Page 53 of When Love Takes Root

“I hear you.”

“I believe you. I just want you safe.”

My breath caught.

I looked down at the instructions. “Thank you, Josiah.”

His name felt new in my mouth, but not wrong.

“You’re welcome, Celeste.”

He left with Juice and Onyx.

Through the window, I watched them cross the parking lot. Before opening his truck door, Josiah looked back at the salon. At me.

I should’ve looked away.

I didn’t.

He gave me a small nod, climbed inside, and pulled away behind Onyx’s motorcycle.

Juice waited until we were good and gone from Celestial Crowns before he started running his mouth.

I knew it was coming. My cousin had been too quiet while we were inside the shop, and quiet on Juice meant he was collecting evidence. He did that often. He’d let people think he was just joking around, let them get comfortable, then come back later with a whole case file and a closing argument nobody asked for.

I eased onto Langston Avenue with one hand on the wheel and the other resting near the console. Late afternoon traffic had Self Ridge moving like it had nowhere to be and too many people trying to get there. Cars stacked at the light. A man stood outside the gas station, selling cold waters from a cooler. Two boys cut across a corner lot on bikes, school shirts untucked, laughing like nobody had told them life would try them soon enough.

Juice leaned back in the passenger seat with that stupid grin already on his face.

I didn’t look at him. “Whatever you got to say, keep it respectful.”

He laughed. “You asking for respect already means I’m right.”

“It means I know you.”

“Same thing.” He turned toward me. “So we not gon’ talk about how you walked into that lady’s salon and got real still?”

“I was looking at the setup.”

“You were looking at the setup, the owner, them locs, them hips, them lips, them eyes, and whatever she had on, smelling like somebody’s grandma made a vanilla cake and opened every window in the house.”

I glanced over at him. “You doing inventory?”

“Nah, you did. I just watched your face submit the report.”

I shook my head and kept driving.

Juice laughed because silence never discouraged him. If anything, it made him believe he was making progress. “Siah, you stood in that shop like the breaker box personally introduced you to your future.”

“She’s a client.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“A widow.”

“I know.”

“A mother of five.”