Page 3 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)
Vin was careful with his words. Not from lack of trust for his lifelong friend. Just occupational hazard. The two had long ago learned this communication skill.
“I, uh...I eliminated the threat. But Sophie’s judgment can’t be trusted. It’s time I step up.”
He watched Munch sigh out in distress like it was him. Like his life was about to be hung upside down and shaken up, everything Vin had worked for falling out like loose change.
“Fuck it. He can come live with me.” Munch ran a hand over his soft hair, and Vin gawked in awe.
“And what the fuck would you tell Wynter?”
“Shit,” Munch shrugged with a snort. “Tell her ass anything. I’ll tell her it’s my nephew. Tell her it was Jay’s long-lost kid. You know how much fucking my brother was doing,” Munch quipped.
Even if the timing added up, Vin would never let him do it, but he loved him for it.
“Nah. I gotta take care of mines. I was off the hook for too long. DJ paid the price for that shit,” Vin voiced his regret, and it weighed the air down.
“I just don’t know how.” Typically cagey, Vin had to get it off his chest. He couldn’t speak to his true best friend about it. He couldn’t speak to Tahli about destroying Tahli. “You know me. You know after I came home, it wasn’t much I wanted past freedom. Not until…”
Tahli.
“And now…”
“Yeah,” Munch uttered.
“But I gotta wait. I gotta let her have Christmas. I’m already about to ruin her perception of me. I can’t ruin my baby love’s Christmas, too.”
Munch’s inability to conjure a clever rebuttal served as agreement.
“You know what I got her for her Christmas gift?” Vin chuckled solemnly.
“What?”
“A Burger King.”
“A Burger King? Like a fucking…Home of the Whopper? BK, have it your way, Burger King? Like what the fuck…the whole restaurant?”
“Yeah. In Piscataway. Back when she was pregnant with Doll, Tahli used to sneak and eat Whoppers like every day. Come home and I’d have like fish and veggies and shit made and she’d be like ‘oh, I’m not hungry’ .
” Vin snickered at the memory. “I acted like I didn’t know it was ‘cause she was housing those fucking Whoppers on her lunch break. But I could tell the changes in her diet after she would use the bathroom.”
“Yo, I’m ‘bout to eat,” Munch snarled.
“My bad,” Vin snickered. “Anyway, one day she came home, and I had the table set. Candles and the whole shit. With like six Whoppers plated. It looked like she threw up in her mouth. Anytime she asked for a snack or breakfast, I came back with a fucking Whopper. By the end of the week, Tahli hated them shits. Now, she’ll eat just about anything before she’ll stop at a Burger King. ”
“So, you bought her a whole fucking restaurant as a practical joke?”
“I guess,” Vin tittered. When Munch put it like that…
“Y’all get weirder and weirder. I got Wynter Jordans and a tennis bracelet. Don’t give Tahli that shit at the party, nigga. You gonna have Wynter expecting that outrageous shit.”
“You bought Wyn Jordans and a bracelet? Fuck is you, 15, nigga?”
“Fuck you,” Munch spat, cackling after. “You went and got that doll?” Munch pressed, clearly concerned with Terran receiving the doll she’d been dying for.
“Yo,” Vin groaned, always able to converse easily with Munch alone.
“I had to detour to the city before my flight just to get to American Girl in time. Shorty there held it at the register for me, but her shift was ending soon. I dropped it at Lola’s crib.
I got that fucking doll. I told Tahli and she screamed like it was her fucking doll.
Same with Dali’s fucking, ugly-ass Tasmanian whatever slippers.
Tahli got those. And Lo just wanted a whole new gaming set up – desk, gaming chair, duo screens and shit.
That shit’s in the basement. I gotta set it up after the party. ”
Vin’s laughter subsided. DJ was a football kid. Vin had gotten them tickets to the Giants-Eagles home game two weeks away, right on the green. But who knew how shit would be in two weeks?
Toying with his wedding band, Vin’s gaze drifted to the cracked patio door, allowing fresh air to flush out the weed smoke.
It was a mild 50s night compared to the blistering teens he’d left behind in New Jersey.
Nasty back in Jersey, too—rain and sleet.
But Tahli wanted snow. Vin would rent out the clouds to make it happen for her if he could.
“I’m about to lose my fucking wife, man.
I can feel it in my fucking bones.” His head collapsed to his chest. Nausea burned his stomach lining, and a cold sweat broke on his forehead.
Dread seared his chest. “Or maybe not. Maybe…maybe I can figure this shit out. I gotta figure this shit out,” he muttered, mainly to himself. But Munch still replied with,
“You will, god.”
Vin sighed.
“You go ‘head. Don’t leave Sabrina hanging. But aye…I’m not fucking around, Munch. Keep ya dirty dick out of our Marketing Coordinator before we get slapped with a lawsuit. And that’s the last thing we need. We’ve been flying under the radar really well.”
“Man, I ain’t fucking that girl. I might flirt a little, but I ain’t got the energy for that shit no more. I can barely handle Wynter’s pain in the ass.”
At their grown age and removed from their illegal activities, Vin and Munch lived separate lives. Family gatherings and business connected them, but Vin wasn’t as privy to Munch’s everyday moves. It dawned on him that he hadn’t heard Munch mention other women for a while now.
When Munch departed the room, Vin returned Tahli’s call the same way she’d reached out, via FaceTime. He was shaking his head before he could say hello. Natural reaction. His baby love was fucking fine.
“Fuck you been looking like that?” Half-jest. Full inquiry. Vin took her in over the screen as Tahli grinned wide, tongue between her teeth. An enticing giggle to match. She liked it when he talked that shit.
“Last minute shopping for White Elephant gifts and then a late lunch with Paige.”
“Like that?”
“Like this,” she agreed, backing up to let him see the whole ensemble of a short skirt and tall boots to her thighs. Makeup by Picasso himself. Shoulder-length locs tossed to one side.
“I got something for you, too. Wanna see?”
“Why would I wanna see it? Save it for Christmas.” Vin was surprised she suggested it. Tahli prized exchanging Christmas gifts.
“Oh, I think you wanna see it,” her feathery urging made him squint.
“Okay, I’ll play,” he scratched his hairy cheek. Her eyebrows wiggled before she disappeared.
“Wait there!” She called from out of view, as if he’d go anywhere. Vin stared at his immaculately neat bedroom, wishing he was in it.
Wished it even more when she returned. He couldn’t blink. Then his shoulders dropped with a sigh, and he shut his eyes briefly. Tahli giggled, like he was exaggerating. He was not.
Cracking his lids to her posing in the black, lace, push-up, cut-out, lingerie-something and still in those boots, Vin struggled for saliva. Mountains of thoughts weighed down his mind.
Fucking shit, she’s mine. God, he couldn’t wait to fuck his wife again. He didn’t know many men who still couldn’t wait to fuck their wives. And… what if I lose her?
Vin couldn’t allow the question to process. He’d combust at the idea of someone else getting his Tahli.
“Do you like it?”
“No. I don’t. Put ya clothes back on.”
She laughed harder to that as Vin shook his head.
“Come on, baby love. Why you torturing me?”
“What do you think?” She leaned onto the vanity where Vin could tell the phone was positioned against her big mirror, granting him a stunning view of her gift-wrapped titties.
“I think…I thought I wasn’t hungry,” Vin massaged his lips. “Now I’m fucking starving.”
Her eyes flared before she brought her face close to the screen.
“I miss you, Dalvin Hayes.” Her lenses glistened with raw emotion.
“You don’t even know the half,” Vin breathed out, thumb tracing his screen.
“I hate sleeping without you.”
“Two more nights,” he swore as a call tried to break through their ties. He gulped at the caller, trying to maintain the headspace he was in. In their world. On this parachute with Tahli. That’s where he was right now. Everyone else had to wait their turn.
“You wanna see some more?”
“You wanna show me more?” He countered. Tahli stepped back, rolling the cups of her bodice down, awakening her nipples. Vin squeezed his dick through his slacks.
“I wish it was your hands touching me,” she declared, smoothing her lace-covered core before sliding hands between her thighs. Vin watched her warm up his favorite late-night snack.
“Get on the bed. Let me see.” His voice dropped to ache. She obeyed. But before she could part her legs fully, knocking on her end froze her.
“Mommmmmy!”
“Yea- Yes?”
Some muffled words. But he caught Terran’s voice.
“Aw, hell no.” Tahli sprang up from the bed.
“What she say?” Vin drilled, alert and concerned.
“That Doll and Lo are fighting over the last piece of chicken, and Doll smashed mashed potatoes on Lo’s face. Okay, baby, I’m coming!”
“Tah!” Vin shouted when her heels tapped in a rush. She doubled back to the phone with a confused look.
“Your…” Vin moved his hands up and down. “Fucking clothes, baby.”
“Oh, shit!” She jogged away, then came back to view shuffling into a silk robe. “Okay…”
“Go,” he smirked. “Hey! Tell Lo, no matter what…don’t hit her back. I love you.”
“I love you.” She kissed the phone. All brown beef, brawn, and tattoos of him wilted. The second she was gone, his phone lit up again.
Vin debated answering. His teeth clenched in annoyance when he finally did.
“What?”
“Dalvin!” Blubbering Sophie. Stupid-ass Sophie. Fucking simple bitch, biggest regret of his life, ass Sophie.
“What?” He repeated, broad chest rising and falling in angry breaths that he tried to control.