Page 132 of Captivated By Danger

“You should. My dad would never let my mom talk to Metri or Denim like that. ”

“My dad is my dad. I love him. He’s all about peace, but he doesn’t let her get too flippant at the mouth. Do I agree that he could do and say and more to protect me from my mom and Grams? Absolutely, but he’s never made me feel ugly or less than. He’s my biggest hype man. He loved the dress you bought me.”

“So, your mom the reason why you got married so young?”

“Wow. Um, what a pivot, but yeah she was. All this jazz about, if you’re going to be having sex then you might as well get married. See, they have a really good relationship. Honestly, she texted and called him almost as much as she did me, if not more. His mom and my mom are best friends. He’s her only child too. The writings were kind of already on the wall. Plus, my mother said that he was going to be a man with a good job, so I needed to start focusing on gettingfinancially securesince teaching doesn’t pay that much and never will, especially teaching children. While that may be true, Diesel, I find so much joy in teaching them. They are in that perfect and pure stage where they solve all your life problems in just ten words or less. We were talking about love on Valentine’s Day, and I just asked them how you can show someone you love them. One answer was like, fix her lunch in the mornings, or buy her flowers when she’s sad. You see how simple that is. I wonder where my marriage would be if Kyle would have made my lunch in the morning or bought me flowers when I was sad.”

“Damn, Grey. You were so young and didn’t even know yourself. I can’t imagine getting married at nineteen or twenty.”

“I just know you were running amuck.”

I laughed. “Running amuck is funny. That’s what my grandfather used to say, but yeah. I was outchea bad. I’ve cleaned up my image a whole lot.”

“I bet you did. Ugh, I can’t even begin to imagine how many girls you were screwing with at one time. You were doing all of that unprotected and you don’t have any sexually transmitted diseases or any babies. God only protects babies and fools.”

That made me laugh, but the talk of babies made me think of that crazy bitch, Rachel. It was a strict requirement for the women to fuck me and only me while they are with me. Before they move in with me, they are tested for every disease, and they take a pregnancy test as well. Of course, they didn’t have a bodyguard, so it was possible that she could have fucked somebody while she was out on the town, but that had never happened to me before. Plus, I would absolutely know if she’d fucked someone else. If that ultrasound was real, Rachel’s crazy ass was in fact pregnant with my baby.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“My bad. I zoned out for a bit. What did you say?”

“I was just talking shit about your hypothetical wife again. What’s your type? I mean I know you gonna say you don’t have a type, but if you were to go out searching for a wife tomorrow, who is the ideal mate for you? Give me the checklist.”

“Hmm. Driven. Smart.”

She looked up at me with a confused look on her face. “Huh? That’s it? What about them being kind and caring? Please don’t tell me you are looking for the female you because what the hell kind of relationship would that be? Both of y’all working from sunup to sundown. Never having time for each other. What about the other stuff you’re into?”

“That doesn’t matter to me because… I believe we already discussed this before and you know how I feel about discussing things more than once. At least you don’t have anything in your hand to throw at me. My wife wouldn’t have to cook or clean as you can see, I have people for that.”

“I guess. So, you can’t want kids, if that’s the type of marriage you want.”

“It’s not high on the list, but if it happens, it does.”

“So, y’all are going to have a nanny raise your kid?”

“If that’s what she wants.”

“That’s crazy, I guess. But you know what, you probably shouldn’t have kids anyway. You have the emotional intelligence of a… I don’t know, and you need all of that to raise a child. Trust. I’ve seen what your type of parenting does to a child firsthand and it’s fucked up. People say they want kids to leave a legacy, but the legacy be a shit show because you raised a little entitled egomaniacal—”

“Alright. I’ll add what… nurturing to the checklist, just in case.”

She rolled her eyes. “You must know I can’t stand your ass.”

“Baby, I’ll say anything to make you stop talking about that.”

“Ooo,” she grinned. “You called me baby.”

“Glad that could make your day, but no more baby talk, or marriage, or relationship.”

She shrugged her shoulders and then held her hand out for me to stop walking. She inhaled deep.

“We should head back. It’s about to rain. I smell it.”

“That’s a real thing.”

“Yes,” she stressed. “Come on.”

She tugged me around toward the way we’d come. Halfway toward the car, I felt the tiny drops on my arms.

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