Page 46 of Love At Close Range

Rhyse studied him like he was deciding whether to believe him. Then he walked back toward the island and climbed onto his stool. He still looked emotionally drained, but the anger had eased enough that I finally felt like I could breathe again.

Lennox sat back down across from him, and neither of them spoke for a minute. I stayed beside Rhyse with my hand resting lightly against his shoulder, grateful when he didn’t pull away this time.

After a while, Lennox looked at him. “So what you like to do?”

Rhyse shrugged at first, still looking down at the counter. “Basketball.”

“You play?” Lennox asked.

“Yeah,” Rhyse responded, finally giving Lennox his attention.

“You nice?” Lennox quizzed.

Rhyse looked at him like the question was almost disrespectful. “Hell yeah.”

“Aye,” Lennox said as his eyebrows lifted. “Chill out with all that cursing.”

Rhyse’s eyes widened. “You’ve been my daddy for a minute and you already telling me what to do?”

“Yeah, I gotta a lot of time I gotta make up for.” Lennox smirked. “What position you play?” He asked.

“Point guard mostly, but Coach lets me run shooting guard too,” Rhyse answered, sitting a little straighter now.

“What number?” Lennox asked as he settled back against the stool.

“Three,” Rhyse answered.

“That’s wassup. Who’s your favorite player?” Lennox continued.

“Ja Morant,” Rhyse answered immediately, like that one didn’t require any thought. “I like Ant too, but Ja is my favorite.”

Lennox gave him an approving nod. “Yeah, Ja is nice. You trying to play like him?”

Rhyse sat up straighter, some of the heaviness from earlier finally leaving his face. “Kinda. I like how he gets to the rim, but Coach be telling me I need to stop trying to do too much and make the easy play sometimes.”

“Sounds like Coach knows what he’s talking about.” Lennox chuckled.

“You ain’t never even seen me play.” Rhyse frowned.

“I’on have to see you play to know if your coach telling you to stop doing too much, you probably be doing too much,” Lennox replied with a smirk.

Rhyse looked at me like he expected me to defend him, but I shrugged because Lennox wasn’t wrong. “Don’t look at me, Boosie. I tell you the same thing.”

Rhyse sucked his teeth before looking back at Lennox. “I still be scoring though.”

“Aight, then,” Lennox said with a small laugh. “When I see you play, I’ll decide for myself.”

Rhyse went quiet for a second, and I noticed the slight change in his expression. “You gonna come to my games?”

The question wiped the amusement from Lennox’s face almost immediately. “Hell yeah. I’ma be right there cheering my boy on.” Lennox smirked.

“I’on play until it gets cold, but you can still come.” He shrugged.

“I’on care how cold it is… I’ll be there,” Lennox confirmed causing Rhyse to smile.

Before either of us could say anything else, the doorbell was going off again.

All three of us looked toward the hallway, and I frowned because I wasn’t expecting anybody. Lennox’s eyes moved to mine as I slid off the stool.