AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Noah pushed him in the head as my eyes traveled to the sexy ass woman gathering the gifts. She damn near had me in a fucking trance earlier when I stared into her sad eyes. I didn’t know what had happened to change her mood. She was happy when she got here. Since her man wasn’t here yet, I was more than sure it had something to do with him. Her sadness had affected me though. I wanted to pull her in my arms and just hold her. When I grabbed her hand and she turned to look at me, I snapped out of it.
I was already on the verge of disrespecting Jessica’s relationship. I couldn’t jump from the skillet to the fucking frying pan. Kenya had a man, no matter how disappointed she was in him. I continued watching her, though, because I couldn’t help myself. Her shoulder-length dreads were sexy as fuck, not to mention her milk chocolate skin, covering her five-and-a-half feet frame. At least, she looked to be about five-six. She could have been shorter.
It was her smile that first captivated me though. It was always big and bright. She resembled TAZ, but her eyes were smaller, and her cheek bones were higher. She wasn’t a BBW either, but she wasn’t skinny by any means. She had thick thighs that caught my attention the last time I saw her, and she’d worn leggings.
When she looked at me, I averted my gaze. That was the second time today she’d caught me staring at her. She probably thought I was a creepy ass nigga now. Although we’d been around each other a few times, we’d never had a one-on-one conversation until today. So, technically, she didn’t know me personally, and I didn’t know her.
“She nice, bruh.”
Damn.RJ had caught me looking. I didn’t have to turn to him to see who it was. No-fucking-body had a voice like that nigga. “Yeah, she is.”
“She practically naked now.”
I frowned and stared up at him. “What’chu talkin’ ’bout?”
“You done stared the fucking clothes off her ass, nigga. Shoot your shot and quit being a punk.”
I supposed my thoughts about him not being comfortable with me were out the window. “She has a man.”
RJ looked around as if he were looking for him. “Where that nigga at? I ain’t met his ass yet. If I ain’t met him, then his ass don’t exist. It’s time she acknowledge that shit too. Again, shoot your shot.”
I took a deep breath as TAZ began helping Brook open her gifts. The way that little girl screamed in excitement made everyone around her happy. You couldn’t help but smile at the sight. After she’d opened a couple more gifts, RJ mumbled, “Tallest nigga in here and got the audacity to be nervous. If you don’t fucking man up and tell that woman she belong to you, I’m gon’ tell her ass for you.”
I sure in the hell didn’t want his ass interfering in my shit. I didn’t think he would actually do it, but I didn’t wanna take any chances either. As soon as they were done cleaning up and shit, I would approach her. “Man, shut the fuck up. I got this.”
“Oooh, baby brother feeling himself.”
He wrapped his strong ass arm around my neck, putting me in a headlock. I didn’t even try to fight his ass. Noah had told me plenty of stories about this very thing. “Come on, old man. I don’t wanna hurt yo’ ass,” I said as Noah laughed loudly.
He released me and nearly pushed me off the stool I was sitting on. “I got yo’ old man. Mess around and be on the injured reserve fucking with a nigga like me.”
I slowly shook my head as I watched my mama enjoy her time with Raqui and TAZ’s mother, Ms. Eunice. I could see that she would probably want to be around them a lot more now. She didn’t really have a lot of friends back home. She was always around my grandparents and her other family members. She had a brother and sister on her dad’s side, but they weren’t that close. She also had a younger brother, but his ass was locked up for selling dope.
I made my way back to the front room and sat on the couch with the men while the women cackled in the kitchen. Noah said, “I’m sorry, Nate. I didn’t get to introduce you to our people. That’s Carrington, our uncle. Nathaniel, Karma’s dad, over there, and that’s Chad. He’s more of RJ’s boy, but we’re cool too. Since they got here after the festivities began, I didn’t get a chance to tell you who everyone was. They all know you though.”
I chuckled. “I’m surprised they didn’t introduce themselves then.”
“Our people don’t roll like that. They ain’t finna intrude on your space unless invited to. They know what we as celebrities go through on a day-to-day basis.”
“I don’t go through that shit every day. I ain’t as big as you.”
“That’s because you don’t go nowhere,” he said, causing me to chuckle.
As the room started to clear out, the women joined us. Surprisingly, Kenya sat next to me. I thought I’d made her uncomfortable. I figured she would want to be as far away from me as possible. When I glanced at her, she turned to me. “It’s okay. Why are you acting like I make you nervous?” she asked.
“I’m not nervous. I just don’t want to offend you. You have a man, and I’m obviously flirting. That’s not good.”
“It’s okay. You haven’t been disrespectful. You’re a nice-looking man, Nate. I’m sure you can find someone else to admire though.”
I frowned slightly. “I wanna admire you though. I can tell you aren’t as happy as you were when you got here.”
She glanced at me then brought her gaze to her hands as she played with her nails. “Can we talk privately, Kenya?”
She looked over at me and nodded. I took a deep breath as I stood, then helped her from her seat. I was shocked she agreed. The minute she turned her back, RJ scrunched his face and gave me a goofy ass smile. I almost laughed out loud. That nigga was crazy for real.
We went out the back door to the patio area and sat on the outdoor couch. She sat first, and I quickly sat next to her and grabbed her hand. “You’re a beautiful woman, and RJ told me to shoot my fucking shot. I know you have a man, but I would be a fool to not know that your sadness has something to do with him. Noah said he was supposed to be here today. RJ said since he wasn’t here, that nigga didn’t exist.”
“Tell RJ’s ass to stay out of my business,” she said with a chuckle. “Nate, thank you.”
