Page 52 of When You Dance
“Hell yeah,” he said as he chuckled. “We deep out here.”
He stood and my attention went back to Tatum. I could tell she was about to get fussy, so I stood and took her to Joyy. “I think she’s about to get fussy.”
“Yeah, she’s probably ready to nurse. Thank you.”
As I made my way back to my seat, Shavozz said, “Sister-in-law, whenever you do the class, I’m gonna be there.” She came closer, and her legs buckled. I frowned because it looked like she was about to fall. “DJ…” she started.
I went to assist her, but she seemed to recover as DJ chuckled. She cut her eyes at him as he said, “Seven o’clock. I’ll be ready.”
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. That nasty nigga has a remote for a vibrator in my panties,” she said in a low voice.
I laughed. “Listen. I need one of those immediately.”
She chuckled as we made our way to the couch. “Girl… that shit catches me off guard all the time.” Once we sat, she said, “I can’t wait to get to know you more. Since Jamel and DJ are closer, I know we’ll be seeing one another more often. When we go to Houston, maybe we can go out together.”
“That would be cool, Shavozz. I’d like that.”
She gave my hand a squeeze then sat back. We kept talking, getting to know one another’s stories. Although I wasn’t quite ready to divulge everything about me, it was good getting to know her and all she’d overcome. I was glad to be here, feeling like I was a part of the family. I could only hope that Jamel and I stayed as close as everyone seemed to think we would. Just like I didn’t want to ever have to let him go, I didn’t want to let his family go either.
CHAPTER21
JAMEL
When we got back to Houston Sunday night, Sandrene fucked the shit out of me. We’d had sex at Mama and Pop’s house, but we had to be quiet. She wasn’t feeling that shit at all. I had to literally put my hand over her mouth and fuck her slow. She came and couldn’t make a sound. That only made it even more intense.
We’d been back in Houston for two weeks, and I was missing the hell out of her. She started full time at the dance studio the Monday after we got back and had also been staying at her place. Once her day was over, she was tired as hell. Amiko had been using her for ballet and hip hop classes, and Sandrene loved it. I didn’t see her until that Saturday evening, and she stayed with me until I had to leave. I left town Saturday night to head to St. Louis.
During that time, Tip and Dalonna had been arraigned for conspiracy to commit murder since Jeremiah was supposed to kill Sandrene. They were also remanded since they’d skipped town before. Their trials would be coming up in a couple of weeks. Sandrene was also sent information as to where her money was.
All this time, it had been sitting at Edward Jones, collecting interest. It was invested in quite a bit of stocks as well. Instead of having five hundred thousand, she nearly had a million. I wasn’t mad at that at all, and neither was she. God had given her double for her trouble. They’d been given all types of false information regarding Sandrene. The only addresses they had on file was the place they lived before her father died and the place her mother lived before she died.
They’d also been made aware of her employment with the certification place as well, but only after she was no longer there. It was revealed the source of all that misinformation was Dalonna Babbs. Apparently, Edward Jones had dispersed money to them as well and knew of the connection. Sandrene was still trying to decide if she wanted to file a civil suit. She said it depended on what happened with the trial and whether she was pleased with the court’s decision regarding the two of them.
I’d gotten home this morning, and I had plans to take her to dinner and just wind down this weekend with her. It had been a long week without her. We didn’t get to even talk as much, because my days started extremely early, which meant that they ended early as well. By seven at night, I would be in la la land. She would just be leaving the studio at times. A couple of times, she was still at work.
After I got out the shower, my phone was ringing, so I wrapped my towel around my waist and headed to my bedroom to get it. “Hello?”
“What’s up, bruh? You good?”
It was Rondo. He and I had been talking quite a bit. I was trying to give DJ his space since he was a newlywed. We’d talked a few times in the past two weeks. Arrow had been working around the clock it seemed, surgery after surgery, seven days a week. We’d talked last night briefly, but he sounded like he was on the verge of snoring. We ended the call, although I still wasn’t sure why he was taking on so many hours.
“I’m straight, bruh. What’s up?”
“I got a question.”
“Shoot.”
“If a woman you once loved was trying to shoot her shot again, would you let it hit the target?”
“It depends on why we weren’t together anymore.”
“You know I broke things off with Yolanda nearly two weeks ago and shestillbeen blowing me the fuck up. But that ain’t who I’m talking about. I just had to throw that in there. My baby mama said some shit last weekend, like we ought to go out as a family when I go back to get my baby. She’s finally giving me clues about what she wants. My heart tryna get me caught up, but my mind is like, do you really wanna go through that shit again, nigga?”
I chuckled. “Well, only you can make that decision, bruh. If Sandrene left me, I would probably try to get her back, but you and yo’ baby mama been apart for a minute.”
“Yeah, a few years. I think that’s why she been tripping on me taking Sunni to Texas. She scared I’ma meet somebody else before she get a chance to get at me again. I just don’t know if I wanna risk having to deal with bullshit again, man.”
