Wendell moves his mouth, but I can’t hear anything he says while Slim whimpers in my ear.
Fuck, I knew better.
I knew she wouldn’t listen and stay, just like I knew Tamryn wouldn’t stay on the front porch like I told her to before I followed Wendell into the backyard.
I fuckin knew.
I shove Slim’s head into my neck, then push my finger into Wendell’s face. “Listen, motherfucka.”
A smirk dances across his puffy mouth, but Slim’s too busy trying to crawl inside of me to see what I need her to see in Wendell.
This is why she didn’t need to be smiling at men like him.
This is why she needed to question everything that came out of a man’s mouth.
This is why she needed to hate stupid ass men—me included.
This.
I swipe away another speck of blood trickling from my mouth with my tongue. “You need to pick your head up and get the fuck on. You want your shit so bad? I’ll tell B to pack it up and putit on the curb outside the gate. Don’t bring your ass back over here.”
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
LOVIE
I don’t rememberany man ever holding me like a baby—not Tony, not Uncle Kenny, not AJ, or any of the random guys I called myself dating. But cradling me comes to Rich as naturally as breathing does.
My body fits in his arms as if they were designed for the sole purpose of holding it. He rocks me back and forth and up and down as if I weigh nothing.
“Shhh…” he whispers.
I don’t know what he’s shushing me for because I’m not screaming. I’m not even bawling. I’m just hanging in his arms with my mouth gaping open, trying to inhale the air outside of Beatrice’s stuffy house. I need it after peeking through the crack in Calvin’s door to make sure he was still alive and heartbroken, sweeping Beatrice’s never-ending hallway, and shooing Tamryn away from the back door before I pushed my way outside.
“Pup…” somebody whispers.
I try to answer back even though they’re not talking to me.
I just need to tell somebody else that I saw Rich’s foot smash into Wendell’s face. I even heard the sharp crack afterhis heel landed on Wendell’s nose. It sounded like AJ’s knuckles crashing into the side of my head, and Tony’s shoulder ramming into our bathroom door.
“She gon’ be alright?” they whisper again.
I think it’s Tamryn’s little rasp of a voice, but I can’t hear it over somebody’s loud wails in the distance. They won’t shut up long enough for me to listen closer and decide if it’s her.
“Yeah…” Rich replies, patting me on my butt like Mama used to. “She okay.”
He twists around with me dangling from his arms, but I can’t see anything except a blur of trees.
“Don’t worry. You just go back in, a’ight?”
“But I think she’s hurt.”
“She good—just a lil’ spooked, that’s all. I’ll take care of her. Go back in and check on your grandma. Tell her I’ll get this backyard cleaned up soon.”
The wailing drowns out some of their words.
“Pup?” they whisper again.
