Page 110 of Buy Back My Love

“Tell her I said I hope she likes it.”

“I will.”

Mama handed me the pie. “Maybe around Christmas you can bring her by. I’ll give her the recipe.”

I looked at her. “Mama.”

“What? You said the girl wanted to learn how to make one.”

“She do.”

“Then bring her.”

I shook my head, laughing, and headed for the door.

My phone was already in my hand by the time I got to the truck.

You home?

Lee answered a minute later.

Yeah.

Can I stop by? I got a surprise for you.

There was enough time between that message and her reply for me to picture her staring at the screen suspicious as hell.

Yeah, come on.

I put the pie on the passenger seat and headed her way. I hadn’t seen her since New Orleans. We had talked some, mostly texts here and there, but I knew better than to be all in her face every day. She had enough going on without me adding myself to the list.

When I pulled into her driveway, her Mercedes was in the garage. I grabbed the pie, went up to the door, and rang the bell. Lee opened it wearing leggings and an oversized T-shirt, her hair pulled up and no makeup on. She looked comfortable, different from New Orleans but good all the same.

Her eyes dropped to the pie in my hands, then came back to me before she started laughing.

I frowned. “What?”

“This the surprise?”

“Yeah. What’s wrong with my surprise?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head, still laughing. “I just… I don’t know what I thought you was bringing over here, but it damn sure wasn’t no pie.”

I looked down at it. “See, this why I don’t do nice stuff for people.”

“No, I like it. Come in.”

She stepped aside, and I followed her into the house.

Basketball Wives was playing on the television, but the volume was low enough that whoever was arguing on there sounded like background noise. Lee led the way into the kitchen, and I put the pie on the counter.

She looked at it again. “After that whole pumpkin patch mess, I figured I wasn’t never getting this pie.”

“My mama made some for Thanksgiving. I asked her to save you some.”

Lee stopped reaching for the plates and looked at me. “She saved me the whole thing?”

“Yeah. She extra like that.”