Page 56 of On You 2

I pressed the ice gently against his lips, watching his mouth move slightly from the coldness before feeding him another small piece to keep his mouth wet. Just seeing him react made my day.

While feeding him, my phone started to buzz from the side of the bed it was sitting on. I picked it up, and surprisingly, it was Maleka calling me, finally.

“Yes, Leka?” I answered the phone.

“Hey, I’m outside the hospital. I can’t stand being away from you this long. We have to reconcile this shit before I go crazy. Is it okay if I come up there?”

I looked down at my baby, then over at Amir’s prayer beads. I’d spent some time in this room trying to bring peace to my baby. Praying over him and making him feel safe, with no guests coming to see him yet. I didn’t tell anybody he was awake because I wanted uninterrupted time with my baby for just a little while tonight.

I let go of a hard breath and then decided I would give in to her wanting to talk, but not at the cost of breaking the peace over my baby.

“They're about to do some tests on him, so I’ll just come downstairs and talk to you in the meantime. Only for like two minutes though.”

“Okay, that's fine.”

“Give me a minute to get down there.”

“I will, I'm patient.”

I ended the call before leaning down and kissing RJ against the side of his neck.

“Mommy is about to be right back, okay baby.”

I put the cup of ice down near the bed before grabbing my purse and heading out of the room.

When the elevator doors opened downstairs, I stepped out into the lobby. I headed through the sliding glass doors toward the front of the hospital, where cars kept pulling up, and security guards were blowing whistles, trying to keep traffic moving. It didn’t take long for me to spot Maleka’s red BMW sitting up front near the curb.

I walked over, opened the passenger door, and climbed inside. The second I shut the door, Maleka leaned over the center console and wrapped her arms around me tightly.

“Friend, I missed you so much.”

I hugged her back automatically because, despite everything that happened between us, this was still somebody I had laughed with, cried with, and told damn near every secret to over the years. When she finally pulled away, her eyes looked glossy already.

“Look, I know you, and I have been through a lot together, and I know you're going through a lot right now. That’s why I feel so fuckin bad about how things went between us. I was just feeling something I haven’t felt in a long time for somebody, and he wanted us to be on the low.”

As she spoke, the car started rolling forward slowly, causing me to look over at her quickly.

“Where are you going? I can’t leave. I told you two minutes.”

“I know, girl.” She pointed toward the curb ahead.

“I’m just moving out of the red zone because I do not need another damn ticket in this car.”

She pulled the car into a regular parking spot off to the side of the hospital before putting it in park.

Maleka wiped a tear from underneath her eyes before looking over at me again.

“I swear I never meant for any of this shit to happen like this. I was just lonely, Jas. Troy made me feel seen again. And when I saw Crew with you that day, I got scared because Troy has real problems out there. Like real enemies, and I wasn’t sure if Crew was one of them or not at the time.” She swallowed hard.

“I mean, Jas, for real, I didn’t even realize how crazy Troy is until last night.”

“What do you mean?”

Before she answered, I heard the click of the doors locking.

“Why did you lock the door, Maleka?”

“I can’t explain everything right now, but I promise it will all make sense in the end.”