Page 103 of Standing In The Sun
“He left me all of his dream,” he said, almost to himself.
Javen nodded. “And we gon’ make sure you never stop dreaming.”
A quiet moment passed before French muttered, “Now call that girl. Go home. Say what needs to be said.”
“And bring me a plate when y’all make up,” Javen added. “She be cheffin’ like it’s spiritual.”
Lunar stood slowly, pocketing his phone and looking between both of them. “Thank y’all. I needed this.”
French pulled him into a hug, hard and fast. “We got you.”
Javen hugged him next. “Your daddy would be proud, not ’cause you strong but ’cause you real.”
Lunar wiped his face one more time. “I need to lay eyes on my son.”
“You get that shit from French,” Javen muttered.
His brows dipped. “What you mean?” Lunar looked between them.
French pushed Javen. “Nigga just be saying shit.”
* * *
The crickets hummed low. The kind of hum that sat under silence like a steady heartbeat. The grass still held the heat of the day. It was soft under Lunar’s feet as he stood in the yard behind French’s house, just watching the sky. He’d just come out of the heaviest conversation he’d had in years. Javen and French had peeled him open, told the truth he didn’t know he was ready to hear, and somehow…made him feel lighter.
He still felt cracked open and raw but his heartbeat was calmer like it was finally resting.
What his uncles said about Big Lunar, about legacy, and about grief dressed up like responsibility—it stuck with him. But even more than that, it showed him just how heavy he’d been living, and how much lighter he wanted to be.
He was deep in his thoughts, his eyes pinned to the stars, when he heard the crunch of the earth.
Slow steps…familiar rhythm.
Lunar turned and froze. “Ahvi?”
There she was—like a storm he’d been praying for. Hoodie sleeves pushed up—his hoodie, hair barely tamed and her eyes wet before she even got all the way to him.
He stepped forward like he wasn’t sure if she was real. “You… what you doing here?”
Ahvi stopped a few feet from him. Her chest was rising like she’d run the whole way from Jade City. “I had to see you,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep…couldn’t think…couldn’t pretend like I’m good at being away from you.”
Lunar’s throat tightened. “I didn’t think— I thought you needed time.”
“I did and I took it. I sat in that shit. It showed me everything I didn’t wanna admit.” She took a step closer, hands tucked into her sleeves. “I left Kamari with Tiny. I didn’t even tell her where I was going. I just drove, because I realized I wasn’t trying to protect my peace—I was trying to protect my fear.”
Aku sent her the address like she knew her girl needed to go get her man.
Lunar’s thick brows pushed together.
“I was scared,” she confessed, her voice trembling. “Scared of becoming somebody I didn’t recognize – soft…open…led,” she sniffed. “All my life, I had to lead myself, raise myself and heal myself. So, when you came in with all that love, all that stillness, all that structure, whew… that shit scared me. I didn’t know where I fit in.”
Lunar stepped closer. “You fit with me, Ahvi.”
She shook her head gently. “I didn’t know how to trust that, and I didn’t wanna get lost in your world just to be close to you.”
“You never had to lose yourself for me,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. “I never wanted you small. I just wanted you real.”
She stepped even closer now, inches away. She looked up at him like her whole heart was hanging in her throat. “You broke me.”
