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When he opened the box and retrieved the ring, I noticed right away it wasn’t the emerald-cut hollow ring with pave diamonds surrounding a platinum band. This one was a slightly larger round brilliant cut with the same platinum band, but no pave diamonds. It was gorgeous, nothing competing with the primary stone.
“Thank you,” I cried, uselessly wiping my face with an already soddened hand.
Jas stood and took me into his arms for impassioned kiss. “Thank you,” he returned. “I was going to wait until later when the sun set, but your aggressive, anxious ass wanted to lay down my G upstairs, proposing to me. You ruined the surprise.”
With a tear-stained face and the goofiest smile, I quipped, “Say less, Sin.”
Chi-Chi was at his leg. “Daddy!” She lifted her arms.
Jas picked her up, kissing her cheek as the crowd went up in with cheers and whistles. They congratulated the most fulfilling accomplishment in my life.
Jas twirled me around with his free hand as we danced to “Truth.”
Epilogue
Part III
November | Three Years Later
“No, Mommy. Not too much,” Chivon whined as her mother painted her toenails a burnt orange color she wanted for the holiday.
“Sorry, baby.” Ashira focus game was serious, speaking slowly while stroking the brush. “It’s just hard for Mommy to do it in this position.”
Noelle, sitting on the floor against the wall, glanced up from her phone. “You want me to do it?”
“No!” With one arm holding heriPad, Chivon’s other palm shot up into the air. “Mommy do it, Auntie. Just mommy!” Then she went back to watching a video.
I snorted while Noelle rolled her eyes.
Ashira had been promising Chivon to change the color of her toenails when she came home on a break from the Pixie tour for weeks now. I would have taken her to the nail salon, but Chivon found something special in her mother’s work, even if she was a bit bossy when her moms did it.
“Jas!” Ashira’s leg jerk and she giggled.
“What? I ain’t applying no pressure,” I reminded her at the foot of the bed, rubbing her feet with an oil Rose sent up to help Ashira with circulation during the tour.
“No, but you’re too light-handed, making it tickle.” She smiled while still applying a coat to Chivon’s toes.
We were a sight in my bedroom. Ashira lay on her back against a mountain of pillows, leaning over to Chivon’s little feet near her round belly. And Noelle wasn’t far at all from her big sister. Everyone wanted a piece of Ashira. This was what happened when she hadn’t been home for eight weeks. We’d all missed her and didn’t spare a moment of time in her presence. I didn’t mind sharing her this evening after eating leftover Thanksgiving dinner because I’d seen her out on the road.
Four times, I flew out to see her shows, and refuel on her charm and body when the tour stopped in Miami, New Orleans, San Diego, and Boston. I took the girls with me to the last one because of the short distance. But the others would have been hard with their school schedules, so they stayed behind with Ines, Consuela, and Frankie, when she’d come through.
“When’s Juggy coming back?” Noelle asked. “Tomorrow?”
“Nah. Maybe the weekend,” I answered.
“Why?” Ashira’s eyes were still on the toe she worked on.
“Because he said when he came back he would start teaching me how to drive.”
Damn. “We there now?”
“Yeeeeah, boyeeee!” She waved her arms in the air, swaying her torso. It reminded me so much of her big sister.
They were wildly expressive that way.
“I guess it is that time. Huhn?” Ashira murmured, still focused.
Jug had been inDellafor the holidays. Dude got a special invitation. Rose called him down for a checkup. She’d taken a liking to my G, which was why I felt the invitation was for his company. The whole family liked Jug from his time down there last summer. Dude left a lasting impression. And because they were so hospitable, he was in no rush to come home. That and because Diana had taken a special liking to the dude. They tried being downlow with their shit, but I knew he’d been fucking her since the summer.
