Page 228 of When Love Takes Root

“With children who need the world to slow down. When he was little, his cousin had speech delays. Everybody would talk over that baby, finish sentences, hurry him up. Josiah would sit right there and wait. Didn’t matter how long it took. He’d say, ‘He got something to say; let him say it.’”

My heart turned over.

Yolanda’s eyes stayed on her son, but her voice softened like the memory had reached for her hand.

“Love is patient ain’t just pretty scripture when it’s real. It’s not passive, and it’s not weak. It’s discipline. It’s choosing not to rush somebody just because you already know what you want from them. Sometimes, patience looks like sitting long enough for somebody to find their words. Sometimes, it looks like hearing what they can’t say yet. Sometimes, it looks like making room before you’re ever asked, because love shouldn’t have to beg for space to breathe.”

Across the yard, Josiah looked up like he felt me thinking about him. Our eyes met, and his smile came slow, private, and full of a certainty that made my chest ache.

It felt certain.

Like God had hidden a seed beneath all that sorrow, and love had finally pushed through the soil with enough courage to bloom.

I looked away first, mostly because I was already too tender, and the evening kept moving around us in the loud, beautiful way family did. Laughter rose from the patio. Plates passed from hand to hand. Children ran through bubbles and string lights while the people we loved filled Josiah’s yard with noise, food, and the joy that didn’t ask grief to leave before it sat down.

Aunt Hilary accused Juice of “plate fraud” because he kept circling the dessert table with different napkins like that made him a new person. Uncle Zeke told Kayden he had natural footwork and terrible trash talk. JJ and Onyx ended up in a debate about old-school R&B that nearly split the patio by generation. Melody and Leilani exchanged teacher-mama looks every time the children got too silent, which was how we discovered the C-Blacks had created a “family survey.”

Zuri cleared her throat and stood on the patio step with a notebook. “Question one. Do you believe blended families should have matching shirts?”

Kayden answered immediately. “No.”

Skye answered at the same time. “Yes.”

Jaya raised one hand. “Only if the shirts are cute.”

Lyric raised both hands. “With glitter.”

Maya wrote that down.

JJ leaned back in his chair. “Absolutely not.”

Onyx nodded. “I agree with JJ.”

Leilani side-eyed him. “You wear motorcycle club shirts with skulls on them.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“It has meaning.”

Skye pointed at him. “So does glitter.”

Juice lifted his cup. “The baby got a point.”

Aunt Hilary fanned herself with a paper plate. “This family getting loud, and nobody even married yet.”

The whole patio went silent for half a second.

Then everybody looked at me.

I looked at my plate.

Celeste Coleman, lover of words and woman of reasonable vocabulary, suddenly found baked beans fascinating.

Josiah, disrespectfully calm, took a sip of tea.

Leilani leaned toward me. “You blushing?”