Page 8 of Rebound

“I like cooking, but I’m nobody’s mother, and you will not treat me as such,” Layla says, and the girls high-five. “It was over for me after that. That’s why his ass is single,” she throws in. “I think I’m just going to enjoy my summer and try dating again in the fall.” She sighs dramatically. “Maybe the summer heat makes men crazy.”

“That’s code for insecure little control freak,” Jeannie throws in.

“Right! I mean, I’ll listen in bed. Sometimes,” she says with a grin. I start to cough at that thought. I look at her again. Her personality sucks, but she’s very pretty. She has perfectly straight teeth and when she smiles, she looks downright playful. I bet she would be a great time in bed. I chase the thought away before my body starts to react.

It’s not her. It’s the fact that I’ve been celibate since before Jasmine came to live with me. I don’t want to have different women in my house like I did before her. Besides, my reputation is bad enough with all the lies that seem to swirl about me. As of today, three women are claiming to be pregnant with my baby, even though I haven’t been near pussy in a year.

I bet Layla would feel good. I could make her moan. I start to cough at the thought.

“I will let you choke to death, Whorekowski. And keep your germs to yourself.” She wipes her arms. “Gross.”

“I think he took one look at you and made up that story just to get away from you. That face and especially that attitude,” I say with a cackle. Jasmine hears and she laughs too. “He probably didn’t want to be with a woman with a forehead bigger than his.”

Her eyes narrow. “Anyway,” she says slowly before turning away from me, “let’s get out of this pool. I’m hungry, and I don’t like being this close to whores.” I watch as she lifts herself out of the pool, and I was not prepared for the sight of her walking away. She’s in a white two-piece, and even from here, I can tell her ass is firm. It looks like a perfect peach as she bends down to dry her legs with the towel.

“No!” Jasmine says as she starts to cry. “No!” She lifts her arms in Layla and Jeannie’s direction. Layla walks back over and leans down to reach for her. I know I shouldn’t. I know better, but instead of handing Jasmine to her, I grab her wrist and pull her into the pool. She falls in headfirst.

Jasmine starts to clap and bounce in my arms, and I let out a big belly laugh when she emerges. Her hair is completely soaked as she sputters. She finally opens her eyes and splashes water at me. I do it back, but because I’m over a foot taller than her with the arm length to prove it, the splash hits her hard. She wipes her eyes and glares at me when she opens them.

“Why are you such a jerk?” she asks. “I didn’t want to get my hair wet.”

“Then don’t get in a pool.” I splash her again, but softer this time. That’s when I notice a mark on her cheek. I take a step closer to her. She gasps and steps back, but I grasp her chin. “Who did this to you?” I run my hand on her cheekbone, and she grimaces. “Did one of these idiots you’re thirsting after put his hands on you? What’s his name?” I run my thumb along the bruise. She grimaces and pushes my hand away.

“It’s nothing like that,” she says. “It was an accident.”

“Don’t make excuses for him. Just tell me his name. No man is going to put his hands on a woman. At least, I think you’re a woman,” I add. I don’t want her to think I care about her. “I can’t tell just by looking at you.”

She inches closer and points a finger at my face. “That’s one thing you will never, ever know from personal experience. But it wasn’t a man. If a man did this to me, they would never find his body.”

“Then what happened?” I ask, not fully believing her.

She opens her mouth to speak, but she must think better of it. She snaps it shut, pulls my daughter out of my arms, and puts her on her hip.

“None of your freaking business, nosy jerk,” she says. She hands Jeannie my baby and pulls herself out of the pool. She turns and sloshes some water in my face before she runs away, giggling. Her perfect peach ass bounces, and I imagine taking a big bite out of it.

I shake the thought away. She probably tastes bitter. No, thank you.

Chapter 6

Layla

“I don’t want to put her in a home,” I say to my mom and June Bug a few days later. Gaga is in her room napping after another horrible day. This time, she thought my mother was a stranger and scratched her face. “She will be so scared there. No. Absolutely not. Besides, we can’t afford any of the good ones. If we send her away, she will have to go to some mediocre home. I’m not doing that to her.”

Mom mulls my words while she stirs something in a pot. I know she doesn’t want to put Gaga in a home either, but I also understand that it’s becoming increasingly hard for the three of us to take care of her. She requires full-time care, and with us all working, that can be hard to juggle.

“I know. I don’t know what to do.” She turns off the burner and takes a seat. “She almost left the house today. She had no clothes on, and I had to physically pull her from the door.” Mom drops her head in both hands and groans. “And she’s so damn strong. I don’t ever remember her being this physicallystrong before.”

“I can cut back at work,” June Bug adds. “Lay can’t. She’s a big-time exec now.” He taps me on the shoulder with pride.

I’m hardly a big time anything, I work in the public relations department. June Bug now works at my old hotel.

“No, you’re not cutting back on work,” my mom says, giving him the side-eye. “You just got that job, and it’s been keeping you out of trouble and away from those so-called friends you used to run the streets with.” June Bug just beat a felony. He unknowingly drove the getaway car, but luckily he beat that charge and has been on the straight and narrow since.

“I told you, Auntie, I ain’t about that life no more. After a year, I qualify for tuition reimbursement at work. I’m not messing that up.”

My mom smiles at him and lays her hand on top of his. “You’ve always been a good boy, June Bug,” she says. “It’s my brother who’s a piece of crap.” June Bug’s mother died when he was young, and my uncle met someone else who didn’t want a child that wasn’t hers. He’s lived with me, Mom, and Grandma since. When he got in trouble, it was my mother who got him an attorney. After she called my uncle and cussed him out for being a deadbeat dad, she shamed him into sending money for the lawyer too. “Okay, we’ll figure it out like we always have,” my mom says. “Donna will help.” Donna is my former stepmother. She married my dad a couple of years after he divorced my mom. They formed a strange friendship over the years, and it only got stronger when Donna divorced my dad. My mom gave her the name of the divorce attorney she used.

I’m nervous about how it will all work out. Gaga is having mostly bad days. She’s been keeping the three of us on our toes all weekend. She responds the best to June Bug, but unlike me who works Monday through Friday, his hours are unpredictable.

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