“I say all that to say, there is always a path to where you wanna be, you just gotta make it work for you and get where you wanna be in life. In your case, need to be.”
I didn’t respond and she didn’t say anything further. As a matter of fact, we fell asleep shortly after, needing the rest that had finally come our way.
Chapter 4
Greene
Iwasn’t used to waking up in a man’s arms, so waking up with Hudson holding on to me for dear life was like something out of one of those cute ass chick flicks I watched on Sundays. It wasn’t until I started moving that he too got up.
“You boutta dip on me?” he asked, voice filled with sleep.
“Um, maybe. I need to get home and feed my son’s Christmas gift.” When Hudson was quiet for too long, I turned and looked at him before speaking. “What six-year-old wants his own mini cow?”
Hudson laughed. “Then after that?”
“Then absolutely noth?—”
“Come back here and have lunch or dinner with me.” He stood to his full height, approaching the space behind me.
Being in his space felt so good, so necessary. Even my tendency to overthink couldn’t convince me to move. “You’re cooking?”
“If you want me to, yeah. I mean… I’m limited, baby. I’m an athlete. I know how to make extremely carb dense meals. Pasta, pasta, and more pasta.”
“Well as long as it’s meat with that pasta, I’ll be inclined to come back.”
“Inclined to come back. You tryna play me, shorty?” He stepped from behind me, moving toward the washroom. When I say this man is fine, I meant just that. His tattooed back had me licking my lips while curling my toes into the carpet beneath me. Hudson was on the tall side, but nowhere near lanky or anything. He had an athletic build. Shit, because he was an athlete.
“No, not at all. Also, I’ll bring these back. We forgot to put my clothes in the dryer.” I followed him to the washroom, hoping there was possibly a spare toothbrush in there.
When I entered, I heard him in the other half while my eyes marveled at the white toothbrushes in the plastic awaiting use next to the toothpaste.
By the time he came out of the other part of the washroom, he was washing his hands while I brushed my teeth. This man was perfect, so perfect that I marveled at the sight of him even though I knew I needed to be getting out of here.
“Your son, where is he?” he asked out of the blue once I finished brushing my teeth.
“With my father. We live on a family compound somewhat like this, so it’s a matter of a few feet. I try to let him spend as much time as he needs with my father, especially now with it being the holidays and my mother being gone. He’ll be back withme tomorrow and of course we’re doing all the cheesy holiday mess.” I laughed at the thought before finally looking at my phone. I knew for a fact Raev had blown me up, considering I read her message last night and kept it moving.
“Cheesy like what?” he asked, making me look up at him. He was now brushing his teeth and watching me like I was about to take off running or something.
“The days leading up, we put up the Christmas tree, decorate the outside, bake cookies for us to eat, and of course build that God awful gingerbread house that always falls before we finish. I hate it, but he loves it, so we do it every year. Then on Christmas we go to the Jubilee. He loves it. ” I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling at the thought. Every year we put up the tree later, because the truth of the matter was, I didn’t want to. This holiday had been my mother’s favorite, so spending yet another one without her was hard.
For a moment I just watched him, flexing his muscles not at all on purpose, but making the simplest part step of self-care sexy. Once he was finished, he just looked at me before his features contorted into a big smile.
“For a kid that type of shit is golden. You’re doing your shit, mama.” Something about the way he said that was somber.
“You didn’t have traditions as a kid? You know, things that you did as a family?”
He laughed dryly. “Nah, when we left here it was all about finding her happiness and me being the perfect quiet accessory to make her single mother ploy more enticing to some.”
I nodded, moving toward him. My hand was on the side of his arm, immediately feeling like I should comfort him or fly to wherever his mother was and beat her ass. Shit, I hoped she wasn’t dead, either way I meant what I said. “You are invited to join us. I mean it’s nothing fancy, and honestly, just him and mebecause while my father clutches a bottle of whiskey at the front window around that time my sister is usually God knows where.”
He seemed confused, so I explained more.
“Christmas was my mother’s favorite holiday. She always went all out. It was a big deal for her, so it’s a little hard for all of us around this time. But there is no way you can tell that to a six-year-old, so I suck it up and enjoy the holiday.”
I guess it was his time to comfort me, because before I knew it, I was being pulled into a tight ass hug.
We talked for a while longer before I had to go and he made me promise to come back. He then walked me to my sister’s car, kissed me like he had known me my whole life, and watched me pull out of the driveway.
