Afraid to allow love in, let her walls down, because every person she had let those walls down for took advantage. They made her look like a fool, and she didn’t take too light to that. I didn’t just watch Zoya, I studied her. I learned who she was and what she required, even though she had never told me out her mouth. If you watched someone long enough, you learned the things they never told people.
I needed to understand her if I was going to make her my wife. My baby was tough because she had no other choice but to be. Each encounter, every conversation, I could see her wanting to put down those walls, allow someone else to take control. I was ready to put Zoya in her healed girl era. I wanted her biggest concern to be that the cost of beef bacon had risen.
I had to earn her trust because trust wasn’t easily given out when it came to the Casellis. I had to show her that I was different from the other fuck heads she fucked with in the past. Being truthful, that was the reason Zoya ran from me. She knew I wasn’t like those other niggas, and that scared the shit out of her.
“Queen coming onto the block,” I heard Kincaid yell, as he turned onto the block with Queen’s red G wagon riding behind him.
As if he knew his queen was near, Quasim came out the barbershop. Blair parked in the spot that had been carved out for her and killed the engine. The tints on her truck were so dark that you couldn’t see inside of it. The kids had gone off to the next thing, so me and Havoc left the tent.
Quasim swaggered across the street and opened the door as Blair stepped out. It was crazy because it was this time last year when Tookie came riding through the block, and I had been reduced to hearing about it while sitting in prison.
Blair wrapped her arms around his neck as he kissed her lips a few times. Havoc bypassed both they asses and opened the back door. He smiled, as he signed something to who I assumed was Izayah.
“You consistent, huh?” Quasim said.
He unbuckled her and took her out the back. Zayah was only a few months old, so she didn’t know shit that Havoc was talking about right now. “Hi, Blessing… you missed Goddy?”
“Goddy?” I snorted.
“I’m her God daddy, nigga… we unique over here. Worry about yours.” Havoc took Izayah, and neither Sim nor Blair said anything.
She looked like a little baby doll in his arms. He cradled her and kissed her forehead, as she looked around.
The passenger door opened, and Capri stepped out with her phone to her ear. “I return to work next week, so we can set something up and talk then… uh huh. Thank you, Director Robinson.”
I walked around the car and helped her open the door. Cherry was ready to jump out the damn seat when she saw me. Capri laughed, backing away so I could unstrap her. Soon as she had that little prison strap off her, she leaped into my arms.
“Goo, Goo!” She slapped both her hands on my cheeks and smushed her face toward mine.
My God daughter meant the entire world to me. Capri and Meer didn’t have to make me her God father, but they trusted me.
Me.
A nigga that had a rap sheet as thick as the bible. A man that didn’t believe in himself until his freedom was taken from him.
They trusted me to guide this little soul and protect her. It was a job that I didn’t take lightly. I moved differently, because I never wanted Cherry to have to visit me in prison. I never wanted her to see me in those greens; while trying to understand why I couldn’t leave with her.
“Hi, Cherry mama.” I kissed her cheeks.
I tossed her up in the air while she giggled. Whenever babies giggled, the shit was contagious. While she was having the time of her life with me tossing her up, Capri was watching in horror.
“Everything good, Lady Inferno?” I teased.
“You give me a mini heart attack every time you do that, but she loves it… tries to make her father do it too.” She ran her hand through her hair.
As if this nigga knew we were discussing him, Quameer pulled up on his bike. Peach waited across the street until she got the go ahead to cross, and she and Elijah both ran over toward him.
“She know only Goo can toss her up like this… her daddy a sucker,” I joked.
Capri laughed. “How long you been out here?”
“Few hours… where’s the boys?”
“With my mother… I didn’t want to bring them out in this heat. Still trying to figure out how to be out with all three of them. Cherry is enough,” she nervously laughed.
I could tell she was still trying to get used to being a mother of three, a wife, and having a career. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, Pri… you got this shit.”
She took a deep breath. “Thanks, Goon. I thought I had it under control with one baby, but two at the same time… shit… me and Meer be in the house trying to catch our breath.”
