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“Nalani,” I warn.
“Fine, and I guess I better call my granddad, too. I know he is going to talk trash about just being here,”
“I don’t know why Pastor Errington doesn’t just move here.”
“Well, his wife lived in South Carolina, and as you know, my mom didn’t care for her, but recently, my mom has made an effort to at least be cordial to her. So maybe when he comes up, we can try to convince him and his wife to move here.”
“Why not? What’s the worse that can happen?”
“Exactly,”
I still feel like I need to pinch myself. I am marrying Skai Errington, soon to be Gideon.
CHAPTER 21
Skai
Dammit! How am I late to my own party? I think, rushing around the room like a chicken with its head cut off. The outfit Mercy made is perfection, the beaded sleeveless pantsuit with detachable train. I channeled my inner Aunt Parker and went with all white with a few pops of yellow. My hair and makeup are done. Now all I have to do is get my ass in the car. I grab the rest of my things and stuff it in my purse and rush out of my bedroom. Ugh, I should’ve gone with Jabarri’s suggestion of us going together, but I wanted to surprise him with my outfit. Fuck it, I think if I have forgotten something, oh well. Everyone is either en route to the hotel or already there, including my dad and granddad. I swear to goodness if Jabarri texts me one more time! I scream in my head. Shit, my flats! I grab them and head to the car. I open the Jeep door and throw my stuff in the passenger side. I put my foot on the bar, preparing to get in the car when I hear my phone ringing. I drop my foot back down and listen for the ringing. It’s obviously not in the car, it sounds too far away. I start to pat myself down but stop when I realize there is no place on this outfit to stash my phone. Dammit! I threw it on my bed after Jabarri texted me for the twentieth time. It’s a good thing this makeup is waterproof, it’s hotter than doughnut grease at a fat man convention out here. I grab my key fob, rushing back in the house to grab my phone. I hit the remote start so the air can come on and hopefully cool down those hot-ass leather seats. Suddenly, I am thrown in the air landing hard on my side several feet down the hallway. What! The! Hell! I try to think around the ringing in my ears and pain in my side. I try to get up, but everything hurts. I drag myself to my room, pulling on the bedspread making shit clatter to the ground all around until, finally, my phone falls.
“Baby, you’re late even for you.”
“Jabarri,” I gasp out before everything goes black.
Who is yelling? I think as I struggle to open my eyes. As I become more conscious, I realize no one is yelling. They are just talking but everything is in stereo for me.
“Can y’all please hush,” I whisper out, and seconds later Jabarri is holding my hand.
“Skai, open your eyes, baby,”
“Okay,” I say, but it takes so much effort that I am tired before I figure out how to do it.
“Please, Skai, I need to see your eyes.” I hear him say, and I fight against the sleepiness trying to pull me back under and eventually crack my eyes to see Jabarri looking scared and downright furious.
“Hey, baby,” he says, smiling at me.
“Water?” I ask, but before he can give me any much-needed water for my dry mouth, a nurse and doctor are in the room poking and prodding me. So I’m in the hospital, and it all comes rushing back to me. I was in the garage getting in the car, and went back inside to find my phone. I used the remote start, and then I was shot down the hall.
“What happened? How long have I been here?”
“Your car exploded, and just a few hours,” Jabarri says.
“Jabarri, I was almost in the car. If you hadn’t texted, making me throw my phone, I would have had it on me, and I would have been in the car. I would’ve been dead.”
“You’re okay, baby. They didn’t get to you. By the time I got to you, the house was on fire but luckily, you closed your bedroom door, delaying the fire getting to you. This was too close, baby. We are going after them as soon as the doctor lets you go home.
“I am ready to go home now, I’m fine. Y’all aren’t going without me,”
“I bet we are.”
“No, you are not, Jabarbie!” I say, forgetting about the massive migraine and pain in my side.
“Let me tell your little ass something, You Are Not Going! I refuse to lose you. I will let you have anything else but not this. You will stay home. If you went and got hurt or worse I would be destroyed. I will happily crawl down into the depths of hell and make a deal with the Devil to eradicate every trace of them, all of their family, friends, exes, and anyone else they were associated with and I will dance in the fires of hell happily as long as it means you are safe. You cannot begin to comprehend how much I love you, Skai, so when I say you are not going, I mean that shit. I would rather you be mad at me alive, hell I would even accept you telling me you won’t marry me if I don’t let you go. As long as it means you are alive, safe, and whole. You are my heart not metaphorically either. You are the physical manifestation of my heart. I would simply die without you. So do us both a favor and not fight me on this.”
“Am I interrupting?” Lennox says when she walks in to Skai and I having a stare off.
“No,” she answers, turning to look at Lennox.
“They wanted to keep you for another twenty-four hours, but I have convinced them to send you home. It’s good to know I still have some pull here,” she says about her old hospital. “I am going to go back out there and get the accelerated version of the paperwork,” she throws over her shoulder as she walks out. Personally I think it was to give Jabari and I a chance to finish our conversation.
