I didn’t respond to him because I was too busy soaking up this moment, enjoying what it felt like to be wrapped up in his arms.
“Look at your mama, and daddy. Dionte be over there tearing that shit up,” he let out, after we stood here in silence for about a minute.
I turned my head in the direction that he’d pointed with his finger, and my eyes landed on my parents. They were over there by one of the water fountains. Just like Tank was hugged up with me right now, standing behind me, loving on me, whispering sweet nothings into my ear, my dad was towered over my mom, doing the same thing. Usually, they would try to be discreet about whatever the hell they were doing, but I think that today was one of those days where they couldn’t even hide it.
I was one of those people that didn’t get grossed out when I saw my parents together, being affectionate. If it could work, I wanted the two of them to be together. I knew they loved one another a great deal. It made me happy because my dad had come home, and you could tell that he really wanted to be with my mom, but she was giving his ass the runaround. I don’t think she was doing it to be malicious, but she was afraid of getting hurt. I guess she felt like my dad had to get a lot of stuff out of his system, like messing around with other women, so she didn’t want to entertain him in the beginning. Now, she was all over his ass, just how I was with my man.
“All I know is she better not get pregnant,” I announced, and Tank laughed.
“That nigga in love, baby. He might shoot the club up,” he joked, and I reached my hand back, so that I could playfully slap him on his chest.
We walked over, going to the front of the ranch, ready to start. Everybody had come over, and phones were already out, ready to record this special moment. Blake, who was the god mother to my baby, and the host for today’s event, she stood to the front with Tank and I, just so that she could explain therules to the crowd and let them know how we would be doing the reveal.
Tank and I opted on a shotgun method. I felt like it was very on brand with the theme that we were doing. Nothing too crazy. Tank was just going to fire a shotgun shell in the air, that was filled with colored powder. If pink powder came out, that would mean that we were having a girl, but if blue powder came out, which is the color that I wanted to see, that would mean that we were getting our boy.
“Ya’ll ready?” Tank asked, already in position, holding the shot gun in his hands.
I stood to the side of him, hands clasped together, hoping that I was going to get my boy. All our family and friends cheered, letting Tank know that they were all ready. After that, we went ahead and started with the countdown.
“10…9…8…7…6,” I counted right along with everyone, my eyes paying close attention to the shotgun because I swear I wanted to be the first person to see whatever color came out of it.
Blake was the only one that knew the gender. Since she was over the reveal, she had to do everything on the back end, so she knew. I knew that Blake could take a secret to the grave, so she was who I trusted to give the reveal to. I knew my sisters. They would get too excited, and would slip up, telling me what I was having. My mom would do the same thing too.
“5…4…3…2…1,” we counted, and once we got to 1, Tank eventually pulled the trigger.
Blue powder filled the air, and holding onto my stomach, I jumped up and down, screaming, happy that I’d gotten my boy. Tank was thrilled, jumping up and down too, and he quickly rushed over to me, holding the sides of my face, as he repeatedly placed soft kisses against my lips.
This man wanted a son out of me badly. He’s been telling me since the beginning, when we very first started dating. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen my man this happy about anything.
“Let’s gooooo!” he screamed out, still not letting me go. I cried tears of joy, happy that I’d got my son.
All our family and friends came over, so that they could love on us. My sisters were crying, my mom, and even Tailynn, and Tru. All the women were a pool of tears. Both of my grandma’s were here, and they came over, so that they could love on me. My relationship with my dad’s mom had gotten so much better. There was once a time when we would only see each other a couple of times out of the year. I made a promise to her months back that I was going to do better, come around more, and I had been doing that.
With that, a lot of my dad’s side of the family had come out today for our gender reveal. Even my cousin Mark had come, bringing all his children with him. It was a relationship that wasn’t perfect, but we were working on it.
Tank stood at the front of the ranch, and he was getting ready to make an announcement for both of us. Just thanking everyone for coming out. Before he did it, he looked at me, basically asking me with his eyes if he couldtell themand I laughed, telling him that I didn’t mind. I didn’t need him to go into detail or explain to me what he was asking me. I already knew what he was asking. Nobody knew about what he was asking but us two. We’d done well at keeping it a secret, so I didn’t mind him letting our family and friends in on it now.
“Ima make it quick because I know we all ready to turn up, as we celebrate that Dionne and I are getting ready to have a son. That’s the best news that I’ve gotten in a long time. Before we do all of that, I just want to thank everybody for coming out today. I know ya’ll probably used to going to gender reveals that’s at a house, outside at a park, maybe even a nice hall, but my love forhorses, and being outside on a ranch is what had us making this decision. I appreciate ya’ll for following the theme. Dionne said that she wasn’t going to let ya’ll attend if ya’ll didn’t dress up as cowboys, and cowgirls,” he went on, and everyone laughed. They laughed because they knew it was true. I damn near threatened everyone. I told them that if they didn’t follow it, they wouldn’t come in. Simple.
“Nah, but seriously, we appreciate ya’ll for coming out. The gifts, the love, everything that ya’ll did for us today, we’re very appreciative of it. Before I close it out, I just want to let everybody know that this ain’t my fiancé anymore. This my wife now. A couple of months ago, we decided to go down to the courthouse, and handle our business. I had a deep talk with Dionne awhile back, telling her that I wanted her to be my wife before our baby got here. The ceremony is still on, but we took care of business first. That’s my wife, ya’ll. That’s Dionne Briggs right there,” he announced, and nobody saw this coming, so everybody started screaming again, and my sisters, Blake, and everyone else couldn’t contain their excitement, so they all rushed over, screaming, wrapping me up in hugs, telling me how happy they were.
“How you keep that from me? Girl, we tell each other everything!” Blake was teary eyed as she stood there, using her hands to wipe away the tears that fell from her eyes.
It was hard as hell keeping this secret from my girls. Tank and I have been married for two months, and we kept it on the hush. This man was my husband, and I was his wife.
Now that that was out of the way, all we had to do now was continue to await the arrival of our baby boy, and two months after I give birth, our ceremony date was set, where we would have our day before God, and go on to live our happily ever after life.
Chapter 19
Garrus Whyte
Isolation
“Hey Brittany. Sorry to keep calling. Just wanted to check in, and see how my son is doing,” I said, with the phone glued to my ear, talking to my oldest son’s wife.
She called me a few months ago, telling me that Garrus Jr. was having a hard time coping, and dealing with his mother’s death. She said that he’s been drinking, which was shocking because none of my kids drank, or did drugs. They didn’t even socially drink. What really had her reaching out to me a few months ago was that he’d come home drunk one night, and he started blurting out stuff, and one of the things that he told her, alarmed her. Since I was the only living parent that he had left, she called me.
She reached out to tell me that Garrus Jr. told her that he’d gone to Dionne’s warehouse to kill her, but he was bum- rushed by her father, who in turn, almost killed his ass. I didn’t have a relationship with Dionne anymore, didn’t check up on her, followed her on social media, none of the things that I used to do in the past, so I didn’t even know that her father had been released from prison.
