Page 30 of Rounds (Love In Scrubs)

If she chose to move out, it wouldn’t change the way I felt about her.

It would be a waste of money though. I would either stay with her some nights or she would stay with me.

I refused to spend a single night without her being close to me.

For the past week, she’d been sleeping in my arms. There was no way I could give that up.

When the song went off, I allowed her to sit in the booth first, then slid in behind her.

We didn’t venture far from it, because I needed to be able to see our drinks at all times.

I didn’t trust people these days. I slid my arm around her once again and took a sip of my wine.

I should have gotten hard liquor. I wanted to gulp that shit.

Delaney looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back, admiring just how gorgeous she was.

“I have a confession, Glover.”

Aww shit. “Okay. What is it?”

“I canceled my move the day after I told you I loved you. After that?—”

I kissed her, cutting off her damn sentence. When I pulled away, I gave her the side-eye. “How dare you make me suffer in silence like that? You gon’ pay for that shit when we get home.”

She laughed loudly. “You were suffering in silence for all of ten minutes, Glover!”

I chuckled, because I knew I was being dramatic, but that shit felt like longer than ten minutes. “Whatever, woman. Give me those lips again.”

She kissed me, sliding her tongue to mine. I got so damn lost in her every time we kissed. When I heard someone clearing their throat, I pulled away from Delaney. “Sorry,” I said to our waiter.

He nodded and asked if we were ready to order after setting our shrimp appetizer on the table. We ordered our entrées, then I turned to Delaney. “I’m so happy, baby.”

“I am too. Make sure you bring Dad his cookies tomorrow.”

“Decisions been made already? It’s only been a week since you declared your love for each other,” my dad said, then immediately stuffed a cookie in his mouth like he was scared I was going to take them back.

I chuckled as Delaney smiled. “Daddy, I’m not going anywhere. That man completes me, like I said last Sunday. I canceled my apartment Monday morning,” she said.

He chuckled and slowly shook his head. “You took a pregnancy test yet?”

She shook her head with a smile on her pretty face. “Not yet.”

“Y’all are on the fast track, and I love every minute of it.”

“I bet you do,” I said as I watched him stuff a third cookie in his mouth.

I took the tote and set it out of his reach as he frowned. “Where you going with the cookies?”

“Dad, you cannot eat all thirteen of these cookies in one sitting.”

He frowned. “How come I can’t? This may be my last time getting chocolate chip cookies.”

“Right, so you ought to want to savor them.”

He rolled his eyes playfully at Glover, then said, “Y’all gon’ have to find another house. It ain’t gon’ be big enough for the kids. You care to make a wager that she’s pregnant?”

I swore, this man didn’t let up. “Naw, not this time. I know I been all up in that without a care, so it’s very possible.”

Delaney turned red as hell. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

My dad and I talked like we were bruhs. Technically, he was the only friend I had.

I kept to myself because I worked so much.

I didn’t have time to make friends. Even when I was getting established in my field, I was always at work.

The only thing I’d made time for was fucking.

“Well, damn. I was gonna ask for some fried chicken.”

Delaney giggled. It was the same shit every time I came here, but it seemed he clowned around more when Delaney was with me.

He enjoyed every moment of this, and I honestly couldn’t wait to give him the grandkids he asked for.

Had it not been for the accident, he and Mom would have spoiled their grandchildren rotten.

They would have been in their late fifties, enjoying life together.

I hated this. She suffered with her life and Dad was suffering here on Earth, wishing he could enjoy all the things he used to enjoy.

I had to be thankful that he was still here though.

He could have been killed right along with Mom.

I knew he was wishing he would have been.

Hopefully, he was still grateful to be here, giving me a hard time.

Delaney stood from her seat and said, “Dad where’s your brush?

They got you in here looking like you ain’t got it together. ”

He smiled big. “It’s in that drawer over there,” he said as he pointed to it.

He winked at me, like Delaney was going to be doing this for him all the time. I knew that was what that wink meant. She came back with his brush and began brushing his naturally wavy hair.

“Dad, you have really nice hair. This is where Glover gets his hair from.”

“He gets everything from his dad. Looks and temperament. He only got his complexion from his mama. He’s my chocolate mini me.”

She giggled as I smiled. He was right. I looked just like him and found myself acting like him in certain situations as well.

I didn’t grow up with just him telling me how to be a man.

I watched him be a man. He treated my mother like a queen.

They argued at times, but he was always the first to squash it.

He didn’t believe in letting things fester or linger for more than a couple of days.

He always did something to get her attention and show her how much he loved her, despite their differences.

My pettiness definitely came from my mom.

She was the one who would cut a nigga off quick.

She didn’t take no shit. My dad was more mild-mannered.

They matched perfectly. They balanced each other out.

Delaney and I were more alike than they were.

I wanted to believe my temper was worse than hers until last Sunday at her mother’s house. She was about to fuck Charleigh up.

We had another dinner date with her parents at her mom’s house next weekend.

Ms. Maxine assured Delaney that it would only be her and Mr. Cedric.

Delaney decided that she would talk to them about what happened last weekend when we got there, since it would only be the four of us.

I was happy that her parents were making changes in how they treated their daughter.

She needed a stronger connection to them, especially since they weren’t damaging or toxic to her.

“Okay. All done. That looks so much better, Dad. Let me know if any of these nurses in here flirting with you. We can’t have that.”

He chuckled, and I knew the bullshit was coming. “They flirt all the time. Glover may find out he has a sister or brother on the way soon.”

I rolled my eyes as Delaney covered her open mouth. He played too much. He could barely get an erection. It wasn’t impossible, but nobody was trying to think about him getting fucked on.

“Let me find out. Somebody gon’ be fired.”

He chuckled again. I wouldn’t be surprised though. I supposed he had needs, but he could probably only get an erection when he jacked it off. For most paraplegics, erections only happened from physical stimulation. If a nurse was in here fucking on my dad, I was gonna come un-fucking-glued.

Delaney finally closed her mouth and sat next to me. I looked over at her red face and chuckled. “He play too much. You’ll get used to his foolery.”

My dad chuckled again, and said, “I’m sorry, Delaney. I was just playing, baby.”

“I mean, you aren’t too old to make a baby, so I mean?—”

“Hell naw,” I said, cutting her off as my dad laughed loudly.

“That’s why I like you, daughter-in-law.”

I slowly shook my head. The man gave me the blues some days, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

He kept things lively around here. Before Delaney came around, he was the one keeping my spirits up.

I had a hard time accepting that he wouldn’t be able to walk again.

I was researching all kinds of shit to try to “cure” him of paralysis.

I had him in all sorts of rehabilitation sessions.

I still did. I knew it could help with blood flow and things of that nature, but I had to come to the realization that he would never walk again.

I grabbed the cookie tote and gave it to him as he smiled big. “I knew you loved me, son.”

Delaney smiled as big as he did, then kissed my cheek. This was definitely my new normal, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.