Page 42 of If I Gave You My Heart
"So, did the honey bun stick to her skin?" I asked, engaging back in the conversation.
"Didddd itttt…" Javier dragged as he went on and on about the story.
I didn't realize I was sleepy until I yawned for a third time.
"We gone leave in a minute, okay? We need rest after that long drive. We can go check into the hotel and then catch a nap before dinner later," Adonis whispered.
I just shook my head to let him know I had heard him. I hoped that he would have us say goodbye soon because I couldn't wait to get him back to that hotel room to do a bunch of nasty shit to him.
Joy Loving
My feet weren't moving fast enough outside. I had read the text message from Jolene seven times before rushing to the porch.I'm outside.I didn't know why my daughter decided to pop up now, but I was going to get to the bottom of it. We would speak once a week, and during our talk this week, when I mentioned Adonis coming into town, she told me that she needed to see him. She hadn't seen him since he was a boy, so I didn't understand the sudden interest. She told me she would explain when she saw me, and she sure did have to do a lot of explaining.
When I made it to the porch, I closed the house door behind me.
"Jolene, this had better be damn good."
"Well, hello, Ma."
"Don't you Ma me. What are you doing here, Jolene, knowing the kids are here?"
My little mini-me stood to her feet, and when she did, I was able to see that she had put on a couple of pounds. Chasing behind the money must have caught up to her.
"I came because I think Adonis is in trouble."
Instantly, my ears had opened a little wider.
"What brought you to this conclusion?" I asked.
"I have it so that whenever one of us is looked up, I get an alert, and someone looked up Adonis a couple of months back."
Knowing what Jolene did for a living let me know that whoever was looking for my baby didn't have any good intent behind it.
"Okay, and who was the person who did the search?"
"It doesn't matter now. She's gone."
"Well, if she is taken care of, then what makes you think Adonis is still in trouble?"
Jolene stood in front of me, chewing on her bottom lip.
"I know she wasn't looking him up for herself. Before I cut her eyelids off, I could see in her eyes that she was trying to protect someone else."
The gory details weren't necessarily needed, but I understood that being gruesome was mandatory when defending family.
"I think he is okay. Now, you need to go before he comes out—"
I stopped speaking when I heard both the front and the screen door open behind me.
Jolene looked over my shoulder, and there was a softness to her glare that let me know that one of her children was behind me.
"Joy, I know this ain't who I think it is…" Adonis' tone had a coldness to it.
He was old enough to remember exactly who his mother was, but neither child remembered who I was to them because I was never around until Jolene decided to leave them to replace me.
"Baby, this is your mother…"
Adonis
