Baby Momma 3
Page 24
Getting anywhere with this man seemed damn near ridiculous no matter how hard I tried. Everything I’d accused him of and put him through was all because of his damn father, and because I was too stubborn and foolish to trust a trustworthy person.
I grabbed his hands and he reluctantly let me hold them; he looked everywhere but down at me.
“Devon, you can’t make me realize that I need you and then take you away from me. You’re the one who said you can fix anything, so help me fix this.” My voice broke and tears ran down my cheeks but I didn’t hide them. “I can’t love you by myself. I didn’t want to fall all by myself. You were supposed to fall too.” I dropped my head against his shoulder and cried. I’d been refusing to let anyone in for this very reason and then he came along and—
“I did.” Devon’s voice was a raspy whisper as he lifted my chin and stared into my eyes. “I did fall too, and I do love you. Baby, please stop crying.” He leaned down and kissed my cheeks.
“I’ll probably have to get you an autographed R2-D2 jersey to make up for it, huh?” I asked him in a pitiful voice.
“Get me a what, woman?” He looked down at me with the sweetest confused face.
I shrugged. “That football guy you like for the Redskins, RPG. I’ll get you an autographed jersey to hang on your wall,” I explained.
He made an exasperated sound and started laughing. I didn’t get the joke.
“Chelle, it’s RG3. And after I figure out what’s going on with all this”—he pointed toward his father being put into a car—“I know something even better than can um, hang from my wall,” he replied, winking down at me.
“Glad you answered your Bat-Signal, playboy,” Towanna called out as she came across the street grinning like a damn fool.
For the first time since all the commotion started I noticed the letters FBI on her shirt.
“You’ve got to be playing. This whole time, Towanna, really?” I stared at her.
She nodded and kept grinning. “Yes, the entire time. Let’s go have a drink and I’ll tell you all about it. Feels like I ain’t seen you in forever.”
“Shots fired, shots fired,” Towanna’s radio blared.
Devon pushed me into the Land Cruiser and Towanna drew her gun. No one, and I repeat no one saw the shooter that took Angelo out as he was being put into the cruiser.
Chapter 34
Always Share Your Nightmares So They Can’t Come True?
(Three Years Later)
Most people loved summer. Not me, and especially not in Virginia. The heat and humidity alone could make your boobs and butt combust into sweat the second you stepped outside. My favorite time of year quickly became early fall. Fall was supposed to be a time of year when the clouds brought to mind marshmallows and hot cocoa with a splash of Kahlúa. The crunch of leaves on the ground sounded like cute boots and comfy sweaters. Yet, there was nothing fall-like or cozy about sitting directly underneath the “cook your forehead” hot sun on a Wednesday afternoon during one of Virginia’s Indian summers.
Someone had a grill going nearby and the smell of charcoal and hotdogs in the air reminded me of summer on the Fourth of July. We were sitting Indian style in a soft patch of clovers near the swings. I was glad I’d just worn an old comfortable pair of jeans and one of my Old Navy tees. All these confused-ass heffas in workout gear had taken up all the benches in the shade. All they were doing was sitting around eating snacks and talking on their cells. Not one of them looked like they were trying to scoot over or leave anytime soon.
“Show me which one you’re thinking about. I wanna see if her ears bleed.” Towanna leaned over, nudging me with her elbow, laughing. Denise sat behind her, arms wrapped around her waist, smiling over her shoulder. Funny how they couldn’t stand each other as Towanna put it.
Some people like to get close to you just so they can say they were close. They really don’t care about your dreams or what makes you, you. They just want to be able to tell people on the outside that their asses were part of your inner circle.
Thankfully Special Agent Towanna James wasn’t one of those people. After everything that’d happened I never thought I’d let anyone get near me again but, I’d found genuine friendship with her and real love and happiness with Devon. They both had ways of making me laugh and the drama that used to be my life seemed worlds away. Well, except for my usual drama.
“Trey, you’d better put that down. I’m watchin’ you,” I warned, giving him a stern look and in turn focusing that same gaze on his counterpart. “Paris, little girl. Ah . . . no. If I have to get up and come over there. Don’t put that on him. See, that’s why he hit you. Trey, pick her doll up. I said I was watching you. Both of y’all just stop, nobody touch nothing. Go play on the slide over there or something.”
He gave me a big grin before he went bouncing toward the slide.
Blowing out an exasperated breath, I fanned myself. For a parent, even playing was hard work. I felt akin to child wrangler out here. All I needed was a bullwhip and a megaphone.
“Towanna, I swear that boy is the devil sometimes. He is fa’ sho his daddy’s child, because that kind of foolishness is not of me.” I shook my head. “No, I didn’t make all that.”
“Stop frowning at the boy, Chelle, he’s behaving.” Devon plucked a dandelion, tossing it at me. He was sitting on the opposite side of me. Giggling I tossed it back. I’d never told him what Rasheed had typed into Trey’s iPad before I’d deleted it. I debated ever telling Trey. But, I needed to learn a lesson from Reena and not turn into an old woman withholding a century of secrets in my head. Secrets like, “Don’t be like Daddy.” I had reasons for what I did, and like Devon always said, if I’d asked instead of jumping without looking well . . .
Towanna snickered. “Yeah, he’s a boy, Chelle, that’s what they do. They terrorize little sisters and when they grow up they become their bodyguards and best friends. I grew up with two older brothers remember? Trust me, I’d know. It could be worse; he could be stealing Paris’s tiaras calling himself the Queen Bitch. Snappin’ and twistin’.” She chuckled.
“Heavens no.” I sucked my teeth and let out an exasperated breath on that one.
“I’ll just be glad when the terror, tease, and fight phase is over all—” I’d barely gotten the words out before little Ms. Lataya Paris II came launching her little self up into my lap.
I was stuck trying to find her head out the sudden crash of upside down bright pink and white dress and limbs. She’d face planted and all I could see were little legs sticking from in between mine. I finally managed to pluck her out without getting kicked in the process and she was crying and screaming at the top of her lungs, damn near splitting my eardrums in the process. Of course Trey wasn’t far behind, proudly carrying a got-damn baby python. I grabbed Paris and hopped up, screaming my own head off.
“Trey, what in the hell? Put that thing down before it bites your ass. Have you lost your mind, boy?” I looked over at Devon to handle what was also suddenly on his feet beside me.
“Hell, no. I don’t do snakes,” he shouted, throwing his hands up.
“Calm down, y’all, it’s just a garden snake. A baby one at that. They’re harmless.” Towanna went all nature woman on our asses. She got up and took the ungodly spawn of Satan boa constrictor from Trey.
I backed up with Paris in my arms. “If you come over here, on my life I’ll get in that car and leave all of y’all asses out here.” Just then a large black bat looking something or another hovered suspiciously near me and I went Mayweather on it. Bobbing and weaving, sidestepping and shrieking all with Paris squealing in my arms.
“Um, it’s just a butterfly, Chelle. The two of y’all are a mess. We will never go camping.”
“Camping is anti-evolutionary anyway. I don’t give a damn. It’s a bug. I don’t do snakes, bugs, critters, creatures, creepers; anyone who knows me knows that shit. I have nightmares about them things crawling on me and I can’t get them off. I’m telling you about
it now so it can’t happen again.”
“And, I have nightmares about my wife trying to kill me and holding a gun to my head and drugging me and turning me into the FBI.”
Denise, Towanna, and I gasped in unison and I immediately started blinking back tears and smiling. This fool was on one knee holding up a ring.
“I’m telling you about it now, so it can’t happen again. Emphasis on wife. I think we’ve traced our family trees and learned enough about each other. I want you and the silly, crazy, somewhat controlling woman you are more than just my baby momma,” he added in a hushed whisper.
Denise took Paris from me because I was about to fall all to pieces as I said yes.
He wasn’t gonna ever let me forget that whole drugging, FBI thing either. Devon stood up, pulling me close, and I could hear Trey groaning as he stomped off behind Towanna and Denise so they could set their anaconda free at the edge of the park. I smiled into Devon’s face and pressed my nose against his.
“You sure your auntie twice removed on your momma side ain’t run a brothel off Hampton Boulevard in 1986? I’m just askin’.”
Urban Books, LLC
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Baby Momma 3 Copyright © 2014 Ni’chelle Genovese
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