I laughed, but inside, something in me shifted; that quiet click when everything falls into place. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t surviving.
I was building. I was so full of excitement I could barely keep still. The moment I slid into the driver’s seat, I pulled my phone out and hit FaceTime. RJ answered on the second ring, his big grin filling the screen.
“Stormi, you gon’ live a long time we were just talking about you,” he said, his deep voice booming through the speakers.
“I hope all good things,” I joked, smiling so wide my cheeks hurt.
“Always good things,” he teased, shifting the phone so Ari came into view behind him, hair tied up, sunlight spilling across her face. “But we were trying to figure out why we ain’t heard from you or Shiloh all day.”
“Sorry,” I apologized, buckling my seatbelt. “I’ve been busy looking at buildings.”
“For the women’s wellness center?” Ari asked, leaning in from behind RJ.
“Yes” I started, “but I changed my mind. I wanna do a recovery center.”
Both looked surprised. RJ tilted his head; his brow furrowed just a little. “A recovery center?”
“Yes!” I said, excitement bubbling out of me. “Somewhere women can come stay and heal physically, mentally,emotionally. Somewhere that feels safe. Real care, real love, real help.”
RJ nodded slowly, that proud big brother smile tugging at his lips. “You tryna change the world again, huh?”
“I’m tryna heal it,” I answered softly. Then I sat up straighter, my grin returning. “You gon’ need a job when you graduate in a few months, Dr. Alexander?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “Only if there’s a position open for my fiancée.”
“I love a good package deal,” I answered, smirking, using that one line to tell him exactly what he already knew and that was they both were in.
“Well then,” he replied, leaning back with that cocky grin, “you just hired yourself a doctor and a nurse.”
I screamed, the sound bouncing off the truck windows as I set the phone on the holder and pulled out of the parking lot. “Ayyyy! Look at God working overtime today!”
Ari laughed, reaching for the phone. “Wait, before you hang up, we got some good news too!”
I gasped dramatically. “What’s that, Ms. Soon to be Alexander?”
Ari grinned so big I could see every dimple. “We’ll be back home in the next two months just in time for Shiloh’s christening and his six-month party.”
“Yayyyyy!” I screamed so loud I startled myself, laughing right after. “Y’all better not be lying to me! I miss y’all so much.”
RJ chuckled, that deep, easy laugh I’d missed. “Nah, we serious this time. We coming home, Stormi.”
I smiled so hard tears prickled my eyes. “Good. ‘Cause I got big plans, and I want y’all here for every part of it.”
As I drove off with sunlight spilling through the windshield, my chest loosened for the first time in years, the weight I’d been carrying finally lifting.
By the time I got home, the house was quiet too quiet for a place with two busy boys in it. I kicked my heels off by the door, the faint smell of Seth’s cologne still hanging in the air. That dark, smooth, expensive scent always let me know he’d been close by.
“Boys are finally asleep,” his voice came from the living room, deep and calm like always.
I turned and saw him stretched out on the couch, hoodie on, phone in one hand, glass of dark liquor in the other. His eyes found mine the second I walked in that slow scan from head to toe that always made me forget my own name.
“How’d it go, Wifey?” he asked, setting the glass down and leaning forward.
I grinned, walking toward him, my heart still racing from everything that happened today. “It went perfect. I put in an offer.”
He raised a brow, that little half smile pulling at his lips. “For the one you showed me pictures of?”
I hesitated for half a second, then said it all in one breath. “Both.”
