It's Only Love (The Matthews Family)

“That’s because you ran off the last one, Anita,” Aunt Claire said.

Aunt Anita took a big swallow and pointed at Aunt Claire. “I ain’t say nothing to that girl. Y’all better stop telling that lie on me,” she said, and everybody laughed. Victor turned to the woman with the baby, who by that time had finished feeding; he held out his arms and she handed him the baby.

“Natasha, this handsome young man is my cousin, Robert. Say hello.”

He was adorable. “Hi, Robert,” I said, and he started to squirm and whine in Victor’s arms. It pulled at my heart to see him holding a baby and I didn’t want to explore the reason why it did.

“And that is his mother, my Aunt Tina.”

“Nice to meet you, Natasha.” She stood up and took the baby from Victor and walked away with us. “And it’s Tina. And I told you to stop calling me that.” she turned to me. “I’m only a few years older than him, Natasha, and it makes me feel old every time he says it.”

“I understand,” I said, and we all walked toward the playground. Some children were swinging and going down the slide.

“Those are my two oldest daughters, Katrina and Suzette,” Tina said, and I almost took off running when I saw them turning double-dutch, but I didn’t want to leave Victor’s side. I hoped they’d still be playing later, though.

“You look like you want to go over there.” My head shot over to him.

“Beg your pardon?”

He stopped. “Do you want to go and jump?

“You wouldn’t mind?” I asked excitedly.

“Not at all. If I can get a chance to see those pretty legs move, I’m all in,” Victor said, and Tina just shook her head.

My face got warm, but I wasn’t embarrassed enough to not rush over there. Once I got in and started jumping, I very quickly found out that Katrina and Suzette were professionals. They were turning almost too fast for me.

Almost.

I kept up and had a ball, before asking for time out, because sweating on a date was not a good look. And yes, even though Victor didn’t come to my apartment to pick me up, I was calling this a date. Before we left them, Shayla told me that I was the bomb for an older lady.

“It doesn’t get any better than that,” Victor said, and we walked off in the direction of the beach.

Chapter Eight

Victor

After leaving the playground, Natasha and I walked around and I introduced her to some more of the family; and eventually, we both got tired of saying, “No really, we’re just friends.” So we both agreed that we should save the introductions until the food was ready.

“This way, I introduce you one time,” I said as we walked toward the beach.

“I say we’re just friends and then we can eat,” Natasha said, but I knew my family and I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.

When I invited Natasha, I really didn’t think she was going to come. I thought her saying maybe, was just her way of being nice. I had no intention of introducing her to the “funky bunch,” as me and Stevie used to call them. But unless she decides to leave, she gets to meet the rest of the fam. Other than my Aunt Anita, we hadn’t seen any of my “you should find a nice woman to marry” women in the family, nor had I seen any of the “why ain’t you banging her?” men. That would come soon enough.

I looked at Natasha as we walked, and asked myself once again, why wasn’t I banging her?

The food was ready and just about everybody was eating when we walked up. Okay, so, picture this, Natasha and I come walking up. The first one to see us is my cousin, James. He frantically starts tapping his sister, Sydney. I watch as Sydney’s mouth dropped open. Her father, my Uncle Eddie sees Sydney’s mouth wide open and turns around and he looks at Natasha.

“Damn! Would you look at her,” Uncle Eddie said and my Aunt Patrice hit him upside the head and it was on from there.

“See, I told y’all Victor was here,” Aunt Claire said. “Got me thinking I’m seeing things.”

“Who’s the young lady, Victor?” Maggie shouted over the rumble of conversation.

After we went through our now, well-rehearsed we’re-just-friends routine, we were permitted to get some food. Once we got our plates, Natasha collected her bone from Uncle Willie, and that immediately became a point of contention. You see, every year Uncle Willie man’s the grill, and every year, fam goes up to him and ask him to save a particular piece of meat . . . and every year he says no!

“You get what piece you get. Bad enough I got to stand over this hot-ass grill, now y’all want me to cook your meat to order,” he’d complain. But when the word got around that he let Natasha pick out her own piece, he had to answer some questions.