Careful of the Company You Keep Read Online Free

then started jumping in my shit about how I shouldn’t have been messing with a man twelve years younger than me in the first place and that I needed to try and be a better mother. God, I could feel a migraine coming on with a vengeance. All I wanted Mama to do was take Portia home with her so I could go and find Ron and make everything right in my life again.
    I heard a knock at the door. Before either of them could move, I raced out and flung the door open to find my ex-husband, Alvin Patterson, standing there. He immediately moved into the house.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” he asked, looking around frantically. “You called screaming and I couldn’t understand a word you were saying.”
    â€œI’m putting your lying ass daughter out of my house.” I folded my arms across my chest and glared at Alvin waiting to see what he had to say.
    â€œFor what?”
    My mother moved into the living room. “Hello, Alvin.”
    His face brightened at the sight of her. He and Mama have always been close, even when I wished they weren’t.
    â€œWhy don’t we all have a seat and talk about this like adults?” Mama suggested.
    â€œThere is nothing else to talk about,” I replied with a defiant tilt of my chin.
    Mama nudged me in the hip. “Yes, there is, now sit !”
    I growled in protest but took a seat when it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do. Time was ticking. The only thing on my mind was going to find Ron and trying to work things out between us.
    Alvin took a seat on my couch and rested his elbows on his knees. “Okay, I want to know what’s going on. Where’s Portia?”
    â€œProbably still in the kitchen crying,” I replied with a snort.
    Puzzled, he looked from Mama back to me. “Why? What’s going on?”
    Mama intervened. “I sent her up to her room.”
    â€œCan someone please tell me what’s going on?” Alvin repeated.
    â€œShe lied. All this time she’d been lying, claiming that she was pregnant by my man.”
    â€œWhat! Pregnant by your man?” He shot out the chair. “I thought she was pregnant by some little boy at school.”
    â€œShe is, but she lied and said it was Ron!”
    Alvin shook his head with disbelief, then looked over at me like it was all my fault. I can’t help it if he’s having a hard time accepting that Portia is no longer his little girl. Maybe this will help bring him out of la-la land. “How do you know she’s lying?”
    I wanted so badly to hit him. What in the world did I ever see in him? “Because I read her journal.”
    â€œRead her journal?” He took a step toward me and gave a strangled laugh. “You’re putting her out because of something she wrote in a journal.” Alvin shook his head and looked as if he wanted to say something else and would have if my mother hadn’t been sitting there. “I’m going to go and talk to my daughter.” He took the stairs two at a time and I heard him knock on her door.
    â€œThis has gotten out of hand,” Mama said, trying to sound calm, but I could tell she was not happy. Well, too damn bad.
    â€œNo, the only thing out of hand is my daughter, and I don’t want to deal with it anymore.”
    â€œDanielle, you can’t keep turning your back on your daughter.”
    â€œMama, I love Ron more than I’ve ever loved a man.”
    â€œAnd you’ll probably love a handful more. What’s wrong with Calvin? He seems like a wonderful man.”
    Just the mention of Calvin Cambridge caused me to sigh with despair. “He is a nice guy, but he’s just not Ron.” I hated that I was going to have to break Calvin’s heart. We’d only been dating a few weeks, but I was going to get Ron back. I felt a flutter at the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t wait to see him.
    Mama snorted rudely, then rolled her eyes. “Ron is history.