Page 31 of Before We Say I Do

“For what?”

“Coming to babysit me.” She lifted her hand with the piece of joint between her fingers. “Bringing this. God knows I needed it.”

“Girl, I usually smoke at home, but when I heard Kyle’s voice and not yours coming through the line, I knew we would most likely need it.”

London nodded. “You were right about that.” She sighed. “And I was wrong about Jacob.”

Carla frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He seems like an all-right guy. He’s got a crazy work ethic like someone else I know,” she said in reference to Kyle. “Don’t kick him to the curb just yet.”

“Now I know you high because I wasn’t kicking him nowhere.”

They laughed, and London put the joint out, then rubbed her stomach.

“I could use a snack now.”

They laughed some more, hysterically, like the funniest joke in the world had been told.

“I should’ve recorded this shit. Tina will never believe me when I tell her how you got high, and you’ll deny everything.”

“Nah, I won’t deny it. I have excuses.”

Carla shook her head, and they both got quiet.

“Do you think he will forgive me?”

Carla got up and went to London. Sitting down next to her cousin, she pulled her in for a hug.

“He will,” she promised. “He will.”

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