“Thank you. Hey, Spencer.” She patted Spencer’s head, and he nudged her stomach with his nose.
“Come on. Wait till you see what Daddy did.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward where her father stood.
The closer I got, the more I saw what she talked about. There was a blanket on the ground with two baskets in the middle. There were also rose petals sprinkled around the blanket.
Onyx stood on the side with his hands in his pockets. He wore black jeans with a black hoodie and black and white sneakers. He’d gotten his locs retwisted and styled in barrels. His face lit up when I reached him.
“Hey, baby.” He kissed my lips, then rubbed Spencer’s head.
“Hey. What’s going on?” I asked as I looked around at the setup.
I noticed two champagne glasses next to a cup for Turquoise. The side of the park we were on was fairly empty, so I let Spencer off his leash so he and Turquoise could play.
“Since the weather is nice, I figured we could have a little picnic. Turquoise insisted you bring Spencer so she could play with him. She even got him a new ball.” He chuckled as he bent down and reached into his bag to get the ball.
Turquoise and Spencer were already running around. Her little giggles echoed through the air as he chased her. Sometimes all they would do was run around in circles. Spencer wasn’t that active, so it was enough for him, and it helped Turquoise burn off some energy.
Onyx whistled and threw the bottle in their direction. Spencer caught it and brought it to Turquoise.
“Here, let me help you sit down.” Onyx grabbed my hand and helped me down onto the blanket.
“Thank you.” Since we were sitting down, I took my boots off and put them in the grass next to me. I wanted to be as comfortable as possible. I probably should have put on some sneakers.
I watched Onyx as he lowered himself next to me on the blanket. From where we sat, we were able to watch Spencer and Turquoise but still pay attention to each other. For Turquoise to only be six, she knew how far to go, and we trusted Spencer to keep an eye on her.
“How was your day?” Onyx asked once he got settled.
“It was good. I only had two appointments this morning, then I went home to clean up and relax. How was yours?”
“It was good. We had breakfast this morning, then went out and did a little shopping. I got a new Lego set.”
I shook my head and laughed. Onyx brought a new set almost every time he went to the store. He even had Turquoise starting her own collection.
“What’s in the basket?” I asked as I peeked over to see if I could get a glimpse of what was inside.
“You’ll find out when it’s time.” Onyx winked.
The fact that he made it seem so secretive intrigued me even more than I was.
“You’re no fun.” I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted.
Onyx reached over and tickled my side. My laughter must have alerted Turquoise and Spencer because they both came over and joined in on the action.
Spencer jumped on, and Onyx tickled Turquoise with one hand and me with the other.
“Daddy!” Turquoise shouted in between giggles. “You gonna make me go potty on myself.”
“Okay, okay.” Onyx stopped his tickle assault on both of us. “Y’all ready to eat?”
“Yes!” Turquoise moved to sit across from me and her father. Spencer got settled next to her with his head on her lap.
Onyx opened one of the baskets and pulled out chicken salad sandwiches and oranges. In the other basket were chips and chocolate cupcakes. He even had something for Spencer to eat.
Once everything was divvied out, we ate and talked about basic stuff. Turquoise did most of the talking about her friends at school.
When we were done, Onyx took our trash to the garbage can, then the three of us played with Spencer for a bit. It didn’t take long for him to get tired, though. At some point, he plopped down on the grass, and Turquoise leaned against him, reading a book that was in one of the baskets.
I liked that he had her reading instead of playing her video games all the time. It was a good balance between the two.
