“Child, where have you been? We almost finished eating.” Big Momma scolded Stephanie as she walked into my dining room and took a seat.
“I told you this morning I had to drop the kids off at Travis’s,” Stephanie replied as she looked around the table at all the food. “Lord, this stuff smells good. Who cooked it?”
“Dylan,” Big Momma answered. “Can you believe he cooked all this food? And Stephanie, you got to try them ribs. The meat just falls off the bone.”
“I don’t see no ribs.” Stephanie frowned.
“There’s some in the kitchen. I’ll go get you some. Anyone else want ribs?”
Big Momma headed to the kitchen as she offered everyone a second helping. Not one person other than Stephanie took her up on the offer. We were already beyond stuffed after tons of hamburgers, hot dogs, spare ribs, and other grilled goodies. I’d invited Jasmine and her family over for a barbecue as a way of thanking them for their kind treatment the past few months. Thank goodness I’d finished most of the cooking right before it started raining, but we had to eat in the house.
Since Jasmine had gotten out of jail, her family had done their best to thank me for getting her such a good lawyer. Both Stephanie and Big Momma had gone overboard to make me feel like one of the family. And Big Momma didn’t hide the fact that she hoped I’d be a member of the family through marriage someday. She couldn’t go five minutes without complimenting me on something or telling me what a good grandson-in-law I’d be. And from what Jasmine told me, she was getting the same pro-Dylan speech just as often.
But Jasmine and I were still taking things slow. She’d gotten rid of Derrick, and I hadn’t seen or heard from Monica since she disappeared from the hospital. I didn’t give a damn about Monica, but I spent lots of time worrying about the baby. I had Joe on the case, so I wasn’t worried. If Monica was in Petersburg, sooner or later he’d find her. In the meantime, Jasmine had become a great listener whenever I needed her. And I continued to do the same for her as she worked through her feelings about the whole situation with Derrick. There was no doubt that I had strong feelings for Jasmine, and she felt the same for me. If her family had anything to say about it, we’d be on our way down the aisle already.
But we’d both been seriously hurt by our past lovers, and neither one of us saw a reason to rush into anything until our heads and our hearts were straight. We were content to spend as much time together as possible but still let our relationship grow at its own pace. Sure, I knew that if things continued the way they were going, I would be giving her a ring in the not-so-distant future. But I didn’t share that information with Stephanie, or she and Big Momma would start picking out names for our firstborn child.
As for Stephanie, she was happy to be meddling in our relationship, since she didn’t have one of her own. Actually, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. She and her sister had developed a much closer bond than they’d ever had before. Stephanie honestly seemed to be interested in keeping her sister from making the same mistakes she had made. And in that respect, she was trying to make the best of the damage that had been done to her family after she stepped out on Travis.
Not long after she moved out of Travis’s place, her daughter’s father, Malek, left town again. He went back to D.C., this time with a girl Stephanie couldn’t stand, named LaKeisha Nixon. Stephanie seemed so relieved to have him gone, and her family had actually hoped that would be the deciding factor to getting her and Travis back together. But by that time, Travis had moved on, started a new relationship, and seemed pretty adamant about being through with Stephanie.
From the way Jasmine described her, the old Stephanie would have tried to manipulate her way back into Travis’s life. But she didn’t. She worked with him peacefully, to figure out a way that the kids could get plenty of time with both of them. He got to see the kids twice a week, and they stayed with him every other weekend. Stephanie actually seemed satisfied with the arrangement, and hadn’t tried to make any problems for Travis and his new woman. Her family was very proud of her, and they made sure to tell her as often as she could stand to hear it. Yeah, all around, things were headed in the right direction for the Johnson girls.
“Come ’ere and give me a kiss.” Jasmine wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into the hall as I walked out of the dining room. I was more than happy to do as she asked. I gave her a quick kiss and she peeked around the corner, pretending to be nervous.
“I better be careful,” she joked. “Your girlfriend Big Momma might get jealous if she knew I was doing this.” She pressed her lips against mine and we kissed passionately until we heard footsteps.
Big Momma walked into the hall and we started to laugh.
“Mmm-hmm, what y‘all up to?” she smirked. “Don’t y’all be doing all that kissing and hugging around me unless y’all getting married some time soon.” Like I said, Big Momma took every opportunity she got to put in her vote for a quick marriage.
“Big Momma, why don’t you leave those two alone?” Stephanie chimed in from the dining room. “Can’t you see they’re trying to get their groove on?”
“That’s just what I’m sayin’. If they wanna act like that, they should hurry up and get married.”
I had to laugh at her persistence, but the phone rang.
“I’ll get it,” Stephanie offered. “Y’all keep on doin’ your thing out there in the hall” She got up and headed for the kitchen. Jasmine and I went back into the dining room, but before I could sit down, Stephanie called me to the phone. I gave Jasmine another quick kiss and headed to the kitchen to take the call.
“Hello?”
“Dylan, this is Ron Burns” It was the police officer who’d helped me out the night I was picked up in the crack house.
“Hey, Ron, what’s up? Everything all right?”
“Well, I’m not sure. Joe was telling me a while ago that you’ve been trying to find your son.”
“Yeah. Do you know something?” My heart jumped. Maybe there was finally some news about the baby.
“We just picked up your ex for possession.”
“Monica? She’s there now?” I hadn’t heard any news about her in so long, I was starting to think she’d left town.
“Yes. Monica’s here.”
“What about the baby? Was the baby with her?” I held my breath as I waited for his answer.
“The baby’s right here,” Ron answered. He sounded uncomfortable. “We were hoping you’d come pick him up. Otherwise, we have to turn him over to child welfare.”
There was no way I was gonna let that happen. Ever since that first day that I held him, I’d been waiting to have my son in my arms again. Now that I finally knew where he was, I didn’t want to waste any time getting to him.
“I’ll be right there, Ron.”
“Good. But listen, you need to do one thing before we can let you take him home.”
“Just name it; I’ll do it.”
“We just need to see some type of proof that he’s your son.”
“What about the lab results from my paternity test? We had it done right after he was born.”
“That’s perfect. Just bring those so we can make copies to keep on file here. You understand. We just have to keep everything documented.”
“No problem. I’m on my way.” I hung up the phone and went into the dining room, where everyone was listening to Big Momma tell a story about her own wedding.
“I’m sorry folks, but I have to go out for a minute,” I announced. “Just make yourselves comfortable till I get back.”
“Is everything all right, Dylan?” Jasmine asked as all eyes turned to me.
“Yeah, I guess. They found my son. I’m about to pick him up.”
“Who found him?” Big Momma was the only one talking. Everyone else had their mouths hanging open.
“The police. They arrested Monica, and they have the baby at the station now.”
The room fell silent. No doubt everyone was as shocked as I was at this point. My mind was racing. I couldn’t even think straight enough to give them any more details.
“Well, go on, then, son,” Big Momma broke the silence. “We’ll be right here when you get back.”