Page 73 of All In

Eleven hours and forty-three minutes later, Sevynne Ortiz entered the world just shy of ten pounds. By that point, Jackie felt like she’d pushed the baby out her goddamn self. The hospital room had finally gone quiet for the first time all day. Kormia had taken the kids trick-or-treating to burn off some energy, leaving behind the kind of stillness that only came after chaos exhausted itself. Cash had stayed close most of the day without crowding her, moving between Max, Montana, and the waiting room whenever something needed handling. Cal was stretched out asleep in the corner chair while Montana stood posted beside Syxe’s bed like a bodyguard, watching her with the same intensity he watched everything else he cared about. Syxe looked exhausted. Completely drained. That was the thing about childbirth. It was beauty wrapped in brutality. Bringing life into the world was violent, and most women barely escaped with their lives. Syxe had insisted on going natural, and now her body had the war scars to prove it. Jackie stood near the foot of the bed, watching her quietly.

After a while, she started noticing something else. At first, it was only the way Syxe kept staring past the baby whenever the room got too quiet. Then Montana adjusted Sevynne againsther chest, and Syxe’s arms remained loose for a second too long before she seemed to remember to hold him.

It wasn’t anything Jackie wanted to name out loud. Not yet. It could’ve been exhaustion.

The pain. The shock of everything her body had just endured. So, Jackie didn’t say anything. But sheclockedit. And for some reason, she didn’t like it. Montana had already asked Jackie to stay for a few days once they got home and help Syxe adjust. Jackie agreed without hesitation because she already knew Syxe was going to need support once reality set in and everybody cleared out.

But first, Jackie needed to go home, pack some clothes, grab Max’s school stuff, and regroup. She stepped into the hallway and pulled out her phone to order an Uber, but before she could open the app, she spotted Cash leaning against the wall a few feet away like he’d been waiting there for a minute. Jackie slowed as she approached him.” Thanks for everything, Cassius,” she said quietly, holding the keys out toward him. Cash looked down at the keys but didn’t take them.

Instead, his hand closed around hers, warm and steady enough to stir that familiar feeling all over again. “You got it,” he said, his voice low. Then, after a second, “I’ll get it from you when I do.” Jackie stilled. Because this wasn’t just any car. It washiscar. And everybody knew it.

Immediately, her mind jumped to the school. The looks people would give her. The whispers that would follow behind her. His mother’s face if she ever saw Jackie pulling up in it.

“Cash…” Her tone shifted carefully. “This gonna look a way.”

His eyes lifted to hers then. His thumb moved once against the side of her hand, but he still didn’t let her go. “Well,” he said simply, “we know what it is.”

“And what exactly is it?” Jackie asked, needing the clarity herself.

“You and Max need to get around,” he replied. “And you gotta get back and forth to Syxe, so you need it.” Jackie searched his face, waiting for him to continue his spiel.

To say what he really meant. But he didn’t.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” He finally released her hand.

“It’s just sitting in the garage anyway. I gotta grab something out of it, but after that, keep it until you get something else.” Jackie nodded slowly before tightening her fingers around the keys. Cash stepped past her then, already moving like the conversation was over. Like whatever needed to be handled had been handled. But Jackie stayed where she was for another second, staring down at the keys in her palm. Because somehow, they felt a whole lot heavier than they had before.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

NAJEE

Najee hadn’t had a real conversation with Jackie in almost three weeks.

Even before that, their communication started thinning out, in a way Najee tried not to take personally. He knew Syxe had the baby and that Jackie was staying with her to help. But even that information hadn’t come from Jackie directly. Dr. Ish asked Max one day why he’d been showing up late to session, and Max—talkative as ever, ended up filling in all the blanks Jackie hadn’t. After that, the shift between him and Jackie became a little harder to ignore. She’d also missed all of Max’s individual appointments and completely stopped showing up to the breakout sessions altogether.

Najee thought about texting her more than once to ask her, whatthe fuck was up?But every version of the message sounded too pressed. So he sent flowers instead. That earned him atext. The first one he’d gotten from her in almost three weeks, and even then, it was just a quick thank you. Polite, short, and straight to the point in a way that felt deliberate. The following morning, she canceled their third one-on-one session with another text sent entirely too early for him to question without looking bothered.Jackie:Hey, can’t make it today. Got something to handle. Will be at joint session tho. Thanks.That was it. Under normal circumstances, Najee probably would’ve let it ride. Would’ve told himself she was busy and that life was simply lifing. But that would’ve been easier to believeif he had not spent the last two weeks watching Jackie pull up to the school in Cash’s matte black Range Rover.The same damn Range nobody touched but Cash himself.That truck was custom, barely broken in, and damn near an extension of Cash’s ego at this point. Seeing Jackie behind the wheel every morning felt louder than anything she could’ve actually said out loud, especially at that school, where everybody saw everything and minded business that had nothing to do with them. The gossip started almost immediately.

Najee heard the whispers all week, mostly from his own family members and faculty being messy as hell while pretending they were just, “concerned.”

You see Max Brown’s mom driving Coach’s truck?

Ain’t no way she just borrowing it this long.

You think Zambia know?

Maybe she’s, his co-wife.

Najee kept itPon the outside, but internally, that shit bothered him more than he wanted to admit. He liked Jackie. A lot. More than he probably should’ve by now. He had even started making space for her in his life without even realizing it. And that was exactly why the distance between them irritated him so badly because some of it was his fault. Taking those two weeks away to “strategize” had sounded responsible in theory. In reality, it shifted something between them. Jackie was already guarded. Already used to people disappointing her. And whether Najee wanted to fully own it or not, he had added himself to that list the second he pulled back without explaining why. That was why their last real conversation stayed with him the way it did. For the first time, it felt like they were moving toward something real. Max had less than a month left in therapy, and Najee’s role had already started shifting into something more supervisory than direct. Ethically, the finish line was finally coming intoview. He thought maybe once they cleared it, he could approach Jackie the right way, cleanly and intentionally. But then came theRange Rover,the whispers and the way Jackie and Cash seemed to communicate like they shared an understanding nobody else was privy to. Najee tried to let it go. He even cracked open his little black book for the first time in months, hoping somebody else could distract him long enough to get Jackie off his mind. But none of that shit worked. Which honestly pissed him off more than anything, because he was entirely too grown to be this down bad over a woman he technically hadn’t even taken on a date. Yet, every time he tried to talk himself out of it, his mind went right back to that night. The way her lips felt against his. The way she melted into his arms like she’d been made to fit there. Soft in all the places life had forced her to be hard. And just like that, all that logical shit went out the window.

By the time Jackie and Max arrived for their joint session the following afternoon, Najee was fully back in therapist mode. Dr. Ish had called out sick that morning, so Najee had to step in and run the session himself. Before they walked in, he told himself he was going to keep it professional, keep it light, and stop reading into shit that technically wasn’t his business. Then Jackie walked in, and that entire plan went straight tohell. She had on a black turtleneck dress that hugged every curve like it knew exactly what it was doing. Black lace stockings disappeared beneath a pair of over-the-knee boots, subtle enough not to scream for attention but sexy enough to have Najee’s mind drifting places it absolutely did not need to be. Her natural hair was pulled into a soft bun, and those tortoise-shell readers sat low against her nose while she flipped through Max’s notebook, oblivious to her ability to completely derail his concentration without even trying. It was late November, and the city was freezing. Evenin that chill, Jackie still managed to walk into his office looking warm.

Najee almost lost focus the second she slipped her coat off. He forced his attention back down to his notes and reminded himself to keep it light.Tighten up, nigga… you at work.,Najee told himself. But that was easier said than done considering the awkwardness sitting between them now. Jackie was polite when she arrived. Warm enough not to be rude, but careful in a way she hadn’t been before. Jackie took her usual spot on the sofa with her notebook in her lap, pen moving like she needed something to focus on that wasn’t him. Their small talk while Max used the restroom had been exactly that…small.Surface level. Forced and awkward asfuck. After a while, Najee busied himself with emails just to keep from asking questions he technically had no right to ask. Questions like…how was she really doing?Why had she suddenly gone distant?And most importantly, why was she driving that nigga’s car?Najee already knew none of those conversations would be appropriate, so he kept itplayerand pretended to be busy instead. He checked emails, skimmed through clinical notes, anything to keep his mind occupied and his attention off Jackie long enough to get through the session without making shit weird.

Max returning from the restroom ended up being a welcome distraction from all of it.

“Alright, champ,” Najee said once Max settled into the chair across from him.