Page 5 of Jaeda

Mia was definitely a surprise, but it didn’t take long for it to feel like she’d been here all along. My siblings worked my nerves at times, but I loved them with every piece of my heart. I knew it would be no different with this baby.

“Well, congratulations,” I said, standing to hug her and Hershel.

Steel stood to follow suit. “Don’t ask me to babysit,” he jested.

Our mother rolled her eyes. “I bet you will.”

“I just turned twenty-eight, and you two started over. Ain’t that about a bi?—”

Mama grabbed his lips and twisted them. “Watch your mouth. You aren’t too old for me to pull out my belt.”

“Whip his butt, Mama!” Jaiden encouraged.

Steel grabbed a napkin and balled it up before throwing it at him. “Traitor.”

Jaiden stuck his tongue out and laughed.

All conversation flowed to the impending arrival of our new little brother or sister. My mom and Hershel seemed happy, so that was all I could ask for. Still, somewhere in the back of my mind, it made me wonder if I was ever going to have a moment like this.

Ishook my head as Titan argued with the girl thatwasn’this girl butwashis girl for at least the fifth time today. I was trying to focus on the six-thousand-piece Lego set I was building, but all I could hear was the two of them going at it. I hadn’t even met her, but the shit was exhausting to listen to. We’d been friends since we were thirteen, and in all those years, I’d never seen him act the way he did over Mia Dillinger. I had to hear him complain about that girl so much that I felt like I knew her when I’d never met her.

“The fuck is you talking about . . . Come on, man . . . Mia, you better not hang up on me . . . Would you just—hello? Fuck!”

He tossed the phone down on the coffee table and relaxed back into the couch cushions.

“Trouble in paradise?” I asked.

“Real funny, nigga. She gets on my fucking nerve.”

“Then why are you dealing with her?”

He grinned. “The pussy is A-1.”

“Remind me to never be that hard up for some pussy.”

“Good pussy will make you do strange things. You ever argue with a woman and fuck her afterward?”

I gave him a stoic expression. He shook his head as he pulled a bag of weed and some rolling papers from his pocket and began rolling his blunt.

“Never mind. Your square ass ain’t out here getting no ass. I don’t know how you do it, man. After a long day, I need something wet and gushy to slide up in.”

“Just because I don’t broadcast my bedroom habits doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything.”

He paused in rolling his blunt to give me a side-eye. “When is the last time you got some, Q?”

I didn’t answer. The truth was, it had been a minute. Unlike my best friend, I couldn’t have sex with a woman I didn’t invest feelings in. In my twenty-six years of life, I’d only had about three partners, and all of them had been long-term relationships. While Titan didn’t date at all, I dated with intention. I was looking for my wife, and while I’d dated a few amazing women, none of them were her.

“I’ma take that as too damn long,” Titan said when I didn’t answer.

“Whatever. Be honest with me, T. Is sex the only thing you’re after with Mia?”

“Nah. That neck is great too.”

He laughed, but I didn’t find that shit funny. He lit his blunt and sat back on the couch. After taking a pull and letting the smoke marinate in his lungs, he expelled it and looked over at me.

“I can admit . . . we have fun together when we aren’t fighting and shit.”

“What the hell do y’all have to fight about?”

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