Page 66 of You Make Me Feel

She rested her head against my chest before pulling away and nodded. “You’re right . . . as always. Let’s get out of here.”

I smiled at her as we walked Sidney and Amanda to the car they came in, then walked to my car. After I helped her in and got in the driver’s seat, Kinisha said, “Now that that’s over, I can eat. I’m starving. Where are you taking me?”

She couldn’t eat breakfast because her stomach was so nervous about how this would go. I had a surprise for her, though. I couldn’t tell her where we were going. “You’ll see when we get there.”

“You know what? I don’t even care. As long as there’s good food there, I’m cool with whatever.”

I laughed, and she did too. When we ended up at her parents’ house, she frowned. “My mama cooked for us? Why are all these cars here?”

“She said she was cooking. I’m not sure who the cars are for, though.”

I didn’t lie. I wasn’t sure who the cars were for. I helped her out and led her to the backyard, where her dad was cooking meat. When we walked through the gate, everyone yelled, “Surprise!”

Kinisha jumped into me because they’d scared the hell out of her. She looked around, and when the realization of what this was hit her, she smiled big. “An engagement party?”

She turned back to me and hugged me. “You’re good at keeping secrets. I’m gonna have to watch you.”

I pulled her in my arms. “I thought that you liked that I could keep secrets. I mean, that was how this started, right?”

She wrapped her arms around my neck. “Mm-hmm. You can keepmysecrets. You have to tell me everyone else’s.”

She laughed loudly, then pulled me along to greet everyone. Lots of people were here from church, including Ramsey, her new boyfriend, Blaze, and her brother, Braylon, and his girlfriend. When I continued looking around for the people I invited, I saw them at a table. I’d only invited people from my offices, Anise, and Corey Sheffield. The Taylors were on Kinisha’s list. However, I’d invited Shawn and his wife. I was surprised everyone showed up on a weekday. However, the more I thought about it, most of our friends were business owners, so they could come and go as they pleased or even shut down shop if they wanted to, like Devin had done.

I pulled away from Nisha as she talked to Ramsey and walked over to greet them, noticing Mya had a plus one. Thank God her infatuation with me was over.

“You done pulled a fast one on us,” Devin said. “I don’t recall you asking our permission.”

I chuckled. “Well, it’s too late now. She sleeps and showers with that ring on.”

He laughed, as did everyone else, as I shook hands and gave hugs. Kinisha’s parents had the backyard decorated like we were getting married today. When I’d asked their permission to marry her, her mother had practically jumped in my arms. They thought what I’d said to them wasn’t real after they learned the truth, but if my words didn’t convince them, this surely did.

Since we were having a party, Kinisha and I needed to come up with a date. I was almost sure her parents would want her to have something fancy, so she would probably want to wait until after the baby’s birth. As I walked away to find her, she appeared behind me. I knew her touch anywhere, even in a crowded room. I turned to her to see her beautiful smile, and I couldn’t help but reciprocate.

“I want to get married next month.”

I frowned. “Really?”

“Yeah. Why wait?”

“Shiiiid, you ain’t said nothing but a thing. I thought you would want a big fancy wedding that would take months of planning.”

“No. We have a baby coming. This backyard will suffice. We can put that money in an account for the baby. I can’t wait to go to the doctor to find out what we’re having.”

“Me either. Well, next month it is. I mean, I’ll marry you right now, so next month is fine.”

She kissed my lips, then pulled away and shook her head. “And to think, this was supposed to be fake.”

“On your end. Nothing about us was ever fake to me. You made me feel things I’d never felt before, and I didn’t even know you. So to me, it was always real.”

She kissed me again and walked away to talk to someone. I looked around the backyard at everyone who had come to celebrate with us. It couldn’t get any better than this, at least until the baby got here. We would be a family, something I’d been missing since my mother died. She would be so proud right now. I was proud. Glancing at the sky, I said, “God, you’re good, and you never fail to prove it.”

Epilogue

Kinisha

Six months later . . .

“Kinisha, she is gorgeous!” Kiana said as she slid her finger over Kaia’s head full of hair.

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