Chapter 14
Adora
“Mommie, is Xai your boyfriend?” Averi asks as soon as we are in their room and my eyebrows furrow. I don’t know why her question surprises me because she is so perceptive for her age. She observes and absorbs everyone and everything.
“Why did you ask me that?” I ask and she grins. Romi joins in, giggling too.
“’Cause you kissed him,” Averi says.
“You did,” Romi adds, and hell, I start laughing too.
“You two think you’re so smart,” I tease as I reach down and wrap my arms around both of them.
They laugh more and I swear their little angelic laughter is the sweetest sound, music to my ears.
“Let’s talk,” I tell them, then ease down on their area rug.
They sit too, Romi on my lap and Averi beside me.
“Mommie really likes Xai and he likes me too. That’s why he had to meet my two favorite daughters. ”
“We your only daughters,” Averi says with a grin.
“And my favorite. I love you two so much and I just want y’all to be happy.”
“We happy,” Romi says.
“Good!” I say.
“I like Xai,” Romi says.
“Me too. Me too, baby.”
“Then he is your boyfriend,” Averi deduces.
“He is,” I say and she nods. I don’t push her for anything else. With Averi, I have to give her time to process things. “Are you sure you want your bonnets? I have our bunny ears and I don’t think your braids will get any color on them. They will be okay.”
“Okay,” they agree.
Jae arrived right before nine this morning and was done with both of their heads by one.
She was so patient and sweet with them and she didn’t braid their hair too tight either.
I’m real picky about who gets in my babies’ heads.
They have long, thick hair like me and it’s a lot to deal with.
Averi has feed-in braids to the back with a heart design on her right side and Romi’s is braided into two ponytails, one in the back and the other at the top of her head.
They look so cute and our traditional bunny ears are going to look so adorable with their braids.
“Alright. Wash your hands,” I say and they both get up and rush into their bathroom.
I stand too and tie up their baskets. My smile stays plastered on my face. The flowers and chocolate covered strawberries for me were sweet but the baskets for my babies was so solicitous; it’s everything. His already valued stock with me just went up.
When Romi and Averi come out, we walk out and find him on the sofa. I grab one of the white furry bunny ears off the dinette table in the kitchen and adjust it on Averi’s head. While I do, Romi grabs a pair and takes it to Xai.
“We got you ears,” she says as she hands them to him.
“To do what?” he asks.
“Put on,” she says with a giggle.
He turns back toward us then shrugs. “Ion know if this gon’ fit my big head,” he says.
“Mommy can make it fit,” she says before running back into the kitchen.
He stands and follows. After placing on mine and Romi’s ears, I direct him to sit on the stool at the counter. He does and I place his set of ears on his head. As soon as I do, they erupt into laughter and so do I.
“Do I even want to look?” he asks me.
“As cute as you look, yes,” I say, still laughing.
“Imma take your word for it.”
The girls climb onto the other stools at the counter and I grab the cups, spoons, and vinegar for the egg coloring.
The kit I use comes with two wire egg holders for dipping, a slew of stickers, a few decorated wraps, and six color tablets.
I boiled a dozen eggs earlier and they are cooled and ready for us to make them beautiful.
As I place the cups, spoons, and vinegar on the table, Averi opens the kit and explains the items to Xai. It’s cute because he’s invested in every word. He even examines some of the stickers.
“They don’t have a lot for boys but we can help you find some for your eggs,” Averi assures him.
“I think I see some,” he says.
“Where?” Romi questions.
“I saw one,” Averi says.
I just fill the cups with water and a teaspoon of vinegar as they plot and plan their sticker and wrap designs for the eggs. Then I place the pot of eggs on the island.
“Okay, drop in the colors,” I tell them. They split the tablets and one by one drop them into the cups. “I already know what color I want my eggs to be,” I say.
“Me too,” Romi exclaims.
“How many we get, Mommy?” Averi asks.
“Me and Xai will get two and you and your sister can color four apiece. “
“Yeah!” Romi says. She’s so excited and can barely wait the three minutes for the color tablets to dissolve. She loves everything about this day.
As soon as I verify the cups are ready, they start dropping eggs in them.
Each can hold two eggs. I glance at Xai to see if he’s cool but he’s dropping his egg too.
I just smile and drop one of mine in red and the other in blue.
I’m a double dropper, and after those colors are set, I’m probably going to drop them in yellow and blue.
When we’ve dropped all the eggs and they are colored, Averi notices Xai still has a white egg. “You not gon’ color that one?” she asks.
“Yeah. I was waiting because I’m going to drop it in all the cups,” he explains.
“That’s gon’ be ugly,” she says with a frown.
“Averi,” I scold. “That’s not nice.”
“Sorry,” she mumbles.
“It’s cool. I’m gon’ show you my skills,” he says before nudging her lightly. She looks up and watches as he uses the wire dipper to only submerge random parts of his egg into each cup. Once he’s done, he has a unique sort of tie-dyed egg that Averi absolutely loves. “You like it?” he asks her.
“Yes. I should have done mine like that,” she says.
“I’m not good at decorating these so you can have it and hook it up,” he says while gently laying it in front of her.
“Thank you,” she gushes.
For the next twenty minutes, they decorate all the eggs with either stickers or the wraps. When they are finished, we have a carton full of eclectic but beautiful eggs to hide and find.
“Go put on your sneaks while Xai and I hide the eggs,” I tell them after I’ve cleaned up the island counter.
When they take off down the hall to their room, I step to him, throw my arms around him, and kiss him with all the passion in my body. “Thank you so much. They had a blast,” I tell him.
“Me too, actually. That was my first time doing that,” he admits and I immediately think back to what he said about growing up fast.
“So I popped your cherry,” I say and his entire handsome face frowns at my word choice. Laughing, I quickly add, “That just means you did something new with me.”
“Straighten me,” he scoffs playfully then shakes his head. “Where we hiding these eggs?” he asks.
“In the backyard. It’s not gon’ take long, and once we’re done, we’re having mini pizzas, cheese quesadillas, and catfish nuggets, all their requests,” I tell him. “On Easter, I order whatever they want. This selection isn’t as bad as last year though.”
“I can eat that,” he says with a smile.
He grabs the eggs and we walk out of the glass door to the backyard and hide them.
I grab the girls and they barrel out into the yard with their little egg hunt baskets.
Between clues from me and direct locations given by Xai, they find all of the eggs in about thirty minutes and we go inside and order dinner.
I woke up this morning with my mom heavy on my heart and mind.
This day is all her. With her working at the Blue Mountain resort, holidays off were rare because hotels never close.
We only had Christmas and Easter, so both days were coveted.
The ears, eggs, hunt, and potluck takeout are all her original ideas.
As a child, I thought potluck takeout was the best thing ever, and once I became a mother, I finally understood she just didn’t want to cook on her day off.
So much of me is her and I’m honored to carry on my traditions with her with my girls.
This morning, it just hit me like an eighteen-wheeler that she wasn’t here with us this Easter and I lost it.
In my bathroom, under my hot shower, I cried.
My tears flowed and mixed with the water from my shower head as I processed my still hard to believe reality.
However, for my babies, when the shower stopped, so did my tears.
I swallowed them and willed myself to push through this day.
And then, he came.
Xai brought my babies baskets and put huge, beautiful smiles on their faces.
He wore the bunny ears, colored eggs with them, made Averi her favorite one, hid eggs for them, then helped the girls find them.
He ate our unconventional food and appeared to enjoy it all.
Not only did I hate to see him leave, so did they.
We’re in their room now and even Averi is still talking about him.
“Is Xai coming back tomorrow?” Averi asks.
“No, not tomorrow, but he’ll be back,” I tell her.
“I like him,” she announces.
“Me too, Mommie,” Romi quickly co-signs.
“Good because I like him too.”
After getting them bathed and in bed, I journey to my room, shower, then climb into my bed and leave my message on Momma’s voicemail about today. I tell her all about the man who’s quickly winning my heart and helping it heal.
For the last two weeks, I’ve been floating on cloud nine.
Things with Xai and I are really good. Although he’s been busy with the construction at his second location, he still gives me his time and effort.
At least two, maybe three times a week, he eats lunch with me and he’s had dinner with me and the girls a few times.
And when I mentioned the Music Festival and meeting Kandi, not only did he agree to go, but he bought four tickets with VIP access.
He's everything and I’m finding myself falling.
A light chime on my laptop pulls me from my thoughts of Xai. I have an IM from the front desk, so I unlock my screen.
Kera: You have a visitor.
Visitor? Who? They all know Xai and he never asks for me up front. I usually meet him outside. Besides, he’s an hour early.