Page 71 of Senior

I started toward them, but he held up a hand to silence me. I crossed my arms as the two men I loved most stared at each other. Deuce’s fists we clutched at his side so hard that his knuckles were white.

“Let me tell you something boy,” Senior said, firmly. “I love your mama. I’ve loved her since I was a jit. Next to you, your siblings and my grandbabies, she is the most important person in my life. You may think I put things over her and, in a sense, I did. I’m man enough to own up to that. But I have never mistreated her. Never raised my voice at her or put my hands on her. If I’m guilty of anything, it’s not doing what the fuck I needed to keep her when I had her.”

Deuce grabbed his hands and shoved them away. “And what’s the difference now, Senior? My whole life I watched you pick my mama up when you felt like it.”

“That’s not true, Stanley,” I defended. “You don’t think I was out here doing me? I wasn’t out here waiting on this man. He didn’t leave me. I left your father every single time.”

“That doesn’t make it any better. You always left the door open for him to come back. You don’t think you deserved more than being second? First it was streets. Then the organization. In between both, it was Allison, then Tavia, then Maddie. It’s never been just you, Ma. He’s had his pick of women my whole life. The only man proven to deserve you was Aaron⁠—”

I laughed, and I mean from a good, hearty place.

“Are you serious right now, Stanley? You don’t know who was deserving of me. Have you forgotten how many men you’ve run off over the years?”

He pointed at me. “I ran off niggas that were beneath you. You think I didn’t have background checks and phone taps on any man trying to run game on you? Let’s see, three of them were secretly married, two had past charges because they couldn’t keep their hands to themselves, one was a registered sex offender. Let’s not talk about the number that only wanted to sleep with you or use as a connection to the family. I protected you from heartache and me from having to put a nigga on his back for playing in your face.”

I was quiet as he revealed information I wasn’t privy to about men in my past. Thinking back, I remembered all the times I’d been ghosted or all the times where men I’d spoken to had crossed the street when they saw me out in public. I guess now I knew the real reason why those relationships had never gone anywhere.

Deuce pointed at his father. “This is the only one I couldn’t seem to keep you away from. I don’t care if the nigga loves you. He doesn’t deserve you, point blank.”

Senior shook his head. “You don’t think I know your mama deserved better than me? I know that shit, Deuce.”

“Then why the fuck you keep chasing her!”

“For the same reason you wouldn’t let Salima break up with you. For the same reason you showed up in that girl’s apartment while she was asleep after she told you she needed space. For the same reason you rush to make it home after every mission. I love her and I’ve always loved her. Time ain’t changed shit about that. I’m not the same man I was, and you know that. You just don’t want to see it.

“And you know what, that’s fine. That’s your mama, and I taught you to protect the women in your life. Here’s the thing though, son. She doesn’t need your protection from me, and we don’t need your approval to be together. You can be mad as fuck but be mad knowing that at the end of this, I ain’t going anywhere. When it’s all said and done, that woman is gonna be my wife and we are gonna be on this compound like Barney and his fucking friends with y’all and these grandbabies. Either you can get with that or I can whip your ass, and we can beef about it for the rest of our lives. The choice is yours, son.”

Deuce glared at him with a hardened expression. His gaze drifted to me, and he chuckled. Raising his hands in surrender, he backed away to the door.

“Y’all got this shit,” he said, opening it. “I don’t have anything else to say about it. I’ma sit back and watch the mistake be made. When it blows up, I don’t have shit for tears or apologies. That’s on y’all.”

“Deuce,” I said, my voice shaking as he went to walk out the door.

He turned back to me.

“Don’t be like this.”

“I’m not being like anything, Ma. Ima act accordingly and acting accordingly means minding my business. I’m leaving for a mission in a bit, but I love you.”

He paused for a moment before coming over to hug me and kiss my cheek.

“I’ll see y’all around.”

He didn’t even look at his father as he walked out the door. I couldn’t lie and say that my feelings weren’t a little hurt. I knew he would have something to say when we came clean, but this… this felt like the beginning of a rift, and I didn’t like that.

I watched Steph on the back patio from my spot in the kitchen. She’d been in a mood since yesterday and I understood why. Deuce hurt her feelings with his funky ass attitude about us. Granted, I don’t think it would have been so bad if he hadn’t walked in on us, but that was his fault. Nobody told him to just waltz his ass into my house uninvited.

Now my lady was in her feelings, and I didn’t like that shit. She was around here moping and looking all sad and shit. The only thing that made her smile was the grandbabies. My son and I were going to have a conversation when he returned. Even if it was just me talking, that lil’ nigga was gonna hear me.

The kids left for their mission yesterday, but that didn’t stop them blowing me up in the group chats. My daughters were offering words of encouragement, while my sons were cracking jokes. I guess they didn’t want to get on their brother’s bad side because these nosy muthafuckas created a whole chat without him to talk their shit. I was five seconds from blocking their asses.

Looking down at my watch, I saw it was about time to head to the house for Sunday dinner. Since shit wasn’t a secret anymore, there was no reason she couldn’t come with me as my lady. I guess this was what my daughters called a soft launch. Those damn girls teach me so much about the change in culture these days. They were the ones that kept me young.

Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, I strolled over to the back door and opened it. Steph was in the hammock, reading on my Kindle. Over the last couple of years, I noticed she’d gotten into reading quite a bit. Sometimes when I went over to chill with her, she’d read me chapters of whatever book she was reading. I’d never been one that sat down and read for fun, so it was interesting to see what captured her attention.

Funny enough, she loved urban fiction and urban romance. I’d lived many lives, so I could relate to a lot of the books she put me on. She looked up from the book as I approached her. A soft smile played on her lips.

“Hey,” she said lowly.