Page 13 of Bully

I pulled into the driveway and chuckled when I noticed him lingering instead of going right inside. After cutting the car off, I grabbed the food and looked in his direction.

“Wassup?” I asked to check his temperature.

“You tell me.”

That made me smile. “All is well as long as you stay your neighborly ass away from my wife.”

He chuckled and rolled his tongue over his cheek. “She told me y’all got some shit to work out so I’m falling back, but just to let you know, if you leave again… I’m taking herandyour baby.”

“Gabriel.”

The only thing that stopped me from responding was Innvy calling my name. “Bully,” I corrected, unsure why she felt the need to call me that shit in front of him. Maybe because she knew that would be the only thing sharp enough in my ears to get me to respond. Either way, I headed toward the front door. As much as I wanted to punch the cocky grin off his face, I couldn’t blame him for wanting Innvy. He’d never have her, though, and I wasveryfirm on that. “Fuck you call me that in front of him for?” I asked with a frown as I stepped inside.

She chuckled as she locked the door. “That’s your name ain’t it?”

“Nah. You call me Bully or bae. Matter fact, just call me bae.”

“Whatever, Bully.”

“Wassup with you and him? You fuck him?”

Innvy’s eyes rolled as she smiled. “So what if I did?”

I shoved the food in her chest and turned to go back outside, but she grabbed my arm as her laughter floated in the air.

“Get back in here, crazy. No, I didn’t have sex with him. I haven’t been with anyone since you.”

“Did you want to? Did you kiss him? Y’all go out on dates?”

“Bully, Iknowthat’s not what you came here for.”

“I came here to tell you the truth, but if he or anyone else has you, that’s something we need to talk about too.”

Her head shook as she headed toward the living room, which felt like just a few steps in comparison to the large home we once shared.

“I haven’t dated him or anyone else.”

“Good. I’d hate to send a few bullets into Mr. Rogers because you cheated on me.”

It took her a second to catch the reference but when she did, she cackled. Me singing the first few lines of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” made her laugh harder. Her eyes watered as she cupped her cheeks.

“I missed you,” she whispered.

“I missed you too.”

Pulling in a shaky breath, Innvy focused her attention on the bag of food.

“Technically it wouldn’t have been cheating because you left me.”

“You mine, and you gon’ always be mine. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can get back to us.”

Her head shook as she opened her chopsticks. She didn’t reject what I said, so I would accept that. We ate the sushi in silence, and I thought it was cute that she felt the need to grab a bottle of tequila when it was time for us to talk. As nervous as she seemed to be about hearing the truth, that made me wonder what scenarios she’d been thinking about while I was gone. I felt bad for making her worry and wonder, but that was over now, and I hoped she’d let me fix what I fucked up.

“Where do I begin?” I asked myself more than her as she took a shot of the tequila.

“The beginning is always nice.”

“To make a very long story short, Rocco made a lot of money betting on me and the Grizzlies when I played. Because of that, we established a relationship. We weren’t friends or no shit like that, but when we were out, he would always take care of the tab for me and whoever I was with. If I went to any of his businesses, whatever I wanted would be free. Shit like that.” I paused and pulled in a deep breath. “When my sister was raped, I was going to kill the person who did it. She begged me not to, so I asked Rocco to handle it. He told me he would and that since he was doing me a favor, the day would come when I would have to do one for him too.”

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