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Chapter Five

Summatime Fine

The Thomases had a modest home on the southwest side of the city, in the Mission Bend area. Their particular neighborhood was full of older homes with two-car garages on larger-than-average lots. As cliché as it sounded, the grass over there was, without-a-doubt, greener. The air also smelled a little sweeter, cleaner. Maybe it was the mature trees that dotted the community, their lush canopies naturally shading the wide streets and providing a home to a bevy of raucous birds and skittering squirrels. It was beautiful to experience in the spring and fall months, but it was especially captivating in the winter, when the entire neighborhood came together to decorate each street with lights and displays for the full month of December.

I shifted the car into Park and twisted in my seat to find Amani already pulling his arms through the straps of his booster seat. Laughing, I turned off the car and stepped onto the street, using my hip to close my door before opening his and finishing the job of disconnecting his buckles before he got stuck.

“Wait, baby!” I urged when he began to lurch against the straps.

“Hurry, Mommy! Nana Cherry’s in there!”

The moment that the last buckle across his chest was released, he slid out of his seat and pushed past me to jump out of the car. As soon as his sneakered feet touched the grass on the embankment, he took off running, heading right for the Texas-shaped pavers that formed a path from the sidewalk to the front door.

“Careful!” I called out, knowing even as the word left my mouth that my determined baby would do no such thing.

He kept on, pace undisturbed, little arms pumping as he crossed the large lawn. The door flung open and Poppa’s septuagenarian grandmother crouched on one knee, her arms spread wide.

“My ’Mani!”

“Nana Cherry!” Amani shouted, somehow speeding up out of nowhere with no extra traction immediately visible.

My first instinct was to grab him or, once again, call out to him, this time with instructions to slow down. The last thing I wanted was for him to unintentionally harm the nearly eighty-year-old woman, but after Nana Cherry fussed me out good one similarly beautiful Sunday afternoon for attempting to “stifle his expression of joy,” I now just stood back and watched the marvel that was the bond they shared. Seven decades separated them, but Nana Cherry caught my baby and lifted him into the air as if he weighed four pounds instead of forty. The urge to tell Amani to get down was strong, but my good sense was stronger. There was no way I was about to argue with a woman who’d not only helped bring several babies into the world with her own hands as a midwife, but who also played a major part in the upbringing of one of my favorite people on the planet.

“Hey, Nana Cherry,” I murmured, bending slightly to press a kiss to the woman’s paper-thin cheek. Her eyes were glued to my giggling son, but I wasn’t offended that she wasn’t paying me much mind. The way she doted on him was healing for the part of me that still mourned my grandmother, who’d passed right after my eighteenth birthday.

“Hay is for horses, Juleesa,” she quipped. Though she hadn’t looked up at me, I could see her sharp cheekbones lifted in amusement.

“Yeah, Mommy!” Amani instigated, peering at me upside down from his perch in Nana Cherry’s arms. “You have to say ‘Good afternoon’ because it’s after twelve o’clock p.m.!”

Expelling an exaggerated gasp, I snapped. “You’re right, ’Mani! I completely forgot the time!”

Tilting my head so that I was in Nana Cherry’s peripheral, I smiled. Without a doubt, I knew that was something that she had taught him. Poppa’s grandmother kept Amani for me three days out of the week when his four-hour kindergarten class let out before I finished work, and also on Fridays since he didn’t have school and both Samir and I had to work. What she did for me was more than just babysitting.

Every day with Nana Cherry was essentially homeschooling for Amani. Just by nature of keeping him, she taught him so many things that they weren’t even concerned with at his school. While the other kids were identifying shapes and colors, my baby knew the difference between root and cruciferous vegetables from working alongside her in her garden, he knew that you couldn’t take certain medications with juice because it would nullify their effect, and he also knew what Victor Newman did for a living and how his trifling children could never do right. That last little tidbit had sent me into a wheezing fit of giggles when it had come out of his mouth.

Nana Cherry reminded me so much of my own grandmother that it made my heart ache. Mommie would’ve been a couple of years younger than Nana Cherry but just as animated and active.

“Good afternoon, Nana Cherry.”

This time, she looked up at me, watery blue-brown eyes full of mischief. Puckering her lips, she waited until I offered her my cheek to kiss before speaking. “Afternoon, Juleesa. Thank you for bringing my favorite great-grand to me. Cyndi’s been looking for you.”

As if cued by someone offstage, Poppa entered the foyer just as her name was called, looking good as hell in a yellow linen short set with the top unbuttoned showing off a white tank top with low lemon drop Dunks on her feet. My brows furrowed for a second because that yellow on her deep-brown skin was sexy as fuck—and that was a thought I shouldn’t have about my best friend.

Lips twisted to the side, Poppa gave her grandmother a side-eye.

“How you gon’ call ’Mani your favorite like Dougie ain’t get that Pomeranian down the street pregnant?”

Nana Cherry shrieked with laughter and shifted Amani to her hip as she swung out at Poppa, who jumped back before the slap could land.

“Hush up, you!”

Hands lifted in surrender, Poppa shook her head. “I’m just saying. Dougie is a part of this family—don’t ignore his children.”

Pursing her lips, the older woman flicked her fingers at her only granddaughter. “How about you worry less about what I said and worry more about feeding Juleesa. She looks hungry.” With that, she spun on her heels and left the foyer, my baby on her hip, grin big and wide as he waved me goodbye.

Grateful to have something to focus on other than my unruly thoughts, I turned to Poppa and frowned.

“I look hungry?”

Instead of immediately answering me, Poppa laughed and pulled me into a hug, both of her arms wrapping around my lower back as she squeezed, stealing my breath for more than one reason as she lifted me a couple of inches off of the ground. I felt and heard something crack in my back and yelped, pushing her away.

“What the hell, Poppa?! You tryna break my damn back?”

Laughing, she pulled me back toward her, looping an arm over my shoulder and dropping a kiss onto my cheek. “You can take it.”

The double entendre made me burst out laughing. I shook my head, leaving her arm in place and allowing her to lead me through her parents’ house and to the sliding door that opened out to the backyard.

“That don’t make it right, you perv.”

Chuckling, she slid the door closed behind us. “Why I gotta be a pervert just because you like it rough? Make that make sense.”

Unable to contain my grin, I shook my head again. “I’m not about to play with you today.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered, “tell me anything.”

She started heading for the food table, but I made a left and walked toward the group of people line-dancing in the grass. As hungry as I was, there was no way I was going to sit down and grub without speaking first. I didn’t recognize everyone in the yard, but I still smiled and waved when I made eye contact. It wasn’t hard to spot Poppa’s father in the throng of people doing the Electric Slide. Not only because Poppa was his spitting image, but because his hulking frame towered over most everyone else. Mr. Marvin was the definition of a teddy bear, big, loving, and gentle, and Poppa took after him in many ways.

Just observing him brought a smile to my face. His shiny, uncovered, bald head glistened under the bright sun, his white teeth gleaming as he grinned. And he was clearly having a good time, his eyes on Mrs. Carissa, who had her hands on her knees as she freestyled the cha-cha part in front of him, tooting her butt in the air with her tongue between her teeth as she looked back at it.

“Okay!” I cheered, stopping on the side of their makeshift dance floor and rocking to the beat.

The song came to an end and immediately transitioned into “K-Wang.” I expected them both to jump into the steps, but they surprised me by simultaneously heading right for me. Mr. Marvin used a yellow hand towel that matched his polo to wipe his face and head while Mrs. Carissa threw her arms around me.

“Juleesa!” she exclaimed, rocking me from side to side as if it had been ages since she’d seen me. Her exuberance each and every time I saw her was one of the things I loved about her.

Mr. Marvin tossed his towel over his shoulder before bending down to hug me to his side as his wife stepped aside.

“Good to see you, baby girl. Did you eat?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. I wanted to come speak first.”

Nodding, he squeezed my shoulder and stood back. “Well, I’m glad you made it. Star Shine has been watching the door for at least an hour.”

Beside me, Poppa sucked her teeth. “Why is everybody acting like I’ve been pacing a hospital waiting room while I wait for the surgeon to come out and give me results?”

Her parents met eyes, sharing twin smirks that made Poppa roll her eyes.

“Man, whatever! Y’all not gon’ make me feel bad for waiting on my friend to eat.”

Mr. Marvin lifted his hands in surrender and ducked his head. “We wouldn’t dream of it.” Looping an around his wife’s waist, he tucked Mrs. Carissa under his arm. “I also wait on my best friend to arrive before I eat and have been doing so for thirty-five years.”

“Chill out, Daddy,” Poppa chuckled, grabbing my arm and leading me to the other side of the yard.

Laughing, I waved goodbye.

“Don’t do them like that,” I scolded teasingly. “They’re innocent.”

“Nah,” she denied. “They buggin’. One of my cousins had a baby a few weeks ago and since then, they’ve been throwing hints here and there about grandkids. This is just another level of that.”

That stopped me in my tracks. Hinting that me and Poppa should get together was one thing, but wanting us to get together and produce a baby was a flavor of déjà vu that left a sour taste in my mouth. Part of me and Samir hooking up was due to pressure from his parents to produce grandchildren before they were “too old to spoil them.” I loved my baby, but I refused to be pushed down that road again. I just wanted to have a best friend that everyone respected as my best friend, who remained my best friend without any fanfare.

Poppa had released me to walk alongside her, our arms occasionally bumping as we squeezed past people in the semi-full yard. After stopping by the table where Nana Cherry and some of her girlfriends sat fawning over Amani as he ate, we continued on. My stomach grumbled loudly, causing Poppa to stop in her tracks and swing widened eyes onto me.

“That was your belly howling like that?”

Laughing, I clutched my stomach and nodded.

“Yeah, man. I’m starving.”

“What a coincidence,” chimed Cody, popping up on my right with a plate of ribs and sides in his hands. “These have your name written all over them.”

My eyes lit up at the sight of perfectly smoked meat, seasoned baked beans, grilled corn, and dirty rice. I lifted my hands, palms upward and ready to receive my blessing.

“Thank you, Cody!” I cooed once the plate was securely in my hands. I didn’t hesitate to raise a rib to my mouth and take a bite.

“Seriously?” scoffed Poppa. “I waited on you and you gon’ take food from this fool?” The look in her eyes gave me pause. It wasn’t the normal exasperation that I saw when her and Cody went back and forth, but I didn’t quite know how to categorize it. It was almost something like jealousy, but that didn’t make sense.

“Sowwy,” I murmured with a full mouth, finding it hard to be truly apologetic with the succulent meat still on my tongue. “You heard my stomach.” Sliding my gaze to Cody, I dipped my head.

His cheeks bloomed as he bit his lip, giving him a boyish appearance. Quicker than I could blink, he hugged me to his side and planted a kiss on my temple before stepping back. Ignoring Poppa’s glare, he shoved his hands in his pockets.

“You should let me take you out sometime. Let me show you how many more of your needs I can anticipate and meet without you asking—” licking his lips, he winked at me “—or having to point me in the right direction.”

Cody was nothing if not persistent, but I couldn’t deny that he was also smooth as hell. If I was another woman, that line might’ve had my panties in hand, ready to transfer ownership. Another thing I couldn’t deny was his attractiveness. Despite being the baby of the Thomas bunch, Cody was both the tallest at over six feet, and the biggest with years of playing football through high school and college working with genetics from his father to make him broad and solid. Where Poppa looked like their father and Caleb taking after their mother, Cody was a perfect mix of Mr. Marvin’s mahogany skin and sleepy, deep brown eyes and Mrs. Carissa’s thick black hair and dimples.

To put things simply, Cody was a problem in the best of ways.

But someone else’s problem.

Several someone elses’, actually. He didn’t lack for female attention, which is why I was certain his fixation on me was solely his attempt at needling Poppa. She’d made it clear that he’d ruined friendships for her when they were teenagers, and she refused to let him do that to her as an adult. I thought the whole thing—his constant flirting and her reactions—was funny as hell.

Huffing, Poppa walked off, traversing the final few feet to the table where food was in buffet trays over lit butane cans. Shaking my head, I headed after her, chuckling when Cody fell into step with me.

“You need to leave her alone,” I stated before biting into the perfectly buttered ear of corn from my plate.

“Now where’s the fun in that?”

Not having an answer for him, I just shook my head again and went to sit at one of the picnic tables. I learned early on that this was about and between them and didn’t really have much to do with me at all, so I did my best to stay out of it. Once I settled down and started to eat, Poppa slid an overloaded plate on my right and climbed onto the bench seat, accidentally on purpose bumping my elbow as she got situated.

Smirking, I waited for her to finish before grabbing my last rib.

“You done flirting with my knucklehead brother?”

Dropping the rib, I threw my head back and hollered.

“Who’s buggin’ now?” I asked.

Her face was to her plate, but I saw her cheeks lift as she grinned, indicating that she wasn’t really upset.

“Definitely still my parents.”

All I could do was laugh. Poppa knew damn well that I wasn’t checking for Cody, and she likely knew he felt the same way. I was an only child so I didn’t understand it, but this was probably just a way they played with each other. As long as no one was genuinely mad at me, I didn’t mind it.

The companionable silence that we’d fallen into as we ate was interrupted when Amani ran up to me, hope and excitement all over his face.

“What is it, baby?” I asked, wiping my fingers on a napkin and turning to straddle the bench so that I could pull him up to sit between my legs.

“Mommy, can I spend the night?”

My eyebrows rose. “You just spent the week at your daddy’s house, baby boy. Aren’t you ready to come home with Mommy?”

Jumping off of the bench, he took off across the yard, running up to Nana Cherry. I stood to my feet and followed his path. When he spun on his heel, preparing to run back to me, I caught him around the waist and lifted him into the air, tickling his sides as I cradled him in my arms and approached the circle of elderly women.

“Whose idea was this?” I asked, my lips curved into a smile. There was really no telling when it came to those two.

Nana Cherry raised a hand. “Guilty. I know you just got him back, but Mary was telling me how they’re playing the latest animal cartoon movie at Discovery Green in about an hour, and I thought ’Mani might like to go since Mary is meeting her grands up there who are about his same age. We might do ice cream afterward, and I didn’t want you to have to wait up for him, so I told him to ask you if he could just stay the night.”

Pursing my lips, I thought it over. I had just gotten Amani back. He’d spent the previous week with Samir and I’d missed him, but one more day wouldn’t hurt. Kissing my baby’s cheek, I set him on his feet.

“I trust you not to have him up too late, and to make sure he doesn’t have too much sugar.”

Nana Cherry cringed, and I huffed a light laugh. Clearly my rules were cutting into their plans.

“I’ll make sure he gets the right amount of sleep,” Nana Cherry assured me, pulling my son toward her. Grinning triumphantly, Amani nodded.

“Yeah, Mommy.”

It didn’t miss me how she didn’t address the sugar intake, and all I could do was shake my head. The decision was made, whether I knew it or not, and all I was left to do was pretend like it was up to me despite me knowing otherwise. When those two came up with a plan, there wasn’t much I could do to sway them. Luckily, it was never anything that I ever felt the need to put my foot down on.

Heading back to the picnic table I’d been sitting at, I gathered up my empty plate and went to toss it in the trash. When I sat back down, Poppa nudged me with her elbow.

“So, I take it you’re kid-free for one more night.”

Sighing, I nodded. “Indeed.”

Sucking barbecue sauce off her thumb, Poppa echoed my nod. “Cool. I have to head into the studio for a couple hours, but Xeno wants to pop out to VR for a lil bit so, since your schedule is open, come with.”

As much as I teased Poppa about Xeno and I sharing a title, I didn’t hold any animosity toward the other woman. In fact, I loved hanging out with the two of them, which often included Xeno’s girlfriend, Trisha, who was funny and reminded me of some of the girls I grew up with back in Dallas.

“What time are you thinking?”

Poppa pulled her phone out of the pocket of her shorts and tapped at the screen a few times.

“Around eleven,” she finally answered.

I nodded. That gave me a couple of hours to go home and catch a nap.

“Count me in.”

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