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“I hear you, but they seem to be in love. I think it’s beautiful.”

  “Yeah, I just need to holla at him for a minute. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “No. Not at all. I will hang out with Charli until you’re done.”

  “Aye, El. You want to come down and have a drink with me?” Wesley called from the kitchen.

  “Sounds good. Not too much, though. We another game tomorrow,” Samuel replied.

  El followed Wes out of the room leaving Charli and me alone.

  “Would you like some lavender and chamomile tea? I usually drink some to help me unwind at the end of the day,” Charli offered.

  “That sounds good.”

  I followed her into the kitchen. She busied herself with retrieving two oblong canisters and teacups. I watched her put water in a kettle then place the loose lea into a pot that would steep the tea.

  “What do you do for a living? If you don’t mind me asking,” she said while moving around the kitchen.

  “I’m an attorney. That’s how Samuel and I met.”

  “Wesley and I hadn’t been together for almost fifteen years. I didn’t know much about his life now, but as he tells me about it, it’s clear that Samuel is a huge influence. We stayed texting and calling you for updates on his condition. How has he been since the shooting?”

  “Yes, I remember and thank you. He’s so much better. I thought I was going to lose him, but I didn’t. For that, I am very grateful.”

  She passed me a small cup of tea.

  “This smells amazing,” I said as I took a sip, “And it’s delicious.”

  “Thank you. It’s my own blend. I order it from a couple of different companies and then mix it together myself. I can send you home with a canister if you like?”

  “That is so generous, thank you.”

  “No problem.”

  “It really does help me wind down. I use this and a little bit of peppermint oil on my wrists. Both Wes and I sleep well.”

  “I wish I would have known about this while El was in the hospital. I didn’t sleep at all.”

  “How are his scars healing?”

  Her questions were personal, but for some reason, I didn’t mind.

  “They are healing well.”

  She went to her cabinet and pulled out a bag.

  “I mixed these for Samuel, but I wasn’t sure if he would be willing to use them. Some people are not into essential oils and natural remedies, but this is apricot oil, neroli, rose, and lavender oil mixed with raw shea butter. If he puts this on his wounds as a moisturizer, they will heal nicely.”

  I took off the top of the container to smell it.

  “This smells very good.”

  “Thank you. I used essential oils for everything. They work well.”

  “Thank you. I will make sure he uses it.”

  I sipped some of my tea.

  “Earlier you said you and Wesley were together, broke up and are now back together again?”

  “In a nutshell, yes,” Charli replied. “He was my first everything, but he broke my heart. I was all prepared to give him the cold shoulder for the rest of my life, but the heart wants what the heart wants. My heart wants Wes and Wes’ heart wants me.”

  “That’s a beautiful story.”

  “I still pinch myself when I think about it. I never thought I would have the chance to be with Wes again, but here we are.”

  Samuel

  Wes and I went into his media room and sat in the black reclining chairs that were situated in the middle of the room. He went to the small bar and poured two glasses of cognac. He handed me one of the glasses then sat in the chair next to mine.

  “I need you to explain this situation to me, Wes. I’d never heard Charli’s name and all of a sudden you are engaged. It’s important that you are careful about these steps you are taking. You were just with Diamond.”

  “Like Charli said, she and I were high school sweethearts, but it was more than that. We’d planned a future together, but I got it in my head that I couldn’t have her and baseball, so I chose baseball. I think I thought she would wait on me to get my shit together but she didn’t. She moved on. I broke her heart, but I never stopped loving her even when she was married to someone else. She’s not some chick I met last week, and I put a ring on her finger. She should have been wearing my ring since we were kids.”

  “Right, now I remember you mentioning something about her at dinner before the season started.”

  “Right and Diamond and I were never really anything plus you know how she was moving.”

  “I remember. So, what are your plans now that you’ve got your girl?”

  “They haven’t changed. I’m following you into the front office. I want to marry Charli and get her pregnant as soon as I can.”

  “Sounds like my plan,” I laughed.

  “Great minds,” Wes laughed.

  “I am still working with my investment group on acquiring the team. As soon as that deal in done, I will let you know.”

  “I’m ready when you are,” Wes replied.

  He held his glass up, and we clinked glasses and took a sip.

  “How are you feeling, El?”

  “I feel good man. Blessed, for real. The doctors didn’t expect me to make it, but I did. Now it’s time for me to expand my borders and put some plans in motion. I’m going to bring Averie back into this neighborhood tomorrow to look at a house around the corner. I’m going to purchase a house here, so we don’t have to stay in a hotel when we come down. After the deal goes through, I will be town a lot more often.”

  “That’s smart. I am going to build Charli a house in our hometown. My dad and I are going to design it and build it. We will stay in both cities but mostly in Ragston during the off season.”

  “Nice.”

  “Yeah, she deserves everything I can give to her.”

  “She seems nice.”

  “She is my heart. When I saw her again, I got that feeling like finding that very last piece that completes a puzzle that you’ve worked on for months.”

  “Well congrats, Bro. I’m happy for you.”

  “Same to you, El.”

  “This is the house I wanted to show you,” I said after Brick pulled in front of a modern two-story house.

  Averie examined the house through the car window.

  “It has great curb appeal,” Averie said.

  I got out of the car then opened her door. We walked to the front door and was greeted by Corinthia, the real estate broker.

  “Good morning, Mr. Valentine,” she extended her hand.

  “Good morning. This is my fiancé, Ms. Patterson.”

  The women shook hands.

  “This is the house I told you about. It hasn’t hit the market yet. I asked the owners to let me show it to you first before they put it on the market. It was built two years ago. Modern design as you can see. Five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and two half baths. Right under eight thousand square feet. Four acres, a pool, guest house, and pool house. Let’s go in and take a look.”

  We walked through the lower level of the house while Corinthia pointed out the height of the ceilings, the wide plank wood floors and the kitchen, that in my opinion would need to be gutted and re-done. It was too much wood. The master bedroom was also on the first level. It was a nice size and had a huge en suite bathroom. The toilet had its own small room with was a must for me. The back of the house featured a pool with a small waterfall feature. Each bedroom had a balcony and a view of the backyard. We went back inside to the upper level to look at the bedrooms.

  “Each bedroom has a private bathroom. These smaller ones could be for future children, maybe?” Corinthia said while looking at Averie and me.

  We’d never talked about children. I thought she wanted them, but I wasn’t sure. Feels like we’d talked about everything but that. Averie smiled politely at Corinthia, and she continued to the rest of the bedrooms. After the upstairs tour, Corinthia left Averie and me to discuss the house.
r />   “What do you think?” I asked.

  “I think it’s wonderful. I like everything about it except the kitchen. That kitchen is was too log cabin-ish for me.”

  “I was thinking the same thing! They killed a lot of trees to put that together.”

  “They did,” she laughed.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked as she stepped away to look out into the backyard.

  “Nothing is wrong. It’s just, my father and grandfather were both blue collar workers. They worked hard to just maintain, you know. I mean don’t get me wrong, my childhood was amazing. My mother and sisters kept my life full of girly fun-filled adventures, but we didn’t have a whole lot. But when I stand in a house like this with the potential of it being mine, I don’t feel humbled. I feel like it’s about damn time. But shouldn’t I feel like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening for me?’”

  “No. You should feel how you feel. You don’t have to apologize for who you are. You work hard every day. You’ve made yourself the top female litigator in the Midwest and one of the top in the country. I love that confidence you have. I would be surprised if you said you can’t believe this was happening to you. I’m the same way. My success never takes me by surprise. I expect for everything that I attempt to work. If it doesn’t then I just know what to do next time to make it work.”

  “That’s my philosophy too.”

  “Do you want to look at some other houses or do you like this one?”

  “I like the neighborhood and the proximity to the where the new stadium will be. Let’s do it,” Averie responded.

  “I realized something while we were looking at the house. We’ve haven’t talked about kids. Do you want them?”

  “I do. What about you?”

  “Yes. I do. I hadn’t thought about it much until recently but yes.”

  “How many?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t have a number.”

  “I always wanted more than one so they could grow up together like my sisters, and I did.”

  “It would be good to have a sibling but we can play it by ear?”

  “Absolutely,” she smiled.

  Averie

  Samuel and I traveled for two weeks for the Stars games. They won the series against the Texas Rangers. They went on to play the Saint Louis Cardinals in the World Series and lost. We had an amazing time hosting family and friends for the games. The Bluettes came to Saint Louis, and I was able to meet the rest of the family and all their kids. I had to root for the Stars, but my heart was with the Cardinals. Zanetta felt the same except she openly cheered for the Cardinals through the entire series.

  After the World Series, Samuel had to travel for a couple weeks on business. We FaceTimed a lot and spoke every day, but this was the first time that we’d been away from each other for an extended period of time. I missed him, but my schedule wouldn’t allow me any time to fly out to meet him. I was excited when I heard the front door open. I knew he was finally home.

  “Hey baby!” I smiled when he walked in.

  “Hey,” he smiled dropping his bag at the front door.

  We hugged and then kissed.

  “Don’t get too comfortable. We are spending the weekend out at the house. I just need to grab a couple things,” I instructed.

  “Come here, first,” he said while sitting down on the couch and pulling me onto his lap.

  “I missed you,” he said while kissing my neck.

  “I missed you too, baby,” I moaned.

  He continued kissing my neck while I moved on his lap enjoying the feeling of his growing erection.

  “Do we have any plans this weekend?” he asked between kisses to my neck.

  “Nope. Just you, me and the bedroom.”

  “Good. I want you all to myself.”

  “That’s the plan,” I said as Kerem’s ringtone played on my phone.

  I tilted my head to the right encouraging El not to stop. As soon as the ringing stopped, it started again.

  “You probably should get that,” El said as he reached behind me to grab my phone out of my back pocket.

  The ringing stopped as soon as he handed me my phone, then it began again.

  Kerem never called my phone unless it was something important. My mind flooded with horrible possibilities as I connected the call.

  “Hello?”

  “VEE! VEE!”

  “What’s wrong, Kerem?”

  “Yeah, aye, um…I uh…”

  I heard Keeva yelling in the background, “Oh you calling my sister? You need to call on the Lord you trifling, nasty, motherfucker. You better hope I don’t get in there…”

  “Reem, what’s happening!” I yelled.

  “Okay, so um, me and Key are having a little disagreement, and she has a knife.”

  “A knife?”

  “A knife?” El repeated after me.

  We looked at each other while I listened to Kerem.

  “Why does she have a knife, Reem?”

  “Vee, I fucked up. Key is trying to kill me…”

  “I’m going to kill you filthy, disgusting…” I heard Key yelling in the background.

  “Please come and get her. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. She won’t listen to me,” Kerem pleaded.

  El stood from the chair and lowered me to the ground. He grabbed my shoes and brought them over to me. I put them on while I was still trying to decipher what was going on.

  I could hear banging in the background. Then I heard, “Open this door, Kerem. Be a man now. I’m just a girl. You scared?”

  “I really need you to get here,” Kerem’s voice cracked as he spoke into the phone.

  El was helping me into my jacket and pulling me toward the door.

  “I’m on my way.”

  I disconnected the call.

  I sat down in the car and adjusted my seat belt while El closed my door and jogged to the driver side.

  “Where is Brick?”

  “I gave him the evening off since I thought we wouldn’t be leaving back out,” Samuel explained.

  We pulled out of the garage headed in the direction of my sister’s house. I dialed Keeva’s number.

  She answered the phone yelling, “DO YOU REALLY THINK MY LITTLE SISTER CAN STOP ME FROM MURDERING YOUR ASS? WHAT DO YOU WANT AVERIE!?”

  I put the call on speaker.

  “Key, what’s going on?” I said in the most soothing voice I could muster.

  “Nothing, I’m just trying to figure out a way to get into this bathroom to murder your brother in law.”

  “Key, why would you want to do that?”

  “Why not, Vee?”

  She went from one hundred to two and scared the crap out of me.

  “Sweetie, I mean what would make you want to kill your husband. You love him, remember?”

  “You remember Buffalo?”

  “The dog we had when we were little?”

  The sudden switch of topics threw me off a little.

  “Yeah, we loved Buffalo, too but guess what? When his ass got out of line and bit the neighbor guess what we did? We put his biting ass down. Same thing here.”

  El and I looked at each other. He read the panic on my face because he grabbed my hand and drove a little faster.

  “Sweetie, I’m on my way, okay? Can you please wait until I get there before you do anything rash? Please Key, I need both of you.”

  “You probably should hurry because if I figure out what this bitch changed the code to on the gun safe, I am going to blow his dick off.”

  “Stay on the phone with me, Key. I’m almost there. What is that beeping sound?”

  “I’m trying to figure out the code to the gun cabinet,” Keeva answered.

  “Key, no! Please don’t open that cabinet.”

  “He must have changed the code, and I can’t get in here anyway,” she relented.

  “Sweetheart, please move away from the gun cabinet. I wouldn’t be able to take one of you getting hurt.”

  “Fuck him! H
is cheating ass should be hurt!”

  What?

  El looked at me again and squeezed my hand.

  “What do you mean, Key?”

  “I mean he stuck his dick in some bitch that’s been texting his phone. When I asked him about it, he looked at me like I was speaking African.”

  “Afr…” I started.

  “Don’t gotdamn correct me and tell me that African is not a language. I fucking know that but he looked at me like I was speaking gotdamn African!”

  “You saw the text messages?”

  “I picked up his phone because I heard it ding. I saw the text she sent.”

  “Sweetie, we are pulling up.”

  El pulled to the front of their house. I jumped out of the car before he was able to open my door. I made it to the front door of their house before him, but he stopped me before I could enter.

  “I will go in first.”

  The door was unlocked, so he entered first, and I followed behind him.

  “Key,” I called out while staying behind El. I tried to get around him, but he stopped me.

  “I’m in here,” she called out from her room.

  We walked in to find her sitting on her bed facing the bathroom door. She had a large meat cleaver in her hand.

  “Where is Kerem?”

  “His punk, pussy, ass locked himself in the bathroom,” she pointed to the bathroom door with the knife.

  “Is he hurt, Key?”

  “Naw, he ain’t hurt, yet.”

  “Give me the knife, please.”

  She didn’t put up any resistance when I removed the knife from her hand and passed it to El. He took it out of the room.

  “Kerem,” I knocked on the door. “Come out.”

  Samuel returned to the room, drying his hands on a paper towel.

  “Are you here by yourself?” Kerem asked from behind the door.

  “I’m out here,” Samuel said.

  Kerem slowly opened the door to the bathroom. As soon as his face appeared, Keeva was off the bed, headed in his direction. I caught her before she could get to him.

  “Key,” I yelled out, “Stop!”

  “Tell her what you did,” she yelled while fighting to get out of my grip.

  “Baby, I…I will. Please calm down,” Kerem yelled. “I want to explain!”