“All the times weren’t bad, huh?”
“No. They weren’t,” he replied quietly. “We had a lot of great times with Mama.”
“Are you angry with her?”
“She can’t help what she’s going through no more than a person with the flu can help what they’re going through. She’s sick, Dove.”
“Listen, you don’t have to explain to me. I only asked because I know that Wryn and Paloma used to be very angry. You were different. You always had a big heart filled with so much love and forgiveness, even as a little kid.”
“Yeah.”
He wasn’t very communicative, so I decided to change the subject. I knew the subject of his mother was a sensitive one; it always had been, even when we were kids.
“Mm. That feels so good. It’s heavenly, Reigh.” I moaned at the feeling of his fingertips on my scalp. I didn’t want him to stop.
The more he washed my hair, the more relaxed I became and the more I complimented his skills. I knew that I would sleep good tonight. At one point, he completely stopped talking altogether, and his fingers went still on my scalp.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” he replied and cleared his throat. He handed me the towel and walked away. I was so confused. What the hell had I done wrong? Had I offended him with the conversation about his mother early on? That couldn’t have been it, because he was still talking after that conversation.
Maybe it was all that damn moaning I had done. I thought back to Felicia and Melicia claiming we both liked each other. Could they have been right? Had I made him uncomfortable with all that damn moaning?
TWO DAYS LATER
I had spentthe last couple of days avoiding Dove. It had been easier than to face her after all that damn moaning she was doing while I washed her hair.
Her body was soft, warm, and smelled like cinnamon and brown sugar. Her hair was soft and felt like a kitten’s fur. I was cool until she started moaning and talking about how good it felt. All the fantasies I used to have about her little ass returned and flooded straight to my dick. I forgot what I was supposed to be doing.
When she asked what was wrong, I had half a mind to tell her that I wanted to spread her legs at the sink right then and giveher something to moan about. I would never disrespect her like that, though. She had too much shit going on already, and I had enough baggage of my own.
I finished her hair and walked the fuck up out that kitchen. After that, I stayed ghost as much as possible, going for long runs, swimming, and checking out the island.
Running from the situation was up when I walked into the house and found her on the couch in the living room. There was no avoiding her with the way her warm, russet-brown eyes pinned me in place.
“Where have you been?” she asked softly, looking up from the TV.
She was curled up on the sofa, and her thighs were on display in peach, cotton pajama shorts. Her eyes were lazy looking, like she had been about to drift off to sleep.
“Just out and about, clearing my mind is all.”
That wasn’t a lie, but I didn’t want to get into what I had been clearing my mind about. She bobbed her head and reached for the remote. It was something about the way that she did it that made me turn my attention to the TV. There were images on TV of me and other MMA fighters from my fight camp: Jeremy Broadwell, Kobalt Harden, and Holt Stern.
I caught the ticker at the bottom of the screen just before she flicked the TV to another channel and turned the volume down.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I’m sorry, Reigh.”
“For what?” I was kind of irritated that she would change the channel and that she would apologize about that shit, like she hadn’t meant to watch it. What happened to keeping it real? I believed if you did some shit, then you stood ten toes down on it—put your weight on that shit.
“Watching that garbage. I wasn’t trying to support it, but I want to know what’s happening because I care about you. I knowthat we’ve been out of each other’s lives for a few years now, but that doesn’t change the fact that I still care as much as I once did, if not more so.
“You’ve been so closed off, and I get that you don’t want to talk about it, but I want to know how to be here for you. You can talk to me about anything, Reigh, same as you used to. I won’t judge, and I know how to keep a secret. Trust me,” she replied, chuckling bitterly and rolling her eyes.
I knew that she was referring to her situation. I sat down on the couch and released a long exhale as I pinched the bridge of my nose. I felt bad that I had just been irritated with her.
“What were they saying? I only caught the tail end of it.”
