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“Forever my lady, it's like a dream. I'm holding you close, you're keeping me warm. If this is ecstasy (forever my lady!) Forever my lady, I say just what I mean. Forever and ever! I pray is what I see (yes, my baby!) Can you picture my lady? This empty scene, there's no me or no you. What will we do? An awful sight to me, if I ever lose you. Tell me where would I go? Life would have no meaning, and I pray that you will always stay with me, yeah!”

I felt every lyric he sang to that song, I listened a little longer and wiped my face. I ended up dosing off again, getting the best sleep that I hadn’t had in a long time.

I woke up in panic mode, grabbing my phone, that laid right on top of my breast. Hitting the lock button, the time now read eleven am. Matthew had texted me, while I was scrambling to my feet to go find my baby. I hoped she wasn’t in panic mode waking up in this big ass house without me in sight. Instead of reading his long text, I facetimed him and sighed in relief when his face came onto the camera with a smiling Heaven.

“Mama!” She cooed and her pretty baby voice.

“Hey mommies baby, were are you?” I looked at the background and it looked like they were at a store.

“We at target.” Matthew face was now in the camera.

“Target? She still has on her pajamas babe.” I already had grown comfortable with calling him baby and babe. I loved it.

“Who gone say something about it? I fed her breakfast, a five-star breakfast at that.” He chuckled cockily causing me to roll my eyes playfully.

“Then, she was walking around looking like she wanted some toys to play with. So, I let her ride with me to Target. Look what my baby got.” He turned the camera on Heaven that was sitting in the basket with a baby doll. My baby girl looked like she was in heaven smiling all wide. The basket was full of toys, I couldn’t do anything but shake my head. Heaven already had Matthew wrapped around her fingers.

“Buy her a car seat while you there, so she can have one in your car.” I reminded him as something caught my attention. My finger had a big heart shaped diamond ring on it that damn near blinded me. I screamed loud at the top of my lungs and dropped the phone to really get a good look at it.

“Matthew, what the fuck is this!” I shouted practically ready to faint.

“Take a shower and get yourself dressed Sugar mommy. That’s a wedding ring, you bout to marry a nigga.” I heard the call end and I stood there feeling like I was in some type of dream. I slid the ring off and really got a good look at it. In encrusted cursive writing, the ring had the words renovated. I went to our text messages and balled like a baby at what he wrote me.

I need you to marry a nigga, be in my life forever. I love you with everything in me, my heart belongs to you, since you renovated that shit!

I texted him back and told him, that I would love to be his wife. I expressed just how much I loved him too. Saying a silent prayer, now it was my turn to get in the shower and sing Jagged Edge “Lets get married” at the top of my lungs.

Chapter Forty-Two

SOULFUL HURTZ

“Roberto, why the hell do you have Flamingo’s and Giraffes in the front of your pretty ass lawn with diapers on?” Era looked at Roberto liked she truly wanted to know. I wasn’t surprised by shit this nigga did anymore, so I waited for him to give my girl the answer that she was waiting on. It had been a while since I came to Mexico to visit Roberto. He was always at one of our houses in Cali so to be here on his property was something different.

“Yea, what kind of shit is that about?” Debo asked repositioning Heaven in his arms. The little girl was beautiful and looked just like her momma Praylah. She was well behaved and I was amazed how we didn’t hear her whine or cry to much, she was glued to Debo, her little arms were tightly wrapped around his neck.

“I don’t want my exotic animals shitting on my well-manicured lawn. I pay the staff well to change their diapers every hour.” Roberto fanned himself like he was hot. It was nearing winter so the weather was chill out here in Mexico. I was still in shock that Roberto had all of us to come out here.

Praylah and Era had their baby showers together and it was comical as hell. All of our families mixed together was something like a reality show. Now we were on a small getaway before Era’s due date. I thought it was pushing shit too close coming out here when my baby due date was next month. I had to watch Era and make sure she never over exerted herself. She always found something to do even if she was off the road.

I had maids and staff at home to make things easier for her but Era was hands on with everything. She liked cooking and cleaning, washing clothes and actually folding them. There wasn’t a lazy bone in my baby body and I loved that shit. She just would take it to far without realizing it and then regret it later at night.

I looked down at my girl feet and made a mental note to massage them once we went in for the night. Era was something fucking special. She was beyond special, I sometimes stared at her not even really believing that she was truly mine. We both supported each other to the max and my sisters loved her to pieces. Era got Passion and Luv to open to up to her in a short period of time about things they didn’t want to really tell me about being that they were young women.

The days that we spent apart from each other; we damn near would be on the phone the whole day. I was on some real mushy shit and didn’t care because this is something I had been missing. To be honest, I never even knew what the hell it felt like to be loved like this. I was finally getting the same of what I put out into a relationship. The love and care that I dished out to her was fed right back to me. We were inexplicably drawn to each other and vibed on a whole other level of understanding. No matter how far she traveled or how far I went away to handle business, soon as we made it back to each other, we felt at peace. Era was home for me. With Era, there was an unmistakable feeling of comfort and ease, especially when she was right by my side.

I felt that shit and knew it from the first time we laid eyes on each other. It felt like we knew each other forever, I knew and felt her soul and she felt the same for me. Me and Era was beyond explanation. It's like we had some telepathic shit going on, we could exchange looks and know what each other was thinking. We were physically drawn to each other, like magnets. Long story short, we were on the same wavelength and I thanked God every day for sending this woman into my life.

To me, she came at the perfect time, I was so close to giving up on this shit called love. I wasn’t caught up in the past or thinking about how I used to feel about the past either. It felt like I was on a new chapter in life and I accepted it without any second thoughts.

“That can’t be right Roberto.” Praylah shook her head not able to take her eyes off the animals in Roberto’s front yard. Roberto didn’t care about anything the women were saying. I could see the look of excitement in his eyes. He had been talking none stop about us coming up to spend this time with him. He was happy as hell and I knew that he was driving his staff crazy.

His staff and wife came walking out with trays of food and lounging chairs to sit around his rose garden. Roberto's front yard looked almost the same as his backyard. His front yard was huge, acres of land. He had a huge pool in his front yard guarded by a tall white gate so his animals wouldn’t venture off and fall inside.

This nigga had waterfall statues of himself carved and set up in different areas around his lawn. He had a band waiting to play his favorite music to serve as entertainment.

“Animals deserve to be in their natural habitat.” Era added as Roberto gave Honor a look and they both fell out laughing. Roberto became Honor’s plug and they were awfully close. I was just happy that Honor healed well and wasn’t still down bad. She was shot more than four times and now she stood amongst us like she had never been hit or harmed. Still stubborn about using her cane until she was a hundred percent able to walk longer than an hour without feeling pain. She took a seat with Ju’well following suit.

“This is their habitat, ju don’t see all the land that I provide? Look, they don’t always remain in my front yard. I’m opening up the first zoo ever in Mexico. I sometimes have them transported and taken there. I just brought them out today because I thought it be nice. I love animals and to be treated like one in the bedroom.” He winked at Era and Praylah.