Page 4 of Steel
“I’m so happy for you,” she said, cupping my face. “You are going to be an amazing father, Kerrion.”
“Thank you, Jae.”
She kissed my cheek and moved over to Donna. “Congratulations! I guess we are family now.”
Donna squeezed me tightly. “I love that. I had to admit I was a little nervous to meet you all, but Kerrion told me there was an abundance of love . . . and insults, here.”
Jaeda laughed. “Endless insults, but all love.” She reached out to rub her stomach. “Hi, auntie’s baby!”
“I’m glad you finally said something,” Maceo said. “It was hard as hell holding that shit in. No cap, Idolove pillow talking with my wife.”
Shar smacked his arm. “So you knew!”
“He told us they were trying, not that they were pregnant.”
“Oh! So y’all were gossiping and sharing secrets, huh? Who else has a secret? Quaid? Titan? Either of y’all knocked my sisters up?”
“Hell no,” Titan said. “Did you not see the way she was throwing those drinks back today?”
Mia mushed his head. “As if I would ever let you impregnate me, nigga. You aren’t even my man.”
Titan kissed his teeth. “You say that, but look where the fuck I am. How many other niggas are you bringing around your family? None. You don’t even like other niggas, and if you do, you better keep that shit on the low before they come up missing. As far as a baby . . .” He chuckled. “You let me do everything that can result in a pregnancy. If you don’t want my seeds, you better tighten up, and I ain’t talking about them walls, love.”
Mia tried to swing at him, but he grabbed her and dunked her in the water as she screamed. His antics prompted all the men, except for Smoke, to do the same thing. An all-out water fight broke out. Hair clips were everywhere. Shar’s wig slipped off, and then we had a field day throwing it around while she cursed us all out.
I couldn’t wait for my baby to get here.
I wanted them to have this type of relationship with their cousins. Sure, we got on each other’s nerves, but my siblingswere my niggas. I’d run down on anybody behind them. My baby was going to get all this love . . . and aggravation.
The incessant ringingof my phone had me punching the air.
I’d just gotten in from a mission with my brothers, and I was tired as a muthafucka. I’d washed my ass and climbed into bed. I’d only been sleeping for about an hour when the ringing started. I tried to ignore it, but the calls came back to back. Tossing the covers off me, I sat up and grabbed the phone to see a call coming from Donna.
Knowing that she was set to give birth to our son at any moment, I quickly swiped the call to answer.
“What’s up, D? You good?”
“Kerrion. It’s Anita.”
Anita was Donna’s mother. When she first learned that we planned our pregnancy, she wasn’t happy about it. She felt like I should have married her daughter before making her a mother.Donna and I both wanted children, but we also knew that we would never make it in a marriage.
We had a great friendship and had great sex, but we wouldn’t have survived being a legit couple. For one, Donna never wanted to get married. I was cool with that because I wasn’t looking for that type of commitment at that time. She was getting older, and so was I. We both wanted children. I knew I’d do everything in my power to be a good father, and she desperately wanted to be a mother.
Watching my brothers and the relationships they had with their kids made me realize just how bad I wanted that for myself. That baby fever was a real muthafucka. Now Tavia Jenkins whupped my ass with that infamous dish towel when I told her I was having a baby with no plans to marry their mother, but she was excited to be a grandma. I mean, she and my stepfather started all the way over, and now I had a ten-month-old little sister.
That was my lil’ baby. My baby would be in school with his damn aunt. The ghetto.
“Hey, Ms. Anita. Everything okay?”
“Donna is on her way to the hospital.”
“Oh shit!” I jumped up from the bed and flipped on the light. Frantically, I started looking for something to wear. “Are you at the hospital? Do I need to come get her? Did you?—”
“Calm down. We called the ambulance. I’m on my way to the hospital now. She’s been having contractions all day and refusing to let me take her because she thought it was Braxton Hicks. Silly ass girl. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had that baby in the back of the ambulance.”
I chuckled. “I’m getting dressed. I’ll meet you there.”
“Please drive safe. It’s late.”
