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“The hell y’all doing on my line early in the morning?”

“Well, excuse us for loving you, grandson,” Grandma Lettie spoke from the middle square on the screen. Her background had the brightest light, indicative of her position in the family.

“I ain’t sayin’ it like that, G. Good morning.”

“That’s more like it,” she replied. “Where’s my great gran? We called to wish him a happy first day.”

“Nah,” Pryce interrupted in the background of his square, but it was Adai’s face in the camera smiling. “Key been blowing up our line for the last thirty minutes and here we are.”

“For the love of Baby Jay,” Adai added, shaking her head. “Sorry y’all. He’s still half asleep. Good morning.”

“Ain’t nobody thinkin’ ‘bout that grumpy ass nigga.” I snickered. “Good morning.”

I knew Pryce loved my son, so I wasn’t offended by his response.

“And I was not blowin’ up nobody’s phone,” Key jumped in to defend herself.

“What you call calling four times back-to-back?” Tay questioned, turning on his camera. His screen was dark, but I could see half his face against a pillow.

“I call it stalkerish behavior,” Aura called out from his square, still in bed with Danae cuddled up next to him.

“Oh, nigga, you’d know all about that,” Key shot back.

We all busted out laughing, even Danae.

“Aye,” he looked down at her, “you don’t get to laugh at ya husband. We a united front.”

“Sorry, baby.” She kissed him. “Good morning, everybody.”

Another square popped up, and Thyri and Enzo appeared in his kitchen.

“Hey, everybody,” Thyri greeted.

Enzo kissed the back of her neck and nodded in the camera.

“Fuck outta here, Hollywood ass nigga,” I said, laughing.

“Watch ya mouth, Jamison,” Grandma Lettie chastised.

“Oh, my bad.”

“Anyway,” Key started again, “I gathered all of your family because we…”

The screen shifted again, and Amil’s face popped up in the last box. Like myself, she was in her car, likely headed into the diner. “Morning, family. Where’s Baby Jay?”

We all gave our synchronized good mornings.

“I’m on my way to him now. He’s with his mama.”

“Oh, why you ain’t say that when we started the call?” Key asked.

“We?” Enzo cut in. “You called us.”

Thyri laughed beside him.

“And told us to pick up for Baby Jay.”

“Same difference. The point is this is a big day and needs to be treated as such,” Key countered.