Page 57 of Free to Fall

I looked away, blinking at the trees. “I’m okay, Nana.”

“No, you ain’t. You’re heartbroken. And you’re lonely. And you miss that boy.”

My throat tightened. “Even if I do, I can’t just go back like nothing happened.”

“You don’t have to,” she said. “But maybe it’s time to stop avoiding the conversation. Sometimes you just gotta rip the bandage off and get to the healing.” I nodded, not saying a word. “Be a darling and go inside, fix me some sweet tea and a piece of that caramel cake.” she said. “My phone’s in there too, but I left it on the charger. Let me borrow yours for a minute.”

I unlocked it and handed it over. “Don’t be snooping through my photos.”

She cackled, waving me off. “Go on, girl.”

I went inside, grabbed a Mason jar from the cabinet, filled it with ice and that overly sweet tea she loved that I could barely stomach. Then I went to her glass cake plate and cut a small piece of the cake for her and one for myself.

When I came back outside, she was rocking like nothing had happened. Handed me my phone back without a word. “Here you go, sugar.”

I didn’t think twice.

Two days later,I was coming back from the studio, tired as hell, belly a little sore from overexerting myself. I had just wrapped vocals on a track and was feeling good about it. Nana hadn’t answered my call the first time, but when I called again, she picked up.

“You want me to grab anything on the way home?”

“No, baby, just hurry up. I miss my girl.” I smiled, thinking how good it felt to be missed like that.

I got to the house about twenty minutes later, walking in with my keys jangling and the sound of old-school R&B playing low from the speakers in the kitchen. Something smelled good, greens, maybe yams, fried something.

“Nana?” I called, dropping my bag and the keys on the entry table. “You in here burnin’, I smell it all the way from the porch!”

I rounded the corner into the kitchen, still laughing, until I wasn’t. Because standing at the kitchen counter, beside her cast-iron skillet and sweet tea pitcher…was Nasseem. His eyes met mine instantly. I froze and the air shifted. He had on one of those soft gray T-shirts that clung to his chest, chain tucked in, fresh fade. His eyes looked tired but focused. Hopeful. Nervous.

Nana was smiling like the damn matchmaker she was. “Told you she’d come home soon,” she said, stirring her pot like she ain’t just dropped a bomb.

“What the fuck is this?” I whispered.

“My kitchen,” she replied, sweet as ever. “Now, go wash your hands and sit down. Both of y’all.”

I didn’t move. Neither did Nas. My hands balled into fists at my side, heart racing. Nasseem took a slow step forward.

“Egypt…” His voice alone cracked something in me I’d been trying to keep whole.

16

EGYPT

The moment I laid eyes on him, I felt my heart drop. Like for a second it forgot how to beat and just... froze. I hadn’t seen him in weeks. Weeks that felt like months. And now here he was, standing in my Nana’s kitchen like he belonged there, like he wasn’t the same man who’d told me to get rid of our child and walked out on me like I was nothing.

I blinked hard, my jaw tightening as my lips parted. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Nasseem’s mouth opened like he wanted to say something, but I didn’t give him the chance. “I’m talking to you!” I snapped, rounding the island with fire bubbling in my chest. “Who the fuck told you I was here?”

“Language…” My Nana said warningly.

Nas glanced toward my Nana, then back at me, hands raised slightly in a weak-ass attempt to calm me. “Egypt, just chill?—”

“Don’t tell me to chill, Nas. This ain’t no random city. This is Memphis. This is my Nana’s house. Serenity and Ari don’t know where she lives, so that means it had to be Averi?—”

“It wasn’t her,” he cut in quickly.

“Then who?” I demanded, fists balled at my sides. “You break my heart, tell me to get rid of my baby, and now what? You thinkyou can just show up and what? We hug it out? Cry together over greens and cornbread?”

“I didn’t say that?—”

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