“Well, some girl at camp said her mommy kissed a man and now they be together all the time. Like he’s her boyfriend.” She did her best to whisper that last part, which had me laughing lowly to myself.
“Well things look different for each person. Me and your daddy are just good friends.” I wasn’t ready to tell them anything more, especially not without talking to Jo-Jo first on the situation.
Oh God, Jo-Jo. I’m sure he is asking Highland a million and one questions too.
“So you can kiss your really good friends?” I looked in the rearview mirror at Cece, who had her head tilted to the side, basically trying to catch me up.
I licked my lips as I released a new set of giggles and nodded.
“Yup, but only when you’re a grownup. Kids can’t kiss their friends.” I added that in there just in case Cece had any crazy ideas forming.
That made her giggle and had me damn near turning to see her face as if it would tell me anything more.
“You kissing boys, Ceona?” I asked, which brought out more of her innocent giggles in the car.
“No, Ms. Liv. First off, boys are gross and Daddy already said I can’t until I’m thirty-five.”
I laughed then thought about Jo-Jo being her best friend and if boys were so gross now.
“Ay, what about Jo-Jo? He’s a boy.”
“Yeah, but Jo-Jo isn’t like them. He’s not mean to me and he actually sticks up for me a lot. And I don’t want to kiss him either though.”
Hearing Cece talk about Jo-Jo sticking up for her made my chest swell. I knew Jasiel and I were doing a good job, but damn, that’s my son.
“You can’t kiss your brother, Cece, that’s nasty.” That was Neela who decided to join in the conversation.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Jo-Jo calls us his little sisters, even though I told him that I’m older than him and that’s not how this works.” I wasn’t here to correct their dynamics on how they saw each other, but I would help Cece see it from Jo-Jo’s.
“Sometimes you have younger siblings who swear they can beat ’em all, and we let them. We call them the little bigs. Like Jo-Jo would be your little big brother. And to the youngersiblings, it’s a real badge of honor. I’m happy y’all have Jo-Jo at the camp to look out for y’all. Do the kids pick on you a lot, Cece?”
“Not the boys anymore. The girls just say mean things about us not having a mom and stuff.”
“Pssh, don’t pay them no mind. You have a mom, she’s just not with us here anymore, but you have a ton of other family members who love you just the same.”
“If you and my daddy get married will you be our new mommy?” I gasped as I stopped at a red light, unsure of how to answer this one. These kids did not come to play with the topic of conversation.
And she’s only seven years old?
I cleared my throat as I hit the gas to continue our drive. I finally spoke.
“If that’s what you wanted, and if it’s okay with your daddy, I would love to. But again, we’re a long way from any of that. Now, how about we head to the house, chill by the pool, I’ll make us some girly drinks and paint our toes?”
“With ice cream!” That was Neela adding in extra things to my mental cart for my Munchies order. Highland said no food, so ice cream it was.
“With ice cream!”
Not even five minutes later we were pulling into a driveway of one of the most beautiful beach houses I had ever seen. I pulled out my phone to call Highland to let him know we made it.
The phone rang a few times before his rich baritone greeted me, sounding out of breath.
“Hey baby, did y’all make it?”
“Yeah, we just got here. You’ll find us by the pool, not cooking, when y’all get here. Are y’all good on your end?”
“Ooh by the pool? You bought a suit with you? And of course, me and my boy are good. He kicking my ass in golf. I taught him one technique and now he been using it against me.”
I laughed as I helped Neela out of her seat and we made our way to the door. I appreciated how detailed Highland was. I mean, down to the detail on the keys, I didn’t have to play the guessing game of which one. Nope, he had it labeled with a palm tree and a sand bucket.
