“Doing something for your brother.”
“You work for him.”
He raised his brow. “Work for him. Man nuh wuk fi nuh man.”
“I need to tal?—”
“Thank God you’re alive… wouldn’t know because you don’t answer yo fucking phone,” Don said as he walked from the front.
“You said you would be nice,” Navy scolded him.
He ignored his fiancée and focused on me. “You think I care to check in with you when you accused me of being a junkie?”
“The fuck?” Goo replied.
Don focused on me. “You know that’s not what the fuck I said.”
“You implied that I abuse my medicine, Landon. No matter what goes on with you, I never accused you of doing something wild. I could have accused you of having a sex addiction… did I?”
“I would actually believe that,” Navy muttered.
“Pooh.”
“What? You both need to make up because it’s clear that you miss each other.” She stood with her arms folded. “I’m also here because Stevie has a pair of heels that she can’t fit.”
“You might want to leave Stevie alone.”
“Ooh.” Navy caught onto what I was putting down.
I avoided looking at my brother. He had always been my little broke bestie. The one always there to listen to my bullshit, and always there for whatever I wanted to do. These days, it was hard looking at him because he resembled our father.
His dad.
He wasn’t the college boy anymore and had come into his own. Landon was a grown man, and he had the responsibilities of one. Menace made sure of it. His mannerisms weren’t even the same anymore.
Landon was a protector for his new family. I thought back to Labor Day and how he slowly walked up the block, his hand on his gun, ready for anything.
His main priority was to protect Navy’s family, and he made sure of that. “Can we talk?”
“I don’t have the ti?—”
“Baby, you lying now?” Goo called me out.
I stomped down the hall toward the sunroom, and Landon followed behind me. We’ve had arguments in the past, but wewere always able to get over them quickly. This time, we both stayed away and I blocked him out.
“I would have been the first person you called when you found out about our grandmother.” he started, leaning on the window.
“You mean my mother?”
“Zoya, I wanted to tell you.”
I turned around. “Then why didn’t you tell me? I expect that shit from Menace and Kora, but you… we never keep things from each other.”
He looked down at his designer loafers. “I’m heading to Hong Kong, and I refused to leave without talking to you.”
Staring into his eyes, I could see he felt guilty for keeping this from me. Knowing the truth about my life and never telling me.
It wasn’t fair, and they didn’t get to withhold pieces of me, and then decide when to tell me.
