Chapter 19
Jabarri
“Okay, we have a few games to play, and I am going to say right now there will be no cheating,” True announces, looking directly at us. “Today is going to be the women against the men, and let the best woman win. The guys will go first, and then we will go last, and the parents will judge so it can remain fair. “First up, is the sock game, whoever can make the most matches out of this pile will be the winner. You have sixty seconds, so whoever is playing, line up,” she tells everyone, and we line up, seeing as we are the only men besides Parker’s dad and my dad. We are too competitive to not play every game they have today because we have to shit talk. “Alright, sixty seconds on the clock! Ready, Set, Go!” she yells, and we’re off. It literally looks like a tornado swept over the table. Socks are flying everywhere.
“Why are they so fucking small?” Atlas yells as he struggles to make one match. Meanwhile, the fathers are putting matches together better than a relationship coach. And then it happens Atlas and Jospeh pick up the same sock, and neither will release it, so it becomes a wrestling match over a sock.
“Give me the damn sock! I grabbed it first!”
“The hell you did! It’s my sock. You don’t even have this sock in your pile!” Joseph yells. They pull on the sock until it rips, which pisses Joseph off so badly he reaches over the table and scoops up the small pile of socks Atlas has accumulated throwing them across the room, which prompts Atlas to flip the entire table, making everyone’s socks go flying.
“Now, why in the hell did you do that? We don’t have anything to do with this shit!” Asher says. “I want credit for all my socks,”
“Since there are no socks left on the table, no one gets any points,”
“Oh, you’re going to have to see me after the party is over,” Aryan says to Joseph as he walks past him.
“I can see you now,” he says, mushing Aryan’s head, so Aryan punches him in his kidney, making Joseph buckle as he reaches for his side.
“Sit your old ass down, Joseph, before you get hurt.”
“Please try it,” Joseph says.
“Can we behave with some decorum, please? This is, afterall, Parker and Jaasiel’s baby shower ,and I know y’all better get back over here and clean this mess up,” Savvy says and we hurry to do what we are told. Not so much because she told us to, or the fact that we should, but once again, no one wants to anger Josh, and the quickest way to do that is to piss Savvy off.
“Okay, now it’s the women’s turn. The rules are the same they have sixty seconds to make as many matches as possible. Whoever gets the most correct matches wins!” Josh says as the women take their place at the table. “Ready, set, go!” he yells and they begin.
“At this point, all they have to do is get one match to win because you two dickheads gotta act like fucking toddlers,” Jaasiel says to Joseph and Atlas.
“He started it,” they say in unison, making us all shake our heads.
“I swear you two didn’t mature past pre-school,” Asher says.
“That’s not fair!” Anson yells out, bringing our attention back to the women. Who are separating the socks by color and making pairs together.
“There’s no rules against it,” Josh tells them. “Times up!” he calls and the women have almost every sock in a pair. “Savvy wins this one with twenty-one pairs!” he yells out kissing Savvy.
“Figures, I mean she does have the most children,” True says.
“Plus she’s a grandmother,” Carla adds in, and Savvy rolls her eyes at them both.
“The way you were going, you almost caught up too, Miss Hot-In-The-Pants,” she says to Carla, who cocks her head to the side in contemplation before nodding her agreement.
“I mean, have you seen my husband,” she asks with absolutely no remorse whatsoever.
“And the women take this round,” he says, looking over to us like he is disappointed.
“Alright, guys, you’re up.” True calls out again. “These are dirty diapers, and you have to throw them in the garbage, aka the bucket over there. Whoever gets the most in, in sixty seconds, wins.”
“Is there stuff in the diapers?”
“Yep, so be careful because you will be responsible for cleaning up your mess,” she tells them with a little smirk on her face. “Ready, set, go!” she yells, and we begin throwing dirty diapers across the room into the buckets. Now this is a challenge we excel at. I pick up a diaper, and I feel Skai work her hand under my shirt and begin making circles on my chest and the diaper misses the bucket by a mile. I move her hand, quickly picking up another diaper, readying to throw it, and she plasters herself to my back, and this time, the diaper hits the wall. I look at my brothers, and they are all having similar problems. Joseph has completely given up on the game altogether and is in a heated lip lock with Joyce. “Times up!” True yells as she moves away from Atlas.
“Now that’s a damn shame,” Jaasiel says, laughing at us. Not one of us got a diaper in the bucket. I am glad the kids are off in another room watching a movie, cause some of the shit that was going on was R rated and moving into XXX.
“Once again, the men did not score. Time for the women,” she says, sashaying away from Atlas. The women line up to play the game, Josh yells, “Ready. Set. Go!” We are on them before they can throw their first diaper, but much to our dismay, they still throw diapers. Skai is on the end opposite her mother so I know she cannot see what I am about to do to her daughter. Leaning over, I whisper, “Are your panties damp with my cum?” and her diaper goes clear across the room.
“Jabarri,” she hisses, frantically, looking around to make sure no one heard me.
“I am going to have you dripping on the sheets all night,” I tell her, pushing up against her. I watch her grip the edge of the table, and I know she’s turned on and dripping our mixture in her panties. “If your panties weren’t wet before, I know they are now,” I tell her just as Josh calls, “Time! It looks like the women win this one, too.”
“Wait how?” I ask, trying to figure out who could resist their husband.
“Savvy got three in her bucket.”
“Turncoat,” Atlas says when we sit down at our table.
“When she told me what she had in store for me later if I left her alone and let her shoot, it was a no brainer,” he says unapologetically and truthfully once he put it that way I understood.
“Alright, the women have two, and the men have a big fat zero! Since there are only three games that means the women have won the baby shower game off! There is one final game for us all to play together so Momma B is going to take over,” True says. A few minutes later, we all have a string tied around our waist with a pacifier hanging at the end.
“Alright, the objective is to swing the pacifier and catch it in your mouth. The first person to get the pacifier in their mouths, wins. This game is not timed so, ready, set, go!” she says and we all begin rocking our hips to make the pacifier swing. We look absolutely ridiculous, at one point, Aryan and Anson’s string gets tangled, Joseph looks like he’s bowing instead of swinging his hips. Josh and Asher got their pacifiers swinging pretty good but they keep missing their mouths. I focus on my pacifier and rock my hips, building up a nice swing before I lung at it and miss. I swear I look like a giant chicken. My string comes loose, so I take a quick few seconds to retie it and begin moving again. I swing the pacifier up, catching it in my mouth. I shoot both hands in the air in victory, spinning around showing everyone my win.
“I mean it makes sense since he just got off of the pacifier a few years ago,” Atlas laments, making everyone else chuckle, including me. We end up sitting around talking, laughing, and eating until one by one we head off to bed, and for the first time I have the woman I have loved for years by my side. I take her hand and head towards our bedroom. “You better wake up. We have some unfinished business to attend to,” I tell her when she yawns. “You can sleep on the plane,” I suggest as I close and lock our bedroom door.
Skai
Ugh, it’s been a few weeks since we came back from Florida, and I want to go back now! It was so peaceful and relaxing I didn’t have to look over my shoulder or have an armed guard with me every minute of the day. I don’t know how much longer I need to have all of this protection when literally nothing has happened. When I get home tonight, I am going to talk to Jabarri about stopping all of this. I check the time, and realize that I am running late picking up my dress. I will try it on, and if there is no issues I will take it home. Shepp, is really getting married! That was one reason he and Saint didn’t come to the Keys with us. They were knee-deep in preparation. He and Isabella did not want a big wedding, just her parents, brother, sister and of course, her daughter. Now Shepp didn’t have that luxury. He has me and Saint, my mom, and our dad and his wife, our other siblings from our dad, and then we have the Gideons, along with GrandPeter and GrandDoctor. or GD, that’s what I call Lennox. I remember her reaction when I called her that, she was so happy. “I was wondering if I would ever get a nickname, too, but I wouldn’t have asked or expected it. I know how much y’all loved Savvy’s mom and miss her.”
“True, but we love you, too, just like we love GrandPeter, and we love how much you love each other. So even though I had an amazing grandmother, you are an amazing GrandDoctor, and I wanted you to know that. I know she would have loved you, but is GD too masculine?”
“Nope, don’t you dare try to change my name,” she says immediately. “Besides, it fits perfectly next to Peter’s GP,” we hugged and she’s been GD ever since.
That doesn’t include the twins, the triplets, Dr. Mack, the General and Bree, Praise and Eli, yes, they are dating, and it is too cute. He is totally head over heels for her. Then there is T’Aundrea, Angie, and Malachi, our Aunt Bailey and Aunt Shell. Our mom’s side of the family alone is about fifty people. So it’s a hundred or less people type of small wedding. I step out of my office, and there is Emerson, “You’re shift?” I ask. “Yes, but I need to pick up my dress, too, and I was looking forward to hanging out with you today,” she says and I immediately feel guilty. The people guarding me are my family, and they love me and only want me safe and I am being a baby about it.
“Then let’s make a day out of it,” I tell her, sending a text to my boss letting her know I am working from home the rest of the day. “We’ll grab our dresses, then grab lunch and perhaps do a little shopping.”
“Sounds good to me,” she says, sending a text, no doubt letting someone know we are on the move. The dresses fit perfectly and no alterations were needed, so we took them and put them in the back of the car as we headed for lunch. There’s a new BBQ joint that I have heard good things about, so we head there and get shown to our seat. We take a few minutes to go over the menu, but I already know I want pulled pork, cowboy baked beans, mac and cheese with hush puppies and sweet tea. We give our order when the server comes back over, and Emerson is getting the same thing as me.
“How are things between you and Jabarri?”
“Wonderful,” I say, blushing. “It’s so nice not having to hide, having everything out in the open with our family and that they are okay with it and support us. Deep down, I was worried how they would feel, you know? I love DJ and all of his brothers, but there was always something different about Jabarri, but under those circumstances, I refused to even consider looking into it. Although, knowing what I know now, maybe if I had, I could have saved myself, Jabarri, and Alayna a lot of heartache.”
“You can’t do that to yourself. You did the best you could under your circumstances. In the end, things worked themselves out, not the way you anticipated, and maybe a lot hurtful, but in the end, it was what was best for you,”
“Yeah, I guess you are right.” I contemplate her words, and I know I would have never given Jabarri a chance on my own. I had to be hurt, seek therapy, and heal before I was ready for his love. It hurt, a lot, but in the end, it pushed me right where I needed to be. “How are things between you and Liam?” And I see something I have never thought to see. Emerson blushes and turns shy. Well, that wasn’t on my bingo card.
“It’s more than I could have ever anticipated. He is everything. He was so much of what I didn’t know I wanted or needed. And princess treatment is an understatement. He doesn’t try to change me or dim my light. He isn’t intimidated by me, my knowledge, or my skills. I love him so much. When he got shot at the baby shower, I saw everything that could have been flash before my eyes and disappear. When I realized he was okay, I knew then I would never leave his side.”
“You’re married!” I gasp.
“We’re married,” she confirms and proceeds to tell me everything. I am crying with her by the time she is done telling their story. “If you could keep it to yourself, I would really appreciate it. We want to tell everyone when the time is right.”
“I mean, I’m going to tell Jabarri, but we will keep your secret,”
“That’s fair, I don’t keep anything from Liam either,”
“I mean, this might be a stupid question, but Eliza does know, right?”
“It’s not a stupid question, and yes, she knows.”
“I am so happy for you guys. I’m happy for all of us,” I tell her just as the server brings our food. Liam is a gentle giant, he has taken care of Aunt Parker for years, and now he is Emerson’s husband, and from the blush creeping across her face, he is taking amazing care of her. It’s crazy to think of all the ripples in the water from one pebble being thrown in the water, my mom. Her running into DJ changed the trajectory of so many lives. Everything really does happen for a reason. We eat our food, talk about the wedding, the baby shower that they missed, and everything in between until it was time to head back home. We never even got to go shopping.