Never Let Go - Page 8

“Nah. I’m not letting you run away from me today.”

Hours later, I was still with him, right beside him, sitting on the grass, a few minutes away from the start of The Cosmo Show. I couldn’t run away from him if I tried. Not that I would have anyway. I wanted to stay. After that first touch, I couldn’t imagine running away… ever again. That revelation… admitting that to myself… it made me a little nervous.

There was so much going on around us, but we were in our own little bubble, rarely interacting with anybody except each other. My sisters and Kiki checked on me a couple of times. Mahogany was worried, Hazel confused, and Naoki was a combination of them both. However, she was proud.

Hell, I’d done more than interact. I was in the middle of it all. With him. Today, I didn’t shy away from it. Didn’t use the excuse of ‘too much going on’. I just… existed, in the mix. And while, before, there was ‘anxiety’— all because of him. Tonight there was peace—all because of him. How crazy was that? The flipside of things? I stopped avoiding… stopped running… and there was peace. And to think… all I had to do was stop resisting.

“I don’t know why you fucking with this broke nigga, Nay-Nay,” Saint, the youngest Baptiste brother boasted. I looked over my shoulder at them. He blew on a pair of dice and tossed them atop his candy apple red Grand Chevelle. “You need to stop playin’ with me.”

In the middle of peace, there was a bit of that ‘chaos’ I didn’t too much care for. Just a few feet behind us, the dice game was going between the other two Baptiste brothers Saint and Blaise, Denim, Duke, and a couple of other guys from the zone.

Denim huffed. “Nigga, you wouldn’t know what to do with this. How old you is? Sixteen? Fuck out of here.”

Saint smirked but said nothing, before picking the dice up and tossing them out again. He shifted his eyes over at Naoki and said, “Give me a couple years. That’s all I need ain’t it, Nay? Couple years. I’ll show you exactly how to take care of her.”

With a light giggle, I looked over at Naoki. Our eyes briefly locked, and she playfully rolled her eyes. Saint was cute. Since he was about three years younger, she didn’t take him seriously. However, I could see how much she appreciated the coy banter. I could see him really swooning her. Out of all of the other boys in the zone, he was the only one who actually seemed to care about something other than what she had between her legs.

“Ay, cheri,” Jahad whispered, swooning me with the simplest of Haitian Creole, lightly tapping my arm.

Looking away from Naoki, I turned my attention to him with a bashful smile. “Hm?”

He nodded toward the sky. “There is something I would like to share with you,” He paused. “Do you mind?”

I shook my head. “Of course not.”

Jahad was nothing like I expected him to be. He had a bad reputation. All of the Baptiste brothers did. But Jah was notoriously known for malice. Women said he was cold. Claimed he didn’t know what chivalry was and only cared about one thing. However, tonight, he’d been nothing but gentle.

With a nod, he gestured for me to come closer. When I scooted over he lightly smirked, shook his head a bit and pushed up from the ground. Before positioning himself behind me, he asked if it was okay to sit behind me.

I nodded. He tilted his head forward a bit and I took that as a cue for me to use my words.

“Yes, Jahad, it’s fine. You can sit behind me,” I said with a light giggle.

“Just making sure you’re comfortable. You did run from me for ten years, amou,” he joked before finally positioning himself behind me.

I giggled. “Has it been that long?”

“Ten years, two weeks, five days?—”

I looked over my shoulder at him, taken aback. “Really? That’s pretty precise.”

His stoic expression softened to a smile. “I’m good with numbers,” he paused and winked. “Plus, that is how long we’ve been in town.”

I nodded with my mouth turned down, impressed. “Hmph. Impressive.”

His eyes softened and I followed them, as they slowly travel every inch of my face. “Impressive indeed.”

Did I mention how intimidating he was? Yes? I’m sure I did. Did I mention how much more intimidating he was to experience up close? Like this? Face-to-face, eye-to-eye… Oh. I’m sure I did that too. To experience it was next level. Jahad honestly took my breath away.

“You wanted to?—”

“I wanted to show you something… right,” He interrupted, finishing my sentence. He cleared his throat and flicked his wrist to check his watch. Delicately, he gripped my jaw and turned my head. “Look up for me. It’s beginning?—”

“It’s not. We have about five more minutes. When the north star gets its brightest and?—”

“Nah,” he interrupted with a light chuckle. “It starts before that. It starts with the moon. Look up, gorgeous.”

With lightly dipped brows, I put my attention on the moon.