Page 178 of Buy Back My Love

I looked past her. “Nina?”

“Yep.”

Then I looked at Mama.

She didn’t even bother pretending to be sorry. “Don’t look at me. I would’ve told you if these fools would’ve let me.”

“Yeah right.”

Mama laughed and hugged me, and that was when the tears came. I tried to blink them away because everybody was standing there watching, but that only made it worse.

“Oh, don’t start,” Anika said, already getting emotional herself.

“You shut up. This your fault.” She hugged me anyway, and I looked around the room again at everybody I loved.

More importantly, the one person who could’ve ruined the whole thing wasn’t there. I looked at Anika over her shoulder. “JB not coming, right?”

“Nope.”

That made me cry harder. “Best gift you could’ve gave me.”

Everybody started laughing.

I wiped my face. “I’m serious.”

Once everybody finally stopped crowding me, I spotted Van near the back of the room smiling like he hadn’t been helping these people lie to my face. And of course he had to look good while doing it.

I walked over. “You knew?”

“Yep.”

“How long?”

“A while.”

“And you ain’t say nothing?”

“Wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I did.”

I looked him up and down. “I don’t like none of y’all.”

“You smiling like you like us.”

“I don’t.”

Van looked me over. “You look pretty.”

I looked away. “Thank you.”

“Real pretty.”

“Don’t do too much.”

He smiled, and I walked away before I ended up standing there grinning at him.

The shower ended up being more fun than I expected. We ate tacos, played games, took pictures, and laughed until my stomach hurt. At some point somebody put a sombrero on me, and I spent the next thirty minutes refusing to take it off because it looked cute with my dress.

The gifts were ridiculous. I got a stroller, a swing, more diapers than one baby should’ve been capable of using, clothes in every size, blankets, bottles, a diaper bag, a baby monitor, and stuff I hadn’t even thought about buying yet.