Page 201 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

“Whatever. If I close my eyes, my rose does it better anyway,” I rumble, annoyed I’m even lying to myself.

Rico

“Ay.”

Ty-Ty looks up after closing the passenger door to his whip.

I keep walking until I’m a few feet away from him. “When y’all come back?”

Ty-Ty shrugs. “Shit, how I'm feeling… prolly in a few hours. I’on really wanna be away from the prince for too long.”

“Dumbass,” I snort. “Um… well…” I kick at an imaginary rock in the grass, before I sigh and just push out the words.

“Hit me when you get back, so we can kick it. I can bring Mars–”

“You so fuckin’ weird,” Ty-Ty grins. “I thought you bumbling and shit was just a one-time thing with that apology, but you really turn into a mark when you expressing yoself. You ain’t ever been this bad, cuzzo. Not even with bi–women.” He cackles hard, hard enough for Emiko to open her door and peer at us.

“What’s going on?”

“Yo husband a bitch,” I grit, my fingers itching to strangle him. “This exactly why I beat yo ass every chance I get.”

But he just waves me off. “Yeah, aight. Yo punk ass can roll through when we get back, as long as you bring my lil’ cousin and y’all both be on diaper duty. Was that it? I’m kinda on some I-10 by ten shit with my wife, nigga.”

Ty-Ty closes Emiko back inside as I pull out my phone. I scroll to Peanut’s text thread, and pull up the last picture I sent him, and show my cousin my screen.

He does a double take, grabbing my phone as his eyes expand.

“Nigga,” he breathes, before his mouth spreads into a wide grin.

“Told ya ass, didn’t I?”

He nods, handing me back my phone. “You bet’ not be stumbling and stammering like you was just now either, nigga. And I’ma gloss over the fact you told Nutty before you told me.”

I shrug, grinning. “You ain’t tell me shit about Emiko first, so we even. Settle for second, cabrón.”

“Nah, but, good shit, foreal, Rick.” He reaches out, and daps me up, our fingers curling into a B like they’ve been doing for decades. Like they’ll do for the rest of our lives, every time we shake hands.

I bring him to me, hugging him. We’ve been straight for a couple months now, but I still miss him. Sometimes I feel like I’ve missed out on so much regarding my only cousin on my mama’s side. So much time watching over him, protecting him, that I never get to shoot the breeze with him.

Marriage and fatherhood agree with my boy. I would have never thought Ty-Ty would be as mature as he is now. He and Rone can be in the same room, taking pictures and shit. Makes me feel like for once, he’s teaching me something.

“Proud of you,” I tell him. He hugs me back a little more, before letting me go, so his crybaby ass doesn’t start up again.

“I’m proud of you, too, cuzzo. We gon’ fasho have to catch up soon… right?”

“Yeah,” I grin, pushing him away. “Stay dangerous, nigga.”

He backs away, shaking his head as he rounds his whip to get in the driver’s seat. His pride and joy, before he got married and had a kid. I remember the day I took him to pick Viper up.

I’m sure we’ll be the ones to take Mars to pick up his first car, as well.

He honks when I get to the front door, and I throw it up chunky before I go back inside. YT and Reem are taking all three of their kids upstairs. Angel, the oldest, is asleep in one of Reem’s arms, while he carries his baby son, Honor. YT is holding Honor’s twin sister Valor, who meets my gaze from across the room, showing me gums.

“Here.”

My head pulls down, just as Nan drops another bundle of joy into my arms.

“Come into the kitchen.” She turns and walks off, leaving me with a bewildered baby, who looks exactly like the nigga who just pulled off.