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“C’mon, I need a pick me up. You know, since I’m over here nauseous, uncomfortable, and fat. The least you can do is tell me a story.”
“I jumped out of the window onto the trampoline and landed wrong. My elbow was damn near in my shoulder. It never healed correctly, so now one arm and hand are bigger than the other,” he revealed, holding his arms out so I could see the difference in length.
“What would make you jump out of a second-story window, jackass?”
“I like doing dangerous shit like getting random women pregnant.”
“You need to stop. You have a wife and kid to think about now.”
“Wife?” Gianni smiled a little too hard at my words, “My partner in crime is getting soft on me already.”
“Unless I want to end up locked away in some dungeon again, what choice do I have?”
“I’ll let you have the next nine minutes to believe that you were locked in a dungeon.”
“Close enough. Any more ailments I should know about?”
“Kiss me.” The suggestion intrigued me, but I kept a straight face.
“I thought we were just friends?” My weight shifted as my hip leaned against the counter.
“Get your mind out of the gutter. I didn’t say slob me down. Just kiss me.” I stared skeptically for a second before giving in and pressing my lips against his. “Feel that?”
“Stitches?” I asked, gripping the hair sprouting from his chin for a better view of the scar on the left side of his bottom lip that I hadn’t noticed until now.
“Playing football in the house. Tyson’s dumbass tackled me, and I hit the railing on the stairs. Split my shit wide open.”
“You’re talking about me, but you might be the reason this kid needs to walk around in a helmet.”
His eyes settled on my stomach, likely lost in his thoughts, but the one I could read was his desire to connect with his unborn child. Gianni was hesitant because he knew I hated people salivating over my bump as if I were an animal on display. He was trying to be respectful, and I appreciated that, but this baby was half his.
Grabbing his hand, I placed it on my stomach, and the scar on his lip rose. “She’s yours. You can touch it,” I revealed, and his mind went elsewhere. “I didn’t mean it like that nasty.”
“Damn. It’s a baby in there,” he muttered, gently stroking my skin with his thumb. I giggled, watching it because his hand was big enough to palm my bump.
“What did you think was in here?”
“I know it’s a baby,” he paused before disconnecting from my skin. “It’s different feeling it, and I think she kicked me. What have you been telling my baby about me?”
“Don’t lie on my baby.”
“What does it feel like?”
“It changes by the day. Sometimes it’s cool to know that there’s a whole human inside me. On other days it’s exhausting and scary. I don’t have all the answers. Hell, I still call my mom but soon, I’ll be the person she’s calling. I don’t want to be the reason she’s fucked up.” I cut my statement short, leaving out how my father fucked me up.
It was likely the reason I stayed with Marcel despite having reservations. I accepted his empty promises and gave him more chances to disappoint me when I deserved better. I didn’t want that for my child.
“Promise me something, Gi,” Turning back to the mirror, I sectioned my curls off and began platting to avoid eye contact and get my speech out.
“Promise you’ll be the kind of dad she can rely on. She’ll love you so much she won’t even want to share you with me. Then one day, when she’s old enough, she’ll look for those same qualities in a man. She’ll never accept less than she deserves because her daddy taught her better.”
Gianni wanted to ask where it came from and why this was so important to me. Thankfully he didn’t. Gianni uttered those three words that made my knees weak, “I got you.”
“What’s going on between you and Solana?” I asked, needing a distraction.
“Who said we’re beefing?”
“It’s not hard to tell something is going on the way y’all were shooting daggers at each other during dinner.”
