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“How you know? You ever asked one?”

I opened my mouth, found myself completely without a counterargument, and closed it.

Granny chuckled softly, patting my knee. “Let’s start gathering up these clothes before that boy comes back with half a toy store.”

An hour later, my cell phone buzzed against the table.

It was a photo text from Henrietta.

I unlocked the screen. Kaidence was standing in the center aisle of a massive toy store, grinning from ear to ear, holding a box nearly twice his size containing a motorized monster truck assembly kit.

Beneath the picture, Henrietta had texted:

Henrietta: He said this was an absolute necessity for his new bedroom.

I stared at the screen in utter disbelief and showed it to Willow.

Willow leaned over my shoulder, took one look at the photo, and howled with laughter. “See?! The boy is already moving furniture in!”

I shook my head, quickly typing back:

Me: Please tell me you did not buy that monster of a box.

Three little typing bubbles appeared on the screen, disappeared, then appeared again.

Then Henrietta’s reply popped up:

Henrietta: Too late. It’s already in the trunk. See you later, sweetie.

I closed my eyes and let out a long, helpless breath. “Lord give me strength.”

Tomorrow, I was finally crossing that gate… not to chase answers or reopen an old wound, but to step inside the home Caspian had built for us… the home he had spent so long begging me to make ours.

Chapter eight

Caspian

Mama had been in my house less than ten minutes, and already six unfamiliar people were walking around with cleaning supplies.

I stood near the staircase watching a woman plug a vacuum into the wall while another carried a basket of folded towels toward the guest bedrooms. Two men had gone upstairs, and somebody in my kitchen was opening cabinets like she paid a bill in this mothafucka.

What we doing, Ma?

Mama placed her purse on the console table, completely ignoring me as usual.

Well, not on purpose.

Still irritated me.

“I want fresh linens on every bed,” she instructed to the woman holding the towels. “The primary bedroom too. Everything in storage that I marked for that room should already be back where it belongs.”

My attention shifted upstairs.

Mama had been having things brought back all week. At first, I thought she was just tired of paying storage fees. Now she had a cleaning company in here preparing beds?

Hold the fuck up.

If you’re about to rent this house again, we need to have a conversation.