Page 17

“Nothing, Ma.”

I took another sip just to keep from laughing because I already knew that shit would hurt.

When I released the straw, Eternity placed the cup back down and leaned closer to kiss my forehead. Her lips stayed there for a few seconds. When she pulled away, her eyes were wet.

I squeezed her hand as much as the IV allowed. I knew that her mind was all over the place. She was pregnant as hell and had to deal with all of this shit.

“I’m good,” I said reassuringly.

“I know.”

The way she said it told me she wasn’t convinced. I wasn’t sure I was either. But I was alive, and Maliah was alive. Everything else, I’d figure out as it came.

By the time they moved me into the private suite later that night, the hospital had finally gotten quiet. Or maybe Eternity had managed to scare enough people away from my door.

Either way, I wasn’t complaining. Our family that had crowded the room had finally given us the privacy that we desperately needed. The room was bigger than the one I’d been in before, with enough space that it didn’t feel like the walls were closing in on me. The lights had been dimmed, the television was playing low, and Eternity had finally taken her shoes off after I told her for the third time that she wasn’t leaving the hospital in the middle of the night to go home.

She was curled up in the recliner beside my bed with a blanket over her legs, scrolling through her phone. I had tried sleeping, but that shit wasn’t happening. Every time I closed my eyes, my mind went somewhere I didn’t want it to go. Eventually, I stopped fighting it and stared at the television instead. A soft knock sounded at the door. Eternity looked up from her phone.

Before either of us could say anything, the door opened, and Ty walked in. I stared at him. He stared at me. Then that motherfucker shook his head.

“Now didn’t ya ass just ask me what it felt like to touch lead?”

I couldn’t help it. A laugh escaped me before pain immediately tore through my side.

“Fuck.”

I grimaced and pressed my head back against the pillow. Eternity sat straight up.

“Don’t make him laugh!”

Ty held both hands up as he walked farther into the room.

“Damn, I just got here,” he said with a small laugh as he continued to walk into the room.

“And you’re already getting on my nerves,” Eternity responded as she rolled her eyes.

“Good to see you too, E.”

I shook my head.

“Man, shut the fuck up.”

Ty laughed as he approached the bed, but the closer he got, the more the amusement disappeared from his face. I noticed it. For a moment, he just stood there looking at me. Ty and I had been through enough shit together that neither one of us needed to say much to understand the other. He could walk into a room smiling and talking shit all he wanted, but I knew my brother. If he was here, then my wife or one of my children must have texted or called him, and that kind of news scared him. He reached down and held his hand out, and I grabbed it.

He pulled me into as much of a hug as my condition allowed.

“Good to see you, my nigga.”

“Likewise.”

He pulled the chair on the other side of the bed closer and sat down.

“When you get in?” I asked.

“Little while ago.”

“You ain’t have to come all the way from DR.”