Page 22 of Buy Back My Love

I stared at the ceiling, thinking about how the last thing I’d seen every night for years was the chipped gray bottom of Patrice’s bunk. I’d spent all that time dreaming about sleeping in a real bed again only to finally get one and realize even freedom could feel strange when you’d been without it long enough. I rolled onto my side and pulled the blanket higher, thinking I’d never admit it out loud, but I kinda missed Patrice’s loud ass snoring above me.

Jabari "JB" Haynes

Ilied. I ain’t have no fucking work. Soon as I pulled away from Lee’s place, I headed across town trying not to think about the way she looked at me when I admitted I’d been fucking other women while she was gone. It didn’t work because I could still see her standing beside that bed in them little pajamas looking at me like she hated my ass, and I couldn’t even blame her.

She did five years behind some shit that belonged to me, got out that morning, and before the day was over I’d already lied to her again. That shit didn’t sit right with me.

What the fuck was I supposed to do though? Tell her everything tonight? She hadn’t even been free twelve hours. I wasn’t finna dump five years’ worth of shit in her lap before she had a chance to sleep in a real bed.

I was gonna tell her, just not tonight. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

The farther I got from her place, the more my mind went back to everything I’d done for her. I had her apartment paid up for a year, ten racks, a new Benz, and whatever else she needed. I’d spent five years making sure Lee wouldn’t come home with nothing, but none of it could buy back one day she’d lost because of me. I knew that, and she damn sure knew it too, but it didn’t stop me from trying.

By the time I pulled through my iron gate, it was late. I parked in the driveway and sat behind the wheel for a second before grabbing my keys and heading inside.

I barely got the front door open before little feet came flying across the living room.

“Daddy!”

I looked down just in time for JJ to slam into my legs. “There go my boy.”

I scooped him up with one arm and kissed both his fat cheeks while he laughed and squirmed in my arms.

“Stop!” JJ squealed, pushing my face away.

“You the one ran over here.”

“I been waiting for you!”

“I can tell.”

JJ wrapped his arms around my neck while I carried him farther into the house. The Ms. Pat Show was playing loud as hell from the living room, which told me Hannah was probably still up even before I asked.

“Where your mama at?”

He pointed toward the couch. “In there.”

I already knew I was in trouble before I saw her sitting on the couch with her arms folded across her chest, wearing one of them oversized T-shirts she lived in lately. At five months pregnant, even that big-ass shirt wasn’t hiding her belly anymore.

Hannah looked at me, then at the clock. “Took your ass long enough.”

I set JJ down and he took off toward his bedroom. The second I dropped onto the couch beside her and reached for her, Hannah shoved my hand away.

“Don’t come touching me after you been posted up with that bitch all day.”

I let out a long breath. “Hannah, don’t start that shit. You already know what it is.”

“What I know is you spent your whole damn day playing house with another woman.”

“Hannah...”

She cut her eyes at me. “Did you tell her about us?”

I leaned my head back against the couch cushions and rubbed both hands over my face. I was tired as hell. “It’s her first day out, man.”

“So what?”

“I already broke the girl’s heart once. I wasn’t trying to drop that shit on her the same day she walked back into the free world.”