Page 53 of You Deserve Good Things

I nodded slowly, eyes locked on hers. “He deserves it, baby. He saved you, and now his nephew gon’ carry his name. His strength. His legacy. Every time we say it, he’ll live again.”

She sniffled, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears, and nodded. “I love that.” Her voice cracked like it was carrying all the weight of grief and gratitude in one fragile sound.

I kissed her forehead, lingering there like a vow, like I was sealing a promise to protect everything we had built.

“And if they are girls?” I asked, my lips still pressed to her skin.

She pulled back just enough to look at me, her eyes searching mine, shining with the quiet kind of joy that felt like a secret between hearts.

She thought for a second then smiled—slow, wide, full of sunlight.

“Sawyer and Sage.”

And just like that, my heart expanded past capacity. I grinned like a fool, like a man who had won every kind of love lottery that existed.

“Sawyer, Sage, and Silas James,” I said slowly, tasting the names like poetry on my tongue. “Damn, baby. Our legacy sounds like a fucking movement.”

She giggled, a soft, shaky laugh that felt like wind chimes in my chest. I kissed her slowly, like she was the answer to every prayer I ever made, and the reason I kept making new ones.

“Baby, we built a whole family.”

She let out a breathy laugh, the kind laced with disbelief and wonder. “We really did.”

I looked down at her, this woman—my wife, my warrior, my muse—lying beside me with three little miracles nestled beneath her heart.

It was in this moment, this breath, this fragile pause between night and forever, that I realized I wasn’t just lucky to love her; I was blessed to live this life beside her.

She was my heartbeat in human form. My compass and my calm.

It had beenseven whole months, and I woke up to tiny kicks tap-dancing against my hand like they was tryna start a second line inside my wife’s belly. It was gentle at first, like a whisper from the universe, but it picked up—soft thumps against my palm that reminded me that our legacy was alive and thriving inside of her.

Shaniya was curled up beside me, her breathing soft and steady, her belly round and regal, full of life, full of love, full of our future. A triple blessing.

Three. Sawyer. Sage. Silas.

Three names. Three heartbeats. Three little lives we had created with nothing but love, late-night cravings, and a wholelotta passion. I was beside myself with joy and love every time I thought about it.

I lay there in that early morning hush, just watching her sleep. Her skin glowed like honey warmed in the sun, her lashes long and delicate against her cheeks. Her hand was cradled over the top of her bump like she was already protecting them, already mama bearing it up in her dreams. My hand rested under hers, catching every flutter and kick like I was holding a rhythm only the five of us knew.

I never thought love could feel like this—so infinite, so overwhelming, so consuming. It filled up the room, climbed the walls, kissed the ceiling. It pressed on my chest in the best way, like the weight of something too beautiful to name.

The alarm clock started wailing like a demon with a hangover, but before I could reach for it, Shaniya groaned and smacked it like it owed her money.

“Turn that shit off,” she mumbled into my chest, voice hoarse with sleep and attitude.

I laughed, my arms locking around her tight like I wasn’t ever letting her go. “Baby, we gotta get up.”

“Why?” she grumbled, already dramatic. “I’m literally growing a whole village. That’s work enough.”

I kissed her forehead, her temple, then the curve of her jaw. “You got a point. But if you don’t get up, I’m carrying you to breakfast like the queen you are.”

She cracked one eye open, side-eye deadly. “Jacory, I swear if you try it?—”

I smirked, rubbing her belly slowly. “You think I won’t?”

She groaned, trying to sit up but struggling with her belly in the way. “See, this is what I get for letting you breathe on me.”

I grinned wider, brushing my thumb across her stomach. “Baby, I ain’t just breathe on you.”

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