Page 42 of I Need It

“Nice to meet you,” he said as he winked at me.

I knew what that meant. He thought she was nice looking. That had always been our code whenever we saw a beautiful woman. Jakari had even joined in on our foolishness a time or two. I nodded at him as Angel said, “Mya, this is our baby, Renzo. He’s almost three months old.”

“He’s so handsome. Congratulations,” Mya said then glanced at me.

I knew she was thinking about our baby. We discussed that we would tell my immediate family first. I called my mama to see if we could go over there tomorrow evening. They were only open for brunch tomorrow at the diner, so Saturday evenings were usually relaxing and low-key, unless there was a Henderson event of some sort going on.

I pulled her to me and kissed her head as Maui’s overdramatic ass said, “Awwwww.”

I rolled my eyes. Ever since Angel and Rylan became a couple, we’d had to deal with their foolery. They loved Angel to death and would do whatever they could to help her, even when she thought she didn’t need them. Thankfully, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum weren’t here, although Mya would probably get along just fine with their rowdy asses.

Mya smiled at me and made her way to them in the kitchen. I watched her until she got to them and also watched Maui put her arm around her. When I turned back to KJ and Rylan, KJ mumbled, “Simp.”

“Do I sense a hint of jealousy?”

“Hell yeah. Cassie may come over though.”

I frowned. “Man, be careful with that.”

“Mm hmm. Like you were with Mya?”

“Another nigga wasn’t involved though. I ain’t tryna unleash my Henderson Chi on nobody.”

“Nigga!” Rylan yelled and laughed.

We all fell out as Angel shook her head. She handed the baby to Rylan, and he looked right at me. “You wanna hold him?”

“Yeah.”

He brought him over to me, and I fell in love all over again. “Man, he looks just like you, Rylan. Did you leave any genes for Angel to pass down?”

He chuckled then glanced toward the kitchen. “She’s finally calmed down. She was so worried about him. Plus, she was still worried about him having down syndrome. The doctor had to assure her that he didn’t have it. The twins had even called her, trying to get her to relax. I told her that if baby boy wasn’t showing any signs of it, then he probably didn’t have it.”

“What did she say to that?” I asked, my eyebrows lifted.

“She cursed me out, man. Said I was being insensitive. I just quit talking about it. She eventually apologized because she knew I didn’t mean any harm by what I said.”

I nodded and looked at the women in the kitchen. Mya was smiling big and cutting up something. It looked like parsley. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

“When did y’all make it official?”

“Just now,” I said.

“No wonder your ass got hearts for eyeballs. She caught you off guard.”

“Yeah. I mean, we determined we would be exclusive last night. I told her we didn’t have to put a title on what we had until she was comfortable. So when she said she was my girlfriend, it definitely caught me by surprise.”

“I’m happy for you, bruh. I hope everything works out.”

“It will,” I said, almost slipping and spilling the tea prematurely. “That’s my baby, and I’m gon’ do what I have to do to make sure she’s secure in what we have and how I feel about her. Ain’t shit more important than her. I can see myself falling in love with her.”

“Really? You can really see that?” KJ asked sarcastically. “Nigga, you already in love. Fuck outta here.”

I shoved his head as he laughed. Yeah. I’m on my way to that for sure.

CHAPTER 16

MYA

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