“Where’s Gia?” Ma asks, excitement glinting in her eyes. Ma wants to form a mother-daughter bond with her. Gia does too, but she’s too shy to approach my ma. I tell her all the time that my ma doesn’t mind her calling, but Gia says she’ll wait until she approaches her.

“She’s in the kitchen cooking,” I answer, grabbing the car keys from the hook by the door.

“Where are you going?” Ma asks.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” I say, dropping a kiss to her forehead before heading out the door.

* * *

Inside the car, Cora talks my ear off about how she’s excited to meet Alana and Cydney. Rylee wants to move into the house I purchased for them after dinner. It’s a small townhome, and it’s a few miles from my mansion. The only reason why I did this is because I want Cora to be close to me. She starts school in the next two weeks and I want her to get settled in her new home. So, Rylee finally decided to allow Cora to spend the week with me. Even though Rylee is a half-ass mom, I still have to look after her because she’s Cora’s mom. Besides, it’s my job as a man to take care of them.

Rylee decided to invite herself to my family cookout. I don’t mind her tagging along, but I don’t want to add more problems to the shit show that’s about to happen. The last few Sundays she’s been acting weird and distant. Not like I give a fuck, but I asked Cora last week if Rylee has a boyfriend. Cora told me she doesn’t know. If she does, I need to know who he is so I can know whether or not he’s a good guy.

Two hours and some change later, I pull up next to Alana’s black Range Rover and kill the engine. I close my eyes and open them, resting my head on the back of the seat. My heart hammers in my fucking chest.

Cora grabs her book bag, and I pop the trunk, pull out her pink suitcase decorated with Dragon Ball Z stickers, and roll it to the stairway.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Slowly, I open the door and hear Alana giggling.

“Is that her?” Cora’s chocolate eyes flicker in awe as she loops her arms around mine and clings to me like glue.

“Yeah.”

We walk to the living room. Gia sits on the brown couch next to Alana, and my mom sits next to Gia. Ma is holding a small blue scrapbook of baby pictures, pointing to something.

“This is Gunner when he first started walking. He used to try to catch our white cat, Snow. That cat was so mean, he used to knock over stuff just for fun.”

“What happened to him?” Rainbow asks.