“Tell me.”
“Nah,” he said with a playful frown. “I don’t wanna make you say it yet.”
I rolled my eyes in amusement and turned back to the stove to continue with breakfast. He waited a few seconds.
“Okay,nowyou can say it,” he said, grinning. I smiled over my shoulder at him.
“Say what?”
“Say I was right.”
“Really?” I chided, turning to face him fully.
“Mmm-hmm.” He nodded happily, waiting for his victory.
I rolled my eyes again and chewed on my cheek, hiding my smile for a long, quiet moment. Then I gave him his words. He deserved to hear them.
“You were right.”
He set his coffee down and stood, making his way around the island, a confident smirk permanent on his lips. He came behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, his head resting on my shoulder.
“Good,” he said, his voice low and firm. He moved my ponytailed hair from my shoulder and tilted my head as he kissed my neck. I took a deep, cleansing breath as I leaned my head back against him.
“Now say, ‘E, you were right about everything, always, all the time. And now I’m gonna be your wife and have your babies and become a famous chocolate-named person just like you. And bake lots of peach cobbler-pies on Sundays, forever.’”
I laughed. “I amnotsaying all that. And your name isnota chocolate! And okay to the pies, but I amnothaving babies at twenty-three.”
He grinned into my ear and sucked on my neck, his teeth grazing the surface just enough. “Twenty-five?”
“Twenty-nine,” I said with emphasis.
“Nope.” He snapped his head up with a shake. “Too long. Gonna need to see littleSyd n’ E’srunning around here much sooner than that.”
I laughed as I turned to face him, wrapping my hands at the base of his neck.
“Push your luck, and I won’t be having any babies at all,boy.”
He dipped his head down to mine and said against my lips, low, sure, and sexy as hell, “Oh yes, you will,girl.”
And he was right.
He’d been right all along.
Epilogue
Seven Years Later
“Sailaway”
-Earth, Wind & Fire, 1980
A letter to my babies:
I won’t be here forever,
But I hope it’s long enough to teach you everything you need from me;
To learn everything from you I possibly can;
