Page 46 of That Fire

“Yep. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes. By the time we get down there and I get you situated, we should be ready to eat.”

“That was fast.”

“Yeah. Her and Ashanni are team cooking, so that makes it go a little faster.”

“Me and my mama used to do that too. Ashanni and Mama Chas remind me of me and my mama. We gon’ all have to go out together.”

“Yep. I’m sure they’ll love that. Chas and Shani like to shop. They make trips to Houston every other month to go to the Galleria and to eat at different places they find on TikTok. When your mom slows down a bit, I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“Yeah. Aunt Harper would love it too. We’ll have to make this a ladies outing. Aunt Harper, Treasure, Cachet, Mama Lacey, Kambel, Aunt Aspen, Maui, the twins . . . just the entire family!”

I smiled at her excitement. “That would be cool, baby. It will be a lot of y’all. Whatever restaurant y’all go to will have to be rented out for the day. That’s thirteen women with just the ones you named. There’s at least twenty-five more in my family, and that’s not counting Aunt Kema, Philema, and Kiana. Plus, Mal moved back. He has a wife and daughter. It would be damn near forty of y’all. Then Aunt Cass would probably catch up with y’all out there.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. It would be so much fun though. We could do cruises and trips with our daughters.”

“Back in the day, the men in my family used to do that with their daughters. They would have daddy daughter dates. Then when all the drama started happening in the family, that shit fizzled out. That’s probably something we could get back to.”

Aaliyah got to the edge of the bed and stood. I carefully scooped her up and kissed her lips, then made my way downstairs with her. I had a chaise lounge chair that reclined slightly on one side of the room, near a bookshelf. I sat her down there, got her pillows situated and draped her blanket over her. She was always cold.

Once I got her food tray over her lap, I kissed her lips and went to the kitchen to get her food and water. My mama had already fixed her plate, so I kissed my mom’s cheek and grabbed the plate to bring to Aaliyah. Since she couldn’t go to the table, we all came to the sitting area to eat with her.

Just as I was about to sit in a chair that I took from the dining table and positioned next to Liyah, the doorbell rang. That could only be one person. While I wanted to be the one to open the door, I let my mama get it since she hadn’t sat yet and was closest to the door. I set my plate on my TV tray and prepared myself to see my brother. When mama came back inside, Crew was behind her, and he had Kambel with him. I frowned. What the fuck was he up to?

“Hey, everybody. Y’all know Kambel.”

Everyone said hello. Ashanni went and hugged him. He shook Dad’s and Asad’s hands, then glanced at me and Aaliyah. He didn’t say a word, just went and sat down. I was ready to flip this fucking tray over. Aaliyah grabbed my arm and shook her head. Kambel was walking around greeting everyone. Asad looked pissed as well. Kambel was his sister on his mother’s side.

When she got to Aaliyah, she kissed her cheek. “Hey, sissy! We have to talk, girl.”

“Hey, Kam. We definitely do,” Aaliyah said unenthusiastically.

Kambel came to me, so I stood and hugged her. “How you doing, Kam? You were the last person I was expecting to see.”

She smiled big. Her dark skin was glowing. “I knoooow. I’m good though. Y’all look ready for all this to be over,” she said, then rubbed Aaliyah’s belly and giggled.

“You have no idea,” I mumbled.

I was ready for this fucking dinner to be over as well. How the fuck he gon’ come inmyhouse and not speak to me? I was getting angrier by the second, and I knew my dad noticed,because his face was getting red. His freckles were extremely pronounced. When he stood from his seat, I knew shit was about to hit the fan. I leaned over to Aaliyah and started rubbing her belly while she continued talking to Kambel.

My dad glanced at me and saw what I was doing. He took a deep breath, clearly trying to calm down. “Let me holla at’chu outside, Crew.”

“Why?”

Aww shit.“Nigga, because I said let me holla at’chu. You want me to say what I wanna say in here? I was tryna keep the peace, so I won’t stress Aaliyah out.”

Crew glanced over at me and Aaliyah and nodded repeatedly. “Kambel, let’s roll.”

“Naw, muthafucka. How the fuck you walk into Royal’s house and not speak to him or his lady? That’s disrespectful as fuck. I can tell he wanted to get at you about that shit, but he needs to chill for the sake of Aaliyah. I don’t know what the fuck you on, but you need to get off that shit immediately! Then you come here with Kambel. What the fuck you up to?”

Kambel’s eyebrows lifted. She was clearly confused as to what was going on. Crew remained silent, prompting Dad to continue.

“So, because you can’t get the woman your brother was already secretly seeing, you go after her sister? What kind of fuck shit is that?”

“You wanted Aaliyah, Crew?” Kambel asked.

“I tried to holla at her a little over a year ago. She turned me down. I moved on.”

“Nigga, apparently you haven’t if you walking around bad mouthing my sister. We gon’ have a come-to-Jesus meeting real quick in this muthafucka,” Asad said as Shani held his hand, caressing it between hers.