Page 63 of Love Sanctioned

Confusion filled my face just as Junior entered the kitchen.

“Morning, y’all,” he said groggily.

“Stayed up on the game again?” Posydiann asked.

“No. Junnie took me to see that new scary movie.”

Psy shook his head, but his focus found its way back onto me. “The move, Syn. How long do you think it’ll take to pack all your shit up?”

I mugged him. “Do you know how long I’ve stayed in that condo? It has history. There is a lot there.”

“Yeah, aight. Enough for me to pay a crackhead to box that shit up for you.”

I laughed at his seriousness.

“Wait, are you moving in here with us?” Junior asked.

“Only if you want me to. But if you want me to stay closer to your school then we can wor⁠—”

“Stop fucking playing with me, Karsyn. We already talked about this.” I could tell I was working Posydiann's nerves.

“Nah, I want you here.” Junior grinned.

“Then it’s settled, but the idea of coming back from a tropical vacation to manual labor is wild. I still have a studio to run and work to do. Not to mention I have to figure out how that move would even work. Your house is tailored to you guys, not me. I’d have to ge⁠—”

“Remember what we talked about, Syn. I really ain’t tryna hear none of that.”

I grinned, remembering the exact conversation he and I had. Well maybe not the exact conversation, but his convincing and everything that happened after. “Fine. But where are my books supposed to go? My sofas?”

“Karsyn,” Posydiann said through bites of the waffle sandwich he’d made with what I put on his plate.

“Posydiann,” I countered.

“Junior,” Junior said, then laughed. “I just wanted to say my own name. Thank you for breakfast, Ma. I’m going back to sleep. Pops, my other mama said call her.” He walked out of the room without another word, leaving me and his father.

“I thought I earned less lip, Syn.”

“You did, but us coming right here and you expecting me to have it all together is maddening and unrealistic. Can you give me like two or three weeks? A month tops?”

He studied me for a moment before nodding. “Aight.”

“See, was that so hard?” He was on his feet, moving to wash his plate in the sink.

“Nope.”

He got behind me, pulling my body into his embrace seconds later, those wet ass hands on my nonexistent bump. Ever since I gave him that sonogram, his hands stayed on my stomach.

“Let’s go upstairs and talk about it.” He kissed my neck.

“Don’t you have somewhere to go?” I grinned.

“I do and so do you. You need your laptop, right?” He backed up, leaning against the island.

I turned to clean my plate. “And my dog. I told you the stipulation for me moving here is BJ comes with.”

He laughed. “I heard you the first time, but didn’t you say he keeps your mother company?”

I mugged him because I already knew what he was getting at. He had never been fond of my dog. “Psy.”