CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Keyon
I was up bright and early, ready to get my ass up out of that hospital. There was no way I could stay in the bitch a whole other day. I really was on the verge of losing my damn mind. Lord knows I didn’t need that to happen. When the doctor came and told me that they were preparing my paperwork, the first person I called was Tay. I needed to get my ass home.
“What’s up, baby girl?” she said, sounding like she was still asleep. I looked at the clock and noticed that it was almost ten o’clock. I guessed she was tired or something.
“I need a ride from the hospital. Can you come and get me?”
“So they released you already?” she asked me.
“Not exactly. He just came in and told me that they were preparing my paperwork and stuff. He said that I should be ready to go within the next hour or so though.”
“Okay, give me a few to get myself together, and I’ll be right there.”
“Okay, thanks. I really do owe you big time,” I told her.
“Girl, bye,” she said, laughing before she hung up. That was her way of saying that I actually didn’t owe her, but I did. I couldn’t wait until I was able to show her just how much I appreciated her for being by my side constantly.
* * *
“Thank God I’m finally out of that damn hospital,” I said as Tay wheeled me to her car. “I thought them bitches were going to try to keep my ass in that bitch forever.”
“Sit your overly dramatic ass down somewhere,” Tay told me.
“Umm, I already am,” I said, referring to the wheelchair I was sitting in.
“You know what I’m trying to say,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve been complaining about being in the hospital ever since you got here. You should thank the Lord up above that you’re still here, you and your children, so stop with all that shit, Miss Lady.”
“Okay, Mom, I’m sorry,” I said before I busted out laughing. I knew she was serious, but that still didn’t stop me from laughing.
“Come on, let’s go before I leave your ass right here,” she said as we reached the car. She unlocked and opened the door, then came back over to me.
“I wish you would,” I replied as she helped me up out of the wheelchair and into the car. She then walked the chair back to the hospital entrance before doing a slight jog to the car and getting in. Once in the car, she started it up and we were on our way.
“You want to stop and get something to eat?” she asked after we had been silent for a few minutes or so.
“Nah, I’m good. My mother will probably cook for me later. Right now all I want to do is take a hot bath and jump under the covers,” I said, yawning. Even though I had practically never left my hospital bed, I was still tired. That was because whenever I would find sleep, someone would walk in, interrupting me, or if I moved my body the wrong way, the machines would start beeping. That happened quite often, so as I said, I didn’t get much sleep.
“Yeah, you’re right,” she replied with a sneaky grin.
“Why are you grinning like that?” I asked her. She shook her head but kept her eyes trained on the road. That was when I noticed that we weren’t headed in the direction of my apartment. In fact, we were going in the direction where all the Richie Rich people stay.
“This isn’t the direction of my apartment. Where are we going?”
“I just have a quick stop to make. I promise that it’s going to be fast. I won’t be no longer than five minutes, I promise.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, waving her off. “You better not be long, or I promise I’m going to leave you in your own damn car.”
“Okay,” she said as she pulled up in the driveway of a house I could only hope to own one day. “Five minutes,” she said before she exited the car.
I sat in the car as I looked around at the house before me. Whoever lived here was most definitely blessed. I didn’t know how many bedrooms it had, but it was beautiful. It had to be a mini mansion or something. Everything from the lawn on up was perfect. The door opened, so I turned to see who was coming out of it. I was shocked when I noticed Tay followed by Kane with both Emoni and Ahmyri, his mother, my mother, and Ant all coming from inside the house. I rolled the window down while side-eyeing them all.
“What y’all doing here?” I asked once they got to me. Not one of them opened their mouth. They all stood there with sneaky grins on their faces.
“Come on, get out of the car, big mama,” Kane said. He opened the door and then reached for my hand. Y’all already know how I reacted. I wasn’t going anywhere until someone told me what was going on.
“No, thank you,” I said as I attempted to close the door, but he stood in the way.
“Chill out and stop acting like that,” he said. “Come on and get out, girl.”
“You might as well stop wasting your time,” I responded as I folded my arms across my chest.
“We’re not about to have your little stubborn ass spoiling the moment. So get your ass up out of the car,” my mother yelled, stepping closer to the car. I looked at her and rolled my eyes as I continued to sit my ass right there. She walked all the way over to where I was before she stood right in front of the door and placed her hands on her hips. “You must have forgotten who I am and who you are. I don’t care if you’re grown. You not too grown for me to go upside your damn head. Now get the hell up out of the car now, Keyon.”
I know what y’all is thinking, but my big ass, as fast as I could, got out of that car. I knew better than to challenge her when it already seemed like she was pissed. I held on to Kane’s shoulder as we stood around, looking at each other.
“Well?” I said, getting a little agitated.
“Girl, shut all that damn whining up and walk your ass up to the damn door,” my mother said, walking by me. I didn’t know why, but somehow I felt like I was being ungrateful, and that shit made me want to cry, but I held it in.
“Don’t sweat it, big mama,” Kane whispered in my ear. I gave him a smile as I made my way into the house. I wanted to slap my own damn self in the face once I saw what they had done. There was a big banner that read, WELCOME HOME, KEYON. There were also a bunch of balloons and streamers. They had this big cake and a table full of all my favorite foods. I immediately became teary-eyed as I apologized to everyone. Of course, they accepted it and blamed it on my hormones. Once all of that was out of the way, the party was in full swing. My mother, of course, waited on me hand and foot, but I couldn’t complain. I was enjoying this.
Two hours passed when Kane walked over to me. Of course, he had Emoni and Ahmyri alongside him. I had to smile at how close the girls had come within two days. They were practically inseparable. Wherever one went, the other one was two steps behind.
“I have something for you,” Kane said, handing me two small gift boxes and a long box. I opened one and there was a tennis bracelet. It was so pretty that it left me speechless. The other one had the chain to match, while the third had a single key. He placed the key into my hand, then looked at me and smiled.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“I know we haven’t been together that long, but I don’t want to spend another day apart from you, and I don’t want you to spend another day without me. Even though I only just met her, I’m in love with your daughter. She has this certain spunk about her that make people want to love her and just like her. I don’t want to spend a day without her being around me, and I don’t think that Ahmyri wants to either,” he said, chuckling a bit. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is welcome home, shorty. I bought this house for me, but I never stayed in it. I want us to both stay here with our girls, but if you don’t want me to stay, I can always go back to my apartment. I just didn’t want you to be there, seeing as you know what happened the last time. Now that I know that you’re pregnant, my top priority, other than the girls, is to keep you and the babies safe.”
“I love you,” I said, jumping my big ass into his arms. I didn’t know I could move that fast until I was there. I couldn’t believe that he was actually doing all of this for little old me. I kind of felt special.
“I love you too,” he replied. “But there’s one more thing I have for you. Sit down and close your eyes.”
I removed myself from his arms as I took my seat. Even though I didn’t want to, I placed my hands over my eyes because I didn’t want to ruin the moment. I heard when he got up. I wanted so badly to open my eyes, and yet I didn’t. I really hoped that he’d hurry his ass up, because surprises were something that I really hated.
“Okay, you can open your eyes now,” he said. My hands went straight to my mouth when I saw him down on one knee. I sat there in silence as tears rolled down my face.
“Don’t get quiet on me now.”
“Yeah, don’t go getting quiet now. When we needed you to be quiet, you talked,” my mother butted in. I looked at her and rolled my eyes before turning back to Kane.
“You’re lucky this is supposed to be a happy time, or else I would’ve slapped your behind for rolling your eyes,” Mom fussed at me.
“Okay, you two,” Kane said to us. “Keyon, from the first moment I met you, I told you that you were going to be my lady. Something about you stood out and made me want to love you. I’m glad that you gave me a chance. Now will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
“Yes!” I shouted with no hesitation.
“Well, damn, why wait, huh, Keys?” Tay asked, laughing.
“Be quiet or else I won’t let you be my maid of honor,” I threw back at her.
“Yeah, right. If I don’t be the maid of honor, then I’m shutting that mug down,” she replied.
“Go sit down somewhere,” I said as Kane pulled me up and wrapped his arms around me.
“You know, I don’t want to wait. I want to marry you before you have our babies,” he had the nerve to say.
“Are you serious?” I asked him.
“Dead ass. If I could marry you tomorrow, I would, but I don’t want to do you like that. Seeing as this will be your first and only marriage, I want to do you up right.”
“Boy, you know doggone well that I can’t marry you that fast. I can barely get around now. How do you expect me to plan the wedding?” I asked him seriously. This pregnancy was already beating my ass. How did he expect me to plan a wedding?
“We already got all of that covered,” Tay said from behind me. “Remember that girl’s night we had when we discussed how our weddings would be and how they would look?”
“Yes,” I said, remembering exactly what she was talking about.
“Well, ya girl is going to make that happen for you,” she replied with a smile. “With the help of your fiancé, his mother, and your mother of course.”
“Really?” I asked, beaming. I couldn’t believe that she would actually take on that kind of responsibility for me.
“Yes, really. Of course almost everything I find or do will not be finalized without your approval, but most of the hard stuff will be left up to us.”
“Awww. Thanks, y’all,” I said, getting teary-eyed.
“Oh, Lord, please don’t start with that crying shit, girl,” Ant threw in.
“Don’t you start with her. It’s her moment, and she can cry if she wants to,” Tay said, punching him in his arm.
“You gon’ stop hitting me, girl. You hit hard as hell,” he replied, rubbing his arm.
“That’s what you get, punk,” I said, poking my tongue out at him.
“Well, it’s settled then,” Kane said, pulling me into his arms. “Moms, mother-in-law, and your maid of honor will handle all the preparations for us. I can’t wait until we say I do.”
“Me neither,” I said, giving him a passionate kiss on his lips. He returned the kiss with just as much passion.
“Umm, y’all need to stop all of that,” Kane’s mother said.
“Okay, that’s why she’s pregnant now. G’on somewhere with that shit. We ain’t trying to see y’all swapping spit and shit,” my mother said, agreeing with her.
“Y’all just some haters,” he said, poking out his tongue at them.
“That’s right, baby. They just hating,” I concurred.
“Lord, give me strength,” my mother then said.
“Me too,” his mother added. “Come on and let’s go enjoy the rest of the day before y’all send us home with that shit.”
“I knew I liked you,” my mother told Kane’s mother.
“I like you too,” she replied before they high-fived each other.
The rest of the evening was a hit. We ate and partied like we were a big happy family. The girls ended up tiring themselves out, so they fell asleep in the midst of everything. The night was just coming to an end when I received a call from the last person I expected to hear from. Well, the second-to-last person I expected to hear from.
“Hello,” I said, answering the phone.
“Keyon?” the person asked.
“Yeah, what’s up? Who’s this?”
“It’s Mia.”
“Mia?” I asked to be sure I heard her right.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Oh, what’s up?” I asked. I wasn’t too thrilled that she had called, and I made sure that she knew that.
“Umm, I was calling about the stuff we discussed in the hospital,” she then said.
“What about it?” I asked, hoping that she would get straight to the point.
“Well, I’m on my way down there now, and I was hoping that the kids could meet tomorrow.”
“Umm, I don’t know,” I told her. I knew we had talked about this, but I didn’t think that this would happen so soon. “First of all, what does Cash have to say about this?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Just what I asked. What does Cash have to say about you being down here and bringing your baby to meet his sister?”
“He doesn’t know about any of this,” she replied just like I knew she would.
“Look, Mia, I’m all for our kids meeting and all that, but I don’t want to be bothered with Cash. What do you think he is going to do once he finds out that we’re meeting up and shit?”
“With all due respect, Keys, CJ is my son. I’m his mother. Cash doesn’t have a thing to say about who I let my child meet. You swear that I’m letting him meet a complete stranger. This is his sister we’re talking about. I wouldn’t put my child in any danger if I thought that he was going to be. Let me ask you something though, Keyon.”
“Go ’head,” I said, ready for this conversation to be over and done with already.
“If you were in my shoes, would you ask or think about asking Cash for his permission, as you’re assuming I have to get, to be able to allow your daughter to see her sibling?” she asked me.
“First of all, I wouldn’t be in your shoes, but I get where you’re coming from,” I said, letting her know that I wasn’t that type of female. “I don’t see a problem, but I don’t want Cash to become a problem. So you better make sure that you have your business in order. I’ll call you tomorrow if I have time to meet up with you though.”
“Okay,” she replied sadly.
I didn’t even say good night or give her a chance to speak another word. I hung up the phone before either could come out. Like I said, I didn’t want to be bothered with Cash. If he found out we were meeting, he would definitely try to be there just to get to me, and I wasn’t having that. I did mean what I said though. I was going to call her if I had the time, though that was a big “if.”