Page 169 of Buy Back My Love

“And Jabari?”

“What?”

“You ought to thank Lee next time you see her.”

My whole body went tight.

Boone looked right at me.

“That girl gave you five years.”

Then he walked out, and I stayed standing in the middle of my office long after the door shut behind him.

Five years.

The exact same five years Lee had lost. I looked through the window at the trucks moving through the yard, drivers coming and going with my company name stretched across every cab in big letters. I had built all this while Lee sat in federal prison for something I put in motion.

According to Boone, I hadn’t gotten out of shit. Lee had just bought me time.

Lee

By the time Van put me on Game of Thrones, I was already six months pregnant and way too invested in people with swords and family problems. We had been on his couch for most of the evening, half under a blanket with Snoop stretched out on the floor nearby and Holly curled against my leg like she belonged there too. Van had been trying to get me to watch the show for weeks, swearing I was going to like it if I gave it a chance. I hated that he had been right.

I was halfway through asking why everybody in that damn show had to be related to somebody they were trying to kill when the craving hit me. “I want an oatmeal cream pie.”

Van didn’t look away from the TV. “Okay.”

I waited, but he didn’t move. “I said I want an oatmeal cream pie.”

This time he glanced over. “I heard you.”

“Then why you still sitting there?”

“Because you wanting something don’t automatically mean I gotta move.”

I stared at him, and he stared right back before his eyes dropped to my stomach. “Don’t use the baby.”

“I wasn’t.”

“You were about to.”

“I was about to say your god-” I caught myself and changed course. “I was about to say this baby wants one too.”

Van laughed and turned back toward the TV. “You got some at home?”

“If I had some at home, would I be sitting here telling you about it?”

“You been wanting one for, what, twenty seconds?”

“Pregnancy cravings are serious.”

“Apparently.”

I shifted under the blanket and tried to ignore it. That lasted maybe a minute.

“I want one bad.”

Van sighed, reached for the remote, and paused the show. That made me smile because I knew I’d won.