Page 43 of Can I?

“Karima?”

“Yeah. The men they have watching their back recommended that they get out of Nome, because things were finna get bad. So she’ll be here through next week for sure . . . Ashanni too.”

“Shit, for real?”

“Mm-hmm,” I said with a smirk on my lips like he could see me.

“I guess I’ma have to slide through there then. I’ll call first to make sure she’s there.”

“Well, I see you ain’t giving up.”

“I’m not gon’ press her, Ferris. I just wanna be in her space. That way, whenever she’s ready, I’ll be the first nigga she thinks about.”

“Is that rizz?”

He chuckled. “What the fuck is that, nigga?”

“Never mind, man. I be talking to them kids online, and they got me saying all that stupid shit. It rubs off on me. It’s hard to explain. I guess I was saying you were flirting or taking the shit deep. Don’t worry about it.”

“Nigga, you need to quit talking to those kids online. They got’chu saying stupid shit. You closer to being a millennial than you are to those fools in Gen Z.”

“Nigga, I’m twenty-eight. I’m Gen Z.”

“Whatever. You still at the start of that shit. Ain’t no way you should be on the same wavelength as a kid born in two thousand ten.”

“Whatever. I don’t even get into all that shit. I just hope you know what you doing and you don’t get hurt. Ashanni is a beautiful woman, and she seems sweet, but I don’t want you falling for a woman that ain’t falling for you.”

“I hear you, man. I’ll probably slide through tomorrow since they’re at the hospital.”

“A’ight. Just hit me up.”

“Okay.”

He ended the call. “He tryna be with one of those Hendersons too, huh?”

I rolled my eyes. “They are good people. You tripping for nothing.”

“Okay, Ferris.”

I could see now that she was going to get on my nerves about this. I almost wished I wouldn’t have called her. The twins would let her ass have it. They didn’t care how old a person was when it came to bullshit and disrespect. Then I would have to check them about talking crazy to my mama. I should have thought this through.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

MILANA

“She’s so beautiful, Rima,” I said as tears fell down my cheeks.

Karima smiled at me. “Thank you. She’s so perfect, . . . an angel.”

Nearly everyone was still here. Karima’s water broke on the way to the hospital, and by the time we all got here, she was in a room laboring. She said she was already dilated five centimeters when she got here. It wasn’t terribly late, only seven. Ferris had messaged and said that his mom was cooking dinner for us. I didn’t want to stay out so late that I didn’t eat.

Karima looked so tired but also so happy. She was holding her princess, Roselynn Denali Woods. She had a head full of hair. She was Karima’s complexion, but from what I could tell, she looked like Rhodes. She was close to seven pounds and was about eighteen inches long. She could possibly be short like Karima. Rhodes wasn’t terribly tall like the men in our family, but he was tall, maybe about six two or so.

I walked over to her bed and kissed her forehead then slid my finger down the side of Roselynn’s head. “Congratulations, y’all. I have to go. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on y’all.”

“Okay. Thanks, Lana.”

I hugged everyone else, including my mama, and she followed me out. “Roselynn is so gorgeous,” I said to her.

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