Page 33 of Make Me Forget

I slapped his hand and made my way to Cassie. When she turned to me, she had tears in her eyes. I frowned slightly. I must have missed something while I was talking to Jacob. “Baby, what’s wrong? What happened?”

She handed me her phone, and I saw the email from her boss. They were terminating her contract. I hated that for her. “I lost my job. I loved that job.”

I wiped her tears away as her mama grabbed her hand and caressed it. “You don’t have a felony charge, baby. Once he clears it, you can get another job, which brings me to my next question. Do you have evidence?”

“Yeah. We had cameras in the house. Hopefully, he didn’t fuck with the footage. He probably doesn’t even remember they were there. I didn’t remember until the judge asked for proof to confirm my story.”

“Well, you know I got’chu. You don’t have a thing to worry about. Okay? I want you to permanently stay with me. I know you said it was temporary until you found something else, but I want you with me, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I noticed. I didn’t want to assume though. I’ll stay. I wanted to stay from the day I stepped foot in your house.”

“Our house.”

She blushed then hugged her mama, who was patiently waiting, and she hugged two other women who were there and a man. I had to assume one of them was Mrs. Kendall’s sister, because they looked alike. The other was with the man that somewhat resembled Mr. Price. I was grateful for how they supported her. She told me a long time ago that after her accident, she was everybody’s baby and their inspiration as well.

Uncle Storm walked over to me and said, “I like her already. For her to take that charge for Jacob speaks volumes. Imagine the lengths she would go for you.”

I nodded slowly. “Absolutely. Thanks, Unc.”

“Mm hmm.”

When Cassie came back to us, she said, “My parents want to take everybody to Longhorn Steakhouse. I hope y’all have time.”

“We got time for you, OG,” Uncle Storm said. “I’ma start calling you Martha.”

I frowned and Cassie did as well. He continued by saying, “I’ll be Snoop.”

Cassie fell out laughing as I rolled my eyes. “So we gon’ start a TV show, Snoop?”

“Hell yeah. Let me start drawing up the plans.”

She hugged him tightly, and that nigga had the nerve to blush. I slowly shook my head. It was weird how Uncle Storm bonded with all his nephews’ wives. Wives. Yeah, Cassie was the one, for real. I would have to solidify her place in my life sooner rather than later.

“I still can’t believe you’re leaving,” I said to Karima.

“Me either.”

She sighed as we sat on the floor in her front room, wrapping dishes in newspaper and bubble wrap. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, so while Cassie was attending her graduate classes, I stayed under Karima. She couldn’t move without me. She didn’t seem to mind, though.

We celebrated Cassie’s victory over the weekend. When we left dinner with her family, we went to her house and recovered the footage. She decided to go to the bedroom to see if there was anything she could salvage and found a couple of curling irons, flat irons, and hair products. Everything else was a loss. Yesterday, she’d gotten cleaners to go to the house to get it cleaned up and hired her own realtor.

Mesani was in no shape to oversee the sale of the house. He’d gotten out of the hospital yesterday. They never said why he was placed in ICU, but it couldn’t have been too serious if he was already home not quite two weeks since Jacob knocked his ass out. I was pretty sure Jacob had probably broken his jaw. Shit, that nigga probably couldn’t produce kids after the kick Cassie delivered. That shit looked like it made his balls retract, never to be seen again.

Today was my third day here with Karima. She was getting packed for her move. She had to go to Nashville next week to get things situated in her new place, but she would be back for a few weeks after that. We had been going to lunch at the diner together every day as well. It wasn’t like I was hanging with Christian as much anymore since Mya had come along, nor Rylan since he and Angel started their family. Jacob joined us most days.

“You seem a little down, though. What’s up, sis?”

“Nothing. I mean, I just keep trying to make sure I’m making the right decision to leave. I know I can rodeo from anywhere, but this is the only home I’ve known. I went to Lamar instead of leaving for college. I have a feeling I will be homesick.”

I put my arm around her shoulders. “You know we just a flight away. If this is an opportunity you feel you can’t pass up, then don’t let fear hold you back. Wait a minute… I’m giving you advice?”

She laughed. “Right. I love it though.”

We continued wrapping dishes as she said, “You know, I’m proud of you. The way you love Cassie is so beautiful. I can’t wait to have a love like that one day. Jared took my heart and played it like a fiddle. That experience only made me less trusting of people. I feel like when Mister Right does come along, I’m gonna give him such a hard time it’s gonna run him away.”

“Naw. You won’t be able to run Mister Right away. He’s gonna be persistent until he wears you down. Only suckas gon’ run. I waited on Cassie for nearly a year before she saw what I did… or rather before she chose to act on what she felt too. I wasn’t going anywhere because I knew she was supposed to be with me. I could feel that shit whenever I was around her. I knew she felt it too.”

“I always thought y’all were gonna date when y’all were teenagers. She was always playing the video game with you and just spent a lot of time with you. When it didn’t happen, I was kind of sad about it. I liked Cassie… still do. I used to feel like she was my big sister.”

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