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“Let me see your phone.”
She reached for it on the coffee table and handed it to me. I started looking through the delivery app while she rested her head against my shoulder.
This is what I love about Penelope too. I didn’t have any worries about her talking to another nigga. I knew that she was for me, and I mean truly for me. Unlike girls before her, she didn’t care that I used to play basketball, could have gotten a scholarship for it and gone pro, or that my family was well off. Shit, we were sitting in an apartment in a building that her fucking father owned. She was just as fortunate as me.
“Your dad come around here a lot?” I asked.
“Whenever he’s in town. He travels for work, so sometimes I won’t see him for a couple of weeks, and then he’ll show up wanting to take me to breakfast three mornings in a row.”
I smiled.
“He just wanna spend time with his baby.”
“I know.” She paused. “He’s coming to see me soon, actually.”
“Yeah?”
“Mhm. I’ll let you know when he confirms the day.”
I glanced down at her.
“You gonna introduce me and bring me along to breakfast?”
She lifted her head.
“You want to meet him?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t know. Some men get weird about meeting fathers.”
“I ain’t some men.”
She smiled at that.
I put the phone down and looked at her. Penn was truly amazing to me, so when I say that I was taking her seriously… I mean that shit.
“If I’m spending time with his daughter, I ain’t got no problem shaking his hand.”
“He’ll appreciate that.”
“Good. Maybe I’ll bring up the rent after we eat.”
“MJ!”
I laughed and held her when she tried to climb off my lap.
“I’m playing, baby. Damn.”
She settled against me again while still smiling. She picked up her phone so we could decide what to eat. I’d spent so much of the past couple of weeks worrying about Pops that I hadn’t realized how badly I needed an evening where nothing was happening. Nobody needed me to run an errand, answer a question, or check on anything. Pops was home with Ma and my sisters, and I knew they’d call if they needed me. For tonight, I could sit right here with Penelope, argue over what to order, and enjoy being around her.
Chapter 15
Trigga
Isat in my car across from a single-family house in North Carolina. I looked down at my phone and checked the address for the third time. The numbers matched the ones Ms. Gia had given me. That didn’t mean her sister still lived here, or that Ghost had ever set foot inside, but after driving all this way, I was going to knock on the damn door. The house sat back from the street behind a narrow patch of grass. A car was parked in the driveway, and the curtains were open just enough for me to see a lamp burning inside.
Nothing about the place told me whether I was in the right spot. I’d been sitting there long enough for somebody to notice my car, though, so I put my phone down and cut the engine.
