Page 66 of Another Constant

She nodded.

“Then we good. Now lemme show you how to ice this cake with yourrealtiredass.”

* * *

Days Later

“I missed you, Uncle Kinga,” Aja mused as soon as she was in the back seat of my car.

I laughed. “Girl, yeen miss me. If you did, you wouldn’t have been gone so long.” I lowkey did miss her lil ass the whole time she was with my brother, but she wanted to stay, so hell nah, I wasn’t finna force her to come back home. Hell, the only time I did go that way was to pick up Bleu. Harlem didn’t play about that lil ugly ass dog. So while Aja spent the entire weekend, Bleu spent that one damn day.

“I did miss you, and Harlem. Plus I was tired of helping with the baby. I was ready to come home where I’m the baby and Bleu is the baby-baby.”

I chuckled. “You were being a big cousin, Aja. You gotta tighten up, shorty.”

“Nope, I don’t. At your house it’s just me, you, and Harlem, no screaming, crying babies.” The expression she made had me cracking up. Her ass really looked annoyed. That made me think about the conversation Harlem and I had a few days ago. We had yet to bring up the subject of her possibly being pregnant or confirm it. We just settled into this routine of me and her or me, her, and Aja.

“Uncle.” Aja’s voice broke into my thoughts.

“Huh?” I asked, eyes focused on traffic.

“Are we going to see Harlem and Bleu? I think she’s gonna let me have him.”

I laughed, unable to break her heart. That was the furthest thing from the truth. Harlem loved that damn dog. Shit, the other night she got mad with me because I told her that fucking dog wasn’t sleeping in the bed with us another night. She was seconds from going to lay on the couch until I cursed her ass out and told her to put the dog in the bed on the floor and lay her mad ass down.

“Nah. We’ll see them tonight.”

“Oh, ok.” She was quiet.

I was just about to turn the radio back up when I heard her voice again.

“Uncle.”

“Yeah, Aja.” This time I cut my attention between the mirror and traffic.

“Does Bleu, Harlem, Tato, and Tilly live with us now?”

I shrugged. “No.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t bother thinking about turning the music up. I just waited for the next question because I knew it was coming.

“Uncle.”

“Aja.”

“Can they live with us? I like when Harlem is home. She does my hair and cooks for me. I play with the dogs and I just like them being there. Don’t you?”

I laughed. “I do, but baby girl, Harlem has her own house.”

“Then can we move in with her?” she said, like it just made sense.

Long story short, my car ride with lil mama was filled with questions like that. Questions I truly had no answer for because it had indeed been a few weeks since they’d broken into Harlem’s spot and she was still staying with me. I had no problem with it, because not only did I enjoy her being there, but it felt like she belonged. I didn’t second guess her being in my space because she fit there. She fit into my life and routine like she was meant for it.

When we made it home, Aja went to her room while I migrated toward the living room. I had been waiting for a message from either Jay or Ayden. Today they were handling Twan after watching him for days and I wanted it done so messily that somebody’s agency had to investigate. I wanted a fucking message sent. I wanted to be left the fuck alone but that would be too much to ask for.

My phone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts. When I looked down to see who was calling, I chortled. Rennix was calling. I chuckled because I couldn’t get over him opening a strip club centered around donuts.

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