I backed up and dropped my mouth. He stood back, smiling at me.
“Nigga! You own all of this?!” I questioned. “Since when?”
“I’ve owned this for a few years now. My grandma had a house out here that was fucked up, I tore it down, and this became my lil’ thinking place, when I need to duck off from the city for a lil’ bit.”
I nodded, looking around. “Why haven’t you rebuilt?”
“I said I would…” he said softly. “When I got married.”
Love pulled me into his arms and stared into my eyes before kissing me.
“I love the fuck outta you.”
“I love you too, baby,” I said back.
Love took me to a huge rock, took a seat, and sat me on his lap. We watched the water move.
“You came here to think?”
“Yeah,” he responded. “Whenever I was doing some crazy shit, or was about to do some crazy shit, I would come out here, think, and apologize to my grandma for whatever I was about to do.”
We laughed.
It was something comforting about knowing he had somewhere he could go when the world got heavy before me, before Amir.
We sat there talking about random shit. Nothing really important. One conversation rolled into the other.
We laughed, talked about Amir, Keith, and his niggas trying on suits. At some point, Love got quiet, and I felt his body change in a way that I can’t even explain, but it made me turn and look at him.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head.
I sucked my teeth. “Don’t play with me, Love, what is wrong?”
I turned to face him a lil’ bit, he looked at me like he was trying to look inside of me and moved a piece of hair outta my face.
“We gotta leave all that shit behind us.”
I knew exactly what he was talking about.
He wasn’t talking about the city. He was talking about Gio and the drama and stress that came with him.
Love looked back out at the lake.
“That chapter is over with.”
I sat there for a second, letting those words settle because, for the first time, I actually believed him. Not only because he said it, but because I could feel it.
The fear I had wasn’t there anymore. The constant waiting for the other shoe to drop, the feeling that somebody could havebeen watching. I felt like I could breathe again when he handed me them bullet shells.
Love tapped me on my ass, having me stand up.
He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I felt him take a deep breath with his body pressed against.
“Could you see yourself living out here?” he asked.
I looked off in the distance at all the land, the lake, the horses, and a smile came over my face.
