McKay flashed a quick look of concern my way through piercing eyes. I shrugged and shook my head. I hadn’t told her about the one time I’d seen her before I even knew her name and snapped a shot. This time when she put her eyes on the phone screen, her smile was back and now wide as she had time to chew the food in her mouth. I was glad the awkward moment blended with McKay’s need to clear her mouth or else Anna would’ve caught on to our little unspoken conversation.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Mrs. Anna. The pasta is amazing. Thank you so much for even thinking about me and the baby.”
“Of course, sweetie. Whenever you have a taste for something special, just let me know. I don’t mind cooking for you and my grandbaby. BK told me chocolate is a favorite of yours so I included chocolate cinnamon rolls as a sweet treat. I hope you enjoy them as well.” The way McKay’s eyes sparkled with utter excitement had me laughing.
“BK, why didn’t you tell me that? Oh my gosh, Mrs. Anna, thank you so much. I’m sure they are delicious. Between you and your son over here I’m going to gain fifty pounds before my stomach officially pops.”
“And you’ll still be beautiful no matter what changes your body goes through, baby.” I jumped into the conversation. The words flowed with ease and I hoped McKay knew just how serious I was about my statement. This time when she glanced over at me, I caught the red tint on her cheeks and my impulsive nature had me reaching out to touch it first, loving the warmth so much that I pressed my lips next.
“I co-sign what he said, McKay. Don’t worry about all that. You’re creating magic from within your womb. If anyone has a negative thing to say about a new stretch mark or added weight, you just tell them you’ve got a man I trained to raise hell on earth behind you.” Mama tossed McKay a wink, causing her to giggle sweetly.
“You did good too, Mrs. Anna. This man of mine stays shutting things down when it comes to me and Peanut to keep us safe and I let him with no push back.” McKay playfully groaned while she rolled her eyes.
My mama laughed. “Oh dear, love has a funny way of us letting these men of ours think they’re really running things. But I am glad that BK is being a good man to you. Now, I don’t want to hold you up from enjoying your food, I just wanted to sneaka peek at you. I can’t wait to officially get to hug you in a couple of weeks at the pumpkin patch. If you need me, don’t hesitate to call. Love y’all.” Anna blew a quick kiss before she hung up and not a second later McKay was on my ass. I knew it was coming.
“What picture is she talking about, Burkeley?” When she said my full name I took that as her being being serious or pissed, either way I knew I’d fucked up.
“It’s not what you think, so don’t freak out. I saw you before that day at BJ’s. I was on a job in your parking deck. Just when I was about to leave, you came out and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to capture something so beautiful. It wasn’t supposed to be developed, only holding it to memory, but my boy Tino developed it by accident. I would show you the picture, but once Anna saw it, I threw it away.” McKay’s whole face twisted as she cupped her chin and squinted. I took that as my cue to continue.
“It was weird, you looked up at me. Had it not been for the dark ass tint, you could’ve caught me being a creeper.”
“Oh so being a creeper is a natural habit of yours. Good to know.” She smirked before putting her attention back on her food, this time offering me a bite. Of course I accepted.
“I would tell you no more unsolicited pictures but I know you’re going to do whatever you want anyway, BK. So I’ll just say next time let me see them at least please. I have to approve of how I look in them from now on. I can’t have your people seeing me look just any kind of way.”
“I’m glad you’re learning me, M&M.” I kissed her cheek once more before snatching the fork from her hand to feed her this time.
“I thoughtyou said you were an herbalist, M&M. You gotta shake the leaves like this.” I took her hands and moved them with mine. It had been hours since McKay had first gotten here, and after eating Cajun Alfredo together, I’d let her talk me into caring for the plants.
“I am, and although herbs are plants, not all plants are herbs. My handle and care of my herbs looks different. I told you, for a long time my supply came from a dispensary not the botanical garden. Besides, although Lily here is beautiful, I couldn’t do anything with her. Peace lilies are highly toxic and should never be consumed, but your aloe plant is high on my list. Other than that, none of your plants would ever be used in my workshop. They are very good air purifiers though. I am curious why you have so many of the same type though. Like in the class. Most plant daddies dabble with a variety of different types when they’re just starting out.”
We moved on to the snake plant with her watching me prune the leaves first before she took over, shaking them gently.
“Of course the herbalist only sees the technicalities. For your information, they all do different things. My peace lily is my bearing of peace and self-love while my aloe vera is for healing and protection. The spider plant is for abundance and my bamboo princess is for good fortune and resilience. So yeah, they all have a different purpose here.”
“Yeah, yeah. Can I ask you a question though?”
“Shoot.”
“What got you into the plant daddy life?” I chuckled at the term she loved using to refer to me.
I shrugged as I thought about her question. I chuckled.
“I don’t have a story behind it, like oh, I grew up in the garden surrounded by all things green. Honestly, I was online looking up low maintenance hobbies. As you know, work consumes a lot of my time, and when I have some to spare, I pass it out to my family and friends. But I wanted something just for me. I tried a bunch of shit before this one came easy. I started with Lou and have been growing since. It’ll be a year in February. I don’t know, it’s nothing major though.” I snorted.
“Plant Daddy,” she joked, making me chuckle.
“Crack all you want but I’m the reason you’re able to play with those herbs and things. Speaking of, how are the tinctures coming? Have you found one that works for your grandpa?”
McKay groaned her irritation.
“Still coming, but okay. I’ve made a few more for him to try but they take four to six weeks at minimum before they are fully ready. So it’s going to be a few more weeks before I can send him any. My personal herbal remedies only took hours or overnight, so this is the longest he’s gone without anything. That’s the only thing I hate most about my unexpected, life changing news. Not to mention I haven’t been back to see him since telling my parents. Life has been a little chaotic these days.”
“Chaotic, how? I told you I wanted you to be relaxing. What you got going on that you haven’t told me about?”
“BK, you know my life still goes on outside of us, right? I can’t just relax. And you mentioned moving to my parents and now that’s all at the top of my list outside of baby shopping. Because regardless of you being here, at the end of the day, Chris will still expect that to be true.”
“M&M, while I’m here and we’re together you don’t have any outside life that doesn’t involve me. I don’t mind repeating myself until it clicks and sticks in that pretty muthafucking brain of yours, but make this my last time saying that shit. Your job isto relax and stop stressing Peanut out. We—” I cleared my throat to switch my words.
