Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Indy and Ally, everyone knew how it went, and for me, it had been nearly two decades, and still, I knew.
“Remind me to ream their asses next time I’m in the office,” Darius said to Lee.
“I don’t know, seems like an excuse for a party. I’ll call Jet. She can bring the cashews,” Indy said.
“Righteous!” Ally cried.
“Fuck,” Darius swore.
“Best be gettin’ your ass back down to the reserve, Liam. And break out some more glasses,” Lena ordered.
Liam looked to his dad.
Darius nodded.
Liam headed out of the room.
I got up on tiptoe and asked in Darius’s ear. “How do you do that?”
“I got a dick,” he answered.
I scrunched my face.
Even so, he kissed me.
I could swear I heard someone sigh.
The problem was, I thought it was Kenneth.
“Girl, you gotta lose your pad,” Toni, now examining the African mask, called. “It’s alright. But this place has got character.”
I looked up to Darius.
I leaned into Darius.
And then I smiled.
* * * *
I was in Darius’s attractive kitchen, which was bigger than mine (way bigger), had better…well, everything than mine (and I’d gone for a load of upgrades), and I was drying wineglasses.
With grave effort, Lee stopped Indy and Ally from calling in their crew.
We all had a glass of wine (except Indy, Darius got her some ice water).
Then Tony corralled his crew and got them out the door.
Lee corralled his (and I discovered Ally’s man was called Ren, and he was as nice as he was fine) and got them out the door.
Which left me, Darius and Liam.
And I was hiding.
Darius walked in.
I aimed a smile at him, but it was trembling so much, it probably looked more like a grimace.
He took the wineglass out of one hand, the towel out of the other, put the first down, threw the last beside it, then shifted me with his body to fence me in facing him with his hands on the counter at either side of me.
“Right, sweetheart, so we didn’t get down to planning how we’d ease into this with Liam, but we’re here now, we gotta wing it.”
“I just thought I’d give him a kiss and go home. He’s got to go to bed. He’s got school tomorrow.”
“Baby, hate to break this to you, but he’s in AP classes and football. When he’s not doing something with the team, he studies so much, he sleeps about two hours a night. And he’s sixteen. That’s all he needs.”
I begged to differ.
As such, I shook my head. “He’s still a growing boy. I talked to the doctor about it since he won’t stop. He said boys can keep growing into their early twenties.”
“Good to know,” he murmured, eyes on my mouth.
I put a hand to his flat belly, then wished I didn’t because I could feel the hardness and ridges, and our son was in the next room.
“Darius, stop looking at my mouth,” I demanded.
His eyes lifted to mine. “He’s not six. He’s not going to get confused.”
I took my hand from his stomach so I could wring both of them together and looked around his shoulder at the door.
“Malia, baby, eyes to me.”
I returned my gaze to him.
“Let’s just sit him down, open a dialogue with him, and see where he’s at.”
I felt my brows inch together. “Open a dialogue?”
“Yeah. One of the guys at work, Vance, his wife is a social worker. Her name is Jules. She’s got a job at a shelter for runaways. I talked with her about all this, and if you and I got to this place, how we’d help Liam deal.”
Oh my God.
Could a body melt?
It could. I felt it happening to me.
“That was very sweet of you.”
“I love my kid. I also talked to her about how to help him adjust to split custody. But he didn’t need it. He was so relieved we were out about all our shit, he just settled in.”
“I noticed that,” I mumbled.
“Malia, our son is waiting for us.”
Our son.
He was our son.
And he could be, officially, on the record, our son with us being his parents if I stopped hiding in the damned kitchen.
“You good?” Darius asked.
I nodded.
He unpinned me but took my hand.
He led me into the living room where Liam was sprawled in one of the black leather chairs.
In fact, he was sprawled in the one I tackled his father into a few hours before.
Eek!
Work through it, girl! my mind screamed.
Liam started it.
“You don’t have to sit me down like I’m five and tell me Mom’s spending the night. I think I got it earlier that you worked things out.”
Darius led me to the couch and hesitated. I looked up at him in confusion, and his gaze went from me to the couch to me.
Oh.
Right.
I sat.
He remained standing and faced his son.
I stilled and my heart stopped in my chest.