Page 143 of Taeja

“Mi naa fawt pon yu, Damon.” She laughed as he hopped off the table and wrapped the towel around his waist. She twirled the other towel into a tight knot, then slapped his butt.

Damon yelped, grabbing his butt while his body jerked. “What the f—”

She giggled. “Why’re you cursing?”

He glared. “Why’re you assaulting me?”

“I don’t sound like that!” she laughed. “And me nuh assault yu. I’m trying to make you feel better.”

He sighed. “I know. I appreciate it.”

“Of course.” She smiled. “Can I bathe you instead? You always take care of me, and I want to do it today.”

He looked down at her, staring long and hard. Behind the light that was returning to his eyes, Taeja saw some indifference. They were fighting for dominance, and she hated this turmoil he was in.

“Sure,” Damon finally said, and her smile widened.

“Go ahead. I’ll be up in a bit. Let me clean up here first.”

Damon nodded and left the room.

Once he was out of earshot, Taeja sighed. “Wish mi know wa do him, but I’ll respect his choice.”

She placed all the dirty towels atop the soiled sheet, then rolled it into a big ball. She held it to her chest while grabbing her phone and the oil bottle with her other hand. Making her way upstairs, she skimmed through all the notifications that came in while she was tending to her man.

The notification that came in ten minutes ago made her freeze mid-step.

Baby girl, Mommy missed you so much.

24

“Couldn’t your brother comeinside and help?” Kacian asked. “You know Andrew can’t do all this heavy lifting.”

“That damn boy doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” Andrew grumbled.

“Dad.” As Andrew mumbled something too low to decipher, Damon glared, then looked at his mother. “You’re going to let him speak about Zain like that?”

Kacian sighed. “You’re saying that like I haven’t told himcountlesstimes to be nice to Zain. I’m tired, Damon.”

Damon scoffed. “Right.”

“Don’t do that, Damon,” Kacian scolded. “I quit my out-of-the-state job to be here and try making things right.”

“How did that work out?”

“You’re being disrespectful.”

“I’m not disrespecting you. I asked a question.”

Kacian straightened her shoulders, then turned away from Damon. She picked up pieces of cardboard on the floor. “We are a family. Andrew loves Zain. He’s just hard on him because of what I did.”

Damon scoffed and looked at Andrew, whose lips were pursed as he stared at the space above the fireplace. “I’ll ask Zain to help only if you can be respectful.”

Andrew scoffed. “What I say to him shouldn’t concern you. He’s your half-brother.”

“He’s my brother,” Damon stated through clenched teeth. Anger bubbled inside him, forcing him to remember that Andrew was his father. A father whom he loved and respected despite how Andrew made him angry sometimes.

Damon wouldn’t lie and say his mother never tried to mend the bad blood between Zain and Andrew, because she did. She tried family counseling. Threatened Andrew with divorce. And sometimes she wouldn’t speak to Andrew for days. She even went as far as regularly packing a bag and whisking them away to her parents, leaving Andrew to wallow in misery.

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