Page 97 of Anything Goes

Sighing deeply, I slowly turned the doorknob.

I hope she’s right.

As soon as Layne and I made eye contact, she hopped off of the swing and ran right to me. “Mommy!”

“Hey, baby.”

I planted several kisses on her cheek and hugged her as tight as I could. “Did you miss me?”

“Of course, I did. Did you miss me?”

“Always.”

“Did you miss Daddy?” she asked.

I froze, surprised that she chose this moment to put me on the spot. “In my own little way,” I said.

“Did you miss him enough to be nice to him?”

Once again, she had me stuck and struggling to respond.

Thankfully, Latrell felt sorry for me and decided to step in. “Okay, Layne, stop bombarding your mama with all of those crazy questions. Go inside and get that dirt off the back of your pants.”

“Do I have to go? I wasn’t finish swinging.”

“Yes, you do. These swings aren’t going anywhere. You know that.”

“Ugh,” she replied, stomping towards the house.

But she didn’t get too far before Latrell said, “You better straighten the hell up and chill with the attitude.”

His tone was far from sweet. In fact, you would have thought he was talking to one of his soldiers. Thankfully, he didn't have to raise his voice a second time because Layne fixed her face in a matter of seconds and her frown quickly turned into a forced smile.

“That’s more like it,” he said before motioning for her to go inside.

The moment she was gone, he met me at the patio table and took a seat across from me.

I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just said whatever floated from my lips. “You know what you did the other day was uncalled for, right?”

“I do,” he said with a nod.

I was a little taken aback. I didn’t expect him to be so quick to take responsibility for his actions. Granted, his mother said that he was ready to handle things like he had some sense, but she always said shit like that. It didn’t necessarily mean that it was true.

“You also know that you and I aren’t together and we’re never going to be together, right?”

“I know that we’re not together, but I can still hope for things to change.”

Sighing, I eased back in the chair and folded my arms over my chest. “Latrell—”

“Wait,” he said, holding out his hand, “before you start chewing me out, just know that I'm saying that I can hope. It doesn't mean that I'm going to try and force anything. I've realized all of the mistakes that I've made over the years. I know that I have a habit of trying to control everything, and I can't do that anymore. Especially not with you.”

“No, you can’t.”

“I don’t want to. All I want is for our daughter to be happy. I want her to see her parents getting along without all of the extra shit.”

“I really hope you mean that.”

“I do.”