Page 26 of I Need It

I rolled my eyes. KJ could make a joke about any damn thing. While he was outgoing and loud most times, he was real quiet about his personal shit, as were most people who stayed in other folks’ business. “Who?”

“Cassie.”

I frowned slightly. “What she calling you for?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess she tryna reestablish our friendship. I don’t know.”

“How long she been engaged?”

“A year, I think.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Clearly, you think it’s more to it than that. Otherwise, why would you be telling me like it’s tea?”

He slid his hand over his face as Rylan sat with us. “What y’all over here talking about?”

“Single nigga business, family man. Go over there with Jakari, Brix, Decaurey, and Lennox,” KJ said.

Rylan rolled his eyes and slapped my hand. “How’s it going, man?” I asked.

“It’s going good, bruh. Renzo is laid-back, just like his daddy. He eats and sleeps. Angel has to wake him up to eat at night.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Yeah. Lil man likes to sleep. She was panicking at first, though, thinking something was wrong. It took me and her mama to calm her down about it.”

“What was she thinking?”

“You name it. At first, she thought he wasn’t eating enough. Then she thought something was wrong with her breast milk. I told her if he wasn’t fussy, most likely, he was okay. Because he was eating a lot more a week ago, it threw her off. I figured he was probably able to get more in one sitting now. Her mama said that what he was getting was colostrum. After her milk came in, maybe he needed to adjust.”

Rylan shrugged his shoulders as did I. “What did the doctor say? I’m sure Angel insisted y’all call,” KJ said.

“Pretty much the same thing we were saying. That if he wasn’t getting enough, she would definitely know it. He would be extremely fussy and not sleeping nearly as much.”

“Hmm. Maybe he won’t be a big eater like his father,” I added.

Jacob joined us, looking pissed, as Rylan pushed my shoulder. “What’s wrong with you?” Rylan asked.

“Bitch got me fucked up.”

We all frowned. Jacob was the last one to call a woman a bitch. After the abuse Aunt Jen suffered from his biological dad, he made sure to be extremely cautious of how he treated and spoke to women. He never wanted anyone to feel like his mom did for all those years.

“Who?” we all asked in unison, garnering attention from Jakari’s table.

“Man, who fucked up your truck, Jacob?” Uncle Storm asked as he walked into the diner.

We all stood and made our way outside to see it was scratched the fuck up, and there was a hole in his windshield, like someone had thrown something through it. The minute Aunt Tiff, Jess, and Aunt Jen walked outside, all hell broke loose.

“Where the bitch at, Jacob?” Jess asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. “When I came back from mowing the hay field, the shit was like that in my driveway.”

“Who did it then? I know you know that much,” Aunt Tiff said.

“Jameka.”

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