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I led Sonya over to the loveseat. We settled on the plush cushions, and I arranged Sonya’s legs over my crotch to disguise the hard-on trying to get out of my pants. Better her panties showed than my mother seeing me in such a state.
Mama lifted an eyebrow ever so slightly, her smile broadening. She slipped her hand into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a worn black velvet box. She held it out to me. I stared at it for a minute before cutting my eyes to Sonya, who appeared as apprehensive as I was.
“It’s not going to hurt you to take it.” I held up my palm, and Mama reverently placed the box in it. “It’s great-granny’s ring. The one on my side.” Her gaze drifted to Sonya. “You remind me a lot of her. She was spirited and the only one who could put up with Drew’s great-granddaddy.”
I opened it. A simple diamond engagement ring was inside. “I remember her wearing this.” She’d passed away when I was eight. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time, but this ring was always on her finger despite the fact my great-granddad died well before I was born.
“She wanted you to have it.”
I blinked at her. “Me?”
Mama reached over and squeezed my knee. “Why don’t you see how it looks on Sonya’s finger?”
My stomach lurched. Mama was up to no good. I looked at the ring, then at Sonya and then at Mama, who nodded in encouragement. A weird kind of peace settled over me.
I slid the ring on Sonya’s left hand and gazed at it.
“Yes,” Sonya said. I blinked at her. “Since you asked, I’ll marry you.”
“You already agreed to when you started practicing your vows.”
“Isn’t that park where you taught Gabriel to play baseball just lovely?” Mama asked.
What did that have to do with—I grinned. “I am rather fond of that place.”
“The weather is supposed to be good on Sunday.”
“This Sunday?” Sonya asked with a hint of panic. “Like five days from now Sunday?”
“That’s the one.” Mama tapped the air with an index finger.
“You’re killing me, sugar. What is it? You want to marry me, just not anytime soon?” I put on the best wounded expression I could muster.
Sonya slapped me. “I can’t just give in without a fight. You’ll start to think you can steamroll me with everything.”
“But you hurt my feelings.”
She smacked me again. “You’ll get over it.”
“Time for bed, you two,” Mama said.
“Yes, ma’am.” I was on my feet, Sonya scooped up in my arms before I got the words out.
“That’s the first time ever you haven’t given me a hard time about that.”
“Only took forty years.”
“Your mom looks good,”Sonya said as I pressed her up against the bedroom door.
“She does, especially considering the past few days.” They’d been rough, some of the worst yet, but Mama was fighting with all she had.
“I was glad to see her up.”
“She’s happy.”
“Because we’re getting married?”
“Yeah, but also because we’re all together and getting along. And Gabriel . . . he’s done wonders for her.”
