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He went right down on the carpet, which surprised me. I’d never seen Marcus sit on the floor in my life, and when my family all tried to offer him a seat, he said no, thank you.
He was close to me, his arm touching my leg… Oh…Marcus wanted to be close to me, maybe even needed it, and that played all sorts of tricks with my heart.
“So what do you do?” Faith asked.
“I’m in real estate—residential and commercial both.”
“And your family? They around here?” Mama asked.
“They’re architects. They’re originally from the high desert, up toward Victorville, but ended up in LA after high school, put themselves through school and all that.”
“You didn’t want to follow in their footsteps?” Dad asked.
“I have a degree in architecture, but I wanted to make my own way.”
I laid a hand on his nape, brushing my fingers against his skin. Every adult in the room noticed, but I didn’t pull away. I wanted to support him when he was talking about his parents. No way would we make it through this day without the third degree, even if they thought we were just friends. That’s not how we rolled.
“And how did you and Kai meet?” Faith asked next.
“I told you. He’s close with Declan, who owns Driftwood.”
“It’s fine,” Marcus said, letting me know he didn’t feel like they were asking too many questions.
“Are you Uncle Kai’s boyfriend?” Lil Jay asked. “Dad said Uncle Kai likes boys and that’s okay.”
I chuckled. Marcus’s gaze shot to me, slightly panicked. I rolled my eyes, hoping he could tell I was calling him a big baby. “Marcus is my best friend,” I told him. When I looked at Marcus again, his eyes weren’t as panicked, and instead, everything about him had softened, like I had somehow said the most perfect thing without knowing it.
It was true. Maybe it had only been a short time, and yeah, we were sleeping together and said we liked each other, but Marcus had also become the closest friend I ever had. No one had ever made me feel as important and cared for as he did.
“Aww!” Jalen’s wife, Lissa, and Faith said at the same time.
Funny, that was how I felt inside every time I looked at Marcus.
* * *
“Scrambled eggs!” Marcus shouted at me as I was drawing in a family game of Pictionary.
“Yes! My baby’s smart!” I teased, then realized how it sounded and that I probably shouldn’t act with my family the way I would with Marcus at home.
“Just friends, huh?” Jalen said.
“I’m ignoring you.”
Marcus was in one of the chairs now, and he tugged me into his lap. We’d been here for hours already. We’d eaten, talked, shot hoops in the backyard, and now we were playing games.
Marcus was completely at ease in a way that had surprised me. My family had been great, and they treated him like their own—equal parts giving him shit and smothering him the way they did with me.
God, I was going to miss them.
I still hadn’t told them I was moving. The longer the day went, the harder it became, but I knew it was something I had to do, so when the game ended and Mama said she was going to the kitchen to get dessert ready, I said, “I’ll help.”
The house wasn’t open concept, so we would have some privacy there. I knew she had to be the first person I told.
“I like him a lot,” was the first thing she said when we were behind the kitchen door.
“He’s a good man,” I replied when what I really wanted to say was that I liked him too.
“He’s crazy about you. I can tell.”
“It’s not serious.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said about your daddy when we met, and look at us now.”
I’d be lucky to have a relationship like theirs, but then I remembered it would never happen and what I was there to tell her. “I need to talk to you about something.”
Concern creased her brow. “What is it?”
“Don’t be upset, please…and I know I should have told you earlier but, well, I’m an idiot and was being a baby. Anyway, I really think this is a smart, adult move for me, which is what I know you want for me and…” And I was rambling.
“What’s going on, Kai?”
“I got offered a job, running a brand-new bar myself, and a really great apartment at an amazing price. The only thing is, it’s in Atlanta.”
“I don’t know an Atlanta in Southern California, but you’d better not be talking about Georgia.”
I smiled because that was so her. “Maybe this is the kind of offer I’ve been waiting for. There aren’t a whole lot of options. I can’t stay with Marcus forever, which means I’d have to come back home and I’d lose my job. I just… I have to do this. I have to try, at least. You’re all so settled, and I’m…not.”
