Page 78 of Senior

“And he wanted me too. Senior told me you said out of your own mouth that you always suspected he still had feelings for me. You said that, love. So why would you knowingly put yourself in a position to have your heart broken? Again I ask, why are we having this conversation?”

She glared at me. “I loved him. If you weren’t who you were to him and Deuce, I would have killed you.”

I shook my head. “You might be a trained assassin, but I don’t give a fuck about none of that. Make no mistake, baby. I can protect myself by any means.” I pointed to the other room. “That man in there made sure of that. While I don’t need him to protect me, he would never let any harm come to me. As harsh as it may sound, if it came down to me and you, it would always be me. Every time.”

I walked around the corner of the island and stood in front of her. We stared at each other for a moment before I felt my resolve soften.

“I know you loved him,” I said quietly. “I should have respected your relationship, same as him. I should have had more self-control, and ultimately more self-respect at that time. Honestly, I should have had more respect for you off the strength of my son alone. You came in the picture, and you showed his big grown ass nothing but love and I know you have protected him the same as you protect Mia. I’m sorry for the part I played in you having your heart broken. You didn’t deserve it. That is real and I mean it.”

I extended my hand to her. She looked down at it, then back up at me. Much to my surprise, she shook my hand.

“Thank you. All I really wanted was for you to admit you were wrong, too. At this point, we’re family. I love your son. You love my daughter. We both love these grandbabies.”

“So, we can dead this shit?”

“It’s really nothing to dead. We just never had a conversation about it, and it needed to happen.”

I placed my hands on my hips. “Well, I hope you got what you needed to say off your chest, because I don’t wanna talk about this shit again. At this point, you have the man you deserve so there should be no concern about what’s going on over here.”

She chuckled as she took a sip of her wine. “Trust me, I don’t want him and I’m not concerned. I’ll leave that for you.”

“Is that shade, bitch?”

She pinched her fingers together. “Just a little.”

I rolled my eyes as I went to grab a wine glass of my own and poured myself a helping.

“I’m gonna let you slide today.”

She laughed. “I’m just saying. It’s clear that you two are end game after all this time. I hope it works out this time. Lord knows he’s been trying to get back to you long enough. How is Deuce handling this?”

I sighed. “He’s not happy about it.”

She waved me off. “He’ll live. I’m sure he knew it was coming at some point. He’ll get over it.”

“He doesn’t have a choice.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

We clinked glasses and each of us took a sip of the wine.

“Soooo…” I said, dragging out the word. “Since we got that out of the way, are you ready to join the sister circle?”

“I mean, am I welcomed?”

“We already share a baby daddy. We might as well share a few laughs, drinks, and some fun. Let’s face it, we are too old to not be able to get along. We were stuck with each other. Might as well make the best of it.”

She smiled softly. “I guess I could use a few new friends.”

“Sisters,” I corrected. “We might not be where I am with Tay and Allison, but we can get there. I mean, we can’t trade war stories about field life, but we can have a good time and talk some shit about these kids. Lord knows they give us enough to talk about.”

Maddie giggled. “Say that again.”

We shared a laughed. I set my glass down and opened my arms to her. She followed suit and we shared an embrace.

“Y’all good in here?” I heard behind us.

We parted and turned to see Senior and Bronx looking around the corner at us. I rolled my eyes.