Three months later
“Tre, come on. I’ll get your coat. We have to go,” I yelled as I threw on my black peacoat. I stood at the hall closet, pulling out his coat, and Tracie’s sparkly pink one. “Trace, don’t walk while playing with your cell.”
Without looking up from her phone, Tracie approached me. “Okay, Mommy Rain.”
Once Tre told her that he and I were getting married, she asked if she could call me “mommy.” Wanting to maintain our tenable peace with Chloe, Tre and I gently suggested that she refer to me as “Mommy Rain.” Tre had been right when he’d claimed that sooner or later Chloe would need him to take over parenting duties again. She had a new rich boyfriend and much to Tracie’s and our delight, we’d kept her every weekend since Christmas.
She protested loudly as I took the cell from her, and I calmly responded, “Put your coat on and I’ll give it back to you when we get in the car. Where’s Daddy?”
Tracie pouted as she donned her coat. “He was still in the kitchen talking to someone.”
I helped her with the zipper before pulling her into me for a big hug, and her frown became a smile. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “Daddy is going to take forever. Can I please have my phone back? I promise to only look at it in the car.”
I raised an eyebrow, holding her cell in my hand. “Okay, I’m trusting you.”
Tracie happily took it and skipped through the door. Taz waited outside next to the town car, opening the car door for Tracie while pointing to his watch.
I shrugged, walking out of our home. “I’ve been telling him to get off that phone for the last half hour, that Congressman Jefferson can wait.”
Taz asked, “Does he know that we should’ve been there, not just leaving the house?”
I smiled ruefully. Tre was notoriously late to everything. “He’s your friend and boss.”
He shook his head. “He’s your future husband.”
“Don’t remind me. I think I’ll tell him the wedding starts two hours before it actually does.”
We’d decided to get married in March, the month in which he walked into the bookstore and back into my life. Mrs. LaSalle grudgingly accepted me into their family after I asked her to take charge of planning our wedding. She cordially called me almost daily to update me on each step and promised it would be the New Orleans event of the year.
I gladly deferred to her suggestions regarding our special day. All that really mattered to me was that Tre LaSalle would soon be my husband.
At that moment, my first and only love rushed out the house dressed in a gray suit that fit his physique perfectly. “It’s freezing. Where’s my coat? Please say you picked it up from the cleaners.”
“Of course.” I held it up. “I told you I have it.”
He strode to me and turned around so I could help him put it on. “What would I do without you?”
I picked stray lint off his shoulder. “I’m trying to understand how you did it without me, too. You can’t seem to get ready unless I stay on your ass. And yet we’re still late.”
Since I’d moved in with him shortly after we were engaged, I’d taken over helping him with his home and Tracie. Between my new family, preparing for our lavish wedding, and my flourishing art career, I barely had time to breathe. My exhibit had been a success, and I had an ongoing showing with the Townsend Gallery. I’d quit my bookstore job and together, Tre and I bought my own studio last month. I now spent my days creating or collaborating with Pierre and Lila, whom I’d asked to join me in my studio. We had plans to have monthly exhibits for our fellow artists who sold their work in the French Market and eventually have our own gallery.
He kissed my lips, while smacking me on my butt. “But not as late.”
I rubbed my stinging backside. “You hit too hard.”
Tre whispered in my ear, “I’ll show you how hard I can hit it tonight.”
Blushing, knowing he would keep his word, I pushed him toward the backseat of the car. “We have to go.”
Taz closed the back door once we were all ensconced in the car. He hopped into the front passenger side and the driver pulled into the quiet street of Tre’s neighborhood. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at my father’s old garage. I hadn’t seen it since he died and hadn’t even driven down this street. My heart pounded and the familiar panic feelings threatened to erupt. I suddenly had trouble breathing, and just with the soft touch of Tre’s hand on mine, my anxiety dissipated.
Tre announced quietly, “We’re here.”
I blinked back tears as I stared out the window at the beautiful renovations that had transformed my father’s little auto shop into a large modern one, with four different bays. The large new sign, “Deaux’s Auto,” blinked neon blue as the sun slowly made way for the moon.
Taz asked over his shoulder, “Are you ready?”
Tre shook his head, holding my hand tighter.
Suddenly Tracie squealed. “Daddy, can I get out? I see Tee Tresa and Ms. Royalty. And there’s Papa and Grandmere. Guess what, Mommy Raini? I see Ma Ma too.” Tre and I had our first Christmas dinner and had invited friends and family to our home. Tracie had the opportunity to meet my family and Ma Ma had been overjoyed in having her first great-grandchild.
Tre consented. “Taz will take you to them.”
Tracie moved closer to me, concern evident in her voice. “Mommy Raini, are you okay?”
I patted her hand and smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine. Just go and be with the family and we’ll be right out.”
She waited for Taz to open the door and she crossed over her father to get out the car.
Once he firmly closed the door, Tre brought our hands up to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on my knuckles. “Baby, you can do this. I’ll be right by your side.”
I closed my eyes tight, hoping to stem the powerful emotions coursing through my body. After a few settling deep breaths, letting go all negative, troublesome thoughts like my father taught me, I opened my eyes and caressed Tre’s cheek with my hand. “Words can’t express my gratitude for what you’re doing in honor of my father. For what you’re doing for the youth who aren’t fortunate enough to have the opportunities you had. But more than anything, thank you for being the man you are, for challenging me to be my best. I used to have a hole in my heart so gaping, I barely had a heart after my father died. I cut everyone and everything, that reminded me of him out of my life. The only reason Royalty remained in my life is because she was too damn stubborn to leave me alone when I tried to shut her out, too. My heart is finally whole again, and I can finally live without anticipating the storm. And it’s because of you. Only you.”
Tre’s jaw tightened and his voice slightly trembled as he spoke, “It is because of you that I realized my biases, that I judged others who were not as fortunate as I. You challenged me to think outside of my silver box. Rain, I may not have had a hole, but I had a void inside of me that I could never explain, ever since the day I pushed you away. I searched for you in every woman I dated, hoping somehow God would bless me again. And one Monday morning in March he did.” He gazed into my eyes. “You made me a better man, the kind your father would’ve been proud of.”
Blinking back tears, I solemnly said, “How I wish you could have known my father. He would’ve been happy that I’ve chosen you.”
He allowed a tear to run down his face unchecked. “I wish that, too. I’ll always regret that I didn’t introduce myself to him when I had a chance, so that he would’ve known you would always be taken care of.”
“I believe somewhere, somehow, he knows.” I wiped his tear with my thumb and pressed my lips into his. “I love you.”
“I love you.” Tre then looked past me to the small crowd and media gathered at the grand re-opening of Deaux’s Auto. “You’re ready to cut the ribbon?”
I nodded, ready to continue rebuilding my father’s legacy and giving back to the community like my father had so many years ago.
He opened the door, stepped out, and turned to give me his hand. “Come on.”
I smiled, knowing that whenever he said those two words to me, I would now reminisce warmly about us standing outside the hotel. We were two young souls, with our whole lives ahead of us, not yet aware that after we’d kissed, we would fall in love for the first and last time…