Page 80 of Intercept My Heart

“Don’t worry about any of that, friend. I finished all of the meat and packed my lunch for tomorrow. I’ve already had two margaritas since you were napping, so I’m a little tipsy. I’ll give you space to talk to your baby daddy. Call me if you need me.” She raised her eyebrows, communicating something she wasn’t able to say out loud.

“Alright. Be safe, and text me to let me know you made it home safely. I love you.”

“I love you too, boo. You kids have fun.” She giggled, walking out of the house with a drink in her hand.

I waited until she made it to her car to close the door. She seemed stable enough to drive, but you could never be sure. Luckily, we shared our locations with one another and were also each other’s emergency contacts.

Once I stepped back into the living room, Dinero had already taken a seat on the couch. I wondered what was in thepaperwork he brought for me, but I guessed I needed to see for myself.

“What is it that you need to talk to me about?”

“Well, I have a couple of things that we need to address. The first one is that I’ll be picking them up on Sunday so they can stay with me for the week. They wanted some extra practice training, and it’s easier to have them with me.”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“I’m giving you a heads up. I don’t need your permission to get my kids. Now, if you have something planned for them, I would take your plans into consideration, but that’s about it.” I frowned, not liking where this conversation was going.

“Obviously, we are not on the same page. I would never stop you from having a relationship with them, but you don’t run shit in my household. You can’t take them without talking to me first.” My attitude began to flare up, and that wasn’t good for anyone.

“See, that is where you’ve got me fucked up. Baby, this isn’t a one-sided deal. I have just as many rights to them as you do. Again, I owe you a conversation as a courtesy, but I don’t need your approval for shit.” He sneered, pissing me clean off.

“Why are you here? I preferred it when you stayed in the car.” I scoffed.

“I don’t give a fuck about your little attitude. You’re under the impression that because you’ve been around longer, you have more authority. I’m glad I got to see where your head is at because now I don’t feel bad about what happens next.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“I planned to talk to you about joint custody so I could establish my rights and get the boys’ last names changed on their birth certificates. I thought it would be better if we talked about it so you wouldn’t be ambushed with a summons. Maybe you aren’t as mature as I thought you were.”

His words stung, and I realized that I needed to calm down and remove my emotions from this. Regardless of whether I agreed with how he said it, he wasn’t wrong. Legally, we were equal parents, so he should have just as much access to them as I do.

The selfish part of me grew afraid when he started using terms like rights because I took it as him trying to take them from me. This was the part of parenting where people made the most mistakes because they made it about themselves instead of what was best for the children. I refused to punish my children by making any more decisions based on my emotions.

“Hold on. Let’s start this conversation over. I’ve had a rough day, and I took it out on you. That isn’t fair, so I apologize.” Dinero peered at me with sympathetic eyes. “I’m used to being the only person who can make decisions for them, but I have to realize our circumstances have changed, and we all have to adjust. Show me the paperwork, and we can go over it.” I wiped my hands on my T-shirt, which covered my sleeping shorts.

“Look, I agree with everything you said, and I promise I’m not trying to step on anyone’s toes. All I want to do is legally establish that I’m their father. I have trust funds, properties, and life insurance policies that I want to add them to, since they are my children. If anything were to happen to me, I want to make sure they have access to everything so they won’t ever need anything.”

“Okay, I’m good with that. What about the custody?”

“I think joint custody would be the best option for us. I will still be providing for their financial needs in the form of child support, but I want joint custody. They can still live here primarily, but I want them to stay with me during the summer and most of their school breaks and holidays.”

“We’re gonna have to discuss holidays. I want them here for Christmas.”

“It’s your world. You know I’m not really big on holidays since I don’t have family. They can spend the morning with you and the evening with me. You can have them for Thanksgiving, but I’ll probably come by to see them.” My arms folded across my chest like a little baby. I didn’t like the idea of having to split the holidays with him, even though it was the right thing to do.

“Fine.” I pouted. He chuckled, shuffling through the rest of his papers.

“If you want, we can schedule a time for my lawyer to go over all of the paperwork with both of us so we can voice our concerns and make amendments where necessary. I don’t want you to feel like I’m trying to take something from you. I want this to be fair and beneficial to all of us.” He sounded so professional and mature. Damn, I hated this.

“I would really appreciate it. Before I sign anything, I want to be clear about your rights and mine. I don’t mind you having them in the summer, but I can’t go three months without seeing them, so we need to have something in place that gives me visitation days; otherwise, I’ll be pulling up to your house and sitting in the driveway every week. I’m sure yourwifewouldn’t appreciate that.” He chuckled, but I meant what I said. I’d never been apart from my kids for more than a weekend, and even then, they were with Tamia, so I could pop up whenever I wanted.

“I’m good with that, although I’m sure we can work out a schedule for them to come back home on our own. I’ll call Mark to set up the meeting, and you can let me know if it fits your schedule.”

“Yeah, okay.” My feelings were all over the place, and I wasn’t sure if they were due to this situation or this baby in my belly.

“Before you go, I need to talk to you about something else. Do you have time, or do you need to leave right now? I know you mentioned to the kids that you had somewhere you needed tobe.” I prayed that he said yes so I could table this conversation for another day.

“Naw, I have time. What did you need to talk to me about?”

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