Page 62 of Meet Me at the Altar

“Baby, you have to stop carrying them. You’re six months pregnant.”

“And still able to hold my babies.”

“Not for much longer.”

“Exactly, which is why I need to hold them as much as possible now,” I replied, taking Paris from his arms. I kissed her little face, and she giggled.

We kept walking back toward our little villa, and my husband wrapped his arm around me. He held Phoenix in his other arm, and our son was sucking his middle fingers on his left hand.

“I love you, beautiful.”

“Not as much as I love you,” I replied.

“I’d beg to differ.”

“I don’t see your body being stretched in different shapes and forms to hold tiny humans, and then you experience ungodly pain to spit said humans from your womb.”

“Nope, but I love you enough to allow you to do that for me.”

I hit him on the shoulder, and Phoenix scolded me. “No hitting, Mommy. Not nice.”

Andrès chuckled. “That’s right, Mommy. Keep your hands to yourself.”

“You remember that tonight, and you keep your hands to yourself too.”

“Yeah, Daddy. Hands to yourself,” Paris declared.

I bit back my smirk as my husband rolled his eyes. We approached the outdoor section of our villa where the rest of our crew were gathered. It was Andrès’s birthday, and we had invited our entire family and friends out to Samoa to celebrate with us, including Leon.

Andrès was still working on making my dreams of traveling around the world come true. In the last two years, we had visited six countries and were still adding to that number. This would be our last trip for a while, but I planned this one for his birthday. I knew that Samoa had been on his list for a while, and I was excited to make it happen. His paternal grandfather was Samoan, and we were able to visit a lot of places he recalled his grandfather talking about.

There were even a few family members here that he had visited while we were here. It had been an exciting two weeks for us. Our family and friends joined us for the last week of our vacation. The twins had stayed with my parents until they arrived this week. The past week of just Andrès and me had been so much fun and so beautiful. Yet, I had missed my kids and my family, and I was glad to have them here with us.

Silas was cuddled up with Adriana. Those two had begun dating in the last six months, but I wondered how their long-distance relationship would work out. I knew my friend, and she always needed her man in her bed and by her side. Silas had flown her out to California on several occasions, and he had flown to Cherokee Springs even more. I prayed that it would not grow old in time, because she really liked him.

My father was on the grill, and he had a running commentary going with Andrès’s father, Noah and Leon. Those two had learned to get along and made their peace with each other long enough to be around each other. They would never be best friends, but they could hold a conversation.

My mother, Tora, and Mrs. Nicole were sitting around the table giggling about something, and I wasn’t sure what it was, and I didn’t want to know. Kelsey had gone swimming with her new boyfriend, Matthew, and Khatya and Devon had joined them. DJ was gone to college, and I couldn’t be prouder of him. Solomon was here with his girlfriend, Jacinta, and Kalandra was also here with her new husband, Elias.

“I love our mixed family, baby,” I declared, looking up at my husband, who was also smiling at the sight before him.

We placed our twins on their feet, and they went running to their grandmothers. Andrès wrapped his arms around my waist. “Yeah, we’ve come a long way.”

“I’m most proud of how you and Leon have come a long way.”

He frowned. “Yeah, I never did figure out why he did that one-eighty. The change in him the day before our wedding was surprising, but the way he has changed over the last couple of years . . . I can’t hate on ya boy.”

I smiled secretly and replied, “Well, as long as he saw the error of his ways, that’s all that matters.”

“Mm-hmm. If a feisty, little woman takes it on her shoulders to check folks who comes at her man crazy, it won’t be a problem.”

I looked up at him and gasped. “How did you know that?”

He winked at me.

“How long have you known?”

He chuckled. “The day that we had brunch, he told me Mama got in his ass the day before that. He said that she had a visitor that made her see the error of her ways, but he wouldn’t say who. I already knew from that moment on.”