Page 15 of Only for Me

He nodded and brushed a hand over his head. “Yeah, you’ve said some pretty reckless shit about that. But isn’t that what she does? See if she’ll clean your shit up. Once your image is fixed, then you leak that she kept your kid from you. She’s the villain. Problem solved.”

“Bruh, how the fuck you think I’m supposed to pull that off? It isn’t happening.”

Ryland shrugged. “I’m trying to help because you’re freaking the fuck out and I’m the only person on this earth who rocks with you without judgment.”

“If your solution is saying dumb shit like that, then I need to find a replacement for your ass.”

He brushed a hand over his head again. “You could try but you really aren’t bringing shit to the table in the friendship department, but seriously O, you’ve gotta chill with this. You’ll work that shit out.”

My phone vibrated with a text from Raaj.

Be there in fifteen.

“Yeah, I’mma make it work, but that’s Raaj, I’ll get with you after all this is done.”

“Aight, bet, I’m about to pull up on some pussy. It’s been a minute.”

“Weren’t you just putting someone out your crib this morning?”

“That was then, this is now. I have to get it all in before offseason training starts. In fact, you probably need to bust a nut too. Let me set something up for later. I met these twins…”

“Nah, I’m good. That’s the last thing I need right now.”

Pussy was the problem and how I’d ended up with a kid I didn’t want with a woman I wanted to fuck and strangle because she was annoying as shit and fine as hell.

Maybe I can strangle her while I fuck her. She might be into that type of thing and if she is, I can rock with it…

I almost laughed at the thought because that was a problem I didn’t need. I was keeping my dick as far away from Makari as possible because her little fine ass would have me doing some shit I couldn’t take back.

“Damn, shorty done scared your ass into celibacy.”

I chuckled and pointed to the door. “Get the fuck out. I’ll hit your line later.”

He stared at me for a minute. “I’m out. Try not to fuck this up, because if she’s really your kid, she deserves the best of who you are and not that fake shit you put out there for media or game day. Your real shit best, O.”

Ryland was my boy, so he knew all my dirt, which made those words hit harder than he intended. I knew how to perform and be the person my team needed me to be, but most of the time I was fucking spiraling and existing in a dark place. Or at least I had been over the past two years.

Ryland didn’t say anything else but he didn’t have to. He simply tossed his chin and left while I looked around my place trying to see the space from the perspective of a single mother looking for any and every reason to keep our daughter away from me.

Problem was, I didn’t know a damn thing about how mothers thought or what babies needed. My mother had always been distant with me. Even as a kid, I remembered how she barely even fucked with me. Most of that had to do with the way she was always up my brother’s ass.

He was her golden son. She loved his ass down and saw no wrong in him. He also didn’t look like our father, whereas I was the man’s twin. Even though we had the same eyes, I had his color and his entire damn face, build, and attitude. O’Rion wasso much like her, smart as hell and about his business. He had a plan for his life; I had a plan for living mine to the fullest.

The only thing that kept me grounded was being talented as hell with sports. I dominated, and it was natural, but not even that was enough to get my mother’s attention. She looked at me and saw the man who disappointed her. The man I was named after. Omiri Raynard Hayes Sr.

Luckily, someone else was at my door, which meant I could bypass going down that tragic ass rabbit hole of trying to understand why my mother couldn’t just seeme. I grabbed my phone again and noticed Makari standing outside my door. Her pretty brown face was twisted into a scowl but I was kinda partial to her mean ass. When she tugged a glossed lip between her teeth my dick twitched a little.

She had the baby strapped to her chest in some carrier thing but there was another woman next to her. I was annoyed that she’d brought someone to my crib but decided not to go the fuck off. Now didn’t seem like the time.

Instead of letting her in the same way I did with Ryland, I crossed the living room and yanked the door open. Makari glared at me while her girl stepped between us like a human shield.

When we settled into a heated visual standoff, she arched her brow and angled her head to the side. “Y’all doing the test in the hallway or can we come in?”

I looked past her to Makari, who grinned and rolled her eyes. “This is Tiana.”

I still didn’t say a word, so she kept going. “Avi’s godmother, and since it’s just me, I decided I wanted a support system.”

“The fuck you think I’m gonna do, kidnap y’all?”