I nodded and took a deep breath.
“Alright. Then, I don’t need the time to figure it out,” I confessed. “I’m going to ask Asante.”
I knew that was a quick decision, but I also knew that there hadn’t been a single time since I’d gotten close to Asante that we’d spoken of calling shit off when I got married. That had never been an option for either of us. If we both had faith we could survive me being married to someone else, there wasn’t much I didn’t think we wouldn’t be able to tackle.
I wanted to do this and if I ended up being a martyr for other men in this life, so fucking be it. At least as I was going to taste happiness on the way down.
“Fuck.” King chuckled. “Then congratulations.”
“Congratulations!” Rook hit me on his my back and I chuckled.
“He hasn’t said yes.”
“Don’t do that.” King gave me a look. “If Asante plays with you, I’m go meet his ass in the parking lot of his club and up the blick on him. I swear to God.”
I chuckled at that and King shook his head.
“So…” Rook kicked his feet up. “When are you popping the question?”
“I mean, I have to get a ring first but I don’t know. Right now I’m just focused on getting you through this weekend. Asante’s not going anywhere and I have almost a year,” I said simply.
I wanted to keep shit nice and simple even while I felt like I was about to explode inside out of pure excitement. I couldn’t wait to tell Asante. I couldn’t wait to be with him in our home and for the first time since I’ve known him, not have a big cloud of uncertainty following us around.
“Yeah well I’m there for whatever you need to make this happen,” Rook offered.
“Thanks.” I leaned toward him and dapped him up. “For everything.”
“Always, man.”
King’s phone let out a loud beep and he pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the screen.
“I’ve got to move, but I’m glad we had this conversation.” He stood up and we stood as well out of respect for him. “Both of you keep me updated on marriage, current and potential.” He looked between us and we both nodded.
King dapped each of us up, hitting us on the back before heading out the door. As soon as it shut in place I turned toward Rook and hit him in the stomach.
I felt like I could let out all the excitement I’d been trying to hold inside in front of King and now that I was alone with Rook I felt like it all was flooding back inside of me, making me so excited it was hard to do anything but focus on it.
“The fuck are you doing, Rook?” I snickered and he laughed in return.
“Looking out for you.” He shrugged. “That’s all I ever do.”
“Yeah, well…” I sniffed and shook my head.“Thank you.”
I sniffed again and Rook yanked me into him for a hug. We weren’t an overly affectionate kind of family, but fuck, I could’t lie, after what Rook had done for me, having him console me like this had even more emotions running through me.
That shit we said about being too halves of the same soul wasn’t a joke. I’d do whatever if it came down to my brother and shit, he’d just proven that he’d do whatever he needed to in my honor too.
The thought made me wrap my arms around him and he hit him on the back to initiate the embrace.
“You know I’ve got you, B,” Rook assured me. “Always.”
I nodded at that and cleared my throat as we pulled apart from each other.
I lookedout at the guests that were arriving at the house then over at Rook, back and forth. He had his eyes focused on the line of cars that were dropping people off in front of the manor, hoping each one was carrying my newest sister-in-law.
“She’s going to show right?” I voiced the question that had to be running through at least half of our family’s heads.
“She’s going to show,” Rook said simply. He took a sip of the beer in his hand. “I’m not worried.”
