Page 10 of Honey Sugar
“Still don’t have air up there?” I frowned.
“You know your Uncle Beau. He doesn’t like to change much.” I wondered if he was still the same in every way. I looked at Aunt Liv and leaned against the foyer wall.
“How are things with you and Uncle Beau? Still the same as before?”
“Things are fine, Titan. Don’t go poking your nose places.”
“Wherever I’m at is where my nose is too.” I stood upright and shook my head before heading to the car to get my bags. I brought clothes and shoes but mainly supplies I needed for my plants to grow. Changing location didn’t stop a damn thing for me. I’d find a closet and set up shop the second I got time to myself.
I only lugged my clothes in from the trunk because I didn’t feel like answering a million questions about everything else. I’d wait until everyone was sleeping before I brought that stuff in.
I headed straight upstairs and down the hall. Nothing had changed inside the plantation house on Bayou Drive. Family pictures still hung in frames along the hallway wall. They showed pictures of little Ivy, skinny with wild honey-colored hair and teeth too big for her mouth as they grew in. I chuckled as I moved down the hall.
Ivy’s door was almost the same as it was the last time I was there. A stenciled ivy vine framed her door but instead of pony stickers and hearts decorating it, now a chic Chanel picture hung in a sterling silver frame. I stared at the bold double C logo and wondered what kind of person my little cousin was now.
Maybe I stood there a second too long because the door swung open. Ivy stood there with an expression that matched her mother’s moments earlier. Wide-eyed and in shock. “Titan?” I was starting to think my name was supposed to have a question mark after it on my birth certificate.
“What’s good, baby girl?” I sat my bags down on the floor and held my arms open for her. She hugged me hesitantly, resting her head on my chest.
“Oh my god. You’re so…tall.” She pulled back and looked at me again, letting out a laugh. She reached up and tugged on my beard with a playful glint in her olive green eyes. “When did you get this? Is it a lace front?” She tugged again and I slapped her hand away, knitting my brows together.
“Hell no, this isn’t a damn lace front, girl. You think I want to wear a wig on my chin on purpose? Nah. This is all real. This is a grown man beard. Look like you’re getting one too.” I smirked and she let a punch fly. It landed on my bicep but I barely felt it.
“Lord, Titan, have you been bench pressing buildings?”
“I’m still the same skinny boy from when we were younger,” I told her. It was true too. I gained some muscle but nothing would change about me being tall and lanky.
“Oh my goodness, you have fronts?” She tugged on my bottom lip to reveal the gold peeking from between my words. “Whoareyou now?” She gawked.
“I’m still Titan Devereaux.” I picked my bags up and moved one door down to the guest room that used to be mine in the summertime.
“Not like I remember…but okay,” Ivy said. She followed me into the room beside hers and sighed. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Me either,” I said, remembering the event that landed me in Sugar Bayou.
“Oh good, Ivy is getting you situated. After you put your things away, Titan, you might as well come on with us to Honey Sugar. We could use an extra hand.”
“Yes ma’am,” I nodded.
“Good. I’ll see y’all at the shop.” She wrung her hands before turning and heading back downstairs. I hated that she seemed scared of her own fucking shadow. I looked at Ivy and lowered my brows.
“Uncle Beau still putting his hands on your mama?” Instead of answering me, she tugged on her earlobe. I moved her hand away and she looked up at me. Ivy went straight to tugging on that ear whenever shit got uncomfortable. She never navigated anxiety well but I understood why she didn’t. Her life hadn’t been the picture of balance and love.
“Yeah.” She nodded. I groaned and turned my stare to the ceiling. “Don’t mention it, Titan. Mama is real snappy about it lately.”
“Too late.” I tossed my bags on the bed and walked over to the window. The room was the same from years ago. Seemed like they didn’t even bother cracking a damn window in there. It was humid and it smelled like the inside of a closet that hadn’t been opened in years.
“What did you say?” Ivy hissed at me, moving closer. I watched her slender fingers find her earlobe and rub it until it glowed bright red.
“I asked if shit was still the same between them.”
“God, Titan. You can’t go poking your nose around.”
“What the hell is it with y’all and where I put my nose? It goes where it goes. We’re family. I’m not going to turn a blind eye to Aunt Liv getting her ass beat.”
Ivy looked down at the hardwood beneath her feet and I realized she was shrinking into herself like a startled flower pulling its petals inward.
“Your voice is deeper,” she mentioned.
