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A boy on his right and girl on his left. Based on the way the little girl was grinning I assumed she was the one who’d made the comment.
“What you mean ewww? Ain’t nothing wrong with me kissing on your mama. I told you that means we love each other, baby girl.”
“But it’s gross.”
“Man, y’all go pick which boat you want but don’t take your ass near the water. I mean it. I’m not trying to hear yo’ mama’s mouth,” he warned with a hard stare.
“But you said you were coming,” the little girl whined, bouncing in place.
“I’m coming, baby girl. Give me a minute.”
She looked at him skeptically but gave in when the little boy grabbed her hand and pulled her with him. “Ay, Si keep an eye on your sister.”
“I will,” he assured over his shoulder as they took off running.
“Paddle boats at the park. I figured you would have just built a pond in the backyard or some shit like that.”
“I would but you know my wife. She don’t like that extra shit. Be on my ass about me doing too much.”
I swear I could literally feel the heat from Jaasir’s eyes burning into the side of my face and I just knew he was about to call me out too but he didn’t. “That’s ’cause your ass is extra, JV. Lani must have lost her mind if she let you out here with them by yourself.”
JV grinned and god, he was handsome. He lifted his hat and then yanked it back down on his head.
“The fuck is that supposed to mean? I know how to keep up with my kids.”
“I’m not doubting your parenting skills. Just saying that your reckless mouth and short fuse is a disaster in the making. Somebody might look at one of them wrong and shit’s going left.” Jaasir’s tone was animated and laced with mirth which had JV nodding and laughing.
“You have a point. But she’s here. Over there in the car with Legend finishing a call. We’re about to hit these paddle boats for a lil minute so they’ll stop bugging the shit out of me. What are you doing out here?” he asked, lowering his eyes to me.
“We been stuck in the house for the past week. Wanted to let Gracie get out for a minute.”
“Bet.” He glanced at me again. “Honor, right.”
I frowned and nodded, but offered a correction. “Cadence.”
“My bad, beautiful. Nice to meet you, Cadence. I’m…”
“JV. I know who you are. I’ve seen you fight before.”
“How the fuck you know who he is but didn’t know who I was?”
“Damn, my nigga. You’re losing your touch. What I’m hearing is she’s been to one of my fights but ain’t never seen yo’ ass on stage. That has to be a gut punch to your smooth, R&B soul singing ass.”
Jaah laughed, pulling me into his side. “Nah, I’m good on all levels with this one, trust.”
“I hear you. You good though? I briefly saw some shit out there about you. You still got them charges pending?”
“For now. Drew’s on it though.”
“I’m sure he is. Nigga don’t play ’bout you.”
“JV, you coming?” We all looked in the direction of the woman’s voice who called his name. She had a toddler on her hip and a hand shielding her eyes from the sun like she was trying to see who he was with. After a minute she smiled and waved.
“Hey, Sol.”
“’Sup, Lani.”
“Yo, let me go before she heads this way. Her talking ass will have them kids plotting to take her out.” He smiled, glancing over his shoulder like he wanted to be sure she wasn’t close enough to hear what he said.
