arts in dance. She didn’t want to be far from home, because she still planned to work as a class instructor.
“You’re gonna be so cute, best friend!” Kellie hyped Maggie up. I loved how they hyped each other up.
Kellie was an even mix of Ned and Shan. She knew when to be quiet and when to cut up. Kellie was more reserved in the recent year around strangers, well boys that she was not familiar with. What happened in the past with her affected her confidence. Through love, God, and therapy, her confidence grew daily.
Shan cleared her throat. “So, Shanae, I heard through the grapevine that you have a crush on a certain someone. Let’s talk about that.”
Shanae’s head snapped in her mother’s direction so fast that it was comical.Please don’t let her curse her mama out.The mother and daughter had matching sharp tongues. “Your grapevine is wrong, Ma. I don’t have a crush on someone. I have a crush on a few ones.”
“Nae, don’t make me slap the hell out of you talking about you got a crush on a few ones. We not gonna be out here being fast.” Shan’s face was scrunched up with an arched brow.
Shanae, or Nae as we sometimes called her, shrugged her shoulders. “Hey, Mama, I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t help it that I’m in love with five men. Georgie, Hammie, Alex,Drew, and Benjie are my boos. I’m never leaving them niggas alone.”
Kellie’s and Maggie’s giggles were automatic. My face was a little tight because I didn’t get what was funny. It took me a minute after Shan asked Nae who those niggas were. “Shan, calm down, sis. She’s talking about money.”
Shan sucked her teeth. “Lil girl, that’s real cute. Try that shit with your daddy. You’re going to have him around here shooting money.”
She had a point. When it came to common sense and logic pertaining to his family, Nedrick Summerson Jr. had none of it. “That was cute though,” I told Nae. “We’ll talk about Warrior another day.”
When we were up the mountain for Christmas, some of the ladies noticed the googly eyes that Shanae had for Warrior, Pea and War’s youngest son. He was nineteen years old and had followed his father’s path as a mechanic. Ironically, it was Warrior and Shanae’s first time meeting. I guess they wouldn’t have had any reason to meet prior to since it was the first time we had a big joint celebration for a holiday.
Shanae waved us off. “Whatever, Auntie and Ma. Y’all worry about y’all husbands.”
Shan and I glanced at each other and silently agreed to let her live. Shanae was so to herself that you never knew who she liked, so when we all noticed her smitten behavior around Warrior, it stood out. The boys of Coreland made it known that they felt her. When the boys made it known, Ned made it known how good his aim was as well as his proficiency with fire.
