“Luca! My God. My God!” She cried, tears staining her brown cheeks.
She stood while screaming, never dropping the little one in her hands or letting her little feet touch the ground. I met her at the edge of her desk and wrapped them both in my arms. My mother felt like home. Finally, I knew that this was real. Her essence proved it. I was really free.
“Wait. This has made my day! When did you get home? Does your father know? Oh my God.”
“Yesterday. I’ve been waiting on y’all to get back.”
“Our plane landed at seven this morning. I headed straight here.”
“Yeah. Dad doesn’t know. You were my first stop.”
“Nah. Don’t lie. She was not your first stop,” Laike snitched as he rolled a toothpick between his fingers. He’d taken one of the seats in front of our mother’s desk.
“Well, who was your first stop?” my mom asked, jealousy written all over her pretty face.
“Her mother,” Laike butted in.
“Nigga!” I turned and slapped his chest.
Shrugging, he shook off the blow to his body and laughed.
“You know he can’t keep his mouth shut, and why were you seeing Ever?”
“It wasn’t intentional. I was only stopping for food, and she so worked at Baisleigh’s House.”
“But he’s been checking for her since she rode to pick him up with Lyric on Monday. If you gone tell it, then tell it all, Luca. Ain’t been home forty-eight hours and already in love.”
“I’m not in love,” I confessed.
“Then why have you been looking at this little girl like she’s the daughter you didn’t know you’d conceived before you went in and this is y’all first time meeting?”
Silence.
My eyes hadn’t left the sweetheart in my mother’s arms. I wasn’t sure if it was because she reminded me so much of her mother or because I wished shewasmine. Nevertheless, Laike had called good money. I couldn’t deny the accusations. They were true.
“Don’t pay him any mind.”
“I’m not.”
“What’s your name, sweetie?” I asked the mini version of Ever.
“Emorey,” she responded clearly.
“Emorey. Pretty name.”
“I’m not sure how true any of this is that Laike is talking about, but if there’s any truth to it, then I’m not objecting. I like Ever. I do. There’s this benevolence about her and her spirit that just makes me smile inside out.”
“You sound like this nigga. He’s been listening to R&B all morning because of her. I’m ’bout ready to cut my ears off and sell them to the highest bidder.”
“Oh hush, Laike,” our mother advised, drying the tears from her face with a napkin.
“I’m just trying to warn you. Your son is in love.”
“I’m not,” I corrected.
“Ever is going through a breakup,” my mother told me. “And everything you need to know about her children’s father is right in that file on my desk. She just changed her cell number on file, so it’s still out from this morning. He’s not allowed to pick up the children and we’re not allowed to give out any information about them to anyone who calls. School lets out in about a week, and the second baby will be here then, too.”
“There’s two of these?” Laike chuckled.
