Page 78 of Surrogate For My Best Friend’s Man 2

“I will.”

“When?”

I looked away.

“Deuce.”

“I said I will.”

“Before or after them babies graduate high school?”

I looked at her and she stared back with a straight face.

“Grandma, come on.”

“I’m asking because apparently y’all like long term secrets.”

Even sitting in the county getting my ass chewed out, this woman could get on my nerves. “I need to get out first.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not telling my wife some shit like that through no county phone.”

Grandma paused. That was the first thing I’d said she didn’t immediately fight me on.

“I need to be able to look her in the face.”

“Then when you get the opportunity, you better do exactly that.”

I nodded.

Grandma grabbed the phone tighter. “And don’t you dare put this shit on Shante when you tell her.”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t put it on Kim either.”

I frowned. “Grandma⁠—”

“No.” She shook her head. “You married Alisha, you made vows to Alisha. Whatever the other two did, that's on them , you answer for what Deuce did.”

I sat there looking at her and she was right. I hated that shit. Grandma looked at the clock. “Our time is almost up.”

“Aight.”

She started to hang up, then stopped.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

“What?”

“When you get out, buy your sister some damn forks.”

I stared at her. She hung up before I could answer. I sat there with the phone still against my ear. “Man, what the fuck.”

But when they walked me back toward my unit, I wasn’t thinking about Shante’s empty apartment. I was thinking about Alisha. Grandma was right about one thing I couldn’t bullshit my way around. The truth was coming whether I was ready or not. And with those babies only a month away, I was running out of places to hide it.

ALISHA