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The Mixtape: Part 4

Summary: At the cookout, Annie discovers that memory is a dangerous thing. Old photographs surface. Family members tell stories nobody realized they remembered. Smoke and Annie spend an entire afternoon remembering each other. Unfortunately, the present eventually shows up.

A/N: This chapter did NOT go as I planned. But I hope ya'll still like it!

W/C: 14+

The summer before junior year felt endless. It was hot enough for the air to still stick to your skin long after the sun went down. Everybody knew who was having people over. Sometimes it was a cousin home from college. Sometimes a classmate whose mama was working the night shift. Music played way too loud in somebody's backyard while the neighborhood kids wandered in and out the gate like they lived there.

This one sat behind a small brick house a few streets over from the Moores’. Cars lined both sides of the curb. Music rattled the chain-link fence while people crowded around folding tables covered in chips, soda, beer bottles, and half-melted ice. Smoke from the little charcoal grill drifted thick through the yard along with the smell of lighter fluid and somebody’s cheap cologne.

Stack stood near the speakers arguing with two boys over what song to play next.

“Nah, y’all killin’ the vibe.”

“You always say that, bruh.”

“Cause y’all music trash.”

An older boy near the grill yelled for Stack to bring more charcoal and he finally wandered off still talking shit the entire way.

Pearline rolled her eyes from her lawn chair nearby. “Stack, shut up.”

He grinned immediately. “You so fine.”

“Boy.”

Annie laughed softly beside her, knees tucked up against the chair while she sipped from a warm Sprite Smoke handed her twenty minutes earlier. Her curls were pulled back loosely, thick around the edges from the heat and humidity. The silver hoops in her ears glinted in the afternoon sun.

Across the yard, Smoke leaned against the fence talking to one of the older boys from the neighborhood. Black tee. Long shorts. White Air Forces already dirty around the edges from summer. One hand hooked inside his pocket while the other held a sweating cup low near his thigh.

Jada watched him from across the yard.

Annie noticed first. “Mhm,” she muttered, nudging Pearline.

Pearline glanced over. “What?”

Annie tilted her head slightly toward the drinks table.

Pearline’s eyes moved automatically.

Jada stood near the coolers laughing loudly at something another girl said, honey-brown curls bouncing around her shoulders while her attention kept drifting back toward Smoke every few seconds. She was pretty. Everyone thought so. Curvy already, tube top, and tiny shorts showing off thick thighs every boy talked about when she walked passed.

Except Smoke—he barely looked over there at all. Jada was pretty. He mostly remembered she laughed loud.

That should’ve made Annie feel better. Instead something still irritated her.

Pearline caught the look on her face instantly. “Girl…”

“I ain’t sayin’ shit.”

“You don’t gotta.”

Annie rolled her eyes hard and looked away first.

Across the yard Stack suddenly yelled—“ANNIE.”

He pointed dramatically toward the folding table. “Bring me a bag of chips.”

“You got two hands.”

“Please! You love me.”

“I actually don’t.”

Stack clutched his chest while everybody around him laughed.

Smoke looked over then and immediately found Annie. Every time. Didn’t matter how many people stood around her either. His eyes always landed there first. The look on his face changed too. Softer. Like seeing her settled something in him automatically.

Pearline saw that part and snorted quietly beside her. “Girl that boy obsessed with you.”

Annie tried not to smile. Failed a little anyway. She stood and headed toward the chips table near the drinks before Stack could start yelling again.

Pearline grabbed her cup and followed behind slower, already watching Jada out the corner of her eye.

Halfway there, Smoke peeled away from the fence and met Annie without saying much.

“You ate?”

Annie blinked at him. “Yes, Elijah.”

“You lyin’.”

She laughed immediately. “I had chips.”

“That ain’t food.”

He grabbed a paper plate off the table and started piling food onto it before she could argue again.

Annie leaned lightly against the table watching him move around the grill. “Why you keep makin’ me plates?”

Smoke shrugged once without looking up. “Cause you need to eat.”

“I eat.”

“Not enough.”

Annie rolled her eyes softly. “Smoke, I promise the world not gon’ end if I miss one plate.”

That finally made him look at her. His eyes moved over her once before settling back on her face again.

“Nah,” he said quietly. “But I might.”

Annie’s breath caught before she could stop it.

And right on cue—Stack gagged loud as hell behind them. “Mane, if y’all don’t leave each other alone for five minutes—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Smoke muttered.

Everybody near them laughed.

Smoke ignored all of it. That was the thing. He ignored everything when Annie stood close enough.

Jada came over to where they were a minute later with Mary and two other girls trailing behind her, all loud laughs and glossy lips beneath the fading summer light.

Pearline stood up straighter immediately. “This bitch…,” she muttered under her breath.

Mary waved dramatically the second she spotted Stack. “There go my man.”

Pearline rolled her eyes so hard Annie almost laughed. “Your man?” Pearline muttered. “Girl please. Stack flirt wit’ everybody.”

“Jealousy ugly on you, Pearl,” Mary called back instantly.

Pearline looked up slow and smiled. “Bitch, I can’t be jealous of community dick.”

Stack barked out laughing.

Mary’s mouth dropped open. “Community dick?!”

Pearline shrugged. “You ain’t special, ho.”

Stack barked out laughing before Mary walked over smacking his arm. Jada drifted easily toward the grill instead.

“Damn,” she said, looking down at the plate in Smoke’s hand before glancing toward her friends. “Smoke don’t do nothin’ but feed Annie.”

Stack barked out laughing instantly. “Cause that’s his girl.”

Smoke frowned slightly. “What?”

Jada smiled. “Nothin’.” But her eyes slid briefly toward Annie before looking back at Stack.

“I’m serious,” She continued. “He act like she the only girl out here.”

Stack opened his mouth immediately. “Cause to him she is.”

Smoke finally handed Annie her plate. “Move before Stack fat ass steal yo’ food.”

“Wow nigga,” Stack said. “You rude.”

Annie was focused very hard on balancing the paper plate in her hands even while warmth kept crawling up the back of her neck. Beside her, Pearline sucked her teeth quietly into her cup.

Jada laughed softly and reached for Smoke’s cup sitting on the table, taking a sip without asking.

Annie noticed immediately. So did Pearline.

Annie’s fingers tightened slightly beneath the paper plate, before she could stop herself, her body was leaning forward a fraction towards Jada. Pearline caught the reaction instantly, one hand touching Annie’s wrist beneath the excuse of reaching for a chip. Subtle. Quick enough nobody else seemed to notice.

Except Jada.

Smoke barely reacted—mostly because he was already looking at Annie again. “You want somethin’ else to drink?”

Jada lowered the cup slowly.

Annie saw that too, and suddenly the heat outside felt heavier than before. “I’m good,” she answered quietly.

“I been tellin’ y’all Smoke don’t talk to nobody but Annie,” Jada said, laughing lightly as she nudged Stack with her shoulder. “It’s weird.”

Mary snorted softly beside Stack, already watching the whole interaction unfold. “One hundred percent true,” Mary jumped in immediately.

Smoke looked genuinely confused. “I talk to y’all.”

Stack barked out laughing instantly. “Nigga no you don’t.”

Mary laughed harder. “You barely even looked over here.”

Annie looked away immediately before Smoke could catch her laughing.

Pearline covered her mouth instantly trying not to laugh because there it was. Exactly what she’d been saying. Smoke really did miss half the shit girls tried to do around him.

Jada looked thrown off for maybe half a second before recovering smoothly. “I’m sayin’ you act different with Annie.”

Smoke frowned like he genuinely didn’t understand the point. “That’s my girl.”

Simple. Certain.

Mary made a loud fake throwing-up noise while Stack nearly folded over laughing beside her.

Annie felt warmth crawl straight up her neck.

Jada laughed too, but this time it sounded tighter. Her eyes met Annie’s.

A small smile pulled at Annie’s mouth before she could stop it. Bitch.

Jada’s smile stayed in place.

But barely.

Present Day

The memory faded slowly beneath the low hum of Smoke’s truck engine.

Sunlight flashed through the windshield in uneven patterns as he drove, one hand loose against the steering wheel while warm air moved steadily through the cracked window beside him. His other hand tapped once against his thigh before going still again.

Then the truck speakers crackled softly.

Incoming call. Jada.

Her name spread bright across the dashboard. Smoke stared at it for a long second. Long enough for the phone to ring twice.

Three times. Then he hit ignore. Silence settled back inside the truck immediately afterward. Ever since Annie walked back into town, his thoughts hadn’t stayed where he put them. Eight years gone—and somehow seeing her again still felt too close to touching a live wire.

Aunt Cheryl’s house already smelled like seasoning and heat by the time Annie and Pearline finished getting dressed.

Music drifted through nearly every room. Beyoncé’s II Hands II Heaven played low from the Bluetooth speaker sitting on the guest bathroom counter. Outside, somewhere deep in the backyard, a blues guitar rolled through the open windows mixed with the sound of laughter, dominoes slamming against folding tables, and Aunt Cheryl’s husband Lewis loudly arguing with somebody over whether Bobby Womack was better than Marvin Gaye.

Pearline’s aunt—her mama Maxine’s younger sister, had always been the kind of woman whose house never really belonged to just her. Doors stayed unlocked more than they should. People were always sleeping over. Some needed a hot meal. Someone always got fussed at and fed in the same breath. Growing up, Annie had spent enough weekends there that people stopped asking whose child she was and started assuming she belonged to Cheryl.

Which, in a lot of ways, she had.

Annie loved her mother. She did, but Aunt Cheryl had become the adult she ran to for things she didn’t know how to explain at home. The conversations that felt too embarrassing, too confusing, too complicated to say out loud to her own mama somehow came out easier sitting at Cheryl’s kitchen counter while she cut onions, folded laundry or fried fish. Crushes. Friend drama. College fears. Questions she couldn’t even ask properly yet.

Aunt Cheryl never pushed. She just listened. Then eventually she’d say something annoyingly simple that made Annie realize she already knew the answer.

Pearline’s family became Annie’s family so gradually she never noticed it happening. Holidays. Sleepovers. Last-minute rides. Summer afternoons. Somewhere along the way Aunt Cheryl stopped introducing her as Pearline’s friend and started introducing her as one of hers.

Right on cue her voice cut through the house. “AND WHO ATE MY DAMN DEVILED EGGS?”

“There go Cheryl,” Pearline muttered calmly.

“And turn that sad shit down!” another older voice yelled from somewhere outside.

Pearline rolled her eyes immediately. “…and there go mama.”

Annie laughed despite herself.

The whole house felt alive. They ended up staying the night at Cheryl’s after grocery shopping the evening before. Pearline originally planned to drop the food off and leave, but Cheryl took one look at the amount of prep still sitting untouched across the kitchen counters and shut that shit down immediately.

“Leave if you want to,” she’d said, snapping green beans into a bowl without looking up. “But yo’ mama gon’ talk so much shit about you tomorrow I might join in.”

Pearline groaned while Annie laughed.

So they stayed. Annie even ended up helping too despite Pearline repeatedly telling her to sit down because the cookout was technically for her. Cheryl ignored all of that. “Girl please,” she said, sliding a cutting board toward Annie. “You back home now. Slice them onions.”

And she did. Standing barefoot in Cheryl’s kitchen at nearly midnight while old school R&B drifted low through the house and women arguing lovingly over recipes felt strangely familiar. Like being dropped back into another version of herself she hadn’t touched in years.

By one in the morning, half the food was prepped. Uncle Lewis was asleep in the recliner in the family room with the TV still blasting low. Annie and Pearline ended up stretched across a queen size bed in the guest bedroom laughing quietly in the dark like they were teenagers again. For a few hours, it almost felt like no time had passed at all.

Currently, coolers crowded the hallway near the front door packed with beer, juice, bottled water, soda, and foil pans waiting to be carried outside. Younger cousins ran through the living room screaming before another auntie immediately yelled at them to stop running in the damn house. The kitchen smelled like barbecue sauce, fried fish, onions, and sweet baked beans while women moved around each other shoulder to shoulder arguing over seasoning.

Upstairs inside the guest bedroom, Annie had changed clothes four times.

Pearline sat stretched across the bed eating hot chips while watching the latest outfit reveal with growing amusement.

First it had been denim shorts and a tank top. Too casual. Then a black sundress. Too obvious. Then jeans. Absolutely not. Now half the room looked like a tornado touched down inside it while Annie stood in front of the mirror quietly questioning every decision she’d made since coming back home.

Pearline watched her for a little while before reaching toward the tequila bottle sitting beside Annie’s makeup bag.

“Aight,” she muttered. “Come here.”

Annie looked over immediately. “What?”

“You nervous as hell.”

“Not.”

Pearline snorted, already pouring two shots into plastic cups. “Sure.”

Annie laughed softly despite herself before walking over. The cups clinked together lightly.

“To Annie finally outside again,” Pearline said.

“That’s…dramatic.”

“And is.”

Annie laughed again before both of them tipped the shots back. The tequila burned all the way down, warm and sharp enough to make Annie squeeze her eyes shut briefly afterward.

“Shiiit.”

Pearline coughed once immediately after. “See? That’s why I don’t do dark liquor.”

“You literally bought it.”

“And?”

Annie shook her head laughing while Pearline shoved the open chip bag toward her.

“Eat somethin’.”

“I’m fine.”

“Aight. You gon’ be sweatin’ tequila and fucked up in Cheryl backyard if you don’t eat somethin’.”

“I won't.”

Pearline pointed at her immediately. “That’s exactly what drunk people say.”

Annie rolled her eyes smiling despite herself before turning back toward the mirror again.

After another ten minutes of changing her mind twice more, Annie finally settled on the striped halter dress mostly because Pearline threatened to physically pick something for her if she kept standing in front of the mirror sighing.

The dress was a soft knit material striped in deep blue, green, white, and pale lavender, the colors bright enough to feel summery without trying too hard. The halter neckline dipped low across her chest while the open back left most of her skin bare except for the tie sitting neatly behind her neck. Unfortunately or fortunately, the dress hugged her body tighter than she remembered when she bought it. The material curved around her hips, her thighs, the softness of her stomach. Her breasts sat high beneath the neckline, enough cleavage showing to make her immediately fold her arms the second she caught herself staring too long in the mirror.

Pearline crunched another chip slowly. “Girl.”

Annie didn’t look away from the mirror. “What?”

“You know what.”

“It’s hot outside.”

“Mhm.”

“It is.”

Pearline’s mouth twitched. “And apparently you tryna make Elijah Moore lose consciousness beside Cheryl’s potato salad.”

Annie groaned instantly. “Please shut up.”

“I’m serious.” Pearline pointed dramatically with another chip. “That man already looked halfway dead in Stack apartment yesterday.”

Annie narrowed her eyes finally turning away from the mirror. “Oh, so we not gon’ talk about YOU?”

Pearline blinked innocently. “What about me?”

Annie looked her up and down slowly.

Pearline’s red-and-white striped maxi dress clung to every curve she had, the soft material hugging her hips and thighs while the slit climbed just high enough along one leg to show smooth brown skin every time she moved. The open back exposed nearly her entire spine beneath her sleek ponytail, and somehow the dress still looked casual enough for a cookout despite the fact it was absolutely ruining the peace.

Annie folded her arms. “You look like summertime temptation.”

Pearline barked out laughing instantly. “But you got the nerve to talk about me?”

“This?” Pearline looked down at herself pretending to be confused. “Girl this comfortable.”

“Comfortable where?” Annie stared. “At a cookout or on somebody's son's prayer list?”

Pearline nearly choked on her chips laughing.

Annie shook her head. “You absolutely tryna make Elias act stupid outside.”

“Chile…,” Pearline continued, waving another chip dramatically, “Elias been stupid since tenth grade. That ain’t got nothin’ to do wit’ me.”

Annie laughed softly despite herself.

Pearline pointed immediately. “There it is again.”

“What?”

“That little happy-ass laugh.”

Annie’s face fell instantly. “Line…”

“I’m just sayin’.” Pearline’s expression softened slightly afterward. “I ain’t seen you like this in a long time.”

Annie’s face dropped instantly. Somehow that felt worse. She turned back toward the mirror too quickly afterward pretending to adjust the side of the dress while heat crawled slowly up her neck.

Pearline watched her quietly. That tiny hopeful look on Annie’s face hit harder than expected, because yesterday had been the first time Pearline saw her genuinely excited about something in a very long time. Hopeful. Pearline hated what she knew might ruin it. Her eyes flicked briefly toward her phone laying beside her on the comforter. Towards the memory of Smoke sitting beside Jada inside that restaurant booth. Towards Stack saying—He not bringin’ her. Pearline wanted to believe that.

Still…

Annie sighed. “I don’t even know why I care this much.”

Pearline knew why. Both of them did. But she let Annie keep pretending.

Annie sat near the foot of the bed smoothing nervous hands over the dress before glancing casually toward the open bedroom door. “You said Elijah came by already this mornin’?”

Pearline looked up. “Uh huh. Him and Uncle Lewis set the speakers up outside.”

Annie nodded slowly like that information didn’t matter nearly as much as it actually did.

“Oh.”

Pearline watched her for a little too long.

Annie reached over stealing one of her chips casually. “He stay long?”

There it was.

Pearline smiled immediately. “You fishin’.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

Annie rolled her eyes. “I’m askin’ a question.”

“Yeah, okay,” Pearline’s grin widened.

Annie threw the chip at her. Pearline laughed harder dodging it while Annie shook her head trying unsuccessfully not to smile too.

“So…is he?” Annie asked a second later, quieter this time.

Pearline’s laughter softened slightly. “He said he was comin’ back.”

Annie looked down too fast afterward, like she didn’t want her face caught reacting.

Pearline watched the small smile trying to pull at Annie’s mouth before it disappeared again.

There it was again. Soft. Careful. Still alive somehow after all these years, and suddenly Pearline’s chest tightened, because now Jada pushed back into the front of her mind immediately afterward. Laughing. Too comfortable. Too familiar.

Pearline swallowed slowly. “Annie…”

Annie looked up immediately. “Hm?”

Pearline hesitated. She almost said it. Almost told her everything. That she saw Smoke with Jada. That nobody really knew what was going on between them. She didn’t want Annie walking outside blind, but then she smiled again. Tiny…nervous.

Suddenly Pearline couldn’t say it. Couldn’t bring herself to throw Jada between this fragile little piece of happiness Annie somehow found again. So instead she stood tossing the chip bag aside.

“Nothin’,” she muttered instead, standing too fast afterward. “Come on before Aunt Cheryl start cussin’ everybody out for standin’ around useless.”

Annie looked at her strangely for a second but stood anyway, smoothing her hands down the front of the dress one last time before glancing toward the mirror again.

The smile appeared again. Quick. Almost shy.

Hope looked strange on her now. Older. More careful. But still there. The realization unsettled her immediately. She had not come back to Mississippi expecting this. Didn’t come back expecting her stomach to flip every time Elijah looked at her. Or expect one awkward afternoon inside Stack’s apartment to crack open something she spent years forcing shut.

Outside, a car horn blared. Then another. Music swelled louder beneath a burst of laughter somewhere near the backyard.

Pearline groaned instantly. “That better not be Stack blowin’ that fuckin’ horn.”

As if summoned, her phone rang immediately afterward.

STACK.

Pearline answered, already irritated. “What?”

“Bring y’all asses outside,” Stack shouted loudly over music and voices in the background. “Everybody arrivin’.”

Annie’s stomach flipped hard enough to make her regret every sip of tequila she’d had while getting dressed.

Now it was real.

The second Annie stepped outside, the sound hit her first.

Music layered over more music. A blues record played somewhere deeper in the backyard while Frankie Beverly and Maze floated from another speaker closer to the patio. Laughter cracked through the humid air in bursts. Dominoes slammed hard enough against tables to sound competitive. People yelled for more ice. Kids tore across the grass shrieking while an older cousin threatened to spray them with the water hose if they knocked over another chair.

Aunt Cheryl’s property stretched wide behind the house, big enough for generations to spread out across it comfortably. Cars lined both sides of the road outside the gate already, more pulling up every few minutes. Folding tables covered in aluminum trays sat beneath two huge pecan trees while smoke rolled thick from the grill pits farther back near the fence line.

The smell nearly overwhelmed her immediately—charcoal, barbecue sauce, hot grease, sweet liquor, and fresh-cut grass baking beneath the Mississippi heat. Underneath all of it was that familiar Delta smell she never figured out how to describe properly after moving away. Warm earth. Humidity. River air somewhere nearby.

Home.

Her chest tightened unexpectedly.

“ANNIE BABY!”

Before she could process anything else, one of Pearline’s older cousins, Geneva, was already crossing the yard toward her.

Geneva had always occupied that strange space growing up where she never quite felt like a cousin. Five years older than Annie and Pearline, she’d been old enough to seem impossibly cool but young enough to still let them into her world. She was the cousin whose room they wanted to sit in when they were kids, whose clothes they wanted to borrow before they were old enough, who knew everybody and always had the gossip before anybody else. She gave them the best advice, defended them when adults got too loud, and slipped easily between big sister, best friend, and professional instigator depending on the day. If Geneva was going somewhere, they wanted to go too.

She looked exactly the same now—just grown into herself.

A striped maxi dress moved around her legs as she crossed the yard, the fabric light enough to catch every bit of warm Mississippi air. The colors softened against her caramel skin—cream with narrow lines of rust, black, and muted gold running vertically from neckline to hem. Thin straps framed her shoulders while the neckline dipped low. Big tassel earrings brushed her neck every time she moved, and a woven straw bag hung from one arm despite the fact she absolutely did not need a purse for a backyard cookout. Long straight hair fell over one shoulder and sunglasses rested on top of her head like she had somewhere more important to be later.

She reached Annie and immediately grabbed her face with both hands. “Lawd, look at my Annie.”

Before Annie could answer Geneva pulled her into a tight hug that smelled faintly of perfume, body oil, and summer heat before leaning back again to inspect her dramatically. “Bitchhh…you done got finer sittin’ up there in North Carolina.”

Pearline barked out laughing immediately. “‘Neva.”

Geneva ignored her completely, looking Annie up and down. “Nah, for real—look at all this ass.”

“GENEVA.”

“What?” She shrugged. “I got eyes.”

Annie laughed so hard she almost snorted, and just like that, some of the tightness in her chest loosened. For a second. Then others started calling her name. Then another.

“Oh shit—Annie?!”

“When you get back?”

“Girl, look at you!”

Suddenly she was being pulled into hugs from every direction. More relatives. Old classmates. Women she hadn’t seen since before high school kissing her cheek and telling her she looked beautiful. Questions came rapid-fire before she could even answer the last one.

How long you staying?You still in Charlotte?Yo’ mama good?You remember so-and-so?You workin’?

Annie smiled through all of it. Laughed through all of it. Answered each question. But underneath every conversation, every hug, every joke—she was looking for him. It happened automatically. Every car or truck door slamming outside the gate made her glance up. Every deep laugh somewhere across the yard tightened something low in her stomach before she realized it belonged to somebody else. Every time people moved around near the grills, her eyes moved there instinctively.

Pearline noticed every single time. “You look so nervous, friend,” Pearline muttered low beside her while accepting a beer her cousin handed her.

“I’m not nervous.”

“Right.”

Annie ignored her. Or tried to.

Outside, the heat wrapped around her immediately, making the halter dress cling softer against her skin the longer she stood there. Her long braids brushed warm against the open skin of her back every time she moved, humidity already settling along the base of her neck while sweat gathered slowly between her breasts beneath the neckline. Still somehow she became even more aware of her body because of him. Even without seeing him yet.

The music changed suddenly. Blues faded lower beneath newer bass while voices rose louder near the grill pits. Then a familiar voice carried across the yard.

“Move, nigga. Damn.”

Laughter erupted near the driveway immediately afterward. Annie froze. Her stomach dropped so fast it almost hurt because she knew that voice. Knew it down to muscle memory.

Annie turned before she could stop herself. Dark oversized shirt hanging loose over his frame, the deep brown fabric softening against the width of his shoulders and chest. Tattoos disappeared beneath the loose sleeves. Black shorts hung low against narrow hips, white and black Nike Dunks scuffing lightly against the pavement. A black cap sat low over his eyes, single gold chain glinting faintly against his throat.

“Smoke!” Stack exclaimed as he turned around from where he stood near the grill pit. “Bout time yo’ muthafuckin ass got here!”

“There he go,” a classmate named Mike laughed, already moving toward him.

Smoke lifted one hand in acknowledgment before pulling Stack into a quick dap and shoulder bump that looked practiced from years of repetition. Mike stepped in after that. Then another. Hands grabbing at him. Voices overlapping. Smoke laughed at something another said, head dipping slightly while one of his homeboys slapped his shoulder.

Laughter carried through the music.

Yesterday, inside Stack’s apartment, he felt almost unreal. Too close. Too quiet. Too heavy with history. But standing outside now beneath fading sunlight and backyard music with everybody surrounding him—Elijah looked dangerous again. Familiar. Beautiful. Like every version of the boy she used to love had grown all the way into a man.

Maybe it was the tequila talking, the heat, or eight years refusing to stay buried. But for one terrifying moment, Annie forgot how to breathe because Elijah Moore looked up and found her immediately. Like some part of him had already known exactly where she was.

Smoke forgot what Mike was saying halfway through the sentence. Something about a fight that happened outside Club Fusion last month. Cornbread laughed loud as hell beside him, while Isoo kept interrupting every five seconds adding details nobody asked for. Stack stood near the grill pit drinking beer and talking shit like always while Bo argued with Uncle Lewis over whether the ribs needed more sauce. The kind of evening Smoke usually moved through without thinking too hard. Then something shifted. Like pressure changing in the air. His eyes lifted automatically and found Annie. And everything in him suddenly went very still.

She stood near the patio beside Pearline surrounded by women talking over each other while music rolled through the yard behind them. The dress she had on wrapped around her body soft and close, pulling against curves he absolutely did not remember being that dangerous.

Jesus Christ.

Smoke’s jaw flexed once. Because yesterday inside Stack’s apartment had been too sudden. Too crowded with history and shock and confusion for him to really look at her the way he wanted to. But now? He could see everything.

The long braids falling down her back. The neckline dipping low enough to show the soft swell of her breasts beneath the summer light. Hips fuller than they used to be. Thicker through the thighs too. Ass sitting heavy beneath that dress in a way that made something low in his stomach pull tight immediately.

Grown.

Annie had always been beautiful. But this? This felt unfair.

“And then this nigga gon’ say—” Cornbread stopped mid-sentence laughing at his own story while everybody around Smoke reacted.

Smoke barely heard any of it, but Annie looked up and there it was again. That feeling. Like the rest of the yard dimmed slightly every time their eyes locked. Want. Yearning. Recognition. All tangled together so tight it almost made his chest ache.

She looked away first. Not by much. Just enough to smile at Grace and Therise as they walked over toward her carrying babies, diaper bags and chaos with them. Smoke’s attention followed automatically.

Grace balanced little Lisa against her hip while Therise waddled carefully beside her, one hand rubbing absentmindedly across her stomach while her boys ran circles around her legs screaming at each other. Annie’s entire face changed when she saw them, brightening instantly. Grace pulled her into a one-armed hug while Lisa immediately started reaching for Annie with grabby little hands.

“Look at her!” Grace laughed. “This girl doesn’t go to just anybody.”

Annie laughed softly, taking Lisa against her hip without hesitation. Natural. Easy. Like she’d done it a hundred times before.

Something inside Smoke twisted painfully, because for one stupid dangerous second—he saw it. Saw Annie standing in a kitchen holding his baby while music played low in another room. Saw little brown babies with her eyes and his attitude running through a backyard somewhere. Saw years he never let himself think too hard about. The image hit hard enough to steal the air from his lungs.

Stack noticed immediately. His eyes slid toward Smoke before following his line of sight across the yard. Then back again. Stack cleared his throat loudly. Sharp enough to snap Smoke partly out of his head.

“You hear this nigga, bruh?” Stack asked suddenly, shoving a beer into Bo’s chest hard enough to spill some. “Talkin’ bout he could beat me one-on-one right now.”

Bo frowned immediately. “Man, when I say that?”

But before Stack could keep the distraction going—Isoo looked up.

“Hold up.”

Everybody went still automatically because Isoo always talked the loudest right before saying something stupid.

“Where Jada at?”

Stack’s entire body stiffened instantly. “Shut the fuck up,” he muttered fast.

Too late.

Isoo blinked. “What?”

Stack cut his eyes sharply toward Annie across the yard before lowering his voice. “Nigga damn.”

Smoke didn’t say anything immediately. Instead he reached into his pocket. Pulled out his cigarettes. Tapped one loose. Stuck it between his lips. The lighter clicked once. Twice. Then caught. Smoke took a slow drag while the group went quiet around him. His jaw ticked once as smoke rolled out low through his nose.

Jada heard him talking to Uncle Lewis a few days earlier about borrowing speakers. She started asking questions—

“Y’all havin’ somethin’?”

“Who all gonna be there?”

Small smile.

“Sounds fun.”

Smoke didn’t think much of it. At the time, it was just a cookout. People came. People brought people. That was normal. So when she casually mentioned coming too…he never corrected the assumption.

Then yesterday happened.

He opened Stack’s apartment door and Annie was standing there.

By the time Smoke realized she was staying—realized she’d be at the cookout, something selfish inside him tilted immediately. Not because he was doing anything wrong or he owed Annie anything. But suddenly the idea of Jada coming with him to the cookout and standing beside him all day felt wrong in a way he didn’t wanna examine too hard.

He hated himself a little for how quick that feeling came.

Then this morning Jada left a voicemail. Soft. Apologetic.

“Hey…I won’t be able to come to the cookout. Danielle called out sick and I gotta cover a showing.” She laughed. “Bad timing.”

Smoke remembered listening. Waiting to feel disappointed. Instead his chest loosened. That bothered him more than anything.

Another drag. Then finally—“She had to work.” His voice came out flat. Smoke flicked ash into the grass. “She ain’t comin’.”

Bo looked at Cornbread. Cornbread looked at Stack. Stack looked at Smoke.

Everybody knew.

Only Isoo stayed oblivious. His eyes drifted toward the patio. His eyes widened dramatically. “Aw hell nah.”

Smoke already felt irritation crawling up his spine.

“Bruh, I know that ain’t fine ass Annie over there.”

Stack closed his eyes briefly like he already knew where this was going.

“She back back?” Isoo asked. “Like for real?”

Nobody answered fast enough. Which was apparently answer enough for him. Isoo straightened immediately, adjusting his shirt. “Shiiit then. Lemme go say what’s up.”

Cornbread muttered, “Here this nigga go.”

Isoo started moving. Actually moving. Straight towards Annie and suddenly Smoke understood very clearly how easy it would be to hit somebody with a folding chair.

The thought arrived calm. Instant. Violent enough to make his jaw tighten hard. Annie wasn’t his anymore. He knew that. Understood it. But watching another man walk toward her still felt wrong enough to make something ugly rise low in his chest anyway.

Stack saw it happen in real time. Saw Smoke’s posture change. Saw his grip tighten slightly around the cigarette.

“Aye,” Stack said, quickly stepping sideways into Smoke’s path just enough to interrupt whatever terrible decision was forming. “Relax.”

Smoke’s eyes stayed fixed on the back of Isoo’s head.

“He grown,” Stack continued lower. “Don’t start actin’ crazy in Cheryl yard.”

Mike snorted immediately beside them. “Too late. That nigga already look homicidal.”

Cornbread started laughing into his cup.

But Smoke didn’t laugh. Didn’t move either, because across the yard Annie looked up just as Isoo reached her. Isoo hugged Annie. Too long. Then said something and Annie laughed. Easy. Warm. The way she laughed with everybody. Smoke felt something pull low in his chest anyway. He watched another a little longer. Took one last drag. Then held the cigarette away from himself and exhaled.

“Somebody pour me somethin’.”

Stack looked over immediately.

Bo’s mouth started twitching.

Cornbread snorted into his cup.

Smoke kept watching Annie. “Strong.”

Stack blinked once. Looked toward Isoo. Then back at Smoke. His eyebrows lifted slowly.

“…Oh niggaaaa.”

“ANNIE?”

The voice pulled her attention away from Lisa tugging at one of her braids. She turned and immediately laughed. She recognized him instantly.

Isaac Carter aka Isoo.

Older now, broader. Still handsome in that easy unfair way he’d always been. Dark skin glowing beneath the late afternoon sun, close-cut beard filling in where a baby face used to be, smile still stupidly nice. Tall too. Taller than she remembered. Athletic without trying too hard. He was always laughing, always flirting, and somehow there was always at least one girl claiming she was done with him before ending up right back beside him the next weekend.

But somehow—never hers.

He’d always been sweet to Annie. Never flirty…just easy to be around. Annie remembered he carried her backpack once in sixth grade because she had too many books. By freshman year he’d gotten taller and louder and started football with Smoke and Stack. She remembered him telling some boy to leave her alone at a game once before wandering off like it wasn’t a big deal.

Pretty. Friendly. Community-approved. Terrible for relationships. Her mama loved him. Smoke tolerated him. Which honestly should’ve been her first clue. Isoo reached her and immediately pulled her into a hug. Long enough to feel familiar. Not long enough to feel weird.

She laughed against his shoulder. “Well damn.”

He pulled back looking at her fully. “Look at you.”

Annie rolled her eyes immediately. “Boy bye.”

“No seriously.” He looked offended. “You been in North Carolina eatin’ money?”

She laughed. “Hi to you too.”

Isoo smiled bigger. “Nah for real though.” His eyes moved over her once. Respectful. Surprised. Then landed back on her face. “You good?”

Something softened in her chest. She nodded. “Yeah.”

He smiled, then immediately started talking asking questions, and catching her up on old classmates who moved where, who got married and even who got arrested. Stories. People. Names.

Annie laughed, answered and nodded, but she wasn’t really listening. Her eyes kept drifting back towards Smoke.

Smoke leaned near Stack now. Cup in one hand, cigarette in the other. He talked less than everybody else. Watching more, then he tipped the cup back. One swallow.

Finished.

Her stomach tightened immediately and her eyes narrowed.That seemed…intentional.

He lowered the cup and looked directly at her.

Annie blinked and looked away back to Isoo. “…and remember Mary used to swear Stack wanted her?”

Annie nodded automatically. “Yes, yes I do.”

Isoo kept talking. “…and Sarita got four kids now.”

“Uh huh.”

“…and you still owe me for them chips.”

She blinked. “Wait, what?”

Isoo laughed immediately. “See. You not listenin’.”

Her eyes widened. “No I am!”

His smile softened. His eyes drifted past her. He smirked slightly. “Oh.”

Annie frowned. “What?”

Isoo laughed under his breath. “Nothin’.”

She turned automatically and saw movement, Pearline, Grace, Therise, little Lisa, and the boys, all slowly migrating toward the grill pits where Stack, Smoke, and the other men were.

Annie immediately straightened. There it was—her out. She looked back at Isoo, smiled and pointed. “Oh they movin’.”

Isoo looked over then back at her. His smile widened immediately. “Aw damn.”

Annie laughed. “What?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nothin’.” But his eyes flicked once—past her. Towards Smoke, then back again.

Suddenly Annie had the strange feeling she wasn’t the only person pretending not to notice things today.

Stack noticed Pearline before she noticed him, though he told himself he was only looking because Grace and Therise had started making their way toward the grill pit with the kids. That was almost believable for a minute. Grace had Lisa balanced on one hip, the baby’s fat hand reaching for every dangling necklace and plastic cup she passed, while Therise moved slower beside her, heavily pregnant and already threatening her boys through clenched teeth whenever they got too close to the food tables. But then Pearline stepped around a folding chair and Stack’s attention went straight to her.

The red-and-white striped dress hugged her body in a way that made him forget whatever Cornbread had been saying about ribs, the slit opening with every other step to show the smooth brown line of her leg. Her ponytail brushed the open skin of her back, and the sunlight caught her hoops each time she laughed at something Grace said.

Stack stared too long. He knew he had because Pearline caught him before she even reached the group, her eyes narrowing with that familiar warning that usually meant he was already in trouble.

“What?” she asked once she got close enough to be heard over the music.

Stack took a sip from his beer and tried to look innocent. “Nothin’.”

Pearline folded her arms, which only made the dress worse on him. “That was a look.”

Grace immediately made a noise under her breath, delighted to have caught something. Stack ignored her and let his eyes move over Pearline one more time, slower than he meant to, before he shrugged.

“You look good. That’s all.”

Pearline’s face changed for barely a second, the smallest softening around her mouth before she rolled her eyes to cover it.

“You drunk?”

“Not yet,” he said, and that pulled a laugh out of her despite herself.

The laugh didn’t last long. Pearline’s gaze drifted past his shoulder towards Annie and Isoo, then towards Smoke, and the lightness left her face almost immediately.

Stack saw it happen and sighed through his nose, already knowing where her mind had gone. She stepped closer so the music and voices around them swallowed the conversation.

“She really ain’t comin’?”

Stack didn’t ask who. He glanced at Smoke, who had been pretending to listen to the men for the last several minutes while watching Annie every chance he got, then looked back at Pearline.

“She ain’t comin’.”

Pearline looked away, but her exhale didn’t sound relieved enough. “I should tell Annie.”

Stack frowned. “Tell her what?”

The look she gave him answered before she did.

Stack followed Pearline’s gaze toward Annie, who was still smiling at Isoo and pretending she wasn’t checking Smoke’s location every few breaths.

“You worried for no reason,” Stack said quietly.

Pearline folded her arms tighter. “She deserves to know.”

Stack studied her face, then shook his head. “If them two stop bein’ scary and actually talk, Jada gon’ become a memory real quick.”

Pearline looked at him long enough for her expression to soften, but the guilt didn’t leave her face completely. “…I hope you right.”

Stack hated how small she sounded when she said it, so he reached out and hooked an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side before she could decide whether she wanted comfort or not.

Pearline shoved at his chest immediately, but there was no force behind it. “Stack.”

He only held on tighter, which was exactly when Grace saw them.

“Oooooh,” Grace said, loud enough to drag Bo’s attention from his cup and Cornbread’s from the grill. Therise smiled immediately, one hand on her stomach rubbing it in circles.

“Look at the lovebirds,” Grace sang, pointing like she had discovered something scandalous instead of two people who had been circling each other since high school.

Pearline groaned and tried harder to push Stack away while he grinned beside her.

Bo nodded like he was witnessing history. “You finally wore her down, huh?”

Pearline gasped. “Excuse me?”

Stack, because he had no sense of self-preservation, nodded solemnly. “Persistence.”

She shoved him again, and this time he actually laughed.

Before Pearline could cuss him out properly, Aunt Cheryl’s voice cut across the backyard loud enough to make several conversations stop at once.

“AIGHT! FOOD IS READY! OLD FOLKS FIRST, THEN KIDS, THEN EVERYBODY ELSE’S GREEDY ASSES!”

The yard rearranged itself immediately. Chairs scraped across grass, kids ran toward the tables, aunties started directing traffic, and Cornbread stood up with an enthusiasm that made Therise stare at him in disgust.

“Boys,” he called, and both of his sons appeared like he had summoned them.

He pointed at himself proudly. “That’s us.”

The crowd moved in that strange, ordinary way people always did once food got announced. Conversations broke apart mid-story. Somebody’s aunt called for kids that pretended not to hear. People started drifting toward the tables in loose groups with paper plates already in hand while others migrated toward shade and folding chairs to claim seats before the older folks took the good ones.

Pearline noticed Annie.

She looked up and caught her standing a few yards away with Isoo still beside her. Grace had already moved off toward the food with Bo and Lisa while Therise followed after Cornbread and the boys, one hand rubbing her stomach while fussing at her youngest to stop running. Mike had disappeared toward a group of women near the fence and somebody else called Isoo’s name from across the yard.

Pearline watched the moment happen in real time. Isoo looked toward whoever called him. Annie looked toward the grill. Isoo said something. Annie laughed politely. Then they split. Isoo peeled off into another conversation without much thought and Annie kept walking.

Stack followed Pearline’s line of sight and immediately understood.

Smoke hadn’t moved, but his attention already had.

Stack looked between them once before leaning slightly toward Pearline. “Oh.”

Pearline folded her arms. “…yeah.”

Annie slowed near the grill pit.

Smoke looked up. Nobody had orchestrated it or moved out the way on purpose. But somehow when everything settled—kids, plates, conversations, chairs—there wasn’t anybody left standing between them.

Stack looked over at Pearline. Pearline looked at him. Neither said anything. Stack smiled first. Quiet.

“Told you.”

Smoke looked at her first. Annie looked up a heartbeat later. The backyard stayed loud around them, all music and laughter and children whining for juice, but the space between them seemed to quiet anyway.

Annie smiled first, too quick and nervous, her fingers brushing one of her braids behind her ear.

Smoke cleared his throat like the simplest word required effort. “…hey.”

Her smile softened. “Hi.”

The silence after that stretched just long enough for everybody close enough to notice and pretend they weren’t watching.

Smoke’s eyes moved over her once, brief and controlled, but not brief enough. “You look nice,” he said, voice lower than it had been with anybody else.

Annie blinked, surprised by the directness, then looked at him with a warmth that made Stack glance away out of respect for what felt like an intimate moment between them. “Thank you, so do you.”

For a moment neither of them moved. Then Smoke leaned in for a hug, careful in a way that made the gesture hurt more than it should have. His hand touched the bare skin of her back for less than a second before he seemed to remember himself and pulled away. Annie stepped back too quickly, smoothing her dress even though nothing had moved out of place.

Smoke looked toward the grill. Annie looked toward the tables.

Stack looked at Pearline, and Pearline looked right back at him. Neither of them said it out loud, but they both understood the same thing—

If Smoke and Annie were going to survive the rest of this cookout, everybody else needed to get out of the way.

As they moved toward the food tables, the crowd gradually absorbed and rearranged around them in the familiar rhythm family gatherings always settled into once food got announced.

An auntie passed by balancing a stack of paper plates against her stomach while still carrying on a conversation over her shoulder. Children threaded between folding chairs until their mother finally caught one by the arm and redirected him toward the drinks cooler. The buffet stretched beneath two long folding tables pushed end to end and covered in white plastic tablecloths already wrinkled from heat and elbows.

Aluminum pans ran nearly the entire length of it, some covered in foil folded back halfway, others already opened and steaming into the humid air. Ribs sat dark and glossy beneath sauce collecting in the corners of the tray. Fried catfish rested in paper towel-lined pans beside golden chicken wings dusted with seasoning. Hot dogs rolled against each other near hamburgers wrapped loosely in foil to keep warm. Baked beans glistened thick with brown sugar and pieces of smoked meat, while macaroni and cheese sat heavy and golden around the edges where it had baked too long in the best way. Someone brought green beans cooked down soft with onions and turkey necks. And corn that sat shining looking like sunlight slathered in butter.

The potato salad disappeared the fastest.

A pan of deviled eggs already looked picked over. Coolers lined the ground underneath, packed with bottled water, canned soda, wine coolers, beer, Capri Suns, and ice melting faster than people could replace it.

Annie found herself walking beside Smoke simply because everybody else had drifted off somewhere and neither of them seemed interested in making a thing out of separating.

The heat had settled differently now that the sun was lowering. It still sat heavy against her skin, but the sharpness had worn off and left everything softer around the edges. Her braids brushed against her back every time she moved, and she became hyper aware of things she hadn’t meant to notice.

Smoke still shortened his pace slightly whenever people crowded too close. He still moved to the outside of pathways without thinking. When one of Cornbread’s boys nearly collided with her carrying a dripping popsicle, Smoke placed a light hand at the center of her back and guided her around him before continuing forward. He didn’t seem aware he’d done it.

Uncle Lewis passed carrying another folding table under one arm and slowed long enough to nod toward Smoke.

“Smoke, appreciate you bringin’ them speakers and tables over.”

Smoke shrugged without looking up. “Ain’t nothin’.”

Lewis laughed and kept moving. “Easy for you to say. You got more room out there than all of us.”

Smoke shook his head once but didn’t answer and Lewis kept walking.

Annie watched him go before looking over.

“…more room?”

Smoke glanced at her. “At my house.”

She looked at him and waited for the rest of the sentence. When none came, she frowned slightly. “Your house?”

His expression switched immediately into confusion.

“…yeah.”

She stared at him long enough that he finally looked over fully. “What?”

Her eyebrows lifted, “you got a house?”

Now he looked confused that she was confused. Assuming she knew already. “Yeah.”

She looked at him harder. “What you mean ‘yeah’?”

His shoulders moved lightly. “I been there a few years.” Then after a second— “Built it.”

Her steps slowed enough for him to notice, just enough for something in his expression to soften as he looked over at her again.

She stared for another second. “You built it?”

He nodded once.

Her mouth opened slightly.“Oh my God.”

Smoke frowned. “What?”

She looked at him again, then laughed quietly. “You said that.”

His eyebrows pulled together. “Said what?”

She smiled and looked toward the food line ahead of them, but she wasn’t really seeing it anymore. The memory came back whole in the strange way old things sometimes did when one detail unlocked another. It had been junior year. Football season. Everybody sitting outside Mike’s house after practice because nobody wanted to go home yet. Stack had been arguing loudly about something nobody cared about and Smoke had been sitting back quieter than everybody else. Mike asked what they wanted to do when they got older and everybody gave normal answers first. But not Smoke.

She looked back at him. “You said if you ever had enough money you wanted your own place.”

His face stayed still.

She kept walking. “You said you wanted a house nobody could tell you to leave.”

His eyes stayed on her now.

She smiled. “You wanted land too.” Her smile widened slightly. “You said enough land that if you wanted to walk outside in your drawers and yell at people, nobody could stop you.”

That got an actual laugh out of him.

She noticed immediately. Then she continued. “You said you wanted a porch.”

Her voice softened naturally as more of it came back. “You said you wanted somewhere that felt yours.”

Smoke looked at her for a long moment before speaking.

“…you remember that?”

The question surprised her enough that she looked at him fully.

She smiled. “Yeah.” Then she shrugged lightly. “I remember stuff people tell me.” Her eyes moved away briefly before returning. “Especially people I care about.”

She heard herself as soon as she said it. Her expression changed before she could stop it. Not because she regretted saying it. More because she realized she hadn’t filtered herself before speaking.

Smoke looked at her. It wasn’t the polite kind of looking people do while waiting for their turn to talk. He looked at her in a way that made her suddenly aware of how many things she still remembered that she had never meant to keep. Not birthdays or milestones or dramatic moments. She remembered conversations. Things said in passing. Dreams he admitted before they became real. The version of him that still existed before life hardened around them.

The feeling settled strangely in her chest.

Before either of them could sit inside it too long, a cousin farther back the buffet line shouted asking whether they planned on eating or standing there flirting all damn day while everybody else starved.

Everyone in the vicinity laughed immediately.

Annie smiled and looked away.

Smoke shook his head and stepped forward reaching for the plates and silverware, handing Annie hers first.

Annie grabbed rice first, then baked beans, one rib, and macaroni before lowering the spoon.

Smoke looked down at her plate. “That’s all?”

She looked over. “What?”

His eyes stayed on the food. “That ain’t enough..”

Before she could answer, he reached over and took the plate from her hands with a familiarity that surprised both of them. He added another rib, another spoonful of macaroni and baked beans, then a piece of chicken before handing it back.

Annie laughed. “Elijah.”

His hand paused for a second after she said his name. Then he nodded once. “Aight, aight.”

He didn’t remove anything.

She looked down at the plate, then back at him. Her smile stayed.

Together they moved down the line while someone behind them accused Cornbread of taking too many deviled eggs while Aunt Cheryl threatened to start assigning portions if people didn’t stop acting greedy.

The line moved slower than it looked from far away. Every plate became a conversation. A family friend wanted to know who made the potato salad. Another was trying to negotiate for corner pieces of macaroni before Aunt Cheryl caught them digging. An uncle argued loudly that people always forget the hot sauce until another aunt pointed at the bottle directly in front of him and called him an “old senile ass.”

By the time Annie and Smoke reached the end of the buffet, the noise had settled into that familiar cookout rhythm where nobody stayed in one place long but somehow everybody still knew where everybody else was.

Smoke took a step aside to let a man squeeze past carrying three overloaded plates and looked around while Annie adjusted her grip on hers. Every table seemed occupied. Not full exactly—there were open seats scattered around, but occupied in the way family gatherings always worked where every chair belonged to someone else whether they were sitting in it or not. Kids had abandoned half-eaten plates to run through the yard. Older people spread purses and keys across tables like territory markers. A guest had even turned a cooler into a seat. Another was eating standing up beside the fence.

Without saying anything, Smoke angled toward one of the folding tables beneath the pecan trees.

Annie followed automatically.

The table sat just far enough from the speakers that conversation didn’t require yelling but close enough that the music still carried. Empty paper plates and sweating drink cans crowded one end where people had clearly already eaten and moved on. Two chairs sat open.

Smoke reached the table first and pulled one out with his foot before sitting in the other.

The movement was small. Easy. So easy she almost missed it, but she didn’t. Her chest tightened unexpectedly. Not because he pulled out her chair. He didn’t. It was the assumption of it. The same quiet way he used to make room for her without asking.

She adjusted her dress beneath her legs before settling into the folding chair. Annie picked up her fork.

Smoke looked at her, looked at the plate, and then back up. His eyebrows lifted slightly.

She blinked. “What?”

Something flickered across his face—just enough.

She stared at him for another second. Then immediately laughed. “Oh my Go—I mean, forgive me Jesus.” She shook her head smiling. “Sorry.” She put her fork back down.

He watched her for a second before reaching across the table and taking one of her hands. Natural, like he’d done it yesterday instead of years ago.

His hand was warm. Calloused. Her breath caught for reasons she chose not to examine.

Smoke lowered his head slightly.

“Lord, thank You for this food. Thank You for bringin’ everybody together and lettin’ us see another day. Bless the hands that prepared it. Watch over everybody here and everybody we still waitin’ on. Keep us grateful for what You give and open to receive what You send.”

His thumb brushed once lightly against the side of her hand. Then— “And let Aunt Cheryl stop threatenin’ people over them damn deviled eggs.”

Annie laughed instantly.

Around them Aunt Cheryl yelled—“I HEARD THAT.”

Smoke smiled faintly, then finished quietly. “Amen.”

“Amen.”

He let go of her hand. Too fast. Annie looked at her hand before looking back at him. Her smile softened. “You still do that.”

Smoke frowned. “Do what?”

She looked down at her plate. “Pray before you eat.”

He shrugged. “You know who raised me.”

Annie smiled. No. That wasn’t it. His mama did raise him, but Smoke had always prayed. Quietly. Consistently. Even back then. She realized she remembered that too.

Smoke unfolded his napkin and laid it across his lap before immediately reaching for the hot sauce.

Annie watched.

He caught her looking. “What?”

She smiled. “Nothin’.”

His eyes narrowed slightly.

She looked down at her plate. Then up at him again. “You still put hot sauce on everything.”

Smoke looked at the bottle in his hand, then shrugged. “Food be needin’ help.”

She laughed. His mouth twitched. That surprised her more than it should have.

For a while they ate in silence. The kind of silence that would’ve felt uncomfortable with anybody else, somehow didn’t here. Around them people moved in waves—some yelling for more napkins. Children screamed somewhere near the water hose. Latimore had turned into GloRilla and half the older crowd immediately started complaining. Smoke ate slowly. Methodically. Annie realized she remembered that too.

She looked down at her own plate, and then reached for her fork.

Smoke looked over. “That all you eatin’?”

She looked up. His eyes were already on her plate again. She laughed. “You already fixed my plate, Elijah.”

His eyebrows lifted. “You eat around stuff.”

Her hand paused. “What?”

He nodded toward the plate. “You ain’t touch the beans.”

She blinked. Then looked down. He was right.Her fork had worked around the baked beans completely.

She stared. Then looked back at him. “…how you know that?”

Smoke looked confused. “You always did that.”

She laughed softly and shook her head.

That one got her. The fact he said it like it was obvious. Like eight years wasn’t enough time to forget she hated baked beans touching other food.

She picked up her fork again. “You remember weird stuff.”

He shrugged. “I remember regular stuff.”

Something about that landed heavier than she expected. She took another bite before smiling.

“You still do that.”

His eyes lifted. “Do what?”

She nodded toward his plate. “Eat like somebody gon’ grade you on it.”

One side of his mouth moved. “What that mean?”

She laughed softly. “You eat real careful.”

His eyes dropped briefly to his plate. “That’s normal.”

She smiled. “No. Stack eat normal.”

Smoke glanced over automatically.

Stack stood near the grill eating the way he did everything else—too fast, talking too much, and one distracted moment away from ruining his shirt.

Smoke looked back. “…aight.”

That made her laugh harder. His mouth moved again into an almost smile. She leaned back in her chair and looked around.

The yard felt different sitting down. Slower. The sunlight filtering through the pecan trees had softened now, turning everything warmer. Smoke from the grill drifted lazily overhead. Lisa ran by holding a juice pouch bigger than her arm while Grace chased behind her. Therise sat nearby rubbing her stomach while Cornbread argued with one of his boys about eating vegetables.

Annie looked back at Smoke. “You really built it?”

He looked up.

“The house.”

His expression softened slightly. “Oh.” He nodded. “Yeah.”

She rested her elbow lightly against the table. “How?”

He looked at her. Then looked out across the yard, like he had to decide where to start.

She realized she wanted to hear all of it. Not the short version people gave at reunions or the highlights. She wanted the real version.

The one she would’ve gotten if she never left.

Smoke realized halfway through explaining it that he was talking more than he usually did.

At first he answered the way he answered everybody else when they asked about work. Short version. Practical version. He stabbed at his red velvet cake while he talked and kept his eyes mostly on his plate.

“Started doin’ framing after high school.”

Annie looked up.

He kept going. “One of Uncle Lewis’ friends needed people. Started residential first. Learned enough to move around.”

She nodded once, listening.

Smoke kept eating. “Then commercial work. Then started doin’ jobs myself.”

She tilted her head slightly. “How old were you?”

He thought about it. “Twenty-two? Twenty-three.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “That young?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t feel young.”

She smiled a little at that.

He noticed. Then kept going.

Somewhere between another bite of food and folks across the yard yelling about cheating at dominoes, he realized he stopped giving the short version.

He told her about working in summer heat until his clothes stuck to him by noon. About learning measurements by messing things up first. About figuring out pretty quickly he liked being outside more than behind a desk. He told her how one house became two and then somehow there were people working under him before he ever felt ready for that part.

He expected her to eventually stop listening. People usually did. They asked questions because they thought houses sounded impressive, then lost interest halfway through answers.

Annie didn’t. She kept asking strange questions. Questions nobody asked. “What’s your favorite part?”

Smoke looked up. “What?”

She shrugged and took a bite of her peach cobbler. “When you build.”

He stared at her, nobody ever asked that. He thought about it. Then answered honestly. “When it stop lookin’ like work.”

She smiled. “What that mean?”

He looked out toward the yard automatically. Trying to explain. “When you first start, it's just dirt.”

She watched him.

Then he continued. “Then wood and walls. Then eventually you standin’ in somethin’ that ain’t exist six months ago.”

She nodded immediately, like she understood.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

She smiled. “You always liked that part.”

Smoke looked at her.

Her fork paused halfway to her mouth. She blinked. “What?”

He stared.

“What?”

His voice came quieter. “How you know that?”

She looked confused, then looked down and laughed. Her shoulders lifted. “You used to draw houses.”

His eyebrows pulled together.

She kept talking. “Back of notebooks.”

His chest started tightening just enough to make breathing feel different.

She looked embarrassed suddenly. “I remember weird stuff.”

Smoke looked at her. Then shook his head. “Nah.”

She looked up.

His mouth moved slightly. “You remember regular stuff.”

Something changed in her face after that, something smaller than sadness. More careful. She looked down at her plate for a second before taking another bite.

He looked away first.

The yard kept moving around them.

Cornbread was chasing one of his boys holding a rib in each hand. The music somehow got louder. Aunt Cheryl yelled at people to throw their plates away. Little Lisa was crying somewhere and Grace sounded one second from laughing and losing patience at the same time.

Smoke looked back at Annie. She was eating slower now. She always did. Then he realized something. He’d been talking almost the entire time.

He frowned slightly. “What about you?”

She looked up.

He nodded once. “What you been doin’?”

Her expression changed immediately. He recognized that too. The small pause before she answered, like she was deciding what version to give.

She looked out at the yard, then back at him and started talking. Work first. Easy things. North Carolina. Her apartment. Her routine. People she’d met.

Stories.

While she talked, Smoke realized something he wasn’t prepared for. She still told stories the same way. Started in the middle. Circled back later. Used her hands when she got excited. Apologized when she thought she was talking too much.

He listened and somewhere between hearing about grocery stores, coworkers, apartment maintenance requests and how she still hated driving in Charlotte traffic—he realized something that settled low in his chest and stayed there.

He didn’t know this version of her. Not like before, but every few minutes she’d laugh a certain way, tilt her head, or remember something small and he’d recognize her again.

By the time people started slowing down on third plates and settling into the familiar rhythm of a Southern cookout—eating, arguing, walking, sitting back down just to stand up again five minutes later—the energy in the yard softened into something looser. The loud excitement of arrivals had worn off and settled into clusters. Older folks migrated toward shade and folding chairs, paper plates balanced on laps while conversations stretched across years and family trees. Kids had already abandoned actual meals in favor of popsicles, chips, and running themselves sick. The music changed again. Luther faded into Dru Hill for a minute before somebody protested and switched it back.

Geneva appeared carrying a clear plastic storage tub against her hip with the same expression she always wore before causing problems.

Nobody noticed at first, except Aunt Cheryl. She pointed immediately . “Ah hell nah.”

Geneva ignored her and kept walking.

Stack spotted the tub next and groaned. “Put them fuckin’ pictures back, mane.”

That got everybody’s attention. People started reacting before she even reached the tables.

“Not today.”

“Who got old pictures?”

“Geneva don’t start.”

Geneva dropped the tub onto an empty section of the buffet table between the leftover buns and a sweating pitcher of sweet tea. “I was cleanin’ closets.”

Nobody believed that.

The pictures came out anyway.

It happened naturally after that. People stopped eating long enough to drift over and look. Hands started reaching. Some found an elementary school picture and immediately started roasting hairstyles. Someone else found old prom photos. A cousin started lying about ages and got corrected instantly. Kids kept trying to grab pictures and getting their hands smacked away before somebody else handed them disposable cameras from another pile to distract them.

Annie ended up near the table without meaning to. Smoke ended up there too beside her. Close enough, but nobody commented.

Geneva stood flipping through a stack while narrating to nobody in particular.“Lord look at this.”

“Oh this was ugly.”

“Who dressed us, the fuck?”

People leaned in and out around her shoulder. Grace had Lisa balanced against one hip while trying to steal bites off Bo’s plate at the same time. Therise sat lower in her chair rubbing absent circles over her stomach while one of her boys climbed halfway into her lap. Pearline had somehow inserted herself directly into the center of everything and Stack kept appearing over her shoulder anytime she laughed.

Geneva flipped one more. Stopped. Looked again and her face changed. Her eyebrows climbed and her mouth opened slightly before she made a low noise in her throat.

“Aww shit.”

That caught more attention than yelling would have. People turned.

“What?”

Geneva stared another second, and looked up. Her eyes moved once to Annie and Smoke, then back down. A sneaky ass smile started pulling at her mouth. She held the picture against her chest.

“Oh y’all thought y’all was slick.”

Immediately everybody wanted to see. Pearline reached for the picture, but Geneva pulled away.

Stack tried to reach for it and again, Geneva pulled away.

Grace leaned forward laughing. “Move!”

Geneva laughed and finally handed the picture over.

Pearline took the photograph and immediately stopped smiling.

At first Annie thought she was joking, waiting for some exaggerated reaction or teasing comment, but Pearline just looked down at the picture for a long time. Her eyes moved once across the image, then lifted slowly toward Annie before drifting across the table toward Smoke and back down again. Something changed in her face—it wasn't a shock exactly, more recognition mixed with the satisfaction of finally having evidence for something she already suspected.

Her mouth stretched into a grin. “Oh y’all was bad.”

That was enough.

People started reaching automatically. Stack tried to take it and got smacked away. Bo leaned halfway across Grace to see. A cousin behind them started asking questions before they’d even seen it. The picture moved from hand to hand through overlapping reactions and commentary until eventually it ended up in Annie’s hands.

The photograph looked older than it actually was. Printed on glossy paper that had picked up faint bends and fingerprints over the years, the colors had softened just enough to make the whole thing feel warmer than real life. Like memory had edited it.

Summer sunlight flattened everything into soft gold. Somebody’s backyard stretched behind them in a blur of folding chairs, coolers, and people half-cut out of frame. Stack stood in the background throwing up signs with his hands. Smoke sat in one of those cheap ass woven lawn chairs that somehow survived every cookout, stretched out in a white t-shirt and basketball shorts, looking mildly irritated that a camera was pointed in his direction.

And Annie—She stared.

She was asleep, actually asleep.Her head rested against Smoke’s shoulder and her body had turned naturally toward him in the way people did when they trusted something enough to stop paying attention to it. One hand sat folded beneath her cheek. Her legs had curled in his direction.

But her attention kept returning to something she hadn’t noticed immediately. Smoke’s arm.

It rested around her side.

Not wrapped tightly, but it looked absentminded almost—his forearm curved behind her, hand resting lightly against her body as if steadying her had become automatic somewhere along the day and nobody thought enough of it to move. The thing that unsettled her most was that he wasn’t even looking at her. He’d been talking to somebody outside the frame. His expression looked normal. Like there was nothing unusual about any of it.

Annie stared harder. She remembered that cookout. She was fourteen at the time. She remembered being tired as hell. She remembered being hot and eating too much and probably complaining about something.

She did not remember this though.

Around her the conversation started unfolding the way family memories always did—not one person telling a story while everybody listened, but people remembering sideways together.

“Oh I remember that.”

“That was Barbara backyard. She done gone to Glory now.”

“She had worked that morning.”

“She fell asleep outside?”

Grace leaned farther in and laughed before pointing directly at Smoke.

“Wait. Why she sleep on you?”

Smoke looked once at the picture. His shoulders moved. “She was tired.”

That answer got a louder reaction than the picture itself.

Stack stared at him in disbelief. “That’s your defense?”

Smoke looked confused. “What else was she supposed to do?”

People started laughing harder.

Aunt Cheryl wandered over carrying sweet tea and looked down at the picture. Her face changed immediately.

“Oh yeah.”

Everybody turned.

She pointed with her cup. “She passed out after she ate.”

Another cousin snapped her fingers. “Yes.”

Aunt Cheryl nodded once. “And Smoke wouldn’t let nobody move her.”

Annie looked up. Smoke looked away.

Another auntie laughed. “He carried her inside later.”

Smoke frowned. “No I didn’t.”

That got corrected immediately from three different directions. “Yes you did.”

Geneva pointed at the picture. “You carried her upstairs and put her in Barbara room.”

Another cousin jumped in. “You wouldn’t let nobody wake her.”

Smoke looked offended now. “That is not what happened.”

Uncle Lewis finally looked over from where he’d been eating and didn’t even pause before answering. “You said she wake up irritated and you ain’t want folks botherin’ her.”

The yard lost it.

Smoke looked personally betrayed. Geneva kept flipping. Another picture surfaced. Football game. Annie wearing a hoodie too big. Smoke’s. Smoke beside her. Another cookout. Smoke fixing her plate. Another. School event. A group photo. People spread out across the frame. Except somehow Annie and Smoke were always touching. Shoulders brushing, knees angled together. Standing too close. Leaning or looking enough that once people started noticing it became impossible to stop.

Grace took one and looked down for a long second before slowly lifting her eyes. Her smile faded slightly.

“Oh.”

Nobody answered.

She looked again. Then back up. “Oh y’all was together together.”

That quieted things more than the teasing had.

Aunt Cheryl looked over casually. “I always knew.”

People looked at her.

She shrugged. “What?”

Her eyes moved toward Smoke. “That boy looked for her before he did anything.”

Another auntie nodded immediately. “If Annie wasn’t outside he wasn’t stayin’ outside long.”

Someone laughed. Another added—“She sat beside him everywhere.”

Lewis pointed with his fork. “That boy built his whole schedule around her.”

Smoke immediately objected. “Mane, Unc—”

Stack started laughing immediately and pointed toward Uncle Lewis. “Nah, Unc—you right. You right.”

Smoke turned instantly. “Shut the fuck up, mane.”

Stack ignored him completely. “Practice over?” He nodded dramatically. “Where Annie.”

People started laughing harder.

Stack kept going. “Weekend?” Another nod. “Where Annie.”

He pointed toward Smoke with his cup. “Lunch?” Shrug. “Did Annie eat?”

Cornbread barked out laughing.

Stack looked around the group like he’d just solved a mystery. “Damn. This nigga ain’t have no hobbies.”

Annie looked over at Smoke. Smoke refused eye contact.

Aunt Cheryl took another sip and looked down at more photographs in front of her and began shaking her head. Her voice softened.

“I really thought y’all was gon’ get married.”

Nobody laughed, because it didn’t shock them, she sounded sincere.

Her eyes moved between Annie and Smoke before settling back onto the pictures.

“Y’all was serious.” She smiled faintly. “Then Annie moved.”

The conversation didn’t stop after that. Somewhere behind them kids screamed over a water hose, others argued about ribs. Foil crinkled. But Annie looked back down at her fourteen-year-old self sleeping against Smoke and realized something she had never considered before.

They thought they had been private while everybody else had been watching them fall in love.

Aunt Cheryl took another sip of her sweet tea and continued casually—“I told yo’ mama to let you stay with me.”

The noise around the table kept moving for another second before it stalled.

Annie looked up. “Ma’am?”

Aunt Cheryl looked at her like she’d forgotten Annie didn’t know. “When y’all moved,” she shrugged lightly. “I told her leave you here with us so you could finish school.”

Smoke looked over, actually looked.

Pearline frowned. “You did?”

Before Cheryl could answer another voice floated over.

“She did.”

Everybody turned. Pearline’s mother Maxine stepped out from the house carrying a wine glass and one of those paper plates bending under too much food.

She looked between them. “We both did.” She sat down carefully. “We told your mama movin’ you your senior year wasn’t right if she didn’t have to.”

Annie stared.

Maxine shrugged. “Especially when you already basically lived over here.” She gave a small laugh. “You and…” she pointed toward Pearline. “…Pea.”

Pearline groaned immediately. “Mamaaa, please stop callin’ me that.”

Maxine ignored her. “…came home cryin’.”

Annie blinked. “What?”

Aunt Cheryl nodded once. “You don’t remember?”

And suddenly she remembered. The memory came back the way it always did—through feeling first and details second. Cardboard boxes stacked against her bedroom wall. Her mother kneeling beside an open suitcase folding shirts with the kind of quiet focus that usually meant her mind was already somewhere else. Annie standing in the doorway pretending she wasn’t crying yet.

She remembered asking casually the first time. What if I stay with Pearline for the year?

Her mother hadn’t even looked up. No.

Annie remembered trying again later. Different day. Different approach. What if I stay with Aunt Cheryl?

That time her mother paused long enough for hope to show up where it shouldn’t have. Then— Baby, we already talked about this.

Annie remembered stepping farther into the room. I’ll come to North Carolina after graduation.

Her mother finally looked at her then. You comin’ with me.

Final.

Back then Annie thought that had been the whole conversation. She thought she asked, her mother said no, and life kept moving.

Sitting here now with a faded photograph in her hands and Aunt Cheryl looking at her over sweet tea, she realized there had been other conversations after she left the room. Adult conversations. Aunt Cheryl and Aunt Max offering. Them trying. People who saw her life here and tried to protect it in ways she never knew. And suddenly the ache sitting in her chest wasn’t about moving anymore. It was realizing she hadn’t imagined wanting to stay.

She looked back at Aunt Cheryl. “…you asked?”

Aunt Cheryl nodded.

Maxine took a sip. “She wasn’t hearin’ it.”

Nobody said anything more after that.

Annie looked down at the photograph again. Fourteen. Asleep on Smoke. Everybody thinking they had time. Her chest tightened worse. Not at her mother. Her mother had done what she thought was right, but suddenly—for the first time—she saw another version.

Senior year. One more year. Graduation. Prom. Football games. One more summer. One more year with him.

Her eyes lifted before she meant them to. Smoke was already looking at her. For the first time all afternoon—he looked surprised as well, like this changed something for him too.

Annie swallowed and set the picture down carefully.

Pearline looked up immediately. “Annie?”

Annie forced a small smile. “…I need a drink.”

She started walking away before she started mourning something she never realized she almost had.

Annie started moving before she fully decided to.

Her hand left the photograph and settled automatically against the edge of the table while her mind tried to reorganize itself around information she hadn’t known existed five minutes earlier.

Around them the cookout continued uninterrupted. Mike asked where the hamburger buns went. Children ran past with wet shirts and popsicles staining their mouths. One of the older men near the domino table laughed so loudly the sound carried over the music.

Normal.

The whole yard stayed normal. Which somehow made the ache sitting low in Annie’s chest feel sharper.

She smiled automatically and leaned her weight backward.

“I’m finna go get—”

Her voice stopped from surprise. Smoke’s hand had closed loosely around hers. For a second she looked at their hands before she looked at him.

He hadn’t moved otherwise. He was still standing near the table. Same expression mostly. But something had changed. The usual restraint she remembered in him had slipped somewhere while everybody talked. His face looked quieter now. Less guarded. Like he’d stopped paying attention to the people around them without realizing it.

When he finally spoke, his voice stayed low enough that she almost missed it beneath the noise.

“You asked to stay?”

She looked at him and suddenly she understood that he wasn’t asking for clarification. He was asking if what they said was true.

Her chest tightened.

She looked away first trying to find the right version of the answer. She gave a small laugh that disappeared almost immediately.

“Yeah.”

Her thumb stirred once beneath his hand.

“I asked.” She swallowed. “Then I asked again.” A small smile pulled briefly at her mouth. “And again.”

Her shoulders lifted slightly. “Till she finally had to tell me stop askin’.”

Annie said it so lightly, like something she’d made peace with a long time ago.

But Smoke’s face changed. His eyes stayed on her longer than before and she felt his thumb move once against the side of her hand before he seemed to realize what he was doing and went still again.

When he spoke again his voice sounded different—honest in a way she wasn’t prepared for.

“I thought you wanted to leave.”

Her head turned immediately in confusion. “What?”

His eyes dropped briefly before coming back to her. His jaw flexed once, then his shoulders moved in the smallest shrug.

“I thought you was ready.”

Annie stared at him—something uncomfortable and sad opened inside her. Not because of what he said, but because she understood. She thought he knew. Thought he understood she didn’t want to go. Thought he knew she cried every night. All this time he thought she left and learned how to live without him.

Her eyebrows pulled together. Her answer came before she could edit it.

“I never wanted to leave.”

Smoke looked at her the way people look when they realize they’ve been carrying the wrong version of a story for years and suddenly don’t know where to put it.

Neither of them moved or acknowledged they were still holding hands.

The yard kept moving around them anyway. Music changed. Coolers opening. Aunt Cheryl started yelling about sweet tea.

But something had changed. Not outside.

Between them.

Annie looked at him and realized she had been carrying guilt she never examined. Smoke looked at her and realized he’d been carrying rejection that wasn’t real. For one impossible second she wondered how many years they had both spent grieving two completely different versions of the same goodbye.

Then a voice came from in front of them.

Familiar.

Close enough that it belonged there.

“Hey...”

The moment broke. Smoke turned. Annie turned too.

Jada stood a few feet away with an expensive handbag in her hand and sunglasses pushed up into her curls. She looked like somebody who had arrived late to something ordinary.

Her eyes landed on Smoke first. Then lowered… stopped.

Annie followed her gaze.

Their hands.

Jada looked up again. This time at Annie.

Annie turned back toward Smoke automatically and for the first time all day she couldn’t read his face. He didn’t pull away and he didn’t tighten his grip either. If anything, he seemed to become aware of the moment at the exact same time she did.

His eyes moved to Jada and stayed there for a second before coming back to Annie. She watched something pass across his face—surprise first, then something she couldn’t organize quickly enough to understand. His hand remained around hers for another second before his fingers eased away gradually, not dropping her hand, but releasing it carefully, almost reluctantly, like he had become aware of the touch at the same moment she had.

Annie looked down briefly before lifting her eyes again. The feeling that hit her wasn’t embarrassment or even disappointment. It felt stranger than that. For one impossible second she had forgotten there was a world outside of this conversation, and now it had returned all at once with names, history and context attached to it.

But underneath all of that sat another realization arriving slower than the others.

Jada didn’t look confused. She looked surprised to see Annie. Not surprised to see Smoke.

And suddenly Annie became aware of something. The ease in the way Jada approached them. The familiarity in her voice when she said his name. The way she stepped into his space without hesitation, like she already knew she had the right to be there.

Like she belonged there.

Nobody spoke. Then somewhere behind them at exactly the same time—

Stack said quietly—

“…oh shit.”

Pearline whispered—

“…fuck.”

End Note: Soooo....yeah. This chapter did NOT go as I planned. This was supposed to be the blow out, but I swear these characters have a mind of their own. They take me where THEY want to go. But I hope you liked this chapter and next chapter (I promise) is where it all goes down!

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