He squeezed my hand. “Yeah, baby. We really are.”
And that’s where our forever started.
Within an hour, I was Mrs. DaVinci Javion Bryns.
By the time we left the courthouse, it was barely lunchtime, and the adrenaline was finally leaking out of our bodies instead of pumping through them. Langston drove the Escalade in silence, and the soft hum of the engine felt like the first calm breath we’d taken all day.
I ended up in DaVinci’s lap, just like I always did when I needed to feel close. His hand rested heavy and warm on my hip, and my head was tucked under his jaw. It was the only place that made sense.
“I love you, Lo,” he murmured, hooking a finger under my chin so I’d look at him. His voice was soft, but thick. “You done made me the happiest fuckin man alive. My little firecracker cupcake. A conundrum.”
His kiss started out gentle, us testing the moment, before it deepened with that slow hunger he had for me. Kissing him always made the world blur out.
“I love you, too, DaVinci. I just wanted you to know that I’m in this with you. Serious about you. Never playing with or about you. I’d choose you in every lifetime.”
My fingers curled into his shirt while I smiled. And for a second, I forgot we were even moving.
Then the morning replayed itself in my head, loud and clear, in a loop.
Sentencing.
Cameras.
Chaos.
Marriage.
All before noon.
I pulled back just enough to breathe, resting my forehead against his. He kept his arms around me, thumb brushing the back of my waist like he could feel the thoughts spinning in my head.
“That was corny, Lo,” he whispered before laughing.
“You always playing.”
Langston turned into the driveway, and something in me exhaled long and deep. Home. Our home. And that’s when reality hit. We’d left the house this morning as boyfriend and girlfriend.
We were walking back in as husband and wife.
This was real.
This was ours.
“Aht aht, I gotta carry you through the threshold. Don’t give us bad juju.”
DaVinci picked me up bridal style and carried me across the threshold of our home. I giggled the whole way through while also praying that God blessed our union.
Inside the house, everything felt different in the subtlest ways. He didn’t let go of my hand. I didn’t take off my blazer yet. We were both moving slowly, as if we blinked too fast, the moment might shatter.
“You hungry?” he asked, dropping the keys in the bowl by the door.
“Not really. You?”
He shook his head and stepped behind me, undoing my blazer. His hands lingered on my shoulders, and I leaned back into him without thinking.
“We married,” I whispered.
“We married,” he echoed, lips brushing the side of my neck.
