“I want to patch into the club. Outlaw said I could if I go to college first.”
“Do you want to go to college knowing you have to stay faithful to a wife?”
By the look on his face, Diesel hadn’t thought of that.
“I hear you’re good at football. If you play at the college level, athletes are popular. You’ll be invited to all types of parties. I’m the jealous type.” True, but not to the extent she intended to make him believe. “I couldn’t stand the thought of my husband allowing a bunch of other girls to fawn over him.”
“Sorority girls, too?”
“Huh?”
“Would sorority girls fawn over me?”
“Oh. Yeah, I suppose.” She bumped his shoulder. “You have a thing for them?”
“There’s porn featuring co-eds. On these clips, the pledgees have to eat pussy. Sometimes, each other’s. Sometimes, it’s the sisters already pledged.”
“You watch porn?” she asked, aghast. She’d watched it herself, once or twice, but Diesel was still considered a minor.
“Yes,” he crowed. “I’d know how to please you so good.” He cocked his head to the side. “You aren’t angry about the porn?”
“I’m surprised. You’re too young to watch that stuff, but I’m not angry.”
Diesel’s grin showed off his dimples. With his gray eyes and black hair, he was already a handsome kid. When he reached his adult height, he’d be something to behold.
“Uncle Chris said to choose a wife I can be friends with. Him and Aunt Meggie are best friends. We have so much fun together in the evenings. Then, they shoo us, so they can be alone in the den. Aunt Meggie is always giggling. No matter what Uncle Chris says, she rarely gets mad at him. That’s the kind of chick I want. One who’ll allow me to be myself and make mistakes. You wouldn’t do that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She could always tell him she was in love with another man, but that would only be a half truth. It didn’t matter that she’d broken up with Cash and Stretch, they were still embedded in her soul. No amount of talking to Noah or hanging out with him assuaged her devastation.
“It depends on what those mistakes are. If they involve other women, no. You’d have to be completely into me for the rest of your life. No porn. No talking to other girls, even as friends.”
The more she spoke, the more bemused Diesel looked.
“I wouldn’t even want you to have a female professor.”
Diesel stood. “Fee, you’re a wonderful woman. Everything I said, but…” Voice trailing off, he shifted his weight. “Would you hate me if I withdrew my proposal?”
She applauded her tactics that kept Diesel’s pride intact. “Of course not.”
“Cash!” Meggie’s happy call floated up the stairs.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Diesel looked toward the staircase.
“Hey, Stretch,” Bailey greeted.
Now that the music was off and Fee was tuned in to the party downstairs, she heard everything.
“I’m going to head out,” she said. “Would you tell Meggie and Zoann I’ll call them later?”
“Yeah.”
Glad that she’d stuck her license and a debit card in her pocket, Fee hurried down the staircase and out the front door before anyone spotted her. With the sadness chasing her today, she didn’t need to add to it by facing Cash and Stretch, knowing the future she thought she’d had with them was no more, and never would be.
“I not coming with you and MegAnn?”
Pausing in the pretense of looking through CJ’s clothes, Christopher frowned down at his boy. It had been weeks since he’d called Megan anything other than mommie. “No, you goin’ to Aunt Zoann with Rule and Rebel.”
“I wanna go with Bun-Bun and Ryder if I not going with you and MegAnn.”
“Ryder got a earache, boy. Bunny takin’ him to the doctor.”
Tears filled CJ’s eyes, and he sniffled. “I go with you, ‘Law.”
“My ass don’t wanna go with me.” Not to get a consultation about his dick snip, but he’d finally gotten Megan to agree that it was time. After the finalized plans for the christenings this coming weekend, he’d get back to the doctor with a date for his castration. Or what the fuck ever other motherfuckers called it. “Mommie goin’ to a fuckin’ doctor with me. Other-fuckin-wise, me, you, and Rule would be going some-fuckin-where while your ma and sister went with Bunny to look at wedding dresses.”
CJ blinked, clueless at Christopher’s long-ass explanation. At least, his tears went away. Going back to pretending to find something other than a cut, white T-shirt, and jeans for CJ, Christopher let his boy think about the explanation.