Page 79 of Smoke

“Thank that man,” Renay said, pointing to Devin. “All of this was his idea. He wanted you to come home to something that would make you happy. My future brother in-law said we were gonna get you right.”

“Period!” Shar said, snapping her fingers.

The group of men I knew to be Devin’s brothers all shook their heads.

“Yeah, I see it now,” Deuce said.

“Hell yeah,” Maceo agreed.

“See what?” I asked.

Deuce motioned between Shar and Renay. “They are carbon copies of each other.”

Renay placed her hands on her hips. “A baddie knows a baddie.”

Shar giggled as she hugged her. “And this is a baddie!”

The brothers rolled their eyes, causing Shar to kiss her teeth.

“Y’all are some real-life haters, including my own husband.” She waved them off. “Don’t pay them any mind, girl. They expect everybody to be as unapproachable as they are. Y’all are lucky my niece is here,” she said, pointing at Korri. “We’re here to make a good impression on the Mitchells. They don’t need to know how we act just yet.”

That statement didn’t stop them from going back-and-forth. My parents found the banter amusing. Devin shook his head as he came over to me.

“I want to officially introduce you to some people,” he said, taking my hand and Korri’s. He led us over to a man and woman whom he favored as well as another man beside them.

“Romi, Korri, these are my parents, Stanley and Allison. And this is my stepdad, Alec. Y’all didn’t get a chance to meet at the wedding, but Romi did Shar’s makeup.”

All of them smiled at us.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Mr. Dillinger said, extending his hand.

“Very nice,” Ms. Allison agreed, pulling me into a hug. “My son has told me a lot about you, baby.” She stooped to Korri. “It’s nice to meet you, beautiful.”

Korri blushed. “Nice to meet you!”

“Our apologies for just coming into your home,” Mr. Alec said. “Devin said he wanted to introduce us, and we were pretty excited. We come bearing gifts, though!”

“It’s totally fine,” I assured him. “And thank you so much. You’ve all raised such a sweet, caring man.”

His mother beamed. “That’s my baby,” she said, pinching his cheeks.

“Come on, Ma,” he groaned.

Behind us, his siblings laughed. He turned to them with a glare and grabbed our hands and led us over to them.

“Let me officially introduce you to these fools. I think it’s really only two. You already met Mia and Jaeda.”

“She has the Legos, Mommy!” Korri exclaimed. “She showed me pictures!”

Jaeda laughed. “She’s a girl after my own heart.”

“This is Kerrion. Of course, you know who Maceo is from the wedding. And you already know Stanley from getting hisfacials.”

Deuce glared at him. “I’ma beat your ass,” he mouthed.

“Wait, you’re out here getting facials?” Mia asked, touching his face.

He slapped her hand away. “I went with my wife, and it’s not your business. Now, Romi, I thought we were better than that. What happened to client privileges? You just violated HIPPA.”

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