It took a lot of work but me, Legacy and Tia got to a point where we could all function as a dysfunctional family; though me and Tia argued a lot every argument was about what was in the best interest for our kids, take today for example she was spending the entire day with Ivanna and I was taking Ace fishing for the first time something Tia thought was 'tacky', but I this was something I really wanted to do. I was Ace's age the first time my dad took him fishing and for me it's something I had to do as a father, Legacy had went to California with Cam, Sa'vion, Dominique and Yuri to visit Devin and Blaze so for now it was just me and Khalil taking Ace and Marquise fishing. I sat pacing around waiting for Tia who as usual was late as fuck and I was starting to grow impatient when she started knocking on the door and walked in like she lived here. Ivanna looked at me before grabbing her bag and walking over to the door, it was clear she wasn't happy about this arrangement most of the time she hated leaving my side for anything and going with her mom was no exception; I walked over to her and looked in her eyes.
"¿Cuál es el problema Princesa? (What is the problem Princess?)" I asked Ivanna in Spanish because I knew Tia was listening as she talked to Ace and I also knew Ivanna wouldn't say if she thought her mom knew what we were talking about.
"Mamá siempre me hace usar vestidos grandes y feos. (Mom always makes me wear big ugly dresses.)" Ivanna said as if that was the worse thing in the world, I noticed Tia staring at us like she was trying to figure out what we were saying but all she knew was we were talking about her.
"No tienes ningún problema con los vestidos que elijo. (You have no problem with the dresses I choose.)" I said quietly.
"That's because the one's you pick out aren't ugly, she treats me like I'm a baby doll." Ivanna said quietly.
"Venga princesa, puede sobrevivir una noche, ¿verdad? (Come on princess, you can survive one night, right?)." I asked and she nodded.
"Okay but next time I get to got with you and Ace has to go with mom." Ivanna said and I couldn't help but smirk, this girl was something else. After giving into her demands Tia and Ivanna left leaving me with the hell raiser.
"Come on Ace we gotta go meet up with your Uncle Khalil and Marquise." I said grabbing our fishing gear and heading out the door. Once we met up with Khalil and Marquise I was surprised to see Marquise actually standing up on his own, I swear whenever I was over there house his feet barely ever touched the ground because someone was always holding him whether it be Khalil, Marcus, Noah or Cori.
"So Noah and Cori opted out?" I asked dapping my brother up.
"Yeah Cori seems to think Noah is is personal chauffeur and Noah hasn't helped the matter, where ever Cori wants to go Noah takes him; I swear the other morning around like 6 Cori wanted some breakfast and Noah got up to take him to McDonald's I told him better start charging Cori gas money. Wassup Ace?" Khalil said looking at my son but Ace didn't pay him any attention as him and Marquise started having their own conversation.
"Well Noah's getting ready to leave here pretty soon, maybe Cori just wants to spend as much time with his big brother as he can before he leaves." I said honestly wishing I could freeze time so I didn't have worry about sending Ivanna and Ace away to college. "You ready to start fishing because I'm not trying to be out here all day." I said smiling.
Me and Khalil spent most of the day out on the water with our sons, Ace and Marquise were having fun which made me happy but I knew it mostly because they liked spending time with their dads.
"Be honest with me Khalil, how do you feel about Noah graduating?" I asked quietly.
"Happy, sad, nervous, excited a lot of emotions....... my little clone is about to set off on his own and I know that at that point I can't protect him anymore, he's going to start making real life changing decisions and I know there's nothing more I can do, I mean I can still give him advice but he's really not going to need me or Marcus anymore." Khalil said and I think he wiped a tear away.
"Come on Khalil you know Noah is going to try to come home every chance he gets, as for him needing you..... he's always going to need you, Marcus, Michelle and everyone else even if he doesn't know it yet. The fact that you feel the way you do means y'all have done a good job raising him. Man see now you got me worried about what I'm going to do once Ivanna and Ace get to this point." I said looking at my son.
"We still got a while before Cori, Marquise, Ivanna and Ace get to that point and by then we'll be ready for them all to go." Khalil said laughing, I don't know all about that I couldn't imagine my kids going out into the world on their own. After sitting in the hot ass sun all damn day me and Ace got home, the first thing I did was call my baby girl, I could tell she was miserable with her mom and the Beast to the point where I was almost tempted to go pick her up but she needed to spend some time with her mom and Aunt Flubber.
"Daddy who's this?" Ace said looking at a picture of me and my dad at the homemade gun range we made when I was little and smiled.
"That's the best man I've ever known, your granddad." Looking cringing at my younger self. Ace started looking at all the pictures of myself with my parents, Khalil, when I played basketball, from the time me and Legacy started dating and got married, until getting to the last few pictures of him and his sister.
"Daddy you played basketball?" Ace asked and I nodded. "Can you teach me? I wanna be just like you when I grow up." Ace said and I couldn't help but smile.
"Lorenzo let me tell you something that my dad told me; it's okay to want to be like your dad.... but I don't want you to be like me, I want you to be better than me. So if playing basketball is something you wanna do then you gotta work at it." I said looking into his eyes.
"Okay dad....... when's Legacy getting back I miss him." Ace said and I'm not sure if he was listening to anything I just said.
"He'll be home in a couple days but since him and Ivanna are both gone you wanna go downstairs and eat up all the snacks before they get back?" I asked smiling and he took off running for the kitchen.........
"Lorenzo wake up......." Someone said shaking me out of my sleep and it took a couple seconds for my sight to come into focus but once that happened I was staring into the eyes of the love of my life.
"Wassup baby, I didn't know you were coming back tonight." I said moving over in my bed and trying not to wake up Ace.
"Yeah well that trip turned into Devin versus Sa'vion, they spent the whole trip arguing over everything so I decided if I wanted to get some sleep I was either going to have to get a hotel or come home so I chose the latter." Legacy said climbing into bed next to me.
"It's alright to admit that you missed me." I said kissing him. "I'm just playing but was it really that bad?" I asked and Legacy pulled out his phone. " Damn you recorded it, hold up let me go put Ace in his room and then we can watch this....." I said trying to get up but Legacy pulled me back into bed.
"Or we could lay here until we fall asleep and watch it in the morning." Legacy said kissing me. "Y'all ate my Oatmeal Pies didn't you." He asked kissing me again, all I could do was smile because I knew I had been caught.
"It's okay you love me so I get a pass." I said and got smacked in the face with the pillow. "Don't trip Legacy we can go get some more tomorrow once Ivanna gets home, now why don't you tell me how your trip went." I said pulling him into my arms and we spent the rest of the night holding each other and talking quietly until daylight broke through our bedroom window..............................