As someone who didn’t grow up with a family, having one was extremely important to me. My kids would never grow up feeling the pain that I felt being alone with no one to turn to. And Kenedi would never have to do this life alone as long as I could help it. She was the most important person in the world to me, and I was going to protect her with everything that I had in me.
“You better believe it,” I said, smiling as Kenedi waddled her way over to us.
She had already changed out of her dress into something more comfortable. She insisted on wearing heels for the wedding, but it didn’t take much convincing from her mother and me to get her to change her shoes and outfit so that she was more comfortable for the rest of the night.
“Are you good, bae?” I asked as she came and stood next to me, and I wrapped my arm around her.
“I’m great, my feet hurt a little,” she said, shifting her weight. Everything was uncomfortable for her now, and it was my jobto help alleviate some of that as much as I could. There wasn’t much that I could do, but I was doing my best.
“Come on, let’s go sit down for a little while. You’ve been walking around for a minute,” I said, grabbing her hand and not giving her a chance to fight me on it.
Little did she know, we were about to get the hell out of here. I was ready to make love to my wife and put her to bed so that she could get some rest. We decided to wait to take our honeymoon until after the baby came to take our honeymoon. But we were both taking the next week off to relax and chill. I really wanted her to start her maternity leave, but she wasn’t trying to hear it, and I wasn’t going to fight her on it. As long as the doctor said she was good, I was going to sit back and be supportive.
“I’m so happy to be Kenedi Hill,” she said, leaning in and kissing my cheek as we took a seat and she admired her ring.
“Good, because that’s who you’ll be until the casket drops. Hell, even beyond that. You’re mine forever and eternity.”
Laughing, she replied, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I wasn’t sure what the future held for the two of us, but I knew that it was bright. We were married, had our first baby on the way, the record label was doing numbers, Kenedi’s career was taking off inside the label and outside, and shit was only up from here. I knew that doing life together wasn’t going to be easy, but I was ready for whatever came our way. No matter what it was, I knew that together, anything was possible.
“Before we leave, I want to do one last dance,” Kenedi said, bringing my focus back to her.
“Cool, let’s go, Mrs. Hill,” I said, grabbing her hand and kissing it as I pulled her up with her, and we made our way to the dance floor.
THE END.
EPILOGUE
KENEDI
ONE YEAR LATER.
As I finished getting everything ready for us to bake chocolate chip cookies before we left for Kru’s performance tonight, I smiled at Sincere and SJ standing next to me. That man was so in love with his son that whenever you were around the two of them, you couldn’t help but smile as well. There was so much love there between the two of them that it was truly contagious.
My pregnancy and birth with SJ were as smooth as they could go, and definitely had me wanting more children in the future. I loved being a mother, and I knew that God willing, we’d be bringing more babies into the world. If it were up to Sincere, we’d have an entire football team built within the next few years.
“Okay, I got everything that we need ready to go. You ready?”
One of the things Sincere mentioned missing the most when it came to his mom was the cookies that she used to bake for him. He said that no matter what they were going through, she always made him cookies on Sunday. And, if they didn’t have a kitchen to cook in, she’d get him one.
So, I had been working with my mom to teach me how to make them from scratch, and now that I felt as though I finally had the recipe down, I was ready to make them with him. He didn’t come out and say it directly, but I knew that it was a sensitive spot for him. And I hoped that it would be a new tradition that we could start with our family.
I had no idea what it felt like to lose a parent, and especially to grow up without one, but I always made it my mission to make sure that Sincere never felt that void. While I could do nothing about the broken bonds that he had with his family, well, everyone except his cousin Reese, I tried to make him feel as though he always had my family in his corner. My entire family had accepted him with open arms, and if you didn’t know who married into the family beforehand, you wouldn’t be able to tell. That was how much everyone loved and respected him. And, to me, that alone was a blessing in itself.
“Yeah, let’s pray we don’t burn the house down. I told you already that cooking or baking of any kind is not my thing.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. You trust me, right?” I asked, leaning up for a kiss. I didn’t have any shoes on, so our height difference was even more noticeable now.
“With my life,” he said, connecting his lips with mine.
“Okay, then just follow my lead. Now, first we have to prep our wet ingredients,” I said, motioning towards the section of the counter I’d placed everything.
I had everything separated by step to make it easier for us. Once he grabbed what we needed, it was time for us to start the baking process.
“You did such an amazing job,”I said, hugging Kru as he stepped in the back where Sincere and I stood.
“You huggin’ that nigga kinda tight, ain’t you? Unhand my wife, nigga,” Sincere said, pulling me away from him. Slapping his arm, I turned back to Kru.
