Loose Ends by Electa Rome Parks Read Free Book Online

I’ve thought about that too. But he’s been overseas most of this time, and it couldn’t possibly be because his conscience is bothering him.” Lyric jumped back into my lap, hugged me, and gave me a sticky kiss on the nose.
     
     
    “His wife, poor thing, what does she think about this li’l meeting?”
     
     
    “Honestly, I don’t know, Mama, and I really don’t care,” I huffed with too much attitude, which caused Mama to give me one of her looks. One of her “do you know who you’re talking to?” looks.
     
     
    As she gazed into space she said, “I don’t ever want to see you in that state of mind again. During that period, you were in such emotional despair. A parent can’t stand seeing her child in pain. That man totally broke my baby’s spirit . . .”
     
     
    “Let’s talk about something else. I’m sick of hearing about Brice. We’re giving him too much importance, too much power,” I said in a shaky voice.
     
     
    Mama looked at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Okay, baby. Be careful. Just be careful. I don’t want to see you hurt again. You’ve got a good man in Christian. Men like Christian don’t come around every day.”
     
     
    Mama and I, along with Lyric in her Mickey Mouse stroller, went to a few more stores and eventually called it a day around four o’clock.
     
     
    On the drive home I thought about what Mama had said. I was a sad, pitiful case during my divorce to Brice. My heart was split wide-open. Most days, I couldn’t even get out of bed. I just wanted to sleep. I felt like my life was over. I had my good and bad days, but Mama was there through it all. I promised myself I’d never give a man that much power in my life again—as much as I love Christian, not even him. No, I don’t want to see myself in that state again.
     

 
    Christian
     
     
    “Is that cool with you, baby? Let me know if it’s not, because we can change the time,” I asked Mia for probably the third time that day.
     
     
    “Christian, like I told you before, that’s fine with me. I’ll double-check and make sure Mama can babysit Lyric,” Mia assured me as she sexily sashayed into the kitchen to finish up the dinner dishes. I admired her from the kitchen table. It was another lazy Sunday afternoon and tomorrow was business as usual, back to the work routine. Mia’s lucky; she has a few more months and then she’ll be out for summer break. Schoolteachers have it made in that area. After a school year with some of those kids, they need a break. Mia has tons of stories to tell about some of their badasses.
     
     
    We had finally come up with a date, two weeks from Saturday, to meet with Brice and Kree. To make it convenient for Mia, we decided to have a light meal at our house and take it from there. Surprisingly, Mia is taking everything in stride. She was truly amazing. I know she’s doing all this for me. I realize I’m probably being selfish, but I miss our true friendship, the ties of brotherhood that Brice and I had once shared. I was hoping, on some level, that we could move forward and recapture that. Yes, I’m being selfish.
     
     
    As I heard Mia humming away in the kitchen, clinking dishes now and then, I thought back to how we got together. After Mia’s breakup with Brice, I was as emotionally devastated as she was. Mia had lost a husband, but after admitting to Brice that I was in love with Mia, I had lost a lifelong best friend. In giving up our friendship, I also gave up any ties to Brice’s family. That was entirely my choice.
     
     
    In the beginning, his moms, Vivica, was constantly calling to see how I was doing. She’d chitchat about whatever was going on in her life. When I wasn’t very receptive, her calls eventually dwindled down to one or two a month and then to nonexistent. Afterward, I was pretty much alone in life. That suited me fine, because most of my life had been spent alone—emotionally anyway.
     
     
    My brother, Randy, was killed as a