Page 15 of A Major Love

My mother kneeled to meet Maja at eye level before saying in a soft voice, “You can stay with Nani and Papi as long as you want.”

I shook my head at the two of them.

“You don’t want to come home with Daddy?” I asked, a little hurt by how easily my daughter kicked me to the curb.

“No, Daddy. I want to play with my new toys. I’ll come to your house tomorrow. Nani, can I eat my food now?”

“Of course. Go and wash your hands, and let me get it ready.”

“Yay! Can I have ice cream with strawberries later?”

“If you eat all your dinner,” Ma replied.

My mother and daughter moved around the kitchen like I wasn’t there. I’d been looking forward to chilling with my baby girl for the next couple of days, but she had other plans, so I kissed them on their foreheads and took my ass home.

I ended up spending only a day and a half with my daughter before I had to take her back to her mother, Rahkia. We split custody, so I typically got her the first half of the week and her mother the second half.

Although the days Maja was with each of us were outlined in our agreement, we didn’t always follow it by the book. If either of us had something to do that interfered with our time with her, we adjusted accordingly.

Rahkia was cool, and we had a platonic, cordial friendship, but that wasn’t always the case. When she found out she was pregnant, we’d been fucking around pretty heavily for about six months. It was nothing serious as far as I was concerned, and we were on the same page until she caught feelings about three months in.

She did her damnedest to win me over, but I didn’t want her like that. When I realized she’d cut me off, I didn’t chase her or make any attempts to see her again. If she hadn’t gottenpregnant, I probably would’ve forgotten her name and what she looked like sooner rather than later.

I took care of all her wants and needs while she was pregnant, and although I wasn’t physically around much, I was there when Maja was born. Baby girl looked just like me, but a DNA test confirmed she was mine.

My career had taken off, and my schedule was busy, so I hired a twenty-four-hour nurse for three months. For a while, Rahkia thought I’d give a relationship with her a shot. When that didn’t happen, she made things tough for me for several months.

Our mothers teamed up on her to talk some sense into her. After their conversation, Rahkia and I had a civil conversation. We agreed on an amount for child support and to split custody. Since then, we’d happily co-parented with little to no issues.

My phone rang, interrupting my music and pulling me out of my thoughts as I ran a few miles on my treadmill. Brax’s name appeared on my screen, and I answered it.

“Wassup?”

“Guess what,” he said.

“Nigga, I’m too old to be playing guessing games, and I’m not in the mood.”

“She agreed.”

“Who agreed to what?”

“Dynastie called me and agreed to do your memoir.”

“You fucking with me.”

“Nah, not this time. She wants us to send over a contract with the specific details and requirements by the end of the day.”

“The end of the—shit, never mind. Can you and Willis be here in an hour?”

Willis was my attorney. I hadn’t run any of this by him yet, and he had to draw up the contract.

“See you in an hour.”

As I finished my workout, I couldn’t help but wonder why Dynastie changed her mind. I was grateful, but she wasn’t the kind of woman who second-guessed herself, which was part of the reason we weren’t in a good place.

Once her mind was made up about something or someone, it was hard to convince her of anything different. There was no telling what kind of story she’d conjured up in her head about my relationship with Rahkia.

Ever since I’d shared my idea with Brax and Jrue, I couldn’t stop thinking about the plans I’d made for us before I fucked up. I’d taken a few wrong turns that sent us in different directions, but I’d always believed our paths would cross again. Now was that time, and I would do everything in my power to ensure that it wasn’t wasted.