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“Hey, I ain’t afraid of no dick. I just don’t like small dicks. That’s how you got here.”

Fabe’s mouth dropped open as I gasped. “Mama!”

She giggled. “I’m just playing. Let me see this, baby. I’m going to go wash my hands first. I’ll be back.”

As she left the room, I hid my embarrassment in my hands. “I’m sorry, Fabe. I would blame it on the dementia, but she has always had a foul mouth.”

Fabe stood with an amused smile on his face. He leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets staring at me as I unwrapped Solae. His swag was so cool that I could barely pay attention to what I was doing. His eyes were burning a hole into the top of my head.

I forced myself to avoid them until I heard him say, “I like you.”

I finally met his piercing gaze. Our eyes locked. Once again, my body trembled. “Likeme?”

“Yeah. Ilikeyou.”

Telling him that I liked him too would have only caused trouble. So, instead, I ignored the urge to do so and asked, “Why?”

“I knew from the moment that I met you that you were different.” I could no longer look at him as he spoke. I focused on Junior as he lay in my arms sleeping. I picked at invisible lint on his onesie just to give myself something to focus on, exceptFabe. “You’re more than your looks. You want so much out of life. You’re ambitious. You’re strong. You’re loyal. You deserve a good man, even if it’s not me.”

I allowed my eyes to meet his again. My eyes asked him why he didn’t think his brother was a good man. He was loyal enough to his brother not to answer that. It was much like a mother saying the same about her son, though, which meant I should listen.

6

PRIEST

“Idon’t care what they told you,” I said into the phone as I eased my car into the lot. “This ain’t no regular shipment. We’re talking thirty bricks, straight from Miami. That’s too much weight to be playing with.”

“Yeah, I know. I already got two of our guys posted down there,” my right hand, Blu, told me. “They’re making sure it comes in without any issues.”

“Two ain’t enough,” I spat as I slid my ride, six figures of pure luxury, into a spot right up front. “I want eyes on it from the second it gets off the truck until it’s sitting in my spot. And I don’t want no middlemen touching it.”

“A’ight, I’ll lock it down.”

“Make sure our people down there know it’s my money on the line, and if anything goes wrong, it’s their necks before it’s mine.”

“Say less, big bro,” Blu replied.

“Good. Keep me updated every hour.”

We hung up, and I slid out of the car.

Stepping out, I adjusted my jacket, still thinking about that shipment.

This was just one of many big shipments I’d had in the last few months. I’d been moving weight at a crazy rate lately. Business was booming, and the money was stacking faster than I could spend it. But these kinds of moves and money came with eyes on you from every direction. I had to be on my P’s and Q’s more than ever and keep my head on a swivel.

But for the next hour or so, I didn’t want to think about business. My stomach growled as I walked up to my favorite breakfast spot on 35th and Michigan.

The spot was small and easy to scan in one sweep. So, when I walked in, I easily spotted Solae sitting at the bar with a mimosa and a nearly empty plate in front of her.

The way the morning light hit her skin, I had to fight the urge to just stand there and stare.

I’d been feeling her since she first started at the bank a few years back. Plenty of women crossed my path. They were beautiful, eager, and the type to answer my call at two in the morning. But Solae was different. Her natural beauty didn’t need make up or filters. And she had a kindness that felt rare where I came from. She felt like home, the kind of place you didn’t have to earn kindness, where your guard dropped the second you stepped in. She felt like a warm and safe space in a way I hadn’t felt since before the streets became my reality. She felt like the kind of peace you dream about when the world outside is nothing but chaos and cold. Her presence was familiar, comforting, and impossible to let go of once you’ve found it. She smelled like love and sounded like peace. That’s what had me continuously shooting my shot, despite her beingcommitted to her man.

When I reached her, I softly pinched her side from behind. She jumped like I’d set off a firecracker, damn near knocking her mimosa over. The whole bar looked our way.

I laughed, holding my hands up. “My bad, Ma. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

I slid onto the stool next to hers.