"So you decided to marry him? Like that won't take up a lot of time?" D.J. asked.
"I don't have insurance, Daniel James Prescott, and he does. Also, he wants to be a part of the baby's life."
"You don't have to marry him for either one of those things to happen," Daniel stated. "You can go to work for us at the office, helping Elaine and we'll put you on our insurance."
"You can't afford to hire me or put me on the insurance there and you know it," I replied. "Plus, I refuse to work with you ever again. One summer after college was enough. Y'all are unorganized and you refuse to listen to me. I'm not going to go to work every day with people who don't respect me enough to listen when I'm giving them advice on a better way to organize their business."
D.J. scoffed, which I knew he would. It wouldn't matter if I had an MBA and worked as a CEO of a huge corporation, I would always be his pigtails-wearing baby sister who couldn't possibly understand how running a business worked.
"My point is that you have options besides marrying J.J."
I leaned forward and tapped the table with my finger. "Why are you so against me marrying him?" I asked.
"He's not good enough for you," Robert said.
That made me laugh, long and hard. "Not good enough for me? He's one of the best men I know." I continued to laugh until tears streamed out of my eyes. "Oh, that's rich."
Robert's expression turned sullen. "What's that supposed to mean?"
I stopped laughing then. "You and the other three are the reason I never got to date in high school. You're also the reason I never wanted to date once I went off to college. I realize that y'all were young and made mistakes, but even now you're rough on the women in your life. You don't always appreciate them the way you should and I bet if you took some time to consider how angry you would be if someone treated me the way you sometimes treat them, you'd be pretty darn mad."
Crap. See? This was what I was talking about. When I got angry, I said mean things that hurt people.
I knew it hurt them by the expression on their face. But they also looked chagrined after a moment.
Clayton, bless his heart, was the only one who was still married to his first wife, and he relented first.
"You're probably right. And you're probably right that J.J. is a good man. But please understand why we're so upset. As you just said, you've never dated, and you haven't really dated J.J., but now you're getting married. We just want to make sure you know what you're getting into," Clayton said. "And that you know we'll help you."
I sighed. God, these men were dense. If they'd come here and said that first, none of this other bull would have happened.
"You know, Clayton," I said, resting my chin on my hand. "If you all had come here and asked, 'How can we help?' I would have told you. I never would have gotten mad at you and I never would have said mean things to any of you." I cleared my throat because it was suddenly tight. "And I am sorry I said mean things to you even if you deserved it at the time."
"Ah, shit," Robert said when he caught sight of my tears. "Please don't cry."
I couldn't help it. Darn hormones. I sniffled and tried to blink back the tears but it was no use.
Robert was sitting to my right and he put an arm around my shoulders. D.J. sat to my left and took my hand in his.
"We love you, Leelee," Scott said. "And we want to make sure this is what you want."
I sniffled again.
"Right now, it's the best option," I said. "And I like J.J. If I have to be married, I think he's probably a better choice than most of the men I've met."
D.J. squeezed my hand. "You're right. We consider J.J. a friend. Or did before he had sex with our sister. He is a good guy."
"He likes y'all, too, you know," I stated. "So don't cut him out of your life because of me." I looked at Scott then. "As I said earlier, I'm an adult and I made a choice. I asked him to come home with me. He was never the one pushing for anything."
Scott nodded.
There was a knock on my front door and Clayton got up and nudged Scott and Robert on the shoulder. "Y'all better get your wallets out because I'm not paying for all this stuff on my salary."
I started to get up to get my wallet but D.J. wouldn't release my hand. "I got yours," he said.
"No, I got hers," Clayton said.
They argued about who was paying for my food until I tried to get up again. Clayton ignored D.J.'s final attempt and headed toward the door with just the money from Robert and Scott.
D.J. released my hand and lumbered to his feet, heading in the direction of the front door. I rolled my eyes and rested my head on Robert's shoulder. It was closing in on nine now and I was getting tired.
I yawned and Robert bumped his shoulder underneath my cheek. "No going to sleep," he said. "The food's here and you need to eat."
"How's Corey?" I asked. His daughter was twelve now and I never got to see her as much as I wanted. With Robert's hours at the power plant, I knew he didn't get to see her as much as he wanted either.
"She's got a boyfriend," Robert mumbled. "They talk on the phone every night and text all weekend long. She keeps wanting me to drop her off at the movies with him but I put my foot down. She's too young."
I laughed a little. "She'll be thirteen next month. Before you know it, she'll be off at college."
"Shut up," he grunted.
"She's a good kid, Robert. Don't lock her down too tight or she'll put even more space between you."
He sighed. "I know. I told her I'd consider the movie thing when she turns thirteen. I'm hoping that this doesn't last that long."
"Yeah, but she'll just have another boyfriend by then."
"Yeah." He nudged me with his shoulder again until I lifted my head to look at him. "Shoulda had at least one boy first so he could run the little motherfuckers off for me."
I rolled my eyes for the second time that night. "Yeah, that'll work out great."
"You're not telling me anything her mother and our mother haven't. I know she's growing up but every time I look at her, I see the same little girl with no front teeth and her braids falling apart. I'm just not—" He stopped and cleared his throat. Talking about anything emotional was difficult for Robert so I expected him to leave it at that, but he surprised me by continuing, "I'm just not ready to let go of that part of her yet."
I wrapped an arm around his flat belly. All my brothers were big, but they all had jobs that required hard physical work, so they stayed in shape. I was taller than my father, but they were all close to six feet or over, so they always made me feel small.
"A little bit of that part of her will always be there, especially for you because you're her daddy. But you have to let her grow up and make her own choices. That's the only way she'll learn to make the right ones."
"How'd you get to be so smart when it comes to pre-teen girls?"
I laughed. "Because I once was one, goober."