Page 26 of Bully

“In God, not a man!”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “I love you, Ma. I’ll talk to you when I get home.”

“I love you too. And don’t you send nobody to get my grandbaby. You know I have no problem keeping her… even if it is so you can lay up with her disappearing ass daddy. I’ma start calling his knucklehead ass Houdini.”

As much as I didn’t want to, I laughed. “Bye, Ma.”

“Bye.”

I disconnected the call with a shake of my head. After he rescheduled our flights, Bully joined me in bed. I didn’t bother telling him about Ma’s reservations. She’d already told him how she felt the first time he dropped Innah off and it didn’t sway him either way. He made it clear he didn’t give a fuck how she felt, respectfully, and that he’d come back to getbothof his girls. I knew only time and the behavior she’d grown used to from him would make her trust him again and I respected that. For now, I was feeling too good to let her lack of faith in us ruin my mood and our time together.

13

Bully

I studiedthe way my father loved my mother. A few things thing he took very seriously were listening to her, being thoughtful and considerate, and taking care of her wants and needs. Before I left, I’d made it my mission to be so in tune with Innvy that I could pick up on her wants and needs before she even expressed them.

Last night, after hearing about her not going out much without me, I made the mental note to clear a day out of every weekend to take her on a date. I also ordered the limited edition Clase Azul Pink since it was her favorite kind of tequila. I didn’t mind paying three thousand for it because I knew she’d keep the pink bottle forever.

Now, we were looking at new timepieces because I noticed the solar one she had had a tighter fit than it should’ve, so she didn’t wear it for long periods of time. She’d been saying she would go and get more links added since I’d been back, but Innvy hardly ever took the time to do stuff for herself unless it was really important. So I decided to replace it altogether.

“Are you sure?” she asked, looking up at me with innocent eyes.

Chuckling, I nodded as I gripped her waist. “Yeah, baby. Is this the one you want?”

She looked down at the glass case where the Lady-Datejust Rolex rested. The oyster, 28 mm, yellow gold timepiece had diamonds and was just under $155,000, so I could understand why she wanted to confirm she could get it. That was a hell of a lot of money for a watch, but there was a method behind my madness.

“Yes, but I can get a vintage one that’s far less expensive,” she reasoned. “There’s one for like five K at—”

“You remember the first time we talked about watches?”

A slow smile spread her lips as she nodded. “I do. I was telling you about how I wanted to go to Osaka, Japan to get a vintage Rolex to add to my collection and that I wanted to get certain pieces of jewelry, including pearls and watches, that I could pass down to my children.”

“So this will be the first, and you can give it to Innah. We’ll still take that trip to Japan so you can get one or two there too. How’s that sound?”

Tugging her lip between her teeth, she sniffled and nodded as she blinked back tears.

“I think it sounds just like you—perfect.”

* * *

One extra dayturned into three. It felt irresponsible as hell, but we needed this time to ourselves. Though Bianca and Hamilton said they were cool with it, I still had my mama go get Innah Monday. I felt like Bianca still didn’t trust me and was giving Innvy a hard time when we called to check in on my princess. So I made the decision to have my parents keep her so Mama B could stop stewing. I didn’t want her around my baby girl with that negative energy toward me.

Innvy and I enjoyed every minute of our time here. We spent the rest of the days doing interactive dates instead of the standard dinner and a movie. We went to an adult arcade, a fluid art store, an interactive sports arena, and a cowboy bar that was wild as fuck with some strong drinks and good ass hot dogs. I’d never put Dallas on my list of places to visit often but it was officially on my list.

Since we were flying private, we were chilling in the lounge for about thirty minutes before it was time for our short flight. It was never over an hour and a half, and since it was just us, it would probably only be an hour and five minutes. I checked emails from my business manager while Innvy had a virtual meeting with her staff in preparation for her return.

When she ended the meeting she told me, “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Wassup?” I asked, setting my phone down and giving her my full attention.

“I’ve been looking into it. When we get back home, let’s do a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity form. Your name needs to be on Innah’s birth certificate, and I want to change her last name to yours.”

I won’t lie and say it didn’t hurt my heart when I found out she’d given Innah her last name but I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t there and she didn’t know if or when I would be. Unintentionally, I’d put her in a position to be a temporary single mother. It killed me not to reach out to her when I knew her due date had passed, but I also knew if I talked to her, I would immediately return home, and I had to finish that shit for Rocco so he could never call upon me again.

“You sure, baby?” I checked, taking her hand into mine. “I want that… but only if you want me to have it.”

“You deserve it. She does too. I want to do this for the both of you.”

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