Page 28 of Give Me All Of You

“Pea, this is my bestie, Journei. Bestie, this is my princess, Peace.” He introduced us and escorted me inside. His foyer was beautifully decorated with a navy chaise lining the wall with a gigantic mirror hanging above it, with a sturdy shelf on the other side with a few trinkets on it. When we got to the living room, I became speechless. It was decorated in navy, cream, and gold. You would’ve never thought that a child lived here because it was so clean. He took a seat on the couch and placed Peace on her feet. I took a seat next to him and watched as he got her together.

“Peace, Journei is going to stay here with you and mommy, okay?” he explained.

“Mommy, schleep!” she squealed in her cute little voice.

“Yes. Mommy is sleeping. You be good for my bestie, okay?”

“Yay, bestie!” She started clapping, causing the both of us to laugh.

“She’s animated as fuck,” he explained.

“It’s okay. You forgot I have a goddaughter?”

“Damn, I really did. You could’ve brought her with you. Peace would’ve loved that.”

“I’m pretty sure Rue wouldn’t mind a play date between the two of them,” I offered. He nodded and continued to pick up toys that Peace had scattered about.

“Uhm, you can come with me so I can show you where Lu is.”

He got up and Peace grabbed my hand while we followed her father toward the back of the house and down the hall. We came to a closed door and pushed it open, allowing me and Peace to go in first. Peace practically dragged me toward her mother’s bed. I was surprised she was so quiet, but I guess she was used to it.

“She’s asleep right now. There’s really not much that you can do except for watch and make sure that she’s still breathing and give her meds or something to drink. She’s been refusing her medication, so all we’ve been doing is keeping her comfortable.”

While he explained everything to me, I heard the hurt and anguish in his tone. He was hurt and had every right to be.

“We’ll be fine. Go handle your business,” I assured.

Nodding, he placed a kiss on Lu’s forehead before kissing Peace. When he reached me, he looked down into my eyes and I saw a glimmer of attraction there mixed in with the hurt.

“Thank you,” was all he said before he placed his forehead on mine and left the room. I watched him leave and when I turned back around, Lucretia was staring at me with a smile on her face.

What the hell?

Chapter Twelve

Rakeem

I left Journei in the room with Peace and Lucretia while I headed upstairs to my room to finish getting dressed. I had to leave because I was feeling guilty about having Journei come and sit with Lu. I was feeling this girl more than I wanted to accept. I know Lu made me promise I would move on, but how do I go about doing that? I didn’t want to get ahead of myself and just let shit be. After I finished dressing, I didn’t even bother to go let them know I was leaving. It was a security monitor in every room in the house. She would be able to see me leave if she looked at it. Once I grabbed my keys, I went into the garage and hopped into my Tahoe and headed to the docks. We had a few families due to come in later and Haze and I were always there for that. When I pulled up, I saw Haze was already there. I noticed Ced and Art were here as well. We had other workers, but these two were our top lieutenants and who we considered homeboys. I stepped out of my truck and headed inside the building that was tucked off to the side and found the three of them sitting around passing two blunts around.

“Wassup, wassup?” I spoke.

“Ain’t shit.”

“Wassup,” they spoke back.

I took a seat next to my brother, and he passed me the blunt.

“You good, bro?” he questioned.

Taking a deep pull from the blunt, I held it a few seconds before I blew the smoke back out and spoke.

“I asked Journei to come to the house and sit with Lu and Peace,” I informed.

My brother, along with Ced and Art, looked at me like I was crazy.

“You aight?” Ced asked, taking the blunt from Art.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I be?” I frowned.

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