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I didn’t have a single complaint about that. I couldn’t remember the last time someone outside of my parents cooked for me. Raelynn attempted but was so terrible at it that I took charge of cooking for all our girl’s nights, or we ordered out.

Homegirl was not about to send me to the hospital with whatever the hell she had going on in the kitchen.

“Did both of your parents know how to cook, or just your mom?” I asked, watching him do his thing.

“My mom gets busy in the kitchen, but she’s not touching my dad on the grill. They both showed Jude and me how to do a little something.”

“Sounds to me like I’ll finally get a break from the kit⁠—”

A hard knock against the door interrupted what I was going to say and caused Jamie to frown. Turning off the eye, he said, “Who the hell is that?”

Leaving me in the kitchen, he went to the door. Since his kitchen and living room had an open layout, I had an open view. Jamie checked the peephole, shaking his head before unlocking the door and wrenching it open.

“I’m starting to think that you don’t have anything to do with your days with the way you keep popping up over here.”

“Boy, shut up. Your brother said you left your store key last night and asked me to drop it off since I had to go past here on the way to the courthouse,” a very recognizable voice answered, making my blood run cold. “I should have kept driving since you want to be smart.”

“Awe, thank you, Mama,” he replied sweetly, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “I’m actually glad that you came through, I have someone I want you to meet.”

He moved aside, and my blood ran cold. The smile on his mother’s face dropped the minute they landed on me. The defendant in the case that she was currently prosecuting.

“Nyx,” Jamie called, oblivious to the shit show that was about to unfold. “Come here for a second.”

I couldn’t move. Shit, I could barely breathe. How in the hell could the one man who managed to creep his way into my life be the son of the woman who was currently contributing to making it a living hell?

Elizabeth Coleman’s loving mother persona quickly shifted into the heartless, cold, individual I’d known her to be from the moment we’d come in contact. It’d only been once, after I rejected the deal but allowed me a glimpse of why my lawyer had referred to her as a shark.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, glaring at me.

Words failed me. It almost felt as if I were frozen in place, held at the mercy of the universe.

When I didn’t respond, she turned to Jamie. “You need to get her out of your space, now. Right now.”

He looked just as confused as I felt. Glancing between me and his mother, he replied. “I’m lost. How do you two even know each other?”

“I can’t reveal that,” she nearly growled. “But she needs to go, Jamie. There’s no place in your life for her.”

His confusion quickly transformed into anger. “Look, I don’t know what you think you know⁠—”

“I know that she’s destroyed the lives of good people and she’s not going to do it to my son.”

“If you think she’s the one that destroyed that nigga’s life, then you don’t know shit,” he argued.

My eyes grew wide as saucers, while my heart thumped wildly in my chest. The last thing I’d been expecting was for him to defend me. Especially against one of the most important people in his life.

“Don’t you curse at me, James Luck.”

“Don’t you run up in my crib going off and disrespecting someone important to me, especially when you don’t know what you’re talking about. I understand you have a job to do, but that’s to prove she’s guilty of something before you go shooting off at the mouth and spreading unfounded rumors.”

Steam nearly shot out of her ears as she glared at him. “It’s not a rumor when there’s evidence to back it up. And I don’t have to discuss this with you. I’m your mother, and what I say goes. She needs to leave. I won’t have her ruining your life the way she did someone else’s.”

Although the things she said weren’t true, they were still painful. This woman didn’t know a thing about me, yet Shane had somehow managed to easily twist her perspective of me. And it was clear that she wasn’t open to knowing anything different.

“Jamie,” I finally found my voice, although it was meek. “Thank you, but you don’t have to do that. I can leave.”

“Yes, you can,” his mother spat, glaring at me as if I were worth nothing more than the dirt beneath her feet.

“You ain’t going anywhere,” Jamie declared fiercely, turning his eyes to his mother. “You can leave.”