Page 76 of Senior

“You have always been a good father.”

“Just a terrible partner.”

She shook her head. “You weren’t a terrible partner, Stanley. I owe much of my life and who I am to you. You just… it felt like I took a bit of a back burner. You were there just not as much as I would have liked. At the end of the day, I needed my man more.”

I nodded. “I understand. Tay and Allison have told me the same thing. I apologize if I ever made you feel like you weren’t a priority, Steph. You were. You are, and you always will be. If I have to spend the rest of my life making sure you know that, then that’s what I have to do.”

She giggled. “Well, we’re getting old, so you better make the most of our time here.”

“We ain’t getting old. We’re getting better.”

“I don’t know about you, but I feel every bit of my age some days. Others I feel old as shit,” she smirked. “Well, I know one time where you’re feeling like a youngster again.”

I grinned. “As soon as I get you back to this house, you’re gonna feel the youngster in me, deep in you.”

I nipped at her neck, causing her to squeal.

“Y’all are sickeningly cute!” Shar yelled from across the yard.

“Get a room, you two!” Jaeda added.

Kaylynn doubled down on that. “At your own house, though, cause my granny ain’t finna play with y’all. We don’t wanna be Deuce!”

I couldn’t stand these niggas. They loved to laugh at someone else’s expense. It was funny when it wasn’t me, but now that it was, they had me and my lady fucked up.

“We can go home!” I yelled. “That ain’t no problem!”

“Just lock the doors!” Mia hollered.

That caused another bout of laughter. I kissed my teeth and shook my head.

“You see why I need you here, baby? Somebody has to share the shit with me. I need my backup.”

Steph rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Stanley.”

Sunday dinner was going much better than expected. I hated to say that going public was easier because my son wasn’t here, but it was. It made me think long and hard about some shit. While I loved my son with my entire heart, I realized I gave him a little too much power as my protector. I felt like I subconsciously put pressure on him to take on every one of my problems.

Deuce was a natural observer.

Even when you didn’t think he was watching, he was. He paid attention to body language and emotions and could always sense when something was wrong or off. If he asked about it, he had an inkling and the worst thing to do was to lie to him. He’d been like that since he was a kid.

Being that he could remember several instances of me leaving his father, I was sure he thought he was the bad guy. That conflicted with the love he had for Senior and what was imbedded in him about protecting those he loved. He and his father needed to have a conversation, but so did he and I.

“Jesus.”

I groaned as pressed the ice pack to the back of my neck. I was having a hot flash and being outside didn’t make it any better. I knew it would pass, but shit, did I hate it.

“You okay?” I heard behind me.

I turned to see Stanley standing there with some sort of blanket in his hands.

“No,” I said, fanning myself. “What’s that?”

“A cooling blanket. Mama had an extra one upstairs.”

He opened the blanket out and came to me. I placed the ice pack down as he draped it around me. The groan the left my body as the cool fabric covered my skin.

“Oh, that feels good,” I said, clutching the blanket around me. “Thank you. I felt like I was about to melt.”