“We’ll get back,” I say. “It’s not our first time being separated.”
“Yeah, you said she lived with your great-grandmother when you moved to Atlanta, right?”
Even though he said he remembers everything from that night, I’m still surprised.
“Yeah, she stayed with MiMi.”
I take the ball from him and shoot, doing a little victory dance when it goes in and tossing it back to him.
“Now who’s showing off?” he asks with a grin. “So your MiMi. What’s she like?”
“Well she’s in her nineties.” I pause, considering what I know, debating what to share and deciding I want to shock him. “She was a voodoo high priestess.”
He freezes, the ball poised over his head to shoot, and gives me a disbelieving look. “A what? Did you say voodoo?”
I laugh at his dumbfounded expression.
“It’s not like in the movies or anything. They were the most respected people in the community back in the day. Politicians and powerful people from all over the state came to them for advice and guidance.” I shoot him a wry grin. “By the time I was born, she just made healing potions and did cleansing ceremonies, made gris-gris.”
“What’s a gris-gris? Or do I want to know?”
“It’s like a talisman for protection.” I twist Caleb’s ring on my finger. “She gave Lotus and me rings years ago that were supposed to protect us.”
He studies the engagement ring. “And where’s yours?” he asks softly.
“Lost.” I swallow the emotion burning my throat, the tears threatening to fall at the sudden sense of loss overtaking me. I’ve lost Lotus. I haven’t spoken to my mother in months. My self-respect, my dignity, my independence—all stolen from me before I’d even realized Caleb was a thief. If I kee
p standing here thinking about all I’ve lost, I’ll cry, so I change the subject and hope August lets me get away with it.
“I get my name from the bayou,” I say with a slight smile. “Well, Mama told me that once. Who knows if it’s true. She said MiMi’s house is off the bayou, not far from the water, and all along the water’s edge these flowers called Louisiana irises grow.”
“She told you?” he asks. “You’ve never seen for yourself?”
I frown, feeling loss again, but for something I’ve never really had. “I haven’t been. Not that I remember, at least.” I grimace. “Mama took me when I was a baby so MiMi could see me, but that was it. MiMi visited us a few times in the city. Lotus knows her a lot better, since she lived with her.”
“Iris, Lotus,” he says with a smile. “I see a flower theme. Are you two a lot alike?”
My laugh is self-deprecating, scoffing at my own weakness compared to Lotus’s fearlessness. “I wish.” I take the ball and step behind the three-point line. “I’m nowhere near as strong as Lotus.”
“You’re probably stronger than you think.” He raises a dark brow at the ball in my hands. “But not strong enough to make that three.”
“Oh yeah? You think you’re the only one who can make a long shot?”
I turn to the goal and train every bit of strength and focus I have into the ball in my hands and its trajectory to the goal. When I release it, I close my eyes and don’t open them until I hear the “swoosh” of the net.
“I made it?” I ask with an incredulous laugh.
“You didn’t even look? Yeah, you made it. How can you not look?”
“Woohooo!” I lift my arms Rocky-style and face him. “Am I ready for the pros?”
The look he gives me alternates between affection and indulgence. “You can be on my team.”
“Oh.” I lob a smile up at him, much too close to flirting. “And what position will I play on your team?”
His smile melts a little around the edges, and his eyes lose some of their humor. “At the five-spot,” he says softly.
The five-spot? His position is the point guard, or the one-spot. Shooting guard is the two. The three is small forward, and the four is power forward. The five is …