"Finally, I get a lunch date with my girl."

I sat down across from Carter and rolled my eyes. We had decided to meet up at a little diner across from my shop for lunch but I was already itching to leave.

"You gonna be petty today, or are we going to enjoy lunch together?" I asked with much attitude.

"We can enjoy lunch together." He chuckled while looking through the menu.

"Good idea."

We sat in silence until the waitress approached the table to take our orders. I ordered a personal pizza pie with no cheese, olives, onions, tomatoes and bell peppers and a lemonade to drink. I also made sure to ask for a box to put the rest of my pizza in because I knew I wouldn't finish the pie. I never did. I don't know what Carter ordered because I received a text from Micah Jr. when he was ordering. Micah was letting me know that his car was acting up but that he and Miracle would get a ride from Elijah and for that, I was thankful. I didn't want to have to leave work to pick them up today; it was Thursday and believe it or not, a big-money day for the salon.

For the past three days, Micah had been leaving school and going straight to Elijah's shop to work. From my understanding, Elijah wouldn't be back at the shop until this Saturday since tomorrow was his last day working at the school. For now, Micah was working beside Elijah's older cousin, Xavier, who was apparently as cool as Elijah, according to Micah. I was just happy to have positive role models around him while my brother was going through this rough patch. My younger brother, Moriah, was always busy with school and at 21, I couldn't expect anything else from him, but he promised to come by the house this weekend for family dinner since we both conveniently missed the one my mother had, the weekend the kids came to stay with me.

The waitress coming back with our food took me out of my thoughts. When I looked up at Carter, he was giving me an unreadable look. I wasn't trying to figure out what his problem was. Honestly, for the past two almost three weeks since my niece and nephew had come to live with me, he'd been an asshole and I wasn't here for the stupidity.

"Who you over there texting?" he asked as I took a bite out of my pizza.

"MJ..." I replied dryly once my food was down.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder if I fit in this...this thing you got going on now."

I literally had to bite down on my tongue to keep from cutting into this guy's ass right now. I cut my eyes at him and shook my head.

"This thing? My brother being in rehab and me taking care of my niece and nephew until he's home and better isn't a thing you asshole; it's called looking out for family," I scoffed.

"I didn't mean for it to come out that way, baby. " He reached across the table and attempted to grab my hands. I snatched them away from him with my lip turned up. "Look, I just think that with all these new responsibilities, you don't really have time for a relationship." Who was he to tell me what I had time for?

"Are you done?" I asked, pretty much over this entire lunch date, if that's what we were still calling it.

"When's the last time we had sex, Marley?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"You shitting me, Carter?" It took everything in me to not reach across the table and slap him. "That's what's got your panties all in a bunch? Sex? A week without sex is too much for you? And how can you not understand that I don't want you in and out of my house while my 15-year-old niece is staying with me?"

I wasn't even thinking about the fact that we hadn't had sex, honestly. I just knew that I wasn't going to have Carter coming in and out of my house whenever he wanted and we weren't going to be fucking all over the place like we used to. I felt it was disrespectful to keep things the way they were before MJ and Miracle came to live with me. I wanted them to be comfortable and I didn't feel like having Carter basically live with me would make them comfortable at a time like this.

"You can always come to my place though."

"Do you hear yourself? You want me to come to your place so I can have sex with you. That's literally the only thing that's changed. We're not running around my house fucking like rabbits anymore." I sat back and waited for his response because I knew I was right.

"Babe..."

"No, don't babe me, Carter. Kiss my ass." I put the rest of my pizza inside the to-go box and got up from the table. "Thanks for lunch, fucker."

And with that, I was out of the diner and on my way to my car. I noticed Miracle had sent me a text saying she'd be bringing Isabella with her to the shop. I smiled to myself and sent her a text telling her that was perfectly fine. Hell, I needed the energy anyway after that disaster of a lunch date with Carter. I could have let him talk and actually attempted to hear him out but I was honestly sick of the bullshit at this point. Carter was being a child about this entire situation and in a time when I needed him to be understanding and emotionally supportive, he wanted to bring up the fact that we're not having as much sex as we used to.

I chuckled to myself as I approached the salon. I noticed Eli and the kids were pulling in at the same time that I was parking my car. Being that it was only 3 pm and I was here for another six hours since I was closing shop tonight. I was taken out of my thoughts by MJ knocking on my window. I smiled at him before getting out of the car.

"What's up Aunt! You good?" he asked pulling me into a hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You hanging out with us today or you going to work?" I teased while the rest of the crew made their way over to us.

"Headed to work with Eli, we got my car towed from the school and he's going to show me how to fix it."

I couldn't help but smile at the young man standing in front of me. I know my brother would be proud to hear his son sound this enthused about fixing his car.

"What's up Marley?" Eli greeted while pulling me into a side hug.

"Nothing much, glad you're teaching this boy something valuable here." I smirked while nudging MJ's shoulder.

"I do what I can," Eli joked. "I hope you don't mind Bella hanging out with you two until we're done. I told Miracle, I'll hit her up with a lil cash for babysitting." He chuckled.

"No, not at all but that reminds me, I wanted to talk to you about something."

I noticed MJ, still standing right in front of me with his arms crossed when I said that. Miracle and Bella were already inside the salon.

"Go wait for him in the car, MJ." I laughed, pushing him in the direction of Eli's car.

"Whateva man, y'all hurry up, I got work to do," MJ said while heading back over to Elijah's car.

"What's up?" Elijah smiled down at me while leaning against my car.

I stood in front of him with my arms crossed.

"I don't want to overstep my boundaries with what I'm about to say." I noticed his face tense up at my choice of words. "But I had a client come in the other day, talking about her daughter, Isabella. I thought it was a coincidence at first until she started showing us pictures of your daughter."

"Wait, Natalie was here in your shop? When?"

I looked at him with confusion written all over my face. I guess he could sense it because he sighed heavily and ran his hands down his face before he spoke again.

"I'm sorry, it's just...Natalie dropped Isabella off with my mother the day we came to have dinner with you and I haven't heard from her at all. I've tried calling her; I've sent text messages and left voicemails, all for her to ignore me. It's been six days, Marley. I was starting to think the girl was dead," he stressed.

Now it was my turn to sigh. I shook my head and looked up at him.

"She's coming back tomorrow, made an appointment to get her eyebrows done."

"What time is the appointment and before you say anything, I'm not going to bring any drama to your salon. I am going to make sure my lawyer is here to meet her on her way out, though. At this point, I just want full custody of my daughter Marley, that's it."

It was obvious he was stressing over this situation and it hurt seeing him like that, honestly.

"Give me your phone." Once he handed his cell over, I programmed my number in it and called my phone, so I would have his number. "Her appointment is at 12:30. I'm going to text you when she comes in and five minutes before she leaves. If I have to stall her, I will so let you know." I handed him his phone back and smiled up at him.

"Thank you, Marley."

"This isn't the first time she's done this, is it?" I asked while standing beside him.

"Nah." He let out a dry chuckle. "Not even."

"If you need help with Bella, I can help and I'm talking about more than her coming to the salon while you're working with MJ."

A smile appeared on his face as he looked over at me.

"You're a blessing Marley but I can't take advantage of your offer, not while you're being a blessing to your brother and his kids."

"I have a feeling you're not used to letting people help you." I smirked.

"And I have a feeling you're not used to letting people care about you," he countered, shocking the hell out of me.

"I don't need..."

"We all need someone to care about us. Before you came along, my moms was the only one who helped or cared about me. Then I met you, this completely selfless woman, who is already offering to help me with my daughter after knowing me for less than a week."

"Tomorrow makes a week," I joked, not wanting to get all in my feelings at the moment but he still held the same serious expression.

"How do you do it all? Who does Marley lean on for comfort?"

Another question catching me completely off guard and unfortunately, this one made me think about Carter and how he was being the complete opposite of supportive at the moment. I looked down at my shoes and sighed heavy before looking back up at Elijah.

"That person for me is Micah. It's always been Micah, even with my older sister and younger brother being closer to my age, my rock has always been my big brother," I answered him honestly.

"Look Marley, I'm not trying to get you all upset or nothing ma. It's just hard to understand how you do it all." He chuckled nervously while shaking his head.

"Eli! Stop tryna sweet talk my aunt and let's go!" MJ's rude ass called out from Eli's passenger window.

We shared a laugh before turning to face each other.

"Aight so, I gotta go," Eli chuckled.

"I'll see you tonight and don't worry about Bella, she's in good hands." I reminded him as we parted ways.

"I know she is."

I smiled at his last comment and went inside the shop to find Miracle and Bella sitting at my workstation. Once I got a little closer, I noticed that Miracle was painting Bella's nails a pretty purple color. The smile on Bella's face alone was priceless but seeing Miracle sitting in my seat made me proud as well.

"Ooohhhh Bella your nails are so pretty," I beamed.

She looked up at me with a wide smile. "Thank you, Miss Marley."

"Look at my little mini-me." I smirked while nudging Miracle's shoulder.

"Everything okay?" she asked probably referring to the amount of time I spent outside talking to Eli.

"Yeah, everything is good. I'm going to let you finish her nails; then, I want you to take her back into my office. I'll have someone bring you something to snack on just to hold you over until tonight. I have two more appointments and we'll probably head home afterwards." It was early but it wasn't like I needed to stay to get paid. When Micah paid my mortgage off for the salon last year, I continued to rent the booths out to the nail techs, and my brow girls; that way I'd be able to pocket what was left of the booth money after paying the utility bills for the salon.

"You sure aunti? I don't mind staying," Miracle said while looking up at me.

"Yeah, I kind of just want to chill anyway. Plus, this way I can actually cook dinner tonight."

At the mention of dinner, Miracle perked all the way up and suddenly the idea of leaving early wasn't that bad of an idea.

I didn't want to leave early but after dealing with Carter today, all I wanted to do at the moment was go home and eat a tub of dairy-free ice cream. Not to mention, I had a tub of Ben & Jerry's caramel almond brittle in my freezer for almost three days and it would be sinful to let another day pass before trying it.

A little after Miracle and Isabella had made it to my office, my younger brother, Moriah, was walking into my salon with the dumbest smirk on his face. This was nothing new; Moriah was a ladies man and he loved the attention he got when he entered my nail salon. I tried telling these girls to ignore him but with him popping up today, I couldn't warn anyone.

"Look at what the wind blew in; don't you have someone to tutor or something?" I eyed Moriah from my desk. If I wasn't doing someone's nails, I'd kick him for being such a damn stranger. There was no excuse; the tattoo parlor he worked at was literally five miles down the road.

"What's up sis?" He smirked while making his way over to my workstation.

"Heyyyy Moriah," Georgia sang while making her way to the back with a client.

"What up G!" Moriah had finally made it over to my workstation, still wearing that stupid grin. He bent down to kiss my cheek and hugged me slightly. "How you been big head?"

"Everything is good on this end. You know, besides this whole thing with your older brother." I sighed.

He nodded and sat down at the empty station beside me. I had decided to tell Moriah and our sister, Marlow, about Micah over the weekend because I couldn't see myself hiding it from them any longer. My parents were a different story and I'd probably never tell them what was going on.

"Still don't want to tell dad?"

His question caused me to shake my head, no. The question was if I should tell Dad and not mom because Micah had a different mother than the rest of us. She passed away when Micah was only three and shortly after, our dad, Michael, married Vanessa, the mother of his three youngest children. Although our mother treated Micah as one of her own, it was still custom for Moriah and me to exclude her when talking about certain things pertaining to Micah because of how she would react to the situation. Not to mention, my mother and I didn't get along much, so I definitely wasn't going to have a conversation with her about Micah's condition. She'd find a way to spread her negativity all over the situation and that's not what we needed.

"Nah, he'll just tell mom and she will try to convince me that MJ and Miracle need to come stay with them and I'm not with it."

"How are they?"

"They're good. MJ is at his teacher's shop learning how to fix whatever is wrong with his car and Miracle is in my office babysitting MJ's teacher's daughter." I laughed at the confused look on Moriah's face as he stood up.

"I'm going to go holla at baby girl real quick."

"Hey, you mind taking them to grab a bite to eat, nothing too heavy because I'm going to cook tonight. They just need something to hold them over until I'm done here."

"No problem, we'll be back by 5," he said before heading to my office to get the girls.

The next hour and a half went by smoothly; I was even able to pick up an extra client before Moriah dropped the girls off. Georgia promised to close up for me tonight, so we left shortly after they came back. The entire ride home was spent with the three of us trying to figure out what we were going to make for dinner. We agreed on Philly cheesesteaks for them and I'd just finish the pizza that I had for lunch. Bella wanted cupcakes, so I decided to let her and Miracle put together some vegan-style cupcakes while I made the Philly cheesesteak subs for everyone else.

_____

"I know you got an extra room back here somewhere, Isabella and I are moving in," Elijah said with a full mouth.

I shook my head at Elijah's greedy ass while I made him and Bella a few subs to go. Of course, he had to have one before he left because he was extra like that.

"Shut up." I laughed while handing him the plate holding four wrapped subs.

"Nah but for real though, I appreciate it, Marley." His tone was serious now. I found it funny how he could go from goofball to 'Professor Serious' in a matter of seconds.

"You're welcome, Eli." I smiled while pulling my leftover pizza out of the oven.

"Why bro? Like why even eat pizza if you not gonna get cheese on it? They got vegan cheese, even I know that," Micah Jr. teased while walking into the kitchen.

"It's good, you don't know what you're missing." I laughed and shook my head at him.

He made a sub and left the kitchen without any other smart remarks. According to Elijah, Micah's car was fine; he just needed new fluids and an oil change. The boy needed this job at the mechanic shop because he knew nothing about upkeep when it came to his car. This would be good for him.

"So, about tomorrow; I called my lawyer and as long as he can catch Isabella's mom leaving your salon, I'll be granted full custody temporarily, just until the court date but with the way everything is going, I'll more than likely win the case."

I looked up at Elijah, unable to control the wide grin that spread across my face.

"You don't have anything to worry about."

"I don't know why I feel like I owe you some kind of thanks. I don't know where Natalie has been hiding out but the fact that you are the reason I even know where to tell my lawyer to look..." He chuckled and shook his head. "I told you, you're a blessing."

"Stop it." I laughed nervously. "I'm just glad I could be of some help, honestly."

"Daddy we made cupcakes!" Bella announced as she entered the kitchen with Miracle right behind her.

"Oh word? You over here teaching my baby girl how to chef it up?" Elijah looked at Miracle.

"Hey, I just know how to bake and she taught me that." Miracle laughed, pointing in my direction and earning a nod out of Elijah.

"Ready to go baby girl?" Elijah asked while placing Isabella on his lap.

"Yeah, I had a long day," she replied before yawning and laying down on his chest.

"Y'all wore my little one out." He chuckled while rubbing his hand through her hair.

I got up and collected the empty plate that sat in front of Elijah, placing it in the sink. I grabbed a few of the cupcakes Miracle, and Bella made, out of the cake dish, and put them into a Tupperware bowl for them.

"C'mon, I'll walk you to the car."

He got up with Bella still in his arms, I grabbed the plate of subs along with the cupcakes and we headed to the front door. I almost shit myself when I opened my front door and came face to face with Carter, of all people. He was standing there with a bottle of wine and an edible arrangement. His smile disappeared when he noticed Elijah and Bella standing behind me. I silently cursed my luck before finally breaking the silence.

"What are you doing here, Carter?"