Page 4 of Know Your Place

“You look constipated,” Liam summarized.

“Boy, what?” I almost wanted to laugh, but I kept it cool and waited for him to answer, but KJ beat him to it.

“Daddy look like that when he can’t poop,” KJ said.

I shook my head. “Eat your cake before I take that shit.”

“Maybe you need a nap,” KJ suggested.

“I ain’t takin’ no nap,” I replied with my brows scrunched together.

KJ shrugged and went back to his cake, but Liam wasn’t done yet apparently.

“You like my auntie Icelynn?”

My eyes bugged out. Why the hell would he ask me some shit like that?

“No.”

Liam nodded. “I think you do.”

“Okay.” I wasn’t about to argue with him. These two knuckleheads should be lawyers when they grow up because they sure knew how to argue and get under a mothafucka’s skin.

“You smile when you look at her.” KJ just had to add his two cents.

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes,” KJ said while Liam nodded.

I shook my head.

“That guy smile when he look at her too,” Liam said as he pointed a frosting covered finger toward the grills.

My head whipped in that direction so fast I almost got a damn charley horse. When my eyes landed on Icelynn, my heart felt peace for a split second before I registered that she smiled all in a caterer’s faces.

“Him not smiling now.” KJ pointed at me.

“But him looking at Auntie. Why him not smile?” Liam asked.

I didn’t pay them any mind. I rose from the table and stomped toward Icelynn, but then I stopped myself. Fuck was I doing? Icelynn wasn’t my girl. We’d fucked around . . . a lot, but we had an understanding. She could talk to whoever she wanted, but guess what? So the fuck could I.

My eyes swept over the backyard, and I spotted the thick yellow bone mama I’d been eyeing earlier. She stood outside the bouncy house, scrolling on her phone. Licking my lips, I swaggered over to her.

“Which one is yours?” I asked as I slid beside her.

She glanced at me. Her light eyes brightened as she took me in. I wore all black, as usual, and a simple gold chain. I pulled my locs back earlier because it was hot as hell, and I had my signature cologne on that drove women wild.

Finally, she peeled her eyes off me and glanced around the yard, giving me the chance to look over her curves up close. Baby was stacked.

“I have three running around here somewhere.”

“Damn!” I didn’t mean to say that out loud, but shit. Three damn kids? And my bet was she had three baby daddies too. I recovered quickly as I smiled. “You look too good to have three kids, ma.”

Her scrunched brows and offended expression softened, and she smiled. I really wished she didn’t do that. Her teeth were fucked up. There was no way I would let her mouth around my dick with those chompers. Icelynn had pretty ass, perfectly straight teeth . . .

“I get that all the time,” she replied.

“I bet.” I tried to keep the grin on my face, but she kept smiling, and my lips balled up instead. I decided to look at a point over her head instead, to talk to her, and I saw Icelynn grilling me. That caused me to grin again. “You got a man?”