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Once we pulled away, he retrieved Nico from my arms, who was still going crazy, trying to get to his daddy.

“You drove here?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said it in a way like it wasn’t a big deal.

Just like I was acting shy and awkward, Juvie was doing the same thing. His ass wasn’t even shy, but I think being around my family, and the fact that you could tell there was more that he wanted to say had him acting awkward. He looked at me for a few seconds, bounced Nico in the one arm that he was holding him with and then cleared his throat.

“I feel like I couldn’t not come. You know I don’t do well at expressing my feelings, but we almost lost you. I ain’t want to take your 18th birthday for granted, so I got on the road after the game,” he said.

He had all the women in the room cooing at his choice of words. Then, there was my hating ass uncle, sucking his teeth in the background.

“Yeah aight Keith Sweat. It’s extra bedrooms here, so if you planning on spending the night, that’s where you going to sleep. Ain’t gone be no practicing on baby number two over here tonight. Fuck wrong with you?” my uncle Troy said it in a joking kind of way, but you could tell he was dead ass serious.

I was moved by Juvie’s words. Like he said, he didn’t do too well with expressing his feelings. He sucked at it. What I did scared him. I could tell by the way he really stepped up. The way he doesn’t allow me to carry this load of parenthood on my own anymore. Basketball took away a lot of his time, plus school, but these days, he was doing everything in his power to help me, and that’s all I ever wanted from him.

I wanted to kiss him so bad in front of my family, but I would wait until we got a moment to ourselves.

My sister stood up, so she could give Juvie a hug, and then he went around the room, hugging the rest of the women. He took the seat next to me, and when asked if he was hungry, he said he wasn’t and that he’d eaten on the drive over here. Nico was in his daddy’s arms, and he was showing nothing but gums. That boy loved his daddy.

I used this moment to sit back and take in everything that was happening around me. There was so much love in here for me. Seeing my handsome son sitting in his father’s arms, bouncing away and cooing was motivation in itself. I had women in my life that loved me. I almost broke all their hearts when I tried to escape life. I thought that I wasn’t strong enough for everything that was being thrown at me. Postpartum depression was nothing to take lightly. Postpartum depression almost took me away from seeing my 18th birthday. If my sister was pregnant like my mom suspected, I would have never gotten the chance to meet my niece or nephew. I would never have gotten the chance to watch my baby boy grow older.

I was happy that my plan didn’t work the way I wanted it to. At Disney, we ate at one of the character dining restaurants, and the waitress came over with a slice of cake for me. My family sang happy birthday to me, and before I blew out the candle, I actually didn’t make a wish. I prayed instead. I went to God in the middle of the restaurant, thanking Him for my plan not being His plan. It just wasn’t my time yet. Those pills not taking me out was a true indication of God not being finished with me yet.

CHAPTER 21

WARREN ‘WOLF’ BENNETT

Sunday evening, and I was here at my niece’s birthday party. Her little ass called me on facetime last night, damn near threatening me over the phone, telling me that I better show up to her party. Ain’t no way I let a little ass girl that wasn’t even fifty pounds threaten me like that. Not only that, but she gave me an entire list of gifts that she wanted.

I made it my business to get up early this morning, so I could run out to the store, and grab all the things that Maleah asked for. I popped up at the birthday party looking like Santa because of all the gifts I came with.

Maleah was having a spa themed party. She invited damn near all the little girls from her school. It was cute how they were able to change into their little robes, getting their hair, nails, and toes done.

I was sitting off in the cut, with my brother Demarco to the right of me. His ass was ready to go, but every time he found Maleah to tell her that he was leaving, she would throw a fit, telling him that he couldn’t leave until we sang happy birthday and cut the cake. She had all the men in her life in check because as badly as he wanted to leave, he was still sitting right here.

I looked ahead of me and my eyes landed on Mya and Kingston. Mya had been standing there, with her phone in her hands, recording Maleah as she sat in one of the spa chairs, getting her toes painted. Kingston walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She couldn’t even hide her annoyance with him as she reached her hand back, attempting to push him away. They were still beefing because of the pregnancy. Mya really didn’t want another baby, but my brother did.

My eyes left them and shot over to my pops. He pulled up this evening too for the party. He came with Kendrix. From what Kingston and Demarco told me, our pops was doing all kinds of physical therapy, trying to improve his leg strength, so he could walk normal again. He didn’t show up in the wheelchair today. He was walking with a cane, but most times I looked over at him, he was sitting in a chair. He couldn’t stand for long periods of time.

My mom wasn’t here. To know my mom is to know that she wouldn’t miss shit involving her children or her grandchildren. All I know is that earlier in the week, her ass sent us a flight confirmation, telling us that she was going to Turks and Caicos. The return flight was for this morning, so I just knew that she would pop up for the party, but she hasn’t. She was long gone out of the phase where the only thing she wanted to do was sit in the house, and cry over my pops. These days, she found herself getting out of the house with some of the women from the church she attended, or just women that she’s always known, but couldn’t hang out with them because of her strict ass husband.

Deja didn’t come with me this evening. She just texted me like ten minutes ago, telling me she’d just got to the crib. She made it back from Orlando today. Even if she hadn’t been in Orlando, I don’t think she would have come with me because her crazy ass told me that she didn’t think Maleah liked her, and how she didn’t want to ruin her party.

“I ain’t tell you because I didn’t want to fuck up the vibes, but you know his daughter was born yesterday, right?” Demarco said to me. He was referring to our dad.

I turned my head, so I could look at him.

“Oh nah. I didn’t know that,” I replied, not really caring to engage in the conversation.

“Yeah. She was born yesterday evening. The baby mama not fuckin with him though. I guess he told her that Emaye found out about their son and daughter on the way. She’s pissed with him because she feels like instead of him being there for her during her final days of pregnancy, he was sulking in Miami behind losing his wife. Then, she mad that he hasn’t come up to Tampa. That nigga was shot the fuck up. He can barely sit down in the car for five minutes, so I don’t know why she felt he would be able to sit down for four hours for that drive to Tampa,” he told me and I shook my head.

“So how he found out that she had the baby if she not fuckin with him?” I asked.

“She texted him yesterday on some spiteful shit to tell him,” he finished.

Nigga was in his fifties, yet he was dealing with baby mama drama like a nigga in their twenties. I didn’t feel bad for his ass though.

Eventually, my pops stood up, and he made his way over to us. We really weren’t that far away from him, but he didn’t have that much leg strength, so it took him a while to make it over. He walked with his cane, and in about two minutes, here he was, standing in front of us.