One Year Later
My entire familyis sitting around a large, round, mahogany wooden table set up in the private dining area of my restaurant (formerly known as The Cabbage), which I’ve renamed The Maple after the street back home where Brick and I shared our first kiss.
Yeah, we’re romantic like that.
The room is small and there’s a lot of us, but we make it work because we’re finally here to celebrate mine and Brick’s engagement. Between Brick’s schedule and everyone else’s, it took us a year to find a date that we could all mutually agree upon to get together in New York to celebrate. It’ll probably take us another year to figure out a wedding date, but I’m not in any rush, though. Part of the new and improved Kaya is that I understand things happen in the time they’re supposed to. As long as I’m with Brick, I’m good with that.
“Your restaurant is real nice, baby girl, but couldn’t y’all afford to take us somewhere bigger?” Uncle Zee asks as he practically sucks in a breath to squeeze into his seat. “This room is kind of tight.”
“Maybe you should cut back on all those after dinner beers,” Kyle says and the room fills with laughter.
“You ain’t one to talk, nephew. Your gut looks like your wife’s been cooking you a few too many chicken pot pies,” Uncle Zee says back, and the laughs grow even louder.
“Quiet now,” my mom interrupts, sitting next to a quiet but happy looking Mr. Solomon. They were married three months ago at the justice of the peace. “We’re a family who loves to eat, so what? Our growing tummies are a blessing.”
“Amen,” Dena’s usually quiet father agrees. “We’re here to celebrate another wedding in the family. Let’s toast to them.”
“And a baby,” Kyle adds.
He and Dena are pregnant with their first child, a boy they’ve already named after our father, Kevin. They’re going to be wonderful parents, but that poor kid better grow to be over six feet tall, because Kyle and Brick have already planned his path from pee wee football to the NFL and he isn’t even born yet.
“To Brick and Kaya,” Kyle stands and leads the toast.
“To Brick and Kaya!” Everyone else echoes.
“And to baby Kevin,” Brick adds to the toast.
“To baby Kevin!”
I look around the crowded room filled with the people I love most in the world, and I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of joy. This is the life I’ve always wanted, the happy ending I prayed for. And I know my mother is right. I’m so blessed to have it.
I’m marrying a man who is the best lover, who spoils me with anything I could ever want, and who I trust with my life. What woman could ask for more than that?
“Do you guys have any finite details about the wedding?” Dena asks rubbing her rounded tummy. “With the baby coming, I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.”
“Yeah, we need a date. I want to put in for some time off at work,” her sister Felicia adds, sitting next to Kyle’s friend John. The two of them have been dating since the wedding.
Before I can answer, Brick stands up to speak. “I actually want to talk about that,” he says.
I squint my eyes at him with disapproval. He and I have made no definitive plans about our wedding because we haven’t been able to agree on the location. He better not be trying to override my objections by pulling my family into this.
Brick turns to me, his eyes sparkling with love and devotion. He holds out his hands and I rise to my feet and take them in mine, my heard suddenly beating with anticipation of the unknown. He can feel my nervous energy, but he holds me steady, his eyes never leaving mine.
“Kaya, my love,” he says, his voice low and tender. “The place where we say I do doesn’t matter. It never mattered. Only the people do, who are all right here in this room. So tonight, right now, I want to make a dream of ours come true. I want to make our union official. I want you to walk out of this restaurant as Mrs. Jennings. Will you marry me?”
I gasp as my eyes fill with tears. I stare lovingly at my fiancé, my voice catching in my throat.
“You mean right now?”
“Right now.”
The room is deadly silent. Everyone at the table seems to be on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what I’ll say, but the answer is obvious.
“Yes,” I whisper. “Yes, of course I will.”
Brick smiles and quickly steps away from me, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
“The lady said yes! So let’s do it now!” he exclaims.
