Page 4 of Hired By My Rich Baby Daddy 2

Ginger noticed. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said, but was I really?

"Ozy."

"I'm good, Gin, for real. Just drop it."

She walked over and wrapped her arms around me, pressing the side of her face into my back. For a second, I just stood there, hands at my sides. Then I turned around in her arms and hugged her back.

That was the thing about Ginger. She had been there for the ugly shit, and honestly, if somebody would've told me we'd be locked in right now, and not on some PR shit, I'd say that muthafucka was lying. This time a year and some change ago, she and I were only doing this shit for the cameras.

And although she still had her bratty and jealous-ass ways at times, shawty surprised the hell out of me by just being there for me, and for that, I had her back no matter what.

We made shit official 'bout three months after Reesie died. She was the one who'd just sit with a nigga when I didn't wanna talk, when I didn't wanna eat, when I'd randomly find myself crying.

She was there, and I was forever grateful ’cause she ain’t let me go through it alone. PB and Unc had my back, no question, but she didn’t owe me that kind of loyalty. She could’ve left… she stayed.

Ginger pulled back and touched my face, her thumb moving slow along my jaw. "Don't go there today."

"I ain't."

"Promise?"

I looked down at her and nodded, pushing my guilt to the back of my mind.

"It's your birthday," she continued, straightening my chain out flat against my chest. "You're about to get on a private jet with your beautiful girlfriend and spend the next few days in Costa Rica. You're gonna eat good, drink good, and⁠—"

"Beautiful girlfriend?"

"Uh, yeah… like, have you not seen me?" She stepped back out of my arms and spun around in a slow circle.

“Cap! That's debatable."

She slapped my chest with the back of her hand.

I laughed and caught her wrist. "I'm fucking with you."

"You better be."

"I appreciate you."

Her face softened.

I continued. "I mean that."

"I know."

"Nah." I pulled her back into me by her waist. "For everything."

I didn't have to explain what everything meant. She knew what the fuck I was talking about.

"I love you," she said quietly.

I kissed her forehead instead of saying it back.

Gin had been saying she loved me for a long time, but something in me just couldn't say it back… not yet.

Breakfast wound down with King still working on his last few bites of pancake, syrup smeared all over his little fingers, and I wiped his hands off before he could get it on the counter. Uncle Marcus was already clearing plates, humming something old school under his breath the way he always did in the kitchen.