Page 104 of Unlucky You
“You kiss her, a lot, and that’s what you do when you have a girlfriend.” Raiden shrugged as if it just made sense while Grand threw his head back and laughed.
“Do you kiss girls, Raidy?”
“Nope.” He frowned, shaking his head. “I can’t have a girlfriend until I’m big like you. My nana said so.”
“Your nana is right. No kissing girls until you’re big like your father.” I grinned and playfully jabbed a finger into his side, causing Raiden to squirm away from me giggling. He stepped off the end of the shopping cart when Grand paused to pick up a case of water but this time when we were moving, Raiden slipped his hand into mine.
“And when you give us a baby, it should be a boy because he will want to play with trucks and ride motorcycles like me so we can play together all the time.”
“But what if it’s a girl?”
He wrinkled his nose and frowned. “Then you can play with her.”
Grand laughed lightly beside us, causing me to lock eyes with him. He winked then his eyes slowly crawled down my body, landing at my stomach.
“Daddy, can I have one of those?” He pointed to the individual sports drinks not far from where we were. When Grand granted his approval, Raiden ran off and began surveying the different flavors.
I turned to his father and frowned. “I thought you got caught up this morning.”
“What do you mean?”
“You said the no condom thing was you getting caught in the moment of your mouth being on me but I’m starting to think I’m being hustled by you and Raiden.
He grinned and his hand found its way to my hip which he used to move me closer. “It wasn’t a set up. I’m not mad at the idea of you giving us a baby but I’m also not in a rush.”
“I got these.” Grand released me and Raiden stepped between us but turned his back to his father, leaning against his legs, holding up two identical pale blue sports drinks into view. I got you one too because we both like blue.”
“We sure do, thank you. Put them in the cart.”
“How does he know your favorite color and I don’t?”
“Ask him, he might be able to school you on a few things.” Grand smiled, sinfully slow, but before he had a chance to deliver a comeback, Raiden had my hand again. “Can you make me pancakes for breakfast like the ones we had with all the whipped cream on them?”
“You have school tomorrow. So how about cereal and your dad can take us to get pancakes with whipped cream since he missed it last time.”
My answer seemed to be enough to appease him because he shifted into a Q&A about everyone’s favorite cereal. We ended up at self-checkout because Raiden wanted to scan and bag the items himself, which cost us an extra twenty minutes but his elation was well worth the time spent.
We made it back to the house after a stop by the store to grab another set of Legos for Raiden which apparently had taken over as his new favorite thing. Grand cursed me when I argued in Raiden’s defense for a six hundred forty-three piece KawasakiNinja motorcycle set which he had to assemble while I prepared steaks on the indoor grill that was also picked up while there.
Watching the two of them made my heart full. Grand was an amazing father and his mother had done such a beautiful job raising Raiden in his absence. One day we would collectively raise a child that we shared, giving Raiden a brother or sister. The more time I spent with Grand and his son, the harder it became to see my future without them. And the good thing was, I didn’t have to.
EPILOGUE
Eighteen Months and some change…
I watched Saniya grinning at her phone and couldn’t help but smile. My lady was beaming from tonight’s events. When Jabari reached out and asked if she would come to the game and Meyer Camden’s lawyer sent an NDA demanding she bring all the photos she had from All-Star Weekend, we both thought the night was going to be about some bullshit.
Turned out, he needed her help finding the woman he’d slept with who was allegedly pregnant with his child but had disappeared on him. He was hopeful she might have pictures of the cousin the woman was with at All-Star weekend so he could use them to locate her. Shit was crazy but typical for NBA players.
Saniya hooked him up and walked away with an exclusive from Jabari. She had freedom to post whatever she wanted as long as she promised not to sell the shots to Tattle Tales. It was crazy how much he hated the owner Peighton but I understood why. The woman wasn’t shit. She’d fucked Saniya over with an exclusive by not paying her for the work then claiming credit for Saniya’s pictures.
“Three hundred and seventy-eight thousand likes, twenty-one thousand comments, and fifty-seven thousand shares in less than an hour and that’s just Jabari’s page. I can’t believe he gave me the exclusive first shots of his engagement to Kinnidi. And that proposal was so damn perfect. She was so cute when they caught her reaction.”
“I don’t give a damn about her reaction but yours better level the fuck out. You’re grinning too hard at that phone while talking about another man, Saniya.”
Her smile expanded torturously slow as I pulled into a spot near the side of The Pit and parked. She kissed the tips of her fingers and touched them to the screen. I was seconds from snatching the phone out of her hand because I knew the fuck she was not planting a kiss on this muthafucker. When she turned the screen to me, it offered a visual of Raiden curled up on my mother’s bed next to his sister Greilynn.
“I wasn’t grinning at another man. I was texting your mother and grinning at our children.”