Page 110 of Just Like Summer

“Nate didn’t tell you what I said, I see. I don’t cook on the weekends. The best I can do is a slice of cold pizza. And that’s not even why you came over here,” Dania sounded off.

“Uh oh,” Malayna winced. “Mommy is using that voice, you’re in trrouuubblleee.”

She hopped out his arms and scurried off to her room. Once she disappeared from Cairo’s sight, he looked at Nate who shrugged.

“She don’t cook at all. She’s killing me slowly,” Nate teased, earning a pillow launched at him.

“Shut up, boy,” Dania huffed. “I ordered you food. Because all you want to do is press me about where my friend is. When I should be asking you what you did to make her leave in the middle of the night.”

Nate sat down and watched the back and forth, preparing himself for the C4 he knew. The tycoon of crazy.

“I didn’t do shit. That nigga RowdyRedd had an episode and after that, she shut everything down. I just want the lo.”

“I’m not giving that to you. Sorry, I can’t,” Dania replied. “You know Rowdy and her pops were best friends. They kept it low, but Rowdy was around for a while. So his episodes sometimes tend to sour her mood.”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Cairo huffed, as he sat down. Baby girl was back, this time with a doll for him and her.

She climbed up by his side and popped the head off of the brand new doll Nate just got for her. An infectious giggle rattled her body. “My cousin showed me that. You do it.”

Nate attempted to talk over her. “Talk to me about this nigga you found in the desert.”

“I think the food is here,” Dania mumbled, getting up to leave Nate in the viper’s pit. She snatched up her daughter in the process, attempting to cover up her big mouth.

“Wait, Mommy, I want to show him Kairo. They have the same face!” she shouted before Dania muffled the rest of her words.

Cairo looked at Nate, his brain trying to regulate what it heard. “How she get a cousin named Kairo?”

Nate stood, trying to avert his attention from the wall of photos. “Let’s talk out here, man.”

“Nahhh,” Cairo trilled dangerously calm; standing and moving right to the wall. He plucked a frame off housing a photo of Kamilla, a baby boy, Dania, and his niece. “What the fuck is this?!”

Nate pulled in a breath. “Hear me, nigga.”

“Nah, the time for being heard is over. Is this my fuckin’ son?” Cairo asked, losing the battle to temper himself. “Never mind, fuck all that. Give me the lo, Nate. I’m not in the fuckin’ mood for you to play with me.”

forty-five

“Son, these pots are hot, stop running around the kitchen,” Kamilla fussed, before trotting to the other side of her island to catch him. “Ohh, I got you!”

She tickled him and kissed his face. His laugh always seemed to regulate her spirit. Like the air she breathed, she needed Kairo. This innocent being she was blessed to guide through life’s ebbs and flows was her reason to work as hard as she did. Altering her life for him was so worth it. Even before Cairo’s freedom was a thing, she was prepared to do this alone for the rest of her life.

“Mommy,” Kairo shouted as he laughed and wiggled in her arms. “Not fair.”

“It is fair,” Kamilla replied with a laugh. She sat him on the counter and looked at her lover’s twin warmly. “You ran, I caught you. That’s fair. That’s the game. When you run, you get caught.”

“Anybody catch you?” Kairo posed.

“Mmhmm. You did,” she answered.

“No, like a biiigggg person,” Kairo corrected. “A giant.”

She laughed softly, remembering Cairo before he was pulled out of his shell. Overgrown hair, hiding in plain sight; housing the same pain she was. A trauma bond that they dropped and landed in love. Kamilla took a long blink to reset.

“Mmhmm. The biggest,” she shared.

“Did you scream?”

She nodded. “And kicked and tried to run again and the giant kept catching me.”