Page 53 of Jaeda

“Let me make this abundantly clear,” I said, looking around at the men I loved dearly. “And when I’m done, I’m not saying this shit again. I am an adult, okay? A fucking adult. Every single one of you have my location, so you could see where I was. Most of you knew who I was with, and four of you knew how to get there. This right here, . . . this is gonna stop. This is my life, and I will spend time with a man if I want to, whenever I want to. That’s not up for debate. Now, if you would be so kind as to leave my property. I have work to do, and some of y’all have responsibilities to take care of.”

“Jaeda Janelle,” Deuce said, his frown deepening.

“Goodbye!”

I pushed past them and went into my house, putting on all the locks. Today wasn’t going to be the day to fuck with me.

It was Sunday,and that meant family dinner with my dad’s side of the family. Hopefully, I didn’t get cornered today, at least not by my brothers. I prayed that going off on them yesterday would put an end to this shit.

At least my day started off good. I woke up to a dozen red and white roses being delivered to my house from Quaid. The attached card read a simple message:Just because I thought of you.

That had me all smiles.

It felt good to be thought of. I was already looking forward to the next time I got to see him. With both of us working from home, that wouldn’t be a problem. I could see us working together some days.

I drove my pink golf cart up to the family house where my grandparents lived and parked it along with the others. Hopping off, I headed inside. The first person to greet me as I walked into the kitchen was my grams. I spoke to my aunts and Maddie before heading into her arms.

“Hey, sugga,” she said, pulling me into a hug.

“Hey, lady. You have it smelling good in here.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You know how I do.”

“How’s Grandpa?”

“Same old, same old, chile. He’s up in that room, watching his shows. The man almost gave me a heart attack this morning. You know he doesn’t sleep well most nights. I woke up, and he was standing over me booty butt naked, just staring at me,talking about he was ready for his bath. Chile, I almost punched him in those old, wrinkled balls.”

I stifled a laugh. “Grams, you better leave my grandpa alone, now.”

“He better leave me alone.” She giggled. “Seriously, though. I vowed to take care of him in sickness and in health. I got my ass up and gave him his bath. You know he tried to cop a feel on me? It shocked me, honey. We haven’t been intimate in so long. I almost gave it up,” she added with a laugh. “If he’s ever in his right mind and wants me, I’ll supply that need.”

She made jokes, but it was just her way of dealing with his diagnosis. Grams always said you had to laugh to keep from crying, and real niggas didn’t cry. Rebecca Dillinger might look sweet, but Grams still had that savage in her.

“Are you okay, Grams?” I asked, wrapping my arms around her.

She smiled softly and cupped my face. “I’m here, baby. Every day is a journey with that man, but he’s mine to care for. I have no complaints.”

“You’re a strong woman.”

“Oh, I know. So are you.” She kissed my cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“All right now, get on outta my kitchen.”

I laughed, knowing that was coming. “I’m gone.”

I walked out to the sunroom where my girls were with the babies. I didn’t know who I wanted to snatch up first. Since Salima was nursing Liam, I went for Marino.

“Hey, fat man!” I said, nuzzling his chubby cheeks.

He gave me a gummy smile.

“Did you miss your TiTi?”

Shar smacked her lips. “TiTi must not see the rest of us sitting here. Hey, bitch. You get some head and don’t know how to act.”

Salima, Romi, and Renay all started talking at once. Well, I guess that was one way to enter the chat. Shar waved her hands to calm them down.

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