Page 100 of Standing In The Sun
Ahvi straightened, her eyes red but unashamed. Kamari looked up from the floor and grinned, wobbling before falling then crawling toward the door like he already knew who it was.
Tiny walked in first, holding a bag of groceries and wearing that same guilty smile she used to wear back when she got caught sneaking out the house as a teenager. Aku followed behind her, with Solar not far behind—her lips painted and her energy loud, filling the room with high energy. There was no doubt where Aku got her all-consuming personality from.
“Don’t mind us.” Solar waved her hand in the air, tossing her bag on the counter. “Lunar sent us. He told us to come make sure his girl was straight and to braid the boy’s hair before he starts looking like a little street prophet.”
Ahvi smiled, thinking about Lunar still thinking about her even though he didn’t answer when she blew him up.
“I got the kitchen,” Aku said quietly, already moving to unpack the groceries. “Luna said you been forgetting to eat. I got greens and smoked turkey, and I made sweet potato bread last night. You like that, right?”
“Um, Aku…” Luna laid her gentle hand on her niece’s back. “Baby, you can’t cook.”
Everyone cracked up.
Aku rolled her eyes. “Auntie, please…I’m trying to be there for my girl.”
“Don’t talk about my baby like that, ain’t her fault she spoiled,” Solar smiled, looking at her first baby. The two of them grew up together and she admired everything about Aku’s life. Her and French did good with her. She was spoiled but knew how to get her own bag as a celebrity stylist. Her baby was just looking for love in all the wrong places.
Ahvi blinked, overwhelmed. “Y’all didn’t have to?—”
“We did,” Tiny said, stepping closer, her tone softer than usual. “Not ‘cause he told us to, but because we want to.”
Ahvi stared at her, still unsure.
Tiny sighed and rubbed her hands together like she was nervous. “I ain’t always been the easiest around you. I know that. But it wasn’t about you, it was about how much I love my boy, and how scared I been of him getting hurt. But… I see now, you not here to break him.”
Break.
That word almost made Ahvi fall to her knees again. She wanted to be broken so bad in that moment. She wanted Lunar to piece her back together like he’d promised and one thing Ahvi learned was, her Lunar didn’t break promises.
“I think I almost broke him and for that I’m sorry,” Ahvi whispered, her wet eyes pleading with Tiny to be okay with that.
“What you gon’ do about it, Ahvi?” Luna’s sweet voice pulled Ahvi’s eyes to her. “How you gon’ make this right, because I’m looking into the face of a girl finally ready to run headfirst into the reams of fire.”
Solar laughed, “Mmhmm, I know that look.”
“I don’t,” Aku crossed her arms.
Waving her off, Solar continued. “I know that look because I had it in my eyes too. Shit, probably still do - the way I love my man.” She smacked her lips like she could taste French.
“Ma!” Aku balled up her face. “Ahvi, I might not know that feeling but I know what it feels like to crave love. So for that, I have to tell you to go get my cousin and love on him so good he don’t remember his life before he met you. Lunar deserves that. He’s been round here chasing pieces of his daddy while finding time to still love the man that stepped up and raised him. He never knew he wasourLunar all along. Me, Pimp, Bu, Noodle, and now you and Kamari. He poured everything into us without hesitation and while I never knew my uncle, if he made my mama and them feel like this,” she wiped tears from her face, “then I need you to give Little Lunar every fuckin’ piece of yourself.”
“Dada!” Kamari clapped with perfect timing, shocking Ahvi—revealing the little secret he shared with Lunar—his daddy.
Ahvi laughed through her tears, wiping her face with her sleeve before scooping her baby in her arms. “You want your daddy?”
Kamari kissed her face like duh.
Everyone fell out again with tears in their eyes from Aku’s speech and Kamari telling them to get him to his dreamer.
Luna walked over and pulled her into a hug after she cleared her face. Her twin was still a sore subject for her. “We here - period. You and Kamari? Y’all family, now. Whatever you and Little Lunar got going on romantically, don’t change this.” she tapped her chest “this don’t change.”
“Thank y’all,” Ahvi sighed “I didn’t know how much I needed y’all till just now.”
Tiny grinned. “Girl, you stuck with us. Might as well get used to it.”
For the first time in days, Ahvi smiled without flinching. This was what it felt like to be loved unconditionally…fully…loudly…without question.
And even though the road ahead still had bends and shadows, she knew one thing for sure, she wasn’t walking it alone. Lunar made sure of that.
