Page 42 of Beacon Grove Chronicles 1: Hassan & Sylvia

“Hassan, shut up bothering me. My stories bout to come on and I’m not gone miss finding out if this baby is half vampire, half witch or half werewolf when it’s born.” My granny was wearing her house dress and her hair was in rollers. She only came up to my shoulder and was still relatively fit to be heading toward eighty.

I looked at her wondering if my granny was watching some weird ass supernatural porn or something like that. “Granny, what you watching up in here?”

“Nunya business, Hassan. Now, tell me what’s going on.” She motioned for me to follow her and I did passing by photos of the family that lined the halls. We’d gotten so big the photos were hung from ceiling to damn near the floor in some spots. We entered the kitchen and Granny pointed to a stool silently commanding me to sit down. Her famous tea cakes were sitting on a plate in the center and I grabbed one of the napkins beside the plate so I could enjoy them.

The tea cakes were more crispy on the outside but still soft in the center just how I liked them. All of us grandkids liked our tea cakes made a different way so I knew she’d made these specifically for me.

I bit into the cookie that tasted like my childhood and smiled up at her. “You knew I was coming?”

“Had a dream. Your grandaddy was talking to me about you. That meant you were coming to get something off your chest. I just didn’t know when.” She went about making my plate like talking to my grandaddy was the most normal thing in the world.

I nodded because they’d always had that type of connection and I didn’t doubt that death couldn’t break their bond.

“It’s about Sylvia.”

She smiled, her wrinkles shifting as she piled my plate high. “Tell me something I don’t know. You’ve been running around Beacon Grove with that girl the last few months giving her ex husband’s ass the fits. I ain’t have a problem with his mama but Dave’s always been an arrogant little bastard.”

“Granny.”

“You think I forgot how he tried to fight you back in ’07? I haven’t and I never will.”

“You must be where we get that grudge shit from.”

She pointed the spoon she’d used to scoop out the potato salad toward me. “You not too big, Hassan.”

“That’s my fault. Anyway, yes, I want to be with her but I hate feeling like it’s too soon. A few years back, we saw one another and spent time together—”

My granny fluttered her fingers to get me to hurry up. “I already know you probably turned that girl every which way but loose. Get on past that.”

I should’ve been shamed but I couldn’t help the arrogant grin that came over my face. She only rolled her eyes because she knew how we all were. She sat my plate in front of me and then moved to the fridge to get me something to drink. No matter how often I told my granny I could fend for myself she insisted on doing it. I was sure she missed having someone to take care of.

“I had to leave for work and she felt like I was running game when I got back.”

“Were you?” I could see my granny’s hackles going up like she was going to cuss me out for Sisi.

“Hel—no, ma’am I’m not.” I dug into my plate and just like I knew it was slappin’.

“Then stop worrying about time, baby. All you have to do is be the man that you’re supposed to be and everything else will fall into place. You have feelings for her that strong?”

“I’m falling in love, Granny.”

She leaned over and stroked my cheek with the softest look on her face. “You’ve been in love, Hassan. You’ve just finally found your right thing at the right time. That’s called divine timing. I know you’ll have a little bit of a challenge getting through her hurt but you will. I can already see she’s much happier since you’ve been back. So whatever you did in the past don’t matter. She’s happy and you’re happy. Stick with that and nothing else matters.”

“I appreciate that, granny.”

“Besides you need to marry her before the babies come.”

I damn near choked on the ribs I was eating. Granny’s face didn’t change which had my heart racing. “Babies? What babies, granny?”

“Your granddaddy said y’all gone have ‘bout three more to go along with her two. Too busy playing soldier and letting those fools hurt you to settle down. But the tine is right now.”

I couldn’t front like it wasn’t a possibility that I could have gotten Sisi pregnant. We were being careless as fuck. Or maybe intentional as fuck was the better term. Since that first night we reconnected I hadn’t used condoms. It wasn’t even a discussion. I’d pull out as often as I could but she knew when I didn’t. I knew the consequences of not doing so and was going to be happy with them as long as they were with her.

“You gone be happy to be a great granny?” Even saying it made it feel like a guarantee instead of a possibility.

“Of course. The older two ain’t got much by the way of a daddy and I’m proud of you for stepping in the way you have. Not like I expected anything less.” She patted my hand and having my granny proud of me made me sit up taller.

“Thank you, granny.”