“My eyes are wide open. I’m going to tell you now, I won’t be able to give you nothing six to eight weeks after having your big baby. So drink up.”
“I got all day to drink. Ernie wants to have breakfast with us. When I say us, I mean Cherie. He said she rubbed his back last night. That’s why I was in here cold without my thighs and titties?” Erys teased.
“Precisely. We had a little chat about baby names.”
“What’d he say? He wants to name my boy something like Lil’ Nigga Tyshawn or some bullshit like that?” Erys quizzed.
“Actually he’d like the baby to be named Heir so he inherits all the good he didn’t,” Remedy shared. “How do you feel about that?”
“I can dig it,” Erys agreed, kissing her stomach. “You need to eat. And then I want to go on a walk. Got you a sundress.”
“Because you want to see my ass in it?” Remedy teased.
“Nah, I want to see you in it, Mouth. All of you. I want to see you smile in it, giggle, talk your shit all of it. Can I do that?”
Remedy bit a smile. “You can do whatever you want.”
“Don’t tell me that, I’ll make you my wife today,” he stated, exposing his hand too early.
Remedy cocked a brow. “You’re playing. Come on, Ernie is waiting.”
Erys stood up and rubbed the top of his head, visibly nervous.
“Are you okay?” she asked brows fused.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m good. Let’s eat,” Erys stammered over himself.
The last unlocked emotion that proved she had full control over him. Nervousness. His control nowhere to be found. He fumbled over himself like he was that thirteen year old boy about to get some for the first time. His mother was too busy working to teach him about the ins and outs of a woman. So everything he learned, he’d learned from the streets.
Remedy wasn’t some girl on the street he wanted to get his dick wet, Remedy was his life. Without a doubt in his mind, he was going to create life with her and when the time came he was going to die in her arms surrounded by the evidence of their love and the legacy. She was the remedy to his chaos and he needed her like the air he breathed.
Out on the deck, they ate, listening to Ernie talk about the potential women he could pick up on his walk on the beach later. How he had a few politicians on the hook back in the day because he had them set up with his girls. How he avoided big charges because he knew what kind of honey they liked. Without question, Ernie had lived a wild life. After breakfast, Erys stood on the deck next to his father and watched the waves crash on the shore.
“You love that girl, don’t you?” Ernie asked.
Erys took advantage of this clear moment. “I do. With every fiber of my being.”
“Then why the hell don’t you marry her? You ain’t no punk bitch, nigga. Who cares if she just slapped your ass last night. Lock her down before she runs off. I bought a ring for your momma the week before she ran off with you. I still got that ring.” Ernie pulled the necklace out of his shirt, showing thediamond band. Erys had seen it many times before but always figured it was a pinky ring to remind him of the good old days. “Give her this one too. She’ll tell you yes because she loves you too. It’s in the fieriness of her eyes. A woman named Remedy, coming into all our chaos and calming the storm. That’s who you build a home with – a life with. Do better than I did, son, for the sake of your children. So they don’t grow up hating you. Hearing me?”
“I’m hearing you.” Ernie nudged him in the direction of Remedy in the white sundress after placing the ring in his hand.
“Don’t come back here without that last name changed to Moore. Remedy Moore got a ring to it,” Ernie said with full pride in his voice. “No one else fit to rewrite our history but her. Walk, nigga.”
Erys chuckled and moved his lead-like feet over to the object of his obsession. “Mm mm mm. You look good, Mouth.”
“I know I do, Franklin. I would’ve been down sooner but I was feeding Bud,” Remedy shared, holding her hand out for him to take. “Why are you so nervous? I can feel you. It’s worse than my first night on the pole. Knees knocking, breath all shallow.”
She moved her fingers to his wrist. “Heart rate through the roof. What’s going on?”
“You really want me to blow my plan out the water don’t you?” Erys posed, regaining possession of her hand leading her down the beach.
“I saw the news,” Remedy spoke after five minutes of anxious silence. “Sylvia, Gina, Willis, and Dustyn all arrested for wire fraud, tax evasion, and trafficking of narcotics. Paul and his wife for obstruction of justice. How’d you swing that?”
“People find me to be persuasive, I guess,” Erys shared.
“So the house that sits across the lake, any plans for that?” Remedy asked. “If not, I have an idea.”
“Does it include knocking it down?” Erys asked.
