Page 126 of Just Like Summer

“I still can’t believe you made me do that,” Nate spoke with laughter.

“I didn’t make you do shit. I told you I was getting my GED to pass the time, and you said, ‘your ugly ass can’t be the only one learning something’,” Cairo half-mocked him. “Turns out, you weren’t slow like they said. You was just bad as fuck.”

“I was smart and more focused on runnin’ the streets because I didn’t have a parent at home to give a damn about me,” Nate huffed. “Now look at us. Fathers. Women who love us so hard they’d cuss us out at twelve and make us come eat at two. Then tell us to fix our faces.”

Cairo laughed. “I should’ve never let K get so close to Dania. You know she’s talking back and telling me what to do and how to do it?”

“Nigga, you like it,” Nate cheerfully commented.

“Nah, nigga. I love that shit. Can’t get enough of her bossy ass.”

“I can tell. You know what you gotta do right?”

Cairo nodded. “Hit up Fredo, immediately. Enough time has passed and I’m not waiting another five years to make it known she’s mine. See, I grew up.”

“Barely,” Nate toyed. “Get to your lady, Kairo and Malayna are going to be passed out in a few minutes.”

“‘Preciate it.”

fifty-one

“I can’t believe you did all this for me,” she buzzed, walking out on the patio.

She was dressed to the nines, sure to wear a dress that Cairo would want to tear off of her body. Her curls were rehydrated, diffused, big, and bouncy, thanks to Dania. What she expected was a popular steakhouse in the city in a corner booth. What she got was the house she purchased for them to one day occupy, decorated. The patio staged with a white linen-covered table, private chef in the kitchen plating their dinner.

Kamilla stood at the far side of the patio near the pool and glass wall, watching the waves below crash against the rocks. Cairo wrapped his arms around her and kissed the curve of her neck.

“Don’t you know I’d do anything for you?” he mused, looking down the hill to the east finding their beach hideaway and what Kamilla deemed as the crying rock. “Why’d you do this? Buy this house?”

Kamilla’s body melted into his. “Because this is our dream from our two in the morning rides. From Husten to the hills. It was a few months after you went away and Fredo threw me a last-minute cleaning job to keep me busy. I walked in here and I knew it was ours. The couple who lived here were going through a contentious divorce and bitterly, she was like “You want it?” I thought she was playing but she was dead ass serious. I told her about our crying rock and how we’d dreamt of seeing the inside of this house, next thing I knew, she locked the property up in a trust and gave me three years to give her twenty-thousand dollars. That’s literally all she owed because she inherited the house and she’d be damned if he got it. By that time, I’d already started investing your money. Two days later, I came back cash –in-hand. Now it’s ours. And all that time you were going to the beach was trespassing. Doesn’t matter, it’s ours now.”

“I think God gave me an angel,” Cairo muttered. “And I don’t even know what I did to deserve that.”

“You know it’s not always about what we deserve. Grace is grace. It can’t be explained. You never know what prayers your grandmother prayed over you. The ones that kept you alive so you could see your son grow. I know you’re walking in those prayers. I know you have a lot of work to do, and you’re just getting started. I also know that in every lifetime, my soul will find yours.”

“Stop talkin’ to me like that,” he mumbled in her ear. “I might think you like me.”

Kamilla laughed softly. “I love you. You should never doubt that. And you should never take advantage of that.”

“Trust me, won’t happen. You’re a builder and I refuse to turn you into the destroyer,” he shared, pulling in a deep breath of the sea breeze. “I love you more than you’ll know.”

A soft, “dinner is served” grabbed their attention. Hand in hand, they moved from the wall to the table. Filet mignon seared to perfection, branzino, lemon garlic risotto, and charred broccolini. Her favorite red wine and a bouquet of flowers.

Kamilla grinned. “I see D told you all of my business.”

“The things that mattered,” Cairo shared, pulling her chair out. “Heard Thursdays at JJ’s is your thing and y’all leave Nate to babysit.”

“We love Thursdays at JJ’s. I think it’s going to rival Thursdays with you now,” Kamilla hummed. “I heard someone signed their contract.”

“You got two more on the way. I heard someone got that promotion,” Cairo replied. “I’m so damn proud of you, K.”

She grinned. “I’m proud of you.”

“Nahhh, baby.” Cairo swayed his head and attempted to control the unexpected rise of emotion in his being. “If it weren’t for you and that love you naturally had in your spirit for me and everything that came with me, I wouldn’t be here. You did this.”

She swiped a tear from her cheek. “I did it for us. I couldn’t imagine being here without you.”

“Me neither,” he voiced quietly, allowing her to reach across the table and swipe the tear from his cheek. Cairo grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. “For stealing the moon.”