Page 26 of Love At Close Range

“Bet,” I replied before ending the call and setting my phone beside the laptop.

I stayed where I was and clicked through the pictures again until I landed on the clearest one of Rhyse. A few hours ago, I didn’t know the little boy existed. Now I had questions that needed fucking answers. I looked at the picture a little longer before closing everything else on the screen. If Rhyse was mine, I had spent almost eight years not knowing I had a son while he spent almost eight years not knowing he had a father.

I reached for my phone and called my mama before I sat there too long thinking about shit I couldn’t answer yet.

“Hey, baby,” Mama greeted when she answered. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I assured her as I leaned back in the chair. “I was just checking on y’all. Everything straight?”

“Everything is fine,” Mama replied before I heard Lennyn talking in the background. “Your daughter is over here doing what she does best, but other than that… we’re good.”

I chuckled because that sounded exactly like my baby. “Let me talk to my baby.”

“Daddy!” Lennyn yelled excitedly. “Queenie said you was calling me.”

“I called Queenie, and you just happened to have you over there terrorizing her,” I joked as I glanced back at the laptop.

“I’m not terrorizing nobody,” Lennyn defended. “I’m being good.”

“That’s what you always say then Queenie says otherwise,” I replied. “What you been doing today, pretty girl?”

My baby girl immediately started telling me about everything she had done since she got to my mama’s. I listened and responded when I needed to, but my mind kept going back to the little boy who had my face. I knew all this shit about Lennyn without having to think twice about it. I knew when she was lying just by the way her voice changed. Being her father was part of every day of my life and I took pride in that shit. If Rhyse was mine, I didn’t know shit about him.

“Daddy, are you listening to me?” Lennyn asked as her voice pulled me away from my thoughts.

“Yeah, baby… I’m listening,” I assured her. “You said Auntie LeLe took the remote from you because you wouldn’t stop changing the channel.”

“She wasn’t even watching nothing,” Lennyn argued. “She was on her phone.”

“That still doesn’t mean the TV belonged to you, Lenny.” I told her as I laughed lightly. “Stop giving your auntie a hard time.”

“She gives me a hard time,” Lennyn complained before changing subject, like she always did. “When you coming home?”

“I might be gone a little longer than I thought,” I answered as I glanced back at the picture of Rhyse. “Daddy has some stuff to handle first, but I’ll be back real soon.”

“How much longer?” Lennyn questioned.

“I’on know yet, pretty girl,” I admitted. “But you keep being good for Queenie and Auntie LeLe until I get there.”

“I’m always good,” Lennyn insisted as I heard Mama laugh because she knew that was a lie.

“That’s debatable,” I teased as I smiled. “I love you, baby girl.”

“I love you too, Daddy,” Lennyn responded before she lowered her voice. “Can I get something when you come back?”

I couldn’t even stop the laugh that emitted from my chest. This little girl always wanted something. “What you want, baby?”

“I’on know yet,” Lennyn replied. “I gotta think about it.”

“Aight, well think about it and give Queenie her phone back,” I instructed as I looked at the time. “I’ll call you later.”

“Okay, Daddy. Love you,” Lennyn repeated.

“I love you too, pretty girl,” I replied before Mama came back on the line.

“That child has you wrapped around every finger she has,” Mama joked once she had the phone again.

“That’s my baby… she can get that.”