Page 85 of Buy Back My Love

“LEONA!” I yelled past her.

Maisie lifted the gun. “Don’t you do that.”

“LEE!”

“Jabari, I’m telling you right now.”

“What’s going on?” Lee’s voice came from somewhere behind her.

I looked past Maisie as Lee walked down the hallway, and one look at her told me she had been crying her ass off. Her eyes was swollen, her face was all puffy, and she had on some big-ass T-shirt with no makeup. Her hair looked like she ain’t gave a fuck what it was doing.

I hated seeing her like that, and I hated knowing I was the reason for it even more. Still, when she stopped behind her mama and looked at me, the first thing that came out my mouth was, “Get your stuff. Come on. We going home so we can talk.”

Lee ain’t move. She looked at Maisie, then back at me.

“I am home.”

That shut me up for a second. For fifteen years, Lee always came back to me. Even after five years in prison, she had come straight back to me. Now she was standing behind her mama telling me this was home while I stood on the porch like I ain’t belong there.

“Stop playing with me, Lee.” I damn near laughed because she couldn’t be serious. “Come on. Let’s go talk. I’ll explain everything.”

“I don’t want your explanation.”

“You ain’t even heard it.”

“I saw Hannah. I saw your babies. I heard his name.”

Her voice cracked on that last part, and I ain’t have shit to say.

Lee wiped at her face. “Then you reached for a gun and put me out. What you finna explain, JB?”

“Jabari, get the fuck away from my house,” Maisie said.

“I ain’t talking to you, Maisie.”

The shotgun made a loud clack-clack, and my mouth closed immediately. I looked down and realized Maisie really had that damn thing pointed at me.

“And you ain’t gon’ be talking to nobody if you don’t get the fuck away from my door.”

I looked at Maisie, then back at Lee, waiting for her to say something. She knew her mama was crazy as hell. Any other time, she would’ve already been telling Maisie to put that damn gun down, but this time she ain’t say shit.

“Lee?”

She just stood there looking at me, and that shit hurt worse than I expected. I backed down one step, then another. I ain’t know if Maisie would really shoot me, but looking at her face, I damn sure wasn’t finna test it.

“Aight.” I kept my eyes on Lee as I backed off the porch. “You can’t run from me forever.”

Lee stepped a little closer to the doorway and looked me dead in my face.

“I ain’t running from you,” she said. “I just ain’t going with you.”

Lee

Iwoke up with my head hurting like hell. For a second, I ain’t know where I was, then I smelled bacon and heard Maisie banging around in the kitchen.

Everything from yesterday came back before I could even sit up good. Hannah. JJ. His name. Her stomach. JB reaching for that damn gun, then having the nerve to put me out like I was the one who had done something to him. I laid there staring at the ceiling for another minute before dragging my ass out the bed.

By the time I made it to the kitchen, Maisie already had bacon, eggs, and biscuits going on the stove.