Rock Chick Bonus Tracks
Track 10
91%
Rock Chick Reborn
His Future
* * *
Moses
* * *
“Chill, baby,”
he murmured.
“Chill is not an option, my man,”
his woman replied.
At this comment, he heard nothing from the back.
This was both surprising and unsurprising.
At least with Julien, who had something to say or grunt at or at the very least verbally smirk about, with everything.
Moses was noticing, though, that since graduation a few weeks ago, and his official sign on with the Army, Julien was shirking off the last remnants of boyhood.
He was off to boot camp in a month. Maybe it was the fact he had weightier things on his mind. Maybe, in preparation for what he was about to face, he was fully letting the teachings of the men at Nightingale Investigations sink in.
Maybe he was just growing up.
Roman, on the other hand, finished growing up around a decade ago.
“They know how I feel about you,”
Moses reminded her. “And they’re my girls. How is this going to go bad?”
He was at the wheel of Shirleen’s Navigator (a rite of passage in their relationship, seeing as Roman nor Julien even blinked when she handed him, and not one of them, the keys).
He chanced a glance from the road to Shirleen and saw the look she was aiming at him.
He turned back to the road and chuckled.
“Nothing is funny, Moses,”
she warned.
“Be nervous, sweetheart,”
he invited. “You’ll meet them soon, so you’ll get over it soon.”
They were joining his girls for dinner, meaning she and her boys were meeting his daughters for the first time.
The full Jackson onslaught, rather than them meeting just Shirleen first, had been Alice’s idea.
“No reason to draw it out, Dad,”
she’d said like he had an IQ of forty. “You come as a package with us, right? So does she with her boys. Let’s just get it all out of the way in one night. At Bastien’s.”
He couldn’t fault her logic.
Though he had the sense that part of it was about her angling to go to Bastien’s. It was her favorite restaurant.
Their turn with their mom was over that evening. Judith had her own car, so she was driving them to Bastien’s. After dinner, he’d go home with his girls, Shirleen would go home with her boys, and he’d add more time spent in his head trying to figure out how long he had to wait to ask her to move in so, one day, he could just go home with her.
He heard Shirleen make a freaked noise, and he knew it was because Bastien’s sign was in sight.
He decided to ignore that, and so did the boys.
But he felt his lips quirk.
He found a parking spot and they all got out.
But Moses halted in his intention to go to Shirleen and claim her.
This was because Roman had already done it, and Julien was standing sentry, eyes on Moses to share he needed to keep distant.
So they’d passed the rite of passage of Moses taking the wheel that night. And definitely in the last couple of months, the boys had given indication they were getting used to him and they liked him being with their mom.
But they were protective.
He loved that for her.
And they’d had her all to themselves for a while, and they were still adjusting to a new man in their midst.
He’d give them the time they needed.
Just as long as they didn’t take too much.
Bottom line, he’d always have to share her with them, but she had so much love to give, that wouldn’t be a problem.
Therefore, Moses hung removed while Roman, head bent to Shirleen and in her space, gave his mom a peptalk. She nodded. He spoke so low Moses couldn’t hear him. She nodded again. Roman spoke more. She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin.
There it was.
She then turned to Moses. “Right, let’s do this.”
Moses smiled at her and finally made his approach. He took her hand and together they led the way inside.
He knew his girls were already there because he’d seen Judith’s car outside.
And he was prepared for what was going to happen next because his girls were beautiful, and her boys were boys.
However, he wasn’t prepared for how it happened.
Shirleen had told him both boys didn’t discriminate, but for the most part, Roman liked white girls. Julien’s attraction tended to lean toward Black.
So he figured it would be Julien whose interest would be piqued.
But when they’d walked up to the table Judith and Alice were already occupying, he noted that Julien had a wary, aloof smile on his face and was standing protectively close to Shirleen.
Roman, however, had his gaze locked on Alice, and he looked like he’d been struck by lightning.
Shirleen might have been nervous, but she didn’t miss this.
Her eyes flew to Moses, and they got big.
This was the lot of any man with daughters. It wasn’t as if it was the first time it happened.
However, it was the first time it happened when his Alice appeared to have been struck by that same lightning bolt. So far, with so much in the world she needed to fix, she hadn’t really shown a lot of interest in boys.
That just ended.
Damn.
“Right, since everybody seems to be down with staring at each other, I’ll do this,”
Julien stated. “I’m Julien. This is my brother Roman. And this is our mom, Shirleen.”
He indicated his brother and mother with a jerk of his thumb.
Moses stepped up. “And these are my girls, Judith and Alice.”
He gestured both in turn.
“Hi,”
Judith said.
“Hey,”
Alice whispered, eyes still glued to Roman.
“Hey,”
he whispered back, his voice a low slither of velvet that held such invitation in that one syllable, even Moses felt drawn in.
Damn.
“Nice to meet you girls,”
Shirleen said warmly, and added hurriedly. “Let’s all sit.”
Roman, Julien and Moses bumped into each other, all intent to help Shirleen with her chair.
Judith laughed.
Alice sighed (still watching Roman).
Roman and Julien backed off and Moses moved in.
They had a round table so, at first, he was pleased Julien slid into the seat beside Alice.
Until Roman slid into the seat on the other side of Shirleen, which meant he had direct eye contact with his youngest, something he instigated immediately.
Moses shared some eye contact with Shirleen.
The expression on her face said both It’s not my fault! and It isn’t like we didn’t know this might happen!
He hadn’t been with her long, but he still could read that.
Judith waded in. “So, uh, you work for a private investigation firm?”
She asked this to Shirleen, therefore, she startled when she got three simultaneous answers of “Yes.”
“You work for a private investigations firm?”
Alice breathed toward Roman.
“Yeah,”
he answered.
“Wow, that’s cool,” she said.
“Yeah,”
he confirmed on a sly smile.
Moses turned his head again, leaned in and looked over Shirleen’s shoulder as he whispered in her ear, “Kill me.”
He heard her soft laughter.
Now it was him who didn’t think anything was funny.
When he turned back, he saw Judith’s attention on him. Him and Shirleen. But when he caught her gaze, she quickly looked away.
He didn’t know how to read that, so, with no other choice at that moment, he let it be.
“It’s the best outfit in the Rocky Mountain region,”
Julien bragged.
“I’ve heard of them,”
Judith put in. “There’s books written about them, right?”
“Books you’re not allowed to read,”
Moses warned.
“Whatever, Dad,”
she mumbled, aiming the side eye at her sister that was meant for him.
Two teenage girls, he knew what the side eye meant. Absolutely.
“What do you do there?”
Alice asked Roman.
“I’m the office manager,”
Shirleen cut in swiftly so Roman couldn’t continue to charm Moses’s youngest with his ultra-cool badassness.
“I bet that’s interesting,”
Judith said with a tentative smile at Shirleen.
“It sure is, pretty thing,”
Shirleen replied.
Judith’s smile became less tentative, and it moved to her dad.
Right, okay.
That smile was all good.
The server came to take their drink orders.
“What’s everyone getting to eat?”
Moses asked when the server left.
The girls chimed in, Roman and Julien had never been there, so they took his cue to study their menus, as did Shirleen, even though he knew she’d already decided what she wanted. His woman was good at online research when it came to menus.
Things smoothed out from there, mostly because Julien demonstrated that he was, indeed, simply growing up. Or at least that was what Moses read in the Jesus, man, cool it! looks he was aiming Roman’s way.
Reading these looks, Roman checked back in to what was happening and its importance, which was both good and bad.
Good, because Moses no longer had to bear witness to his daughter’s yearning gazes at Shirleen’s son.
Bad, because Roman was no longer returning those gazes, so Alice seemed confused he’d suddenly lost interest.
Which might be why, when their entrees were served, she tried to learn more about the boy who caught her eye.
“So, I don’t want to be nosy, but we’re all kinda in this together, and Dad told us you guys were adopted.”
She gave a sweet smile to Julien and added, “I mean, it’s also kinda obvious, you know.”
Julien smiled back. “Yeah.”
“We were runaways,”
Roman announced, his attention fixed to Alice.
Her attention shifted right to him, then she sat completely still and stared at him.
Judith’s gaze raced to her dad.
Shirleen’s hand curled around Moses’s thigh.
“I got shot,”
Roman continued.
Judith gasped.
Alice put her hand on the table like she needed to steady herself or she’d fall out of her chair.
Shirleen’s nails dug into his thigh.
“When I got out of the hospital,”
Roman carried on, “Shirleen took me in. Sniff’s more brother to me than most blood brothers are to each other, so where I go, he goes, and vice versa. That means he moved in too. We fell in love with her, she fell in love with us, we all decided to make our family official. We both turned eighteen, we made it official. That’s how it happened.”
At this point, Shirleen took away the one she had on Moses and put her other hand on Roman’s forearm that was resting on the table.
“Who’s Sniff?”
Judith whispered across the table to her father.
He jerked his head to the side, Julien’s way.
She nodded.
“Why’d you get shot?”
Alice asked Roman quietly.
It was Julien who answered.
“We’re tight with a lady who’s a social worker at the shelter where we hung. Long story, but she had some bad guys after her, one who wanted to kill her. He got his opportunity, and Roam put himself in front of one of the bullets.”
Alice lifted both hands to the base of her throat.
Now Judith was also staring at Roman.
Moses stifled a groan, because that kind of show of devotion would earn the same thing from his youngest for maybe the rest of time.
“He got me, but he still got her. Shot her twice. It’s just that Law’s a survivor, so she survived,”
Roman muttered, a sliver of embarrassment now creeping into his words.
“Seems like you’re a survivor too,”
Alice noted.
“Only because Law taught me how,”
he replied. He glanced at Shirleen. “And Shirleen did too.”
“Law’s the social worker?”
Judith asked.
“Jules. Law’s her street name,”
Julien answered. “I named myself after her because Shirl-Ike isn’t a badass name, not to mention, it isn’t even a name.”
Judith laughed. Alice tore her eyes off Roman and laughed too.
After giving a visible squeeze, Shirleen took her hand from Roman’s arm and carried on eating.
“And you’re going into the Army?”
Judith inquired of Julien, thankfully taking them out of a conversation that would only serve to make his youngest fall deeper for Roman.
“Ship out next month,”
Julien replied.
They managed more normal through the entrees and desserts, and through that, Moses was pleased to see the girls respond to Shirleen’s unique blend of warmth and sass.
When they were finished, his family walked hers to their car and Shirleen handed out hugs to both his girls. He got handshakes from both her boys. And his girls looked happy their dad was happy when he kissed Shirleen on the mouth before he helped her in the passenger seat.
Roman was now behind the wheel.
He didn’t pull from the curb, though, until Moses and his girls were in the car.
Shirleen raised good kids.
He’d paid for it, so even though it drove Judith nuts whenever someone else drove her baby, Moses took the wheel.
“So?”
he asked, pulling out behind the Navigator after he adjusted the seat, something else that drove Judith nuts.
“I like her a lot!”
Judith exclaimed, and she had to mean it, considering her dad just adjusted her seat. “Her Afro is insane. It’s so cool. There’s so much beauty in Black hair, and she’s all about it.”
He could not argue this because he felt the same way.
“Alice?”
He directed this at the back seat.
“She loves them,”
Alice said.
“Of course she does,”
Moses replied. “They’re her boys.”
“No, I mean, Julien, he’s obviously not hers, but if you were blind, you’d never know it. It’s like they’re hers hers. Not like she adopted them.”
“It is like that,”
Moses concurred.
“I noticed that too,”
Judith said. “It was really sweet. I thought Julien was going to give us a talking to so we’d be nice to her when he first showed at the table.”
“They’re protective,”
Moses murmured.
“I like that for her. Sons should be protective of their mommas. Like daughters are protective of their daddies,”
Judith decreed.
“Exactly like that, sweetheart,”
Moses confirmed.
They let it lie then, and Moses didn’t think it was a good idea to press further opinions out of them. It was one dinner. They all had a lot of getting to know each other to do. Shirleen was a beautiful, sharp, funny, kind-hearted woman with an enormous amount of love to give. His daughters were good girls to their souls.
They had time.
It was all going to be great.
That said, he was glad the first meeting was over. He loved his daughters, and Shirleen was the best woman he’d ever met, and although he didn’t show it, he was nervous too.
He got them home and got them settled, not that there was much to that. They had the switching houses thing down, something that nagged his gut every time it happened. But it was part of their lives. Nothing he could do about it, and nothing he would, because the alternatives were either not have them or to have stayed with their mother, which was not going to happen.
He was in his bedroom, about to call Shirleen to get her take on the evening, when there was a knock on the door.
“Yeah?”
he called.
Judith opened the door and peeked her head around. “Can we talk a second, Dad?”
“Always,”
he answered, throwing out an arm to invite her to sit with him on his bed.
As she came his way, he gave consideration to the consolidation of the households.
He liked his place in Stapleton. There was a ton of greenspace. It was small, a newish build, so upkeep was minimal. And he’d given Judith free hand in decorating it, so his girl was all over the place.
This included his bedroom, with the long, black headboard she’d selected that went well beyond the mattress on either side. There were also cubbies on either side for books and shit, free floating shelves in front of them for you to put other shit, and built-in gold lamps above the cubbies with swinging arms so you could aim them over your book, or out of the way.
She’d rested some cool African-inspired art on the ledge at the top along with some family photos.
And she’d found this dark-brown leather bolster she’d instructed him to rest his plethora of pillows against at the head when he made the bed. He hadn’t been big on that bolster at the time of purchase, but now he couldn’t deny, it looked good.
On the other hand, Shirleen had at least a thousand more square feet, and the place was stamped with her. Glamor and attitude and in-your-face-take-me-as-I-am style. He liked that style. He liked her. He liked being in her space.
It was going to be interesting to see what they decided.
“I gotta warn you about Mom,”
Judith announced when they were both sitting on the bed, Moses with one bent leg up on the mattress, turned to her to give her his full attention, Judith cross-legged, angled his way.
He expected her to dish on her newly love-struck sister, not warn him about their mother.
Shit.
“What’s happening, sweetheart?”
he asked, with practice, keeping his impatience for their mom out of his voice.
“Well, obviously, we had to dress nicer for Bastien’s, which we did, and she noticed, and she asked why, and…I don’t know. I don’t know why I told her. It was my decision. I figure I told her because, first, she gets stupid when we keep things from her.”
Judith, the eldest, noticed more of her mother’s bullshit when it was happening.
Alice had baby birds that had fallen out of their nests to save, and bullies on the playground to tell off. She noticed it. But it took longer to dig under her skin than it did Judith.
“You shouldn’t call your mom stupid, honey,”
Moses rebuked gently.
“She acts stupid sometimes, Dad. It should be called what it is.”
She wasn’t wrong. He didn’t want his daughter to speak of her mother that way, but she wasn’t eight anymore. She was nearly grown. Every day, she got closer to becoming the woman she was going to be. As much as he wanted to freeze them as his babies forever, he had to let her bloom into whoever that was.
On this thought, his phone rang. They both saw the screen said Shirleen Calling.
“Two seconds,”
he said to his girl, then took the call. “Baby, I’m talkin’ with Judith. Call you back.”
“Okay, darlin’. Since it’s probably on your mind, just to say, all good here. But talk soon,”
she replied, and he heard the disconnect of her giving him what he needed before he did it himself.
Yeah, he had to figure out how to come home with Shirleen.
He put the phone down.
“I like her for you,”
Judith whispered.
He felt his chest get hot. “Sweetheart.”
“I hate you alone when we’re not here. You’re too good of a guy to be alone.”
Right, enough of this mature adult dad and maturing-to-an-adult daughter shit.
He pulled her out of crossed legs and shifted them into the bed, him against his big pillows and leather bolster, his girl tucked to his side with her head on his shoulder.
“Talk to me,”
he demanded.
“Okay, so I told Mom we were meeting you and your new girlfriend and her sons. It was after, when we talked about it in the car, that Alice agreed it was the right thing to do. I mean, obviously, since you wanted us to meet her, she’s going to be around awhile.”
“She is,”
he confirmed.
“So Mom’s eventually gonna find out.”
“She would.”
“And I think she’s mad about it.”
He sighed.
She pushed up and looked down at him. “But again, Dad, stupid. She’s married to another guy. Why can’t she just move on?”
“I don’t know, honey,”
he muttered, hating he didn’t have the answers, and pissed at his ex because she was still finding opportunities to put him in that place. He gave his girl a squeeze and shared, “I’m glad you and your sister are smart enough to read this for what it is. And I love how sweet and interested you were in Shirleen, Julien and Roman.”
“Particularly Alice with Roman,”
she mumbled, settling back into her old man, sounding amused, and although this didn’t amuse Moses, he liked to hear his girl was.
“Yeah,”
he grunted.
She giggled.
He gave her another squeeze. “And the bottom line is, there’s nothing your mom can do about it.”
“Doesn’t mean she’s not gonna dream up something to do.”
“Maybe so, but it’s not your problem. It’s not mine. It’s hers.”
“She might try to make it your problem.”
God, his baby girl.
“Listen to me, honey,”
he urged. “Don’t take this on. Definitely not before anything happens. And not after. It’s summer. You got that internship you’re doin’ and other than that, all you gotta concentrate on is havin’ fun and bein’ young. Next summer, you’re gonna be graduating and getting ready for college, and then you’re gonna be in college and then grown up and startin’ your life. After that, you’ll be in life and working for the money to pay your bills and findin’ your way to get ahead. You warned me. I love you for it. But now, your job is done. Hear me?”
“I hear you, Dad.”
“Wanna get your sister in here and watch a movie?”
She lifted up her head. “Wakanda Forever?”
“Haven’t we already seen that?”
“If we don’t pick one, Alice is gonna make us watch Judas and the Black Messiah again. It’s a great movie, but we need a happy ending.”
“Boomerang?”
he suggested.
She shook her head.
“House Party?”
She rolled her eyes, then shook her head again.
“Waiting to Exhale?”
“God, Dad, get in the new millennium.”
He grinned at her. “You pick. Go get your sister. And popcorn. I need to text Shirleen we’re doin’ movie night and I’ll call her tomorrow.”
She jumped over him and hopped off the bed.
At the door, she turned and warned, “You two can’t gang up on me and make me watch Poetic Justice again.”
“That movie is a classic.”
“We’ve seen it seventeen times.”
“Maybe…four,”
he contradicted.
“Whatever, we’re watching Girls Trip,”
she decided then flounced out the door.
Oh shit.
He hadn’t seen that one.
He texted his woman that she had the stamp of approval, it was all good, they were doing a movie, and he’d call her tomorrow.
While he was looking up a rating and the trailer for Girls Trip, he got back, Love that for you, baby. Like I said, all good here too. Talk tomorrow.
So he was smiling when his girls, both of them this time, flounced back in.
Then he got another text with advice from Shirleen.
That movie…maybe fast forward through the grapefruit scene.
Oh shit.
He didn’t expect it.
Even with the warning.
They’d had a good run. Nothing like this had happened in a long while.
Though, if it was going to happen, he would have thought at least it’d start with a shot across the bow.
Not a hammering on the door the first day the girls were back with their mother.
Or…not day.
Evening, seeing as he and Shirleen were in his kitchen making dinner together.
No one should bother you at dinnertime.
Not even your crazy ex-wife.
Shirleen looked to him, and considering she worked in a place where she knew the protocol for a lockdown when someone was armed and intent to breach the office (he knew all about it because he read it in those books, but she did confirm it), she was conditioned to reacting to a different kind of danger than he was about to face.
And that was her response to the hammering.
“Yvonne,”
he explained.
“Oowee,”
she mumbled, her beautiful, tawny eyes growing large.
He’d told her about Judith’s warning. She hadn’t said much, although her eyes had blazed with hellfire. She reined that in and just commiserated.
This wasn’t her way to share he was on his own, it was his cross to bear. It was her way to share she was as powerless to stop Yvonne as he was, so there wasn’t much to say.
The hammering kept happening.
Those gorgeous eyes grew larger.
Moses got close and put his lips to hers. “I’ll take care of it.”
“You need backup, I know a man who has grenades,”
she offered, and close up, he could see the warmth in her eyes, the humor, but also the concern.
And it was then he knew he was in love with this woman.
He let that feeling settle in him, and somehow, the pounding at the door muted, everything around them grew hazy, and it was him and Shirleen in this world, and no other.
Moses snapped out of it when she tipped her head to the side and her gaze grew questioning.
“Keep Tex on standby,”
he joked, feeling her strength seep into him, and something more.
It wasn’t that she was a survivor, but she was giving that to him too.
It was in her eyes. He realized it had been for a while.
She felt like he did.
Suddenly, he didn’t give two shits Yvonne was at the door, except the part where he had to leave Shirleen to go deal with her.
“Gotcha,”
she replied, and that word was a little breathy.
But even so, with Shirleen, she might be joking as well, or she might call Tex when he went downstairs to the front door.
With regret, he left her and did that, opened it enough to stand in it, keeping his hand on the knob on the inside.
“I really thought we were done with this shit, Yvonne.”
“It’s my understanding you introduced our daughters to another woman.”
“We’ve been divorced awhile,”
he reminded her.
“When things got serious with Demetri, I told you when they were going to meet him.”
“You did. They were a lot younger then. And you didn’t ask me if I was all right with it. You told me it was going to happen.”
“And that makes a difference?”
“To me it does.”
“Obviously.”
Fuck, he was so damned tired of this shit.
“Yvonne, why am I standing here talking to you when I should be dealing with the chicken I got upstairs?”
“Because I’m not happy you didn’t offer me the same courtesy as I did you.”
He felt her, so he looked over his shoulder and up the stairs.
Shirleen was standing on the landing. Not curiosity. His woman had his back.
He lifted his chin to her.
She crossed her arms in front of her.
“Is she in there?”
Yvonne’s voice was pitched higher.
He returned his attention to her and forced her back by stepping out.
He closed the door behind him.
“Right, this conversation needs to be had,”
Moses began. “You could have called me with your concerns, but instead, you wanted to create a situation. To address this situation, yes. I’m seeing someone. Yes, it’s serious. No, it isn’t any of your business. No, you don’t have any right to be pissed at me because I didn’t warn you I was going to introduce her and her boys to our girls. You know me. I’ve dated. I’ve seen other women. I haven’t introduced any of them to Judith and Alice because they weren’t in my life in that way, so I didn’t make them a part of my daughters’ lives. I’m not that kind of man, I’m definitely not that kind of father. You know that too. So I don’t owe you any explanations. And when it’ll have no bearing on your life, I don’t owe you any notice that I’m going to share something with our girls.”
“I think we have differing opinions on that,”
she retorted.
“I don’t give a fuck what you think.”
Her head snapped back like she was avoiding a blow.
Moses kept at her.
“Since you’re here, it gives me the opportunity to tell you, now that I’ve addressed this latest situation, I’m no longer going to get involved in any more. We share two beautiful, smart, sweet daughters. That’s it. They’re nearly all grown. There’ll be some conversations we’ll have to have, I’m sure. But other than those, you live your life, I live mine, and I’m done.”
“You can’t?—”
“I can, Yvonne. Test me,”
he warned. “You stay here, pounding on my door, you won’t be talking to me next. You’ll be explaining to an officer of the law why you’re pounding on my door after I told you I’m done talking and you need to go home. Now, I’ll be sure to make that clear. I’m done talking. You need to go home. This continues, I’ll get a restraining order.”
She gasped.
“I’m not jokin’. Seriously. Test me. But just to say, this test, it’s on you whether you pass or fail.”
On that, he turned, walked in, closed the door and locked it.
He did the last part with eyes to Shirleen, who had jumped back when he opened the door.
“You couldn’t stop yourself, could you?”
he asked, feeling his lips twitch.
“I had to have my man’s back.”
“By eavesdropping?”
“Honey,”
she hooked arms with him, and they moved to the stairs, “that was hot.”
She mimicked his deep voice. “‘On you whether you pass or fail.’ Good parting shot.”
His lips stopped twitching because he was chuckling. “I’m glad you approve.”
“I’m thinkin’ the chicken can wait. Shirleen needs some between-the-sheets time with her man to congratulate him for being calm and collected under duress, and still kicking ass, just verbally.”
He was still chuckling as they made the living room, but he didn’t guide them to the kitchen.
He guided them to the next flight of stairs, seeing as his bedroom was on the top level.
“You spoil a girl,”
she whispered, her eyes on him, and they’d fired.
“I wanna say this is all for you, and I’ll be all about you, baby. But this is also for me.”
“You bet your ass.”
At that, he burst out laughing.
But she wasn’t done.
“Though, you might need to give me five to call Tex and tell him so he can turn back with his grenades.”
Moses’s laughter got louder, even if he didn’t know if she was joking.
And since he was all about Shirleen and how funny she was and what they were going to get up to next, he didn’t even notice he’d closed the door on an ugly chapter in his past that had tried to haunt him.
And when he did, she didn’t pound on the door, still trying to drag him back to his past while he guided his future to his bed.
Moses lay in bed and watched Shirleen, wearing his shirt, walk from the bathroom to the bed.
It was after chicken, greens, mashed potatoes and gravy.
It was after they watched a little TV.
It was after their second round of between-the-sheets time.
And seeing her in his shirt, those long, shapely legs on display, he was wishing he was twenty-three again so he could keep her up all night.
He threw back the covers.
She reversed her trajectory from her big tote, where she’d have a nightie, a clean pair of panties and her morning toiletries stashed, and she came to him.
She put a knee to the bed and joined him, getting close, tangling their legs, but sitting up on a forearm on the mattress at his side.
“Need to change, baby,”
she told him. “I fell asleep in your shirt once, remember? The buttons kept snagging the sheets.”
“In a second, we need to talk.”
Her expression changed from peaceful, post-chill night spent together, post-coital to alert.
“You okay?”
“I met the boys. We instigated sleepovers, here, not at yours, in deference to your sons. You and the boys met my girls. You eavesdropped on a situation with Yvonne.”
She smiled.
He felt his lips twitch again but kept talking.
“Today, before you got here, I cleared out two drawers and some closet space for you.”
Her brows shot up.
“No more nighties in your purse,”
he declared. “Bring some over to leave. And double up on toiletries.”
“Ooo, my man. Doubling up on toiletries. I can’t wait to tell the Rock Chicks. They’ll throw a party.”
He laughed.
“No, really,”
she asserted. “They’ll throw a party. Cashews and everything.”
She snuggled closer. “But I’ll make sure someone makes pigs in a blanket.”
He kept laughing, regardless that he knew she didn’t lie. She’d been holding back the RCs from throwing a Shirleen’s Got a Man party since they got together, so she was now holding them back by a thread.
He got serious, wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer.
“It’s time for the next step, baby.”
“I’m in.”
He let out a slow breath, happy that was where she was at, happy that she so easily gave it to him.
“So then, next up, and I’m not talking now. We’re not ready. The kids aren’t ready. But when we’re ready, we need to have discussed it so we know what we’re gonna do.”
“You mean, who’s going to give up their kickass crib to move in the other one.”
He fucking loved they were on the same page.
“That’s what I mean,”
he confirmed.
“Okay, I gotta say, Moses, my house is the only safe home my boys have ever had. I know Judith pimped this place out for you, and it’s gorgeous. So maybe, if we pick my place, we can give her a budget and she can redo my livin’ room.”
She thought about it. “And maybe my dining room.”
He also loved that she offered that.
Even so.
“You have a big house, Shirleen. You and me, when all the kids are going to be gone soon, we don’t need that much space. Julien is going to be in the Army, and he’s probably not ever going to move back in.”
He watched the cloud pass through her eyes at the thought of her son leaving her, so he didn’t delay moving on to the next. “And Roman will probably stick around for a while, but not long.”
She nodded. “He’s already savin’ for a down payment on a car and a deposit for an apartment. He’s in training with Lee, but even in training, Lee pays well. He might need a roommate for a year or two, but he’s already warned me, he’s wanting his freedom.”
“Okay, so…”
He let that hang.
She picked it up. “So, Christmas. Thanksgiving. Their birthdays. My birthday. Fourth of July. Eventual wives and babies. When they went fifteen years with no safe space they could call their home, I want them to have the next fifteen years knowing it’s there, waiting for them, on holidays and whatever might come.”
“You’re right,”
he muttered.
“I’m sorry,”
she whispered.
“Why?” he asked.
“You obviously have reservations.”
“No, except your boys will be gone, but I’m sensing you’ll want to keep their rooms as they are, and we have three more years of high school with Alice, one with Judith, and summers when they come home from college.”
“I hear you,”
she replied. “And they each have their own rooms here. But at my place, Judith could take the guest room upstairs. We can convert the junk room downstairs for Alice.”
“Isn’t Roman’s room downstairs?”
Her lips curved up. “Okay, maybe Judith downstairs and Alice upstairs.”
“How about we talk to them?”
he suggested. “This isn’t happening tomorrow. You put your stuff in your new drawers, double up on toiletries, we can wait until Judith graduates, and maybe they’ll be down with bunking together during holidays and summers when she’s home from college.”
“My man with a plan.”
He grinned.
She leaned in and kissed it.
When she pulled back, she cupped his face with her hand and stroked his cheek with her thumb.
“You sure you’re okay after Yvonne came callin’?”
“Old Yvonne would have pounded on the door again after I closed it in her face. Maybe she heard me this time.”
“Maybe.”
She didn’t sound sure.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does if it upsets you,”
Shirleen disagreed. “It does if it upsets Judith.”
“Judith gets upset because I get upset. If I don’t get upset, which,”
he gave her a squeeze, “baby, I got no reason to be upset. Then like I said. It doesn’t matter.”
He wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her full on his body.
“She’s the past,”
he whispered. “I got my future in my arms and that’s my sole focus. Yeah?”
“Yeah,”
she whispered in return.
“Love you, Shirleen Jackson.”
He’d never said the words.
That was why her tawny eyes fired and stayed warm as she melted into him.
“Love you too, Moses Richardson.”
He slid a hand to the base of her neck and pulled her to him.
And Moses embraced his future.
His future embraced him back.
* * *
The End