Today. Tomorrow. Always (Free Falling, #3.5)(13)

Anthony squealed in my lap, wanting to hold it.

“Okay, okay, shhh… you’re gonna wake everybody up,” I said, smiling big as I let him take it. He had such a tight grip, I knew I probably wouldn’t get it back anytime soon. In that moment, I decided he should be the one to have it now, anyway. His mom would agree.

“What y’all doin’?” Terrell asked groggily, stepping down into the foyer. He walked into the living room where I sat sorting through the boxes.

“My bad. Were we too loud?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nah, I got up to use the bathroom and heard y’all down here.”

I nodded. “The boy couldn’t sleep,” I said, moving my fingers through Anthony’s curls with a laugh. “So we’re just going through these boxes my dad gave me.”

“Anything good?” Terrell asked, taking a seat in the recliner nearby.

I shrugged. “A few things, but most of it’s junk.”

He spotted the pile of pictures with Kira’s face plastered all over them. He let out a low rumble of a laugh. “Better not let Sam see these.”

I waved him off. “She wouldn’t care.”

“I know she’s not jealous or nothing, but how soon you forget the way she took it when she found out it was Kira in your bed that day… not Reina.”

He had a point. If Kira had been within a one-hundred mile radius when I broke the whole story down, Sam would have sniffed out her scent and gone in for the kill. Kira’s offense was much more than just her sneaking into my room and pretending to be her sister that day. She was the cause of me and Sam’s breakup, and everything else that followed. Granted, my secretiveness at the time played a part in Sam’s willingness to believe I was capable of doing what it looked like I’d done, but Kira was the catalyst that set the whole thing on fire. This fact wasn’t lost on Sam and it took a lot of talking and reasoning to calm her down the night we discussed it all. Terrell and Maisha weren’t there, but both had experienced the aftermath—Terrell as my sounding board, Maisha as Sam’s.

“Yeah… Maybe I should toss these sooner rather than later,” I concluded.

With another chuckle, Terrell scooped the pictures up and double bagged them before they made their way into the trash, just to avoid them being discovered later. He took a seat again, but this time not too far away on the floor.

“What you got there, Deuce?” he asked, bringing Anthony’s eyes to him as if that were his real name.

“Sam’s gonna kill you if she hears you call him that, you know.”

“That’s part of the fun,” he reasoned. That’d been the nickname he gave my son from the day he was born and Sam had grown to hate it even more over the eleven months since.

Anthony handed Terrell the bear in his hands, letting him look it over. “I think you’re beary sweet?” he read from the bear’s shirt. “What the hell is this?”

I laughed and started putting the items I planned to keep in that one box so they didn’t get mixed in with the others. “It was a gift from Sam a long time ago.”

He shook his head. “Looks like something corny she’d buy,” he concluded, handing it back over to Anthony.

I never laughed as much as I did when he was around, even now, despite the fact that it was nearly three in the morning. The little guy was finally starting to show signs of being sleepy. A small yawn was the first clue, rubbing his hands to his eyes was the next.

“Ready to go lie down?” I asked. He gave a nod and held on to my neck when I stood from the floor.

“Yeah, let your daddy get some sleep, boy,” Terrell interjected. “I don’t want him having any excuses out there on the court later.”

“Actually, Uncle Terrell’s the one who better make sure he’s well-rested. I’m expecting to see this miraculous dunk tomorrow.”

Terrell cracked up and turned out the light behind us as we headed back up. “I can show you better than I can tell you,” he promised.

“Yeah, okay… We’ll see.”





Chapter Four


Sam


“Happy birthday.”

I think I kissed every single inch of his face, making him smile before he’d even opened his eyes for the day.

“It’s eight and Terrell’s already in the kitchen talking trash about y’all going to the court today.”

At mention of Terrell running his mouth, AJ started laughing. My eyes went to his bare chest and stomach, stopping where the sheet covered his waist.

“How’s it feel to be twenty-seven?” I asked, forcing myself to think of something other than how badly I wanted him to be naked right now.

“Feels great,” he replied. “I’ve got everything a man could ever ask for.”

I was pulled into his arms the next second, being showered with kisses just like I’d done to him. When he stopped, I lie there on his chest, staring at the morning light as it filtered through our bedroom window.

“It’s beautiful out today.”

“It’s even more beautiful in here,” he countered, landing another kiss in the center of my forehead.

Of course I smiled, but then quickly moved away when I felt this heading down a path we didn’t have time for it to go. Terrell had a job to do and I couldn’t hinder him from doing it. We were on a strict timeline that began with him getting AJ out of the house so I could set up for his surprise party before guests started arriving at about noon.