Page 73 of Buy Back My Love

One of my old employees from Love-Lee. I hadn’t seen her since the day I got arrested, and now here she was at a damn pumpkin patch with my man.

What the fuck?

I stopped chewing and stared at them, trying to figure out why the hell they were together. Then Hannah shifted to the side, and that was when I noticed her stomach beneath her shirt.

She was pregnant. Very pregnant.

I slowly lowered the caramel apple from my mouth. Seeing Hannah with JB was already strange enough, but finding out she was pregnant after not seeing her in five years had my mind trying to catch up with too much shit at once. I was still standing there wondering what the hell was going on when a little boy came running from the direction of the snack stand, headed straight for JB.

JB saw him coming and bent down, catching him around the waist and lifting him into his arms like he’d done it a thousand times.

“Daddy!”

My whole body went cold as I watched JB kiss the little boy on the cheek before setting him back on his feet. Hannah reached over to straighten his jacket, and then the boy slipped his hand into JB’s like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I just stood there staring at the three of them. It was how comfortable they looked together that fucked me up. JB hadn’t hesitated when that boy ran to him. Hannah hadn’t needed to tell him to pick him up or help with him. The little boy damn sure hadn’t thought twice about calling him Daddy and reaching for his hand. Whatever I was looking at wasn’t new. This was a family.

The noise around me started fading until I could barely hear anything over the blood rushing in my ears. Somewhere behind me, kids were laughing and somebody was calling people over for the hayride, but it all sounded far away. I don’t know how long I stood there trying to make what I was seeing turn into something else before JB finally looked across the crowd and saw me. He froze, and that was all I needed.

If there had been some explanation for what I was looking at, it wasn’t written anywhere on his face. He didn’t look confused about why I was standing there staring at him with another woman and a little boy calling him Daddy. He looked caught.

I started toward him before I had any idea what I was going to say. JB watched me coming, his face changing with every step I took, and before I reached them, he had already moved away from Hannah.

“Lee-”

I held up my hand. “Don’t.”

His mouth closed.

I looked down at the little boy because he was the only person standing there who hadn’t done a damn thing to me. He had moved closer to JB and was watching me with the kind of caution kids got when they knew the grown-ups around them were acting strange.

“What’s your name, baby?” I asked.

The little boy looked up at JB before answering me. “JJ.”

“JJ?” I repeated, still looking at him.

Hannah reached for his hand and pulled him closer to her. “Jabari Junior, come here.”

I heard her, but my brain refused to take it in. I looked at her, then at JB.

“What she just call him?”

JB swallowed. “Lee-”

“What the fuck did she just call him?”

JJ moved closer to Hannah at the sound of my voice, and I saw it, but I couldn’t take my eyes off JB.

The rattle of wooden wheels over gravel came from behind me before JB could answer.

“Lee?”

I glanced back and saw Van coming toward us with the wagon. The second he got close enough to see my face, he slowed down, his eyes moving from me to JB, then Hannah and JJ.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Just… give me a minute.”