“You told me what this place means to you. You told me what you see when you look at that land. I’m not just gon’ stand next to you. I’m gon’ build with you. Camps, tournaments…all that glamping shit you keep talkin’ about. We’ll create a whole Black golf heaven right there between them trees.” He glanced at her. “That’s what you want, right?”
Her eyes blurred before she could stop them. “You remember what I said?”
“I hear you even when you think I’m not listenin’,” he mused. “Tell me again. What you want, Meadow? For the range…for life…for love…all of it.”
She sat with that for a second, looking out at the land that raised her, then back at the man sitting so close she could feel his heat under her skin.
“I want to teach Black kids how to play golf,” she said. “Not just the ones who can afford lessons, but kids whose Mamas got three jobs and still find a way to bring them out on Saturdays. I want Black women to swing clubs too, not just watch from the sidelines while everybody else gets access. I want my land to host tournaments and summer camps and glamping with twinkle lights in the trees and grills going and music playing. I want this land to work for me instead of killin’ me.”
He puffed his blunt, his eyes on her intently.
Her voice wobbled, but she kept going. “I want my Mama to have more good days on this land. I want my Daddy to sit on that porch and feel proud instead of being scared the bank gon’ take everything he built. I want…a life that ain’t just bills and emergencies and tryin’ to keep everybody alive. I want joy out here again. Black joy…kids laughing, women laughing…you laughing.”
His eyes twinkled. Meadow was his version of Mona Lisa…rare, beautiful, un-fuck-with-able.
She dragged in another breath. “And love…I want love that lets me rest. I want a man who knows how heavy I carry shit and don’t make me carry it and pretend it’s light. Somebody who’ll stand next to me when it’s time to talk big shit to these banks and these White folks, and then turn around and hold me when I lay down at night like I ain’t gotta prove I’m strong no more.”
Her eyes met his. “That’s what I want. What about you, Mr. Cooks?”
Zaire didn’t rush to fill the space. He just watched her like she’d handed him her whole chest and trusted him not to drop it.
“You already know what I want for the range,” he finally said. “I want to make it bigger than they ever thought it could be. I want to see little Black kids out there with clubs swingin’ ugly at first, then nice as hell by the end of the summer. I want folks to pull up from everywhere just to step on what you and your family built…whatwebuilt.” He paused. “I want your name on contracts, on billboards, on them big-ass trophies they hand out…”
Her eyes glossed.
He shifted closer, his knee knocking hers. “For life…I want to wake up and know I ain’t runnin’ no more…not from Crescent, not from my past, not from my own head. I want to play this game because I love it again, not because I’m scared of what happens if I stop. I want us to be able to be in L.A. or Juniper or wherever and it still feel like home ‘cause you there.”
Zaire kissed her, smoke coming out his nose, she sucked it in. “For love…I want this. You…Us…the way we already move without even meanin’ to. I want babies with your eyes runnin’ up and down that range. I want little curls and little waves and little hands grabbin’ my face callin’ me Daddy while you in the kitchen yellin’ at both of us for trackin’ dirt in the house.” He laughedunder his breath. “I want to argue-with-you-soft, not lose-you-hard. I want to love you loud and quiet. All of that shit…I want to make your wildest dreams come true and leave the world wondering how Black women do it.”
Tears slipped out the corner of her eyes before she could catch them. She tried to wipe them but he caught her wrist gently.
“Don’t hide that from me,” he corrected. “I like knowin’ you feel this shit too.”
Meadow sniffed, annoyed at herself and undone at the same time. “I want you to have peace, Zaire, real peace…not moments. A life that don’t chew you up every time you stand in front of a camera. I want to be the one place you don’t have to fight.” Her faith thickened her voice. “When the league play with you, I will fight the battles you can’t. When they lie on your name, I’ll be in they face. You don’t ever have to stand in front of rooms full of people who don’t love you and defend yourself alone again. You got me now.”
She laid her palm flat on his chest, feeling his heart pound steadily under her fingers. “I want your babies. I want to see you on that porch with your son and your daughters teaching them how to hold a club and how to hold their heads high. I want to be the one who stands up next to you when the world acts like you don’t belong, and I want them to know…you belong to me and anywhere you wanna be.”
His eyes closed for a beat like the words hurt and healed at the same time.
“This us, Zaire,” Meadow whispered. “All the way. I ain’t never asked nobody for forever before. But I want that with you, truly and wholly, even if I never planned on loving you this deep.”
He opened his eyes and looked at her like she was the only thing that had ever made sense. “I told you…you my Marai, myBlack Cinderella. But it ain’t just you, it’s us. You the land, I’m the storm, and together we done made somethin’ grow out here that ain’t nobody gon’ be able to pull up.”
Her tears came harder then, not from pain but from relief. From finally saying out loud what had been choking her for weeks.
Zaire slid his hand up the back of her neck, thumb brushing the edge of her jaw, and pulled her in until their foreheads touched. “Look at me,” he demanded softly.
She did.
“You got my heart,” he told her. “All of it. I ain’t never gave it to nobody before. I’m scared as hell, but I’m still here. I’m not goin’ nowhere unless you walk me out.”
A laugh broke through her tears. “You stuck anyway. My Daddy love you.”
“Good,” he smirked. “’Cause I love his daughter.”
Her breath caught at the same time his did.
They sat there in that thin air, above all the land and mess and history that made them, and let the truth settle between them.
