Page 276 of When a Soul Cries

And now Kai and me had finally secured Hollis.

Once that project got moving, the numbers were about to push us into territory neither one of us would’ve believed when we were younger.

Billionaire territory.

I should’ve been thinking about that.

Instead, I was thinking about a one-year-old calling me Dada and a five-foot-three woman asking whether I’d eaten dinner.

Funny how life worked.

I’d spent most of my adult life chasing security.

Now I had it.

Money. Businesses. Properties. A house bigger than I needed. More cars than one man could drive.

And none of that shit had ever made me feel what walking into Sol’s townhouse and hearing Halo squeal did.

Family.

For the first time, I understood what had been missing.

I wanted Sol.

I wanted Halo.

I wanted another baby one day.

Hell, maybe more than one.

I wanted a wife.

And every time I pictured that shit now, the same woman was standing there.

Sol.

I didn’t want to take away one ounce of the independence she had fought to get back. Keep the townhouse. Keep the job. Build her credit. Stack her money. Build something for Halo. Start a business one day if that’s what she wanted.

Do whatever the hell made her feel like herself again.

I just wanted her to understand she could have all that shit and me too.

“You keep staring at me.”

Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I glanced over and found her watching me over the top of her phone, amusement dancing in her eyes.

“I’m driving.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “You can drive and stare?”

“I’m talented.”

She laughed and shook her head. “You’re being weird.”

“You’ll be aight.”