Page 28 of Until Forever

“You were her boyfriend?”

Latoya’s eyes grow wide, and she drinks from her water to avoid answering.

“W-well, I was her friend, and I am a boy, so—” I sit up, stumbling over my words.

He frowns and cocks his head back. “Boys and girls can’t be friends. Boys can be friends with boys, and girls can be friends with girls, but girls and boys are boyfriend and girlfriend.”

She chokes. “That’s not true. Boys and girls can be friends in the same way as two boys.”

He shrugs.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” I ask to appease him.

“I have two—Alyssa from school and Courtney from next door to Maw Maw and Paw Paw.”

Latoya and I look at each other, both trying not to laugh. She shakes her head and glances away.

“Do you like my mom?” he blurts.

I can read the terror on her face and practically sense the embarrassment. “Um. Yeah, I like your mom. I told you, we were friends.”

“No, not like that. I mean, like, do you want to be her boyfriend?”

“Baby. You can’t ask people that. It’s nosey.”

“Why? Do you think I like her?” I crane my neck.

“You were looking at her butt, so, yes, you like her.”

Latoya’s face seems to drain of color, and I can only imagine how pink I am right about now.Thanks, bud, I think to myself. I know he caught me early, but he didn’t have to put me on blast like that.

Where’s the bro code loyalty?

“Jasper,” she says his name with a gasp.

“What? That’s what Grandpa says.”

We don’t respond.

His voice rises a notch, and he brings his shoulders up to his ears. “He does. Maw Maw was bending over in the kitchen cabinet, and Paw Paw said—” He drops his crayons and proceeds to mimic her dad’s deep voice when he says, “I like what I see, baby.”

We burst into laughter, and JJ doubles over with a chuckle of his own.

“Boy. Stop it.” She chokes back a grin. “He’s a mess,” she says to me.

A sense of pride rips through me because I see so much of myself in him, but also his mother. From our short time together, I can already tell he’s a healthy combination of the both of us.

“I think he’s funny.”

She relaxes in her seat. “You would.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I smirk.

“I clearly remember you being such a spitfire.”

The words leave her mouth, and she realizes she’s inadvertently confirmed that he’s mine. Not that I doubt it, he looks exactly like I did as a child, except his skin is a few shades darker than mine. But everything else, his blue eyes, his smile, and his sense of humor, are all me. He has his mother’s full lips, and thanks to her genetics, his hair is curly, whereas mine is straight.

But there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m his father. I’m here now, and I’m going to be three times the man to him as my dad was to me. He’s going to know I love him and will never feel the neglect I did.

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