“You can’t renege now. We already started.”
“Bent, I’m willing to have three more, tops. I’m not having five more babies.”
He presses his lips to mine and kisses me firmly. “I just wanted to get you to agree to have more with me,” he says against my lips.
“All you had to do was ask. You have a better shot asking than trying to make me commit bodily harm,” I tease.
“Good to know. We’ll have that talk soon. Come, dinner is waiting.”
“You rented the place out, didn’t you?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “I might have.”
I smile and hand him my new charm. “Will you put it on for me first?”
He takes it and hooks it on the chain for me, then pecks my lips. Not only do I feel loved, but I can also see it in his eyes. This date moves to the top of my fave list.
Bentley
We walkinto the house hand in hand. Aaron is fast asleep on my shoulder. We stopped to pick him up from my mom’s when we got back.
That date was amazing. Anytime I get with Zah is more than I can ask for. The look in her eyes when I gave her that charm was worth a million dollars.
Something so simple means so much to her. I think that’s what I love about her so much. Zahirah isn’t afraid to laugh at herself or to dance in the rain.
It makes me want to give her the world. Something I plan to give her and my son. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for these two.
“I’ll put him to bed. You want to go take a bath? I’ll join you in a bit.”
“No, I’ll help. We’ve been gone all day. I missed him.”
I nod and squeeze her fingers. We make our way to Aaron’s room and Zah gets his PJs as I get him undressed and use the baby wipes to wipe him down.
When I’m done and go to throw out the wipes, Zah gets him into his pajamas. My boy is knocked out. He looks like a sleeping angel.
“He sleeps just like you.”
I scoff. “I wish I could sleep that hard. The kid would sleep through a tornado.”
“Bent, when you fall out, your ass is out for the count. You sleep like the dead.”
I bury my face in her neck and laugh. I do tend to sleep hard. Inhaling deeply, I count my blessings.
“I’m not ready to be out for the count tonight. Come dance with me.”
“Dance with you?”
“Yeah, like we used to do in college after we got our grades back. Come on, it will be fun. The perfect ending to the perfect day.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
We both kiss our boy good night and head out to the living room. I pull my phone out and find a song that speaks to how I’m feeling. “So Easy” by Olivia Dean fills the room.
I tug Zah into my embrace and begin to sway with her in my arms. She reaches up and cups my face as we lock eyes. In this moment, I see my past, present, and future all rolled into one.
It’s not pretty. In fact, it’s pretty damn ugly in some parts. However, it’s mine.
“I love you,” we say at the same time.
