Page 19 of Tangled Hearts
The phone lit again, Hov wasn’t letting up.
Shakeisha groaned, stepping back with a glare. “He always in the way.”
Rock ran a hand down his face, still hard, still restless. He picked up the phone. “What, bro?”
Shakeisha sat there watching him. Even when she lost, she knew she had him.
Rock knew it too.
Hov’s deep voice was loud enough for her to hear without it being on speaker. “Nigga, where you at?”
“Why?” Rock stepped back like he was being judged for being with Shakeisha.
“Knycole out here crying, nigga. She just got into it with her daddy. That nigga put her out.”
Rock froze mid-step. His chest tightened. “What you mean put her out?”
“I mean she was outside in nothing but a fuckin’ robe... that nigga high as hell. I’m wit’ her now but—” Hov cut off. “Where you at?”
Rock’s eyes slid to Shakeisha. She was staring at him like she already knew what was happening.
“I’m on the south side,” Rock muttered into the phone.
“Pull up,” Hov said. “She asking for you.”
The line went quiet for a second too long. Rock swallowed. “I’m coming.”
Shakeisha’s laugh tasted bitter. “Of course. Soon as she cry, you run.”
“Kesh—”
“Nah,” she cut him off. “Don’t Kesh me. You just had your tongue down my throat but she call and you Superman. You don’t even see how dumb you look.”
Rock shoved his phone in his pocket. His voice stayed calm but heavy. “It ain’t about looking dumb. That girl ain’t got nobody. You know her pops be super high. He put her out, where she gon’ go?”
“She got you,” Shakeisha snapped. “She always got you. That’s the problem.”
Rock stepped closer, his hands on her arms. “You still got me too. But you want me to choose in every moment, and I can’t. You hear me? I can’t.”
Her lips trembled and her eyes got wet. “You already chose.”
He kissed her forehead. His hand rubbed through her hair under the scarf. “I gotta go. We’ll talk later.”
She jerked away. “Don’t bother, nigga.”
Rock didn’t argue. He watched her for a few seconds, wishing he could choose but his heart wouldn’t let him.
And even though he’d just had Shakeisha in his arms, lips swollen from his kisses, he knew his night wasn’t ending with her.
Knycole needed him.
CHAPTER 5
Rock playedin Knycole’s hair while she slept, her scowl set in deep like she was fighting battles even in her dreams. He could tell she was carrying something heavy, something that didn’t let her rest. Normally, she’d be up already getting ready for school, but he didn’t wake her. Let her have a moment before facing the world.
His eyes were red from being up with her all night after leaving Shakeisha’s with a confused heart. He was never in the house that early on the first, especially not at Mae Lou’s. But Knycole’s presence shifted him. She could get him to do things he wouldn’t normally do, things that felt foreign but right at the same time.
Mae Lou’s voice carried down the hall. “Tell Knycole I cooked some breakfast if she’s hungry,” Mae Lou announced as she walked past the room door.
