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I chuckled. “I know the feeling, man. Why you think I’m here? Shit, I love being a damn hermit, but I ain’t got time for Renee to cut me off.”
Renee rolled her eyes.
Ryan laughed. “Man, that’s what I’m talking about. They give you that magical Strickland pussy and have you doing all kinds of shit you never thought you’d do.”
“I hope my mother heard you two. She thinks Ryan is a damn saint,” Angie said.
“Well, she looked like she wanted to climb Zo. I really wish my old, un-sex-crazed, unfreaky mother would return,” Renee said, then clutched her stomach.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, with a frown.
“Just remembering something.”
We all sat down, and Ryan said, “Lorenzo, man, you’re in for a treat, because my baby cooked her ass off!”
I raised my eyebrows. “For real? You cook like that, Angie? You know I like to mess around in the kitchen, too.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I love to cook. We’re gonna have to plan a potluck or something. Start having some couples’ dates since we’re all gonna be married.”
“Yeah, sounds good,” I replied. “What’s your best dish? I can burn when it comes to surf and turf.”
“Soul food. But I can work with just about anything.”
“Hey, everyone! Where’s Mama?” Renee’s little sister, Nicky, walked into the living room with her fiancé on her arm. As far as I could tell, he was cool, but Renee was convinced it wouldn’t work between them because she said her little sister was, for lack of a better word, a ho’.
“How’d you get in?” Renee asked.
“Used my key.”
“Mama went to check on something,” Angie said.
“Oh.” Nicky looked kind of lost for a moment, and then an idea seemed to pop into her head. “You guys know, Travis, right?” She turned to her fiancé, who was closer to Ryan’s height than mine. “Travvie, you remember my sisters and their guys?”
As Travis walked over and shook me and Ryan’s hands, Renee muttered, “The white girl is back.” Angie nodded in agreement.
We were all sitting chatting about nothing in particular when Mrs. Strickland returned. “Well, all that’s left is for Angelo to get here. Late as always.”
“Daddy’s coming?” Angie asked.
Her mother nodded as she stepped over to the loveseat and hugged Nicky and Travis. “Of course! He wants to meet Lorenzo and Travis, too.”
Shit.
I had really hoped he wasn’t coming. Mothers are easy to impress when you look like I do. Fathers are a different story. Now my ass was petrified.
Renee grabbed my hand. “Let me show you something while we wait for my dad.”
She led me to a wall of pictures and pointed out herself at various ages. Her with her sisters, with her parents, her mother when she was pregnant with her, her parents’ wedding picture. That wall held the entire Strickland family history.
“This is nice,” I said. “Real nice.”
“We should do this in your house. In the living room. Pictures of us growing up and now. I love your house, Zo, but I’ve always felt it needed a more personal touch.”
My eyes still on the wall, I said, “It’s your home, too, baby. Do it. But you’ll have to get some old pictures of me from my mom. I don’t have any.”
“Really? You’d let me do it?”
I looked at her and smiled. “Yeah. You can add or change whatever you want.”
