Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
I stood motionless, staring at him, but even as moved as I was by what he’d said, I realized Darius was doing the same as me.
“Obviously, you can name him whatever you want,” Tex concluded. Then boomed, “Welp! Gotta go get the litter box then I’ll be out of your hair.”
And with no further ado, he lumbered out the front door.
I looked to Darius. “Can we keep him?”
He was looking at me and I knew with the way his face got soft what his answer would be.
“Look at you, woman. What do you think I’m gonna say?”
“The same thing Mister Morris would say.”
He closed his eyes and dropped his head.
I held my breath and waited.
He lifted his head and opened his eyes.
When he did, I knew he saw what I saw when I looked at him, and maybe, just a little (it was a start and I’d take it), he believed what I already knew.
He proved my thoughts correct when finally, finally, he said…
“Exactly.”
Epilogue
Riding a Cloud
I was pouring coffee when Darius came in the back door with a stack of donut boxes from LaMars.
“Well, don’t mind if I do!” his Uncle Samuel said, leaning back on his stool at the island and patting his big belly.
“Lord Jesus. He ate a whole sweet potato pie at Dorothea’s yesterday, and he’s eyeing those donut boxes like he hasn’t had food in months,” Samuel’s wife, Miss Regina, sitting next to him, said.
“Donuts! Awesome!” Liam exclaimed, strolling in with Scrapper where Scrapper often spent his time. Tooling around on Liam’s wide shoulders.
I didn’t know how those two did it. How Scrapper stayed balanced while Liam did whatever Liam was going to do. But they worked it.
Yes, my kid stole my cat.
It took him two seconds after he got home from his date. They took one look at each other and both of them were gone. If Liam was home, they were inseparable.
The good news about this was that Darius wasn’t annoyed at Tex anymore for springing a cat on us.
There was no bad news.
Except I wanted to be a good momma and think it was cute my kid stole my cat.
But I was peeved.
I saw him first!
Darius put the boxes down, spread them out on the island and flipped up the lids.
After he did that, he said to his son, “Round up the cousins, son. Breakfast is served.”
And what did Liam do?
He walked two steps to the doorway to the living room and shouted, “Richie! Jacqueline! Donuts are here!”
I looked to Darius.
He was fighting a smile.
I fought grabbing a donut and throwing it at him.
Mister Sam leaned long and nabbed himself a cinnamon twist.
“One, Sam,” Miss Regina warned. “Thanksgiving is over. You heard what your doctor said.”
“Thanksgiving lasts four days, woman,” he retorted then munched into the donut and spoke through cinnamon and dough. “No doctor worth his salt would deny me this donut.”
She turned beleaguered eyes to me.
I stretched my lips out to say I couldn’t help her.
Anyway, I agreed with Mister Sam.
Liam sat by his father’s uncle, his grandfather’s brother, and reached for his own donut, and I reveled in watching them so close, soaking in the similarities.
Soaking in the fact not only Darius had the full force of his family around him, we were now able to give it to our son.
Scrapper sat down on Liam’s shoulder, and with interest, studied my boy as Liam bit into a custard-filled, chocolate covered.
Liam tore of a tiny bite and offered it to his cat, who investigated it with his teeny black nose, then turned that nose up from it.
“More for me then, bud,” Liam said to his furry friend.
Darius got close to me where I was leaning on the back counter, dipped his head and whispered in my ear. “Better get what you want. Richie’s worse than his dad. And Jacqueline will hoover through a box on her own. She may be skinny as a meth head, but the bitch can put it away.”
I’d noticed that yesterday at Dorothea’s.
I stifled a giggle then hid my smile behind my coffee mug.
“Did someone say donuts?” Richie, Sam and Regina’s son, asked, strolling in, eyes homing in on the boxes.
Darius’s hand darted out and he stacked up a lemon filled, a cinnamon roll and a Boston cream.
He leaned back, set the cinnamon and Boston cream on the counter by his side and handed me the lemon.
My man.
Always taking care of me.
Jacqueline swanned her tiny behind in, body swathed in a short robe, face perfection, hair still in curlers.
Her gaze went to Darius. “Bad timing, cuz. You don’t interrupt a girl in the midst of her daily preparations.”
“You didn’t have to come down,” Darius pointed out.
“And let Richie and Dad eat them all?” she asked.
She leaned over the boxes delicately, perusing the selection like her decision would take hours, then snatched a jelly from right under Richie’s fingers.