Page 133 of Deuce

“I’m not forcing her. She’s right where she wants and needs to be.”

She shook her head. “If you aren’t Senior’s son.”

“I am nothing like your baby daddy.”

“Like hell you aren’t. You don’t believe she’ll leave you, just like he didn’t believe I’d leave him. You know he had the nerve to come over here the other day.”

“For what?”

“Talking about life is too short. He said Salima being kidnapped made him realize how much he still loved me. I askedhim how the hell did he come to that conclusion cause there is no love here for him. Not in a romantic way, at least. I’ll always love him as your father, but I’m done with that phase of life. I’m choosing the man the chooses me and only me. Speaking of which, you need to show Aaron some respect. He’s a good man, and he makes me happy. I love him, Stanley.”

I noticed she was messing with her hand. That’s when I noticed the ring on her left ring finger.

“What is?—”

“He asked me to marry him.”

“Since when!”

“Last night.”

“And what did you say?”

She frowned. “Who’s the parent here? Me. I pushed your big-headed ass out so don’t question me. I said yes.”

“The nigga didn’t even think to ask me.”

“Why did he need to ask you?”

“As a sign of respect. Ma, you kept that man a secret for six months and now you’re gonna marry him? The least the nigga could have done was ask for my blessing. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t have no beef with him. Do I like him? Hell no. But he’s good to you and he makes you happy, so he can live for now.”

She dropped her head in her hands momentarily before looking up at me.

“What am I gonna do with you? You know what this is, Stanley?”

“I’m sure you’re gonna tell me.”

“You’re so used to taking care of me, that you don’t like the idea of handing over the reins to somebody else.”

She moved to sit next to me. Cupping my face, she kissed my cheeks.

“I love you. You’re a good son and you’ve always made sure I was straight, but you are a grown man who’s now in a seriousrelationship. Mama has to have a life too, baby. I wasted so many of my good years on your father, and it’s beyond time for me to have my happy ending.”

I stared at her for a moment. She did deserve that. I was just protective of her. It didn’t matter how good a nigga was to her, he would never be good enough for her. I guess that was selfish, though.

“I ain’t calling him my stepfather or nothing like that. The nigga is Aaron and if Aaron hurts you, he’s gon’ have to see me.”

“He understands that, but you have nothing to worry about. I know you’ve been checking up on him and I also know you haven’t found anything. Your mama ain’t no fool. I had Jaeda check him out when I first met him.”

“Woooow! So that’s why she wouldn’t do it. She already had the tea.”

My mother giggled. “You know that’s my baby.”

“I got something for her ass.”

She slapped my chest. “Leave that girl alone. Enough about me. How is my girl? How’s she been holding up? How’s school?”

I sighed. “School is going good. She’s been studying and working hard. As far as her holding up… I don’t know, Ma. I feel like something is up with her.”

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