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“The house is huge. How about I put the two of them on the opposite side?”
“You’d do that for me?”
Leaning my head up again, I squinted my eyes. “Did you really just ask me that?”
“It was a joke, Harvey. Relax.”
“Better fucking be!” I yawned again.
“That’s like the third or fourth time. Please go to sleep. You’re making me feel like I’m boring you.”
“All we’ve done today is fuck and eat. Of course, I’m tired. Exhausted perhaps.” I chuckled. “I’m damn near killing myself trying to keep up with you.”
“Old man, you’ve got to be kidding me. The second and third round, I’ll take credit for. The first and the rest of them are all on you.”
“It’s not every day that I get to play hooky from work. What better way to do it than digging in your shit.?” I laughed and humped her leg.
“See what I mean. Good night, Harvey.”
“Night Harvey,” I said just to fuck with her. Instead of taking the bait, Talitha laughed and wrapped her arms around me.
The blaring of my cellphone jarred me from my sleep. My eyes roamed around the dark room before landing on the nightstand where the phone was sitting. The last time I received a call in the middle of the night, I was met with bad news. Sitting up, I said a silent prayer before snatching it up and walking out of the room.
“Hello.”
The sound of someone sniveling had me pulling the phone down from my face to see who the caller was. “Mrs. Jessie, is everything okay?”
“Law…” she sobbed.
“Yeah… Yeah... I’m here.” My heartrate accelerated instantly. I was beginning to feel like I was struggling to breath.
“We’ve been trying to reach Tali. Bertha had an accident.”
Dropping my head, I forced my eyes closed. “Where is she?”
“Houston Healthcare.”
“Mrs. Jessie, I’m going to send Baker to come and pick you up. By the time you get here, I’ll have Talitha up and ready.”
“Hurry Law.”
“I will,” I replied somberly.
Ending the call, I tossed my head back and rubbed my temples in a circular motion. I don’t know the extent of the accident, and honestly, I wasn’t ready to hear it. The way Mrs. Jessie sounded, I knew it wasn’t good. Whatever it was the shit was going to kill Talitha. She’d just got out of her mouth how she needed this break, and this was going to make her feel like whatever happened was because of the way she felt.
Dialing up Baker, I waited for him to answer.
‘Dutch?” he said in a questioning tone.
“I need you to go scoop Mrs. Jessie from her crib and come to Lake Spivey. Text me when you’re almost here.”
“Everything alright?”
“I can’t answer that right now.”
“Give me thirty minutes.”
“Bet.” I hung up.