Page 3 of Where Is the Love

I lay in his arms and let him comfort me about a love lost. This shit was so unfair to him. After ten minutes, I got up and got dressed. Decklan had my mental so fucked up, I was about to fuck a damn stranger. This wasn’t like me, and I refused to let what he put me through change me for the worse. It was time to be the strong woman I’d always been and bury that shit.Fuck him.

CHAPTERONE

JESSICA

Three months later…

I’d just gotten to town to spend a week with my family for spring break. I was tired as hell. Although the drive was only about an hour and a few minutes from my apartment, I’d only gotten about three hours of sleep. I’d just gotten in from a shoot in Hawaii forSports Illustrated. There wasn’t a bitch alive who could tell me shit as I strutted my ass through that sand, posing for photos. I was paying for that shit today.

In fact, I was so damn tired I thought I saw a sign at Jasper’s Liquor that Uncle Storm was running for mayor. The further I drove into town, the more of them I saw. I found myself laughing hysterically while I was driving. There was no way these white folks were going to vote his ass in office. I could see him now, acting like Councilman Mayes on TikTok. Secondly, it wasn’t even election time.

However, it was the last couple of signs before getting to my parents’ house that had my ass making a U-turn right in the middle of Highway 90 to go back to his house. That shit said,I chase all sorts of Storms, including shit storms, because I’m the Storm chaser. They all have to bow to me.Then the second one said,It’s only right to elect the watcher over the city. The Gabriel of Big City Nome, Texas, Storm ‘Gabriel’ Henderson.Then it had a picture of his ass with a halo over his head. This shit had to be a joke. I could barely drive from laughing so hard.

When I turned in his driveway, he was coming out of the backyard with a frown on his face and his phone in front of him. I did my best to contain my laughter as I got out of the car and heard him saying, “I’m gon’ fuck somebody up. Although all that shit is true, they put them out at the wrong time. This shit got Jasper, Marcus, and Tiffany’s names all over it.”

He looked up at me and winked, then said, “Yo’ daughter at my house. She came to see me before she went to see you. How you feel about that?”

“Jessica! Really?” my mom yelled from the phone.

I chuckled. “Mama, I’m sorry, but those signs distracted me. I made a U-turn in the middle of the highway.”

She fell out laughing as Uncle Storm laughed sarcastically. “Bye, Jen.”

He ended the call in her face and hugged me. “What’s up, Ace?”

I chuckled. He used to call me his ace boon koon all the time when I was little, because I could be as rowdy as he was when Joseph wasn’t around. Since Uncle Marcus had been a part of the family, he stopped calling me that. Uncle Marcus had a son named Ace. We had too many family members, so we had to keep these names straight. It was bad enough with Decaurey and Jakari. Their names were so damn close. It was easy to get them confused. Our saving grace was that Decaurey wasn’t born in the family.

“Ain’t nothing, Unc. Just worked the shit out of this shoot in Hawaii. You know how us Hendersons do it.”

“Hell yeah. That’s good. I’m proud of you. That nigga still tryna get back?”

“Yeah, but not aggressively. So you don’t have to worry about anything like that. He just calls once a week to check on me and tells me he loves me,” I said softly.

It was crazy that he even said that shit to me. He waited until we were no longer together to tell me he loved me. Who did shit like that? Of course, I didn’t want to believe that it was sincere… that he was just trying to manipulate me into giving him another chance. My heart knew better though. The Decklan I knew and had fallen in love with didn’t say shit he didn’t mean. I just wished he wouldn’t have told me. I kept my feelings to myself, and I refused to say it back to him.

“You never told me y’all were in love, Jess.”

“We never said it to each other. I still love him, and it’s been hard moving on, but I refuse to hang on to a man that can hurt me the way he did, Unc.”

“Muthafucka needs his ass whupped. The only reason he hasn’t gotten it already is simply because of Lennox. If he starts bothering you, let me know. You know we don’t have a problem rolling out for our sisters and nieces.”

“I know, Unc. I had to come by, though, and fuck wit’chu about those signs.”

I laughed as he frowned again. “Uh huh. I’m about to go find Jasper’s ass and fuck him up. I know he was behind that shit. I’m gon’ pull all that shit up and use it when I run.”

“You for real about that?”

“Hell yeah. Big City Nome need to make a comeback, and it starts with leadership. Muthafuckas around here ain’t doing shit and don’t know how to get funds out here to fix shit. Look how long it took the county to fix 3rdStreet. That shit was ridiculous. Grayburg needs to be fixed too. All that patching they doing ain’t doing shit but making it worse.”

“You right. Let me get to Mama’s house though. Are y’all still cooking at the barn this weekend?”

“Yep. We turning up Henderson style. Everybody supposed to fall through, even Legend and his basketball team.”

“Unc, you can’t talk. You have five kids too.”

“I know, but mine further apart in years. The twins are sixteen, and Remy is barely four. Legend’s are all back to back, so they can all play on the same team.”

I rolled my eyes. “On that note, I’m out.”