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Aspen smiled and licked those juicy lips before biting down on the bottom one as he eyed every inch of my frame.
“She know I’m talkin’ to her,” he said to Dallas. “I’on know why she playing.”
“I got a man,” I said.
He chuckled and lowered his attention to his phone. “Did I ask you that?”
“No, but I’m not single. So whatever you’re thinking—”
“You ain’t married, so you single. I’m assuming you got an iPhone since you didn’t say no.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I was scared to pull it out. Curiosity got the best of me, so I did.
“Married or not, I’m with someone.”
He sucked his teeth and gave me a dismissive wave of his hand.
“I want you, and I’ma take you. I airdropped you my number. Lock me in.”
“Aspen, I—”
Clearly, he wasn’t interested in what I had to say, because he walked away. I looked at my phone and groaned. Sure enough, he’d airdropped me his contact card. Dallas was busy doing something on her phone as she took slow steps away from me in his direction.
“What you doing?” I checked, feeling uneasy about her silence. She was like a little kid who was getting into something they had no business doing.
“Sending him your number because I know you won’t.”
“Dallas!”
Her cackling as she scurried over to my sister irritated me, but I couldn’t help but laugh with her. I hated that girl and loved her too. She was like a big sister to me, just like Enjell. I wouldn’t call her my friend, but we showed up for and looked out for each other too. Denali was my best friend, and life had been taking her in some amazing directions lately, which meant I’d been hanging with Enjell and Dallas more. From the looks of it, though, Dejvi was going to be taking more of my sister’s time, and if Dallas was going to be a bad influence like this… I’d need to find someone else to hang out with.
Later that Evening
“We have a situation.”
My eyes lifted from the text Aspen had sent me to Peyton. I’d been staring at it for the past hour on and off, trying to decide if I wanted to reply. It was simple enough, but for some reason, replying was hard. Well, not some reason. I knew the exact reason, and he was looking up at me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting up in bed.
“You remember my little cousin Brooklyn?”
My breath came out long and slow.
Brooklyn.
Brooklyn was seventeen and pregnant. She’d stayed with us three months ago for about a week because her mother had put her out. Apparently, Brooklyn suggested that her mother’s new husband raped her, and her mother, Denise, didn’t believe her. They argued, and that turned into a physical altercation, and Denise threw her out.
Peyton told Brooklyn she could stay with us temporarily until she was able to move with her father in Chicago. The last time he mentioned her, she was adjusting there and getting ready for her baby’s arrival. That was this summer, and based on his nervous stance and unsure eyes, I could only assume that had changed.
“Yeah, what about her? She had the baby, right?”
Peyton smiled softly and squeezed the back of his neck. “She did. A boy. He’s two months old now. They are back in Memphis. She had to come back last month for school.”
“Oh. Why didn’t she transfer to a school there?”
“Well, a couple of reasons. I don’t really want to get into her business like that, but it was best for her to come back to Memphis. Brooklyn couldn’t go back to her mom’s place because of the case with DCS and the allegation against her mom’s husband.”
I nodded in complete understanding of that. I wasn’t sure why Brooklyn let her father believe her mom’s new husband was responsible. From what Peyton shared with me, she told him she was pregnant and didn’t want to say who the father was. Her dad, Spencer, assumed it was Roger because he’d never liked him or how affectionate he was, and Brooklyn didn’t immediately say no. I hated that because she could have gotten that man killed. Statutory rape, or rape allegations of any kind, were nothing to play with. It was her right to keep her child’s father a secret, but not at the expense of an innocent person’s life or freedom.
