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“I’m fine. Kingston texted me, telling me that you were coming over. I didn’t tell the kids because I wanted it to be a surprise. Your mom is upstairs taking a shower. I’m sure she’ll be down soon,” she let me know.

“Has she been down today or she’s been upstairs in the room all day?” I wanted to know.

“She came down for a little bit this morning, but she’s been upstairs for the most part,” she assured me.

I nodded my head and then went over to take a seat at the island. I pulled out one of the barstools, sitting Maleah in my lap. I sat her on my right thigh, while looking down at her. She was a beautiful little girl. She looked so much like my brother. All the kids looked like my brother for the most part. They just had little features of their mother. For example, Maleah had her mother’s long eyelashes, big eyes, and thick eyebrows. My nephews had Mya’s smile, nose, and even the same hair texture as her.

“You going to come to my birthday party Uncle Wolf? I’m having a spa day with my friends from school,” her spoiled ass said to me.

She had big brothers, along with a daddy that wasn’t always present, but he would give her little ass whatever she wanted. She knew how to get whatever she wanted out of me, and her other uncles too. My pops would give her the world too. For her birthday last year, he purchased her a horse. You would think at the very most, she would have asked for a pony. Nah. Her little ass asked for a horse. Kingston told my pops that he wasn’t storing a horse in their backyard, and that he wasn’t going to keep up with it. With that, my pops purchased the horse for her, but it was boarded up at an equestrian spot that wasn’t too far from their house. From what I know, Mya would take Maleah every day to see the horse on the way home from school.

“A spa day? Man, what your little ass need a spa day for?” I asked her, making her chuckle.

This little girl was something else, man. It was the way she flipped her hair out of her face, looking at me as if I was crazy for not understanding why her and her girls would need a spa day.

“What you mean, Uncle? Me and my friends want to get our nails and hair done. You going to come?” she asked me.

“I guess. What you want for your birthday? I got to be mindful asking you that. You’ll say some crazy shit,” I went on, and she laughed again because she knew I was telling the truth.

If by any chance I knocked Deja up, I didn’t want a daughter out of her. The same way my niece is a spoiled brat, that had the entire family wrapped around her finger, I’m sure my daughter would have me the same way. I probably wouldn’t know how to tell her no.

“You can get me a tennis necklace with the matching bracelet, okay?” she said it like she’d asked me for five dollars. Even with me knowing how pricey that could be, I still told her that I would get it for her. I was the jewelry man at the end of the day.

While I was sitting here, my phone buzzed in my lap. I pulled it out, seeing that Deja was calling me. I shook my head and laughed when Maleah grabbed my wrist, pulled the phone her way, so that she could see who was calling me. That’s some typical female shit.

Deja was calling me via Facetime, so I went ahead, and answered. When the call connected, her beautiful face came into view. She had her hair pinned up in curls, her makeup was done, and from what I could see on the screen, she had on a tank top.

“What’s up beautiful?” I asked.

“Hey papa. I’m going to leave now to go to work. Blue called a mandatory meeting for all the girls. I cooked dinner, and left it in the fridge for you,” she let me know all in one breath.

I was hoping that by the time I left over here, and made it home, that I could catch her before she walked out the door. I respected Deja’s hustle though, so if she had to go in early for work, then that’s just what she had to do. She took one thing off my plate tonight by cooking. I’ve tasted Deja’s cooking a few times. She could do her thing in the kitchen. Most nights, I would cook though. Some nights, she would handle it, but cooking wasn’t assigned to either one of us. We just did what worked for us.

I was getting ready to respond back to her, but Maleah stuck her head in the camera. When she did that, Deja paused what she was doing, smiled at Maleah, preparing herself to greet her.

“Well, aren’t you adorable. What’s your name pretty girl?” Deja asked, using that voice on her that I’ve witnessed her use before on her nephew.

Deja did well with children. She was sweet, and kind to them. Soft as hell with them too. The other night when Nico stayed with us, I got to see Deja in a whole new light, and I fucked with it.

“Maleah. Are you my Uncle’s girlfriend?” Maleah asked, getting right to the point. All I did was shake my head, while Deja looked at her and laughed.

“I am. You having fun with your Uncle? What are ya’ll doing?” Deja asked, carrying on with her like the two of them already knew each other.

“We were talking, but then you called,” Maleah said that shit shady as hell.

“Maleah!” Mya snapped at her daughter. Deja only laughed while shaking her head.

“Okay. I didn’t mean to interrupt your time with your uncle. I just called to let him know that I had to leave early for work so we wouldn’t come home and look for me. I’ll talk to your uncle later then, okay?” Deja asked it in a way like she was putting the ball in Maleah’s court, going to let her have it.

I took the camera off both of us, only keeping it on me.

“She run a strict program. You can’t just be calling me when I’m chilling with her. You gotta reserve a spot,” I fucked with her, egging that shit on.

“I see, papa. Tell her that I don’t want no smoke with her. I’ll call you later then,” she said, ready to hang the phone up on me.

“Aight,” I responded.

“Okay,” she said, and I laughed.