Page 110 of All The Smoke
“Oh, I can’t wait for you to have a grandbaby.” My mother smirked.
“Yes, you can, Auntie, because yeah, that’s not happening.”
“Anyways, girl.” My mother rolled her eyes. “I guess you’re right, but we are staying here in Crescent Falls until you have the baby and little after.”
I nodded and yawned. “That’s fine.”
“Well, since Treva has rained on all of our parades and told us what we were going to do, I’m going to have Neal take me to the house. I need to shower and rest these old knees, and Solo has scheduled us a movie date.”
She came over to hug me and Solomon as well as my godparents and my best friend. I asked my parents to stay because I wanted them close. They retired to my guest room while Solomon locked up then helped me into bed before he showered. It was very early in the evening but I knew he wasn’t leaving. He had already sent all his clientele to Bernard so there were no late nights. He basically went on leave when I did.
“You good?” he asked as he slid into bed with me.
“Perfect.” I smiled, running my hand over his waves. “You’ve made my life so much better since meeting you.”
“Yeah?” He grinned, caressing my belly. Silas wasn’t really moving much due to him having virtually no room to do so, but he still always seemed to greet Daddy when he was close by.
“Yeah. When I was with Jamal, I spent so many nights crying myself to sleep because he was out doing God knows what, but I don’t think I’ve shed one tear that wasn’t of joy since I met you. I’ve rekindled with some of my closest friends, completed school…”
“Made me the happiest nigga alive,” he added.
“That too.” I blushed. “But yes, you’ve elevated me in ways I really didn’t think were possible after my last situation. I can’t thank you enough.”
“This is thank you enough.” He tapped my cheek because I was smiling. “Knowing you and my boys are good is all a niggawants. No matter what the fuck my day consists of and what happens, if y’all three are straight then I could die a happy man.”
“I hate that saying.” I sniffled because I was crying, of course. “But I get it. I want to always make you happy too.”
“I love you.”
He kissed my forehead then lifted my head to kiss my lips. “I love you more.”
EPILOGUE – SIX MONTHS LATER
Smoke.
I didn’t know why, but I was nervous as a mothafucka as I stood outside of my whip. My heart was racing and a nigga felt anxious as fuck. I was low key tight I wasn’t able to smoke out that bitch but I did burn on the way to the prison. That was why I didn’t let my family ride with me. I knew I was gon’ need to smoke and hell I wanted to try to get my brother to as well. Knowing him though that shit wasn’t gon’ happen.
Nigga always on the straight and fuckin’ narrow.
About thirty minutes later I heard someone call my name. Looking up, I noticed my brother walking across the parking lot. I was a little annoyed they dropped his ass off across the way after directing me to park where I was, but I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and focused on my reality.My fuckin’ brother was free.All the nights I grinded, all the tears I shed in private, the anger and shit I still felt for my parents, all that shit was worth it to me. Had I been fucking with them; they could have sabotaged my brother’s shit right up under my fuckin’ nose.
“Baby brother.” He smiled as he approached with outstretched arms.
“My fuckin’ nigga.” I grinned, damn near in tears because a nigga had been dreaming of this shit. “Damn, bruh.”
“It’s good to see you, man.” He smiled, pulling me into another hug.
“Damn right, man.” I smiled. “I missed you my nigga,” I admitted. “Word I did.”
He nodded. “I missed you more.”
“Come on, man.” I waved him over. “I know you ready to get the fuck out of here.”
“Definitely,” he agreed, tossing his shit in my back seat, since I had the door off the Jeep, then climbing up front.
We made our way back to Crescent Falls, chopping it up. I spoke to my brother every single day of his bid but there was nothing like having the nigga in my face. We had always been close and he had always been there for me. I think the physical closeness was what I missed the most.
I took the nigga to get his haircut as soon as we touched down. I had already let Nyla know I had a new client for her and she even put me onto a chick that retwisted locs since the nigga had let his shit loc up. I got on his ass about how he kept his hair done on the inside. He assured me he learned to do his own hair because he wasn’t sitting between another man’s legs or having one hovering all over him, playing in his head, even though there were straight men in there that did hair and got their shit done. I was personally glad to know he was acting like the nigga I raised him to be.
