Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
“No, Roc. Contrary to what you must think, I do not keep your best friend or anything concerning you in my back pocket.”
“Yeah, all right.” He frowned as he lifted his phone and dialed Golden again with no answer. “Fuck, man,” he spat as he hung up. “Come on, baby girl. We got to go.”
“Noooo!” Halo, who had been silently playing with Demi’s supplies, ran to hug her leg from behind. “I want to stay with Demi.”
“Well, you can’t, but if you come with Daddy, I’ll get you some ice cream.”
“No. I don’t even like ice cream.”
“Oh, word? So I should just throw out all those ice pops you made me buy when we get home, huh?”
Halo seemed to consider it for a moment before looking up at Demi. “Demi, you buy me ice cream?”
I chuckled under my breath. Halo had to be the most cunning four-year-old I’d ever met.
“Hmmm.” Demi pretended to think. “How about this? You be a good girl and go with your father, and I’ll fix your ponytails before you go.”
“Umm… you buy me Starbees next time too?”
It took me a second longer to realize Halo meant Starbucks.
“Of course.”
Demi’s offer was apparently better than her father’s because Halo yelled, “Yay!” before running to Demi’s styling chair and trying unsuccessfully to climb on top. Her father saw her struggling and helped her into the chair before moving to stand next to her.
I was still watching them when I felt Demi gently touch my shoulder.
“You can sit under the dryer while I take care of her. You don’t mind, do you?”
I shook my head and followed her to the overhead dryer.
Demi set the timer and then moved over to fix Halo’s hair as she’d promised. I could see Roc’s lips moving as she worked and Demi giving him short responses in return, but the dryer was too loud for me to hear what they were saying. Eventually, Roc gave up when he realized he wasn’t getting anywhere with Demi and focused on his daughter, who was eating up the attention.
I’d already surmised Halo was spoiled rotten. I guess being the daughter of a King had its perks, and with uncles like Rowdy, Joren, and Golden at her beck and call, I almost felt a little envious.
The dryer shut off while Demi was putting the finishing touches on Halo’s new hairstyle.
Halo now had nine plaits twisted halfway in rows of three, each decorated with blue butterfly clips with the untwisted ends secured inside the ponytail Demi had created with the back half of her hair.
“This should last her the rest of the weekend. And Roc, your daughter may be half White, but all of this—” Demi gestured to Halo’s gorgeous mane of hair —“came from you, so stop letting her go to sleep without a scarf on her head.”
I heard the unmistakable sound of Roc slapping her ass before he lustfully said, “Thanks, baby.”
“I’m not your baby, and keep your hands off my booty, Rochendrix.”
Rochendrix? I burst out laughing, interrupting their not-so-subtle flirting and drawing their gazes over to me. “I’m sorry, but what kind of ghetto-ass name is that?”
Roc retorted with a fake laugh of his own. “I don’t know,” he deadpanned. “Who names their kid after a map?”
Well, he had me there.
Roc reached into his jeans and pulled out a money clip before peeling off more than a few of the crisp hundred-dollar bills and trying to hand the stack to Demi.
“Roc, this is too much, and I’ve told you before I don’t want your money.”
“Take it,” he insisted though it sounded like an order.
“No.”
Without missing a beat, Roc looked down at his daughter. “Baby, remember what Daddy told you when you said you wanted to stay up late like a big girl?”
Halo nodded solemnly. “Yes, I ‘member.”
“Here you go, baby girl.” Roc handed her the cash. “Now, what are you going to do with it?”
“Ummm…” Halo thought with her fingers in her mouth. “Put in my pocket?”
I tucked my lips to keep from laughing. Halo was just too much.
“No,” Roc said before exhaling through his nose and leaning over to whisper something in her ear.
Whatever he said made Halo’s eyes brighten with excitement before she climbed to her knees in the chair and thrust the fist full of cash toward Demi. “Here you go! I’m a big girl now, so I pay my own bills!”
Demi’s pissed-off gaze slid to Roc a second before my astonished one did. “You dirty bastard.”
Halo giggled. “What’s a bastard?” she screamed, delighted at learning a new word. “Bastard! Bastard! Bastard Bastard!”
“It’s something you shouldn’t say,” Roc scolded right before he turned it on Demi. “Aye, hate me all you want, but don’t curse in front of my daughter.”
“Then stop using your daughter to manipulate me!”
“Ain’t nobody manipulating you!”
“Okay, Roc.” I could see Demi widening the emotional and physical distance between them as she stepped back. “You can go now.”