Page 39 of Senior

Steph was living a soft life. While she didn’t need a soft man, she needed one that could be present and that wasn’t me back then. I wanted to pursue her when I first retired, but she wasn’t a single woman. I’d already cheated on Maddie once with her, I couldn’t do that again. When I came clean to her about it, she was ready to beat my ass like a nigga on the street.

I didn’t hit women, so I had to eat that shit.

She wanted to go after Stephanie too, but I wasn’t having that. Steph didn’t owe her any loyalty, I did. Was it disrespectful as hell for her to keep showing up to Sunday dinner knowing Maddie was going to be there? Maybe. But Stephanie was family and she was welcomed wherever our son was going to be.

I cleared my throat. “Deuce, you know I’m grown right?”

“You ain’t too old for me to tap that ass, Senior.”

I chuckled. “I keep telling you. The day you grow the balls to fight me, is gonna be the day I send you to your heavenly father. You don’t want this smoke, boy.”

“Don’t start y’all’s shit,” Stephanie said.

“Please don’t,” Salima added. “Besides, baby. Both of them are single people. If they decide they want to get back together, that’s their business. I’m sure Dad doesn’t want to spend all his free time with fourteen grandchildren.”

The way she eyed me told me she figured out it was me on the other end of the phone this morning.

She clasped her hands together. “Now! Before we get into a battle of the testosterone, I’m taking the boys out back to play. They are getting rowdy in there and I’d hate to have to spank some ass because they start fighting. Liam! Marino! Y’all wanna play outside?”

They came barreling through the living room and ran past us, straight to the back door. Salima climbed off Deuce’s lap to follow them.

“You wanna bring Charm?” she asked me. “Darlyn is gonna be in that room with those new toys.”

I knew it wasn’t really a suggestion, so I stood and followed her. Once she opened the door, the boys took off for the playground out back. I followed Salima over to the swings and put Charm in. She was already grinning as I pushed the swing back and forth.

“So how long has this been a thing?” Salima asked, getting right to it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, baby girl.”

She gave me a look. “Daddy, you can’t fool me, okay. I acted like your son wasn’t my man for the longest. I know when people are lying.”

I chuckled. “Is it that obvious?”

She giggled. “You oversold it, just a little. Plus, I clearly know your voice. You were all up in my girl’s ear. Nasty.”

“I’m no worse than my sons.”

“We’re just gonna say Smoke is the worst since he has five kids. He was there in spirit for Korri and Juri.”

We shared a laugh.

“Honestly, there was nothing before last night. Well… we kissed in the maze on Maceo’s birthday. You and your husband actually interrupted us.”

She gasped. “Oooo! Yall are lucky I turned Deuce around.”

“I’m not worried about that damn boy. It’s no secret how I feel about that woman. I’m tired of not having her, so I finally did something about it.”

“Good for you.” She reached for my hand and squeezed it. “I really want you two to be happy, Senior. For that, I’ll keep your son off your ass as long as I can. Once he finds out, my name is Bennett and I ain’t in it.”

I chuckled. “I appreciate that.”

“Word of advice, if y’all want to keep it a secret, you have to work on your horrible poker face.”

I laughed. That was easier said than done. Around that woman, my ass had heart eyes. I’d just be grinning and shit because I couldn’t help myself. All these years later, she still had that effect on me and it didn’t look like it was going to change any time soon.

“I needed this so bad,” Tavia said, sipping her mimosa.

We were downtown having a little girl’s night. Once a week we got together for lunch and twice a month we went to dinner or had a night out on the town. Around here, we were known for being Senior’s baby mamas. People always thought it was weird how cool we were with each other.