Page 109 of Senior

He stared at me. I was a little shocked to see the tears pooling in the corners of his eyes, but I didn’t bring attention to it.

“You promise you’re gonna take care of her?”

“Yes.”

“Do right by her?”

“Yes.”

“Put her first?”

“Always.”

He stood and walked over in front of me, extending his hand. When I took it, he pulled me to my feet and embraced me tightly.

“You got my blessing, old man. I’m trusting you with my favorite girl. Don’t fuck this shit up.”

I chuckled as I kissed his head. “Trust me son. I won’t.”

We managed to convince Shelly to bring the kids over for Sunday dinner to meet the family. Things were moving fast with the adoption process, and I was just as nervous as I was happy. Senior and I had been back to see them this past week and I hated to leave them when it was time to go.

I was, however, able to pick their brains about what they wanted their rooms to look like. Daxon was easy. He loved video games and electronics, so he wanted a gamer space. I was most excited for him to meet Jaeda and Quaid.

Sevyn was a little harder to get information out of. At first, she said as long as she had a bed and a door that locked, she was good. Dax was a great help in getting her to open up and let down her walls. He told us her favorite color, which was surprisingly black.

From there, we looked on Pinterest to see if she found a style she liked. The more she looked, the more excited she seemed to become. By the time we left, I had a whole mood board for her and Daxon. Stanley already handed over his card and told me to go crazy.

“Ma, stop pacing,” Deuce fussed. “You making me dizzy.”

I wanted Dax and Sevyn to meet the kids first, so they were all at our house.

“I’m nervous!”

“I get that, but you’re gonna walk a hole in the floor. You wanna smoke?”

She glared at me. “Shut up, Deuce. No, I don’t wanna smoke and y’all don’t need to be smoking today either.”

Him, Maceo, Smoke, and Kerrion frowned.

“Whatchu talking about, Stephanie?” Smoke asked.

“I didn’t stutter. I want a good report today.”

“Weed is legal, Ma,” Deuce said.

“And? It’s not gonna kill y’all to be sober for a few hours.”

Maceo grinned. “I don’t know, Ma. I might get to shaking and shit.”

I stopped pacing and looked at them with my arms crossed.

“All jokes aside, I want this to go well. I don’t need any reason for that woman to say we can’t bring these kids home.”

“Everything will be fine, my love.”

Senior walked into the room and made a beeline for me. Cupping my face, he pressed a kiss to my lips.

“You gotta calm down, baby.”