Page 81 of Full Court Press

“I won’t. Love you, Dad.”

“I love you more, my love.” I kissed her forehead, left her room, and pulled out my phone to call the person I knew could get me Piper’s information.

The phone rang twice before the caller picked up. “Lilo, what’s good wit’ you?”

“What up, Xander? Shit much. I need a favor.”

“You know I got you, bruh. What you need?”

“You think you could ask your wife if she could give me her homegirl’s phone number?”

“Piper?”

I chuckled. “Who else would I be checking for, my nigga?”

He laughed. “I can do that. She’s in the shower right now, but I’ll hit you with a text as soon as she gets out.”

“A’ight, bet. Good looking.”

“You got it, my baby.” We hung up, and I headed out to have a much-needed drink.

Saturday Evening…

My phone chirped with a text from an unknown number. I grabbed it from the table and opened it.

947-332-2223:

(Sent a GIF of a man clapping impressively) Nice. But . . . A little harder than that, shorty.

A soft smile tugged at my lips until I found myself smiling fully. Khalil was really making me put in work to regain his love and loyalty. I wasn’t mad at it, but damn. I knew I’d hurt him, but what the hell else did he expect me to do?

As expected, the pre-halftime performance I put on went viral. I had to pull a lot of strings to make that happen, and he wanted me to go harder?

I sighed out of frustration and set my phone back down.

“What has you over there steaming, doll face?” my mom asked me. We were sitting outside on her patio, watching the sunset, and sipping lemonade.

I debated whether I wanted to tell her the whole truth about Khalil and me. I’d only told her about the fight and how we broke up, but I never told her that I’d run off and married him.

For one, she would have torn into me about having a shotgun wedding, and she wasn’t privy to it. Two, she would have torn into me about having a shotgun wedding with a man I’d only known for half a semester. I couldn’t tell her what I’d done, so I only told her half the truth.

Now, I knew it was time to reveal my secret to her because it killed me to keep this from her for so long.

Might as well take the heat and get it over with.

“Ma, I need to tell you something.”

She sat up abruptly. “Oh my God! You’re pregnant?”

I frowned. “What? No!”

She sucked her teeth. “Wishful thinking.”

“Ma.” I laughed. “I barely even date enough to be on the market for pregnancy.”

“Which is confusing because you’re a beautiful woman. You only brought one guy around, and the poor man didn’t last a week. And the only other boyfriend you had was that one in college.”

“Yeah, . . . about that. That boy in college, . . . we’re married,” I blurted. My eyes slowly went to her to see her facial expression. She paused mid-sip of her drink before looking at me in confusion.