Chapter 10
KEEGAN
Icouldn’t think of a better time to tell the boys that Chyna and I were engaged than over chicken nuggets.
Who the hell didn’t like a good chicken nugget?
And Chyna made the best. A few days ago, she had gone to her house and gotten her air fryer.
I had never had one of those before, but they were a game changer.
These nuggets were perfectly crunchy, and whatever brand she got was seasoned perfectly.
Needless to say, if these nuggets had me in such a good mood, I knew the boys had to be.
I glanced at Chyna, who seemed nervous. I didn’t know why. The boys already told us that they wanted to be brothers. There was nothing to be nervous about.
“Boys, we got somethin’ to tell you,” I said before I bit into another chicken nugget.
“What?” Liam asked as he shoved some fries into his mouth.
Chyna sat in her seat, fidgeting. I stared at her until she finally looked up from her full plate and into my eyes.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“Ready?” I asked, wanting to make sure it was okay to spill the good news to the boys.
We had held it in for a few days because Chyna wanted time to sit with it between the two of us and settle into the life-changing moment.
We’d decided that today, we would tell the boys, and over the next week, we would tell our families and friends.
I couldn’t wait to introduce her to my parents and surprise them with the news.
I knew they’d be shocked, but I also knew they would love Chyna and Liam like their own.
Chyna was a bit more nervous to tell her family.
She was really close with her people, and she knew they would have a lot of questions.
Plus, it wasn’t a secret that I was an acquired taste.
I didn’t care what they thought, though, because I was here for the long haul, and everyone else needed to get with the program.
Chyna Doll and Liam were mine now, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for them.
I gained a fiancée and a son all in one motion, and I was the happiest man on the planet.
She offered me a smile and reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “Ready.”
“Y’all wanna hear the good news?” I asked the boys, gaining their attention once again.
“Sure,” KJ said as if he was bored. His head was propped in his hand as he ate a piece of broccoli. Chyna always insisted on the boys, including my grown ass, eat a vegetable with every meal.
“We’re getting married,” I said with a big smile. It felt so damn good saying that out loud.
Silence stretched around the table. After a moment, Chyna asked, “Did you hear him, boys? We’re getting married.”
“Okay.” Liam shrugged.
“We know,” KJ replied.
Chyna frowned. “Oh yeah? How do you know? Did you tell them?” She looked at me.
Before I could respond, KJ said, “Daddy bought a shiny rock.”
Chyna’s mouth hung open. “You showed them the ring?”
I groaned as I slid a hand down my face. “No. They walked into the room the other day when I was looking at it.”
“You couldn’t hide it?” she asked.
“Him tried.”
“And him cried.”
“I didn’t cry,” I argued, knowing that was a lie. There had definitely been a moment where I let a few thug tears drop the day before I gave Chyna my presentation. As life-changing as this was for her, it was just as much for me.
Both Liam and KJ nodded their heads. “You had wet eyeballs.”
“Aight, man. Enough about that. What do you think about us getting married?” I asked, irritation filling me. Lil niggas stayed outing me.
KJ shrugged again and ate a fry. Liam looked at Chyna.
“I see the rock?” Liam asked. Chyna giggled and showed him her hand. Liam appraised it before he nodded. “I can have it?”
Chyna’s smile quickly turned to a frown. “What? No. It’s mine, Bear.”
Liam frowned. “But you get Kee.”
I laughed. He wasn’t wrong there. “You want a shiny rock, Li?” Liam nodded excitedly. I looked at KJ. “And what about you, Junior?”
KJ pointed at Chyna. “I get Doll, Daddy.”
“Okay, so Chyna gets me and a rock, Li gets a rock, and KJ gets Doll. What does Daddy get?”
Liam and KJ looked at each other and then back at me before they spoke at the same time.
“Us and Mommy,” Liam said.
“Me, my brudder, and Doll,” KJ said.
Chyna and I laughed before she finally spoke up. “You guys are really okay with this? Bear, honey, this means we won’t be going back home. This is our home now.”
“This home is better,” Liam said with a serious face, as if he didn’t understand why he had to explain that to his mother.
Chyna smiled and rubbed his head. “And what about you, KJ? Are you okay with us moving in and sharing your room with Liam?”
“Him my brudder, and you my mommy number two.” He held up four fingers.
“Boy, you a mess.” I laughed as I looked around the table. This was my family now. I couldn’t believe it had gone from just me and KJ to the four of us so quickly, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.
“I got ideas,” Liam announced.
“What kind of ideas?” Chyna asked wearily.
“For da wedding,” Liam explained. KJ nodded excitedly next to him. “Cake.”
“And dinosaurs,” KJ exclaimed.
“Bouncy house,” Liam said as he ticked off his fingers.
“And chicken nuggets.” KJ finished their list and looked at us.
Chyna’s eyebrows were damn near to her hairline. “You two have been thinking about this, huh?”
They nodded.
“I, for one, sign off on all those,” I said with a grin.
Chyna snorted. “Yeah. We’ll see about that.” She looked at me with fresh, happy tears in her eyes. “That’s that, then, huh?”
I held my hand out for her to take once again. “That’s that, Chyna Doll.”
We finished eating dinner and bounced crazy-ass ideas around for the wedding. I couldn’t remember a time when I had ever felt so content in my life.
I’d never taken so many days off from work before Chyna moved in with me, but this one was necessary.
A couple of weeks had passed since we got engaged, and it felt like time passed quick as hell.
Now, here we were, standing inside Chyna’s empty duplex as she went from room to room, looking around.
“It feels so small here,” she whispered as she touched the wall of Liam’s old room.
“It is.” I grunted as I looked around. Personally, I couldn’t believe my queen had lived here. It wasn’t fit for her. She deserved much better, and for the rest of her life, she would get that.
She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my middle as she laid her head on my chest. “I’m conflicted right now.
I love this place so much because it was my own.
It’s the place I lived when Liam was born.
It’s the only home he’s ever known, and I made this place our little slice of heaven.
I worked hard for it, you know? But I’m also happy to leave it behind.
There was so much stress and loneliness here.
Balancing everything on my own was tough. ”
I kissed the top of her head. “Don’t I know it.”
She looked up at me. “Thank you. For everything. You’re everything I needed, and I didn’t even realize it.”
I pushed her hair out of her face and gazed into her eyes.
How wrong she had it. Chyna Drayton, soon to be Slater, was the key to my happiness.
She was the piece of the puzzle I didn’t even know I was missing.
My world spun because of her. My life moved forward and progressed because she blessed me with her presence.
The universe began and ended with her. Maybe I was what she needed, but she was what I couldn’t live without.
She was the air I breathed and the fuel I needed to die a happy man.
I didn’t know how to explain that to her, though, so I didn’t even try. I knew I would spend the rest of my life making sure my actions showed her everything I felt.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you more.” We hugged for a few minutes. I wanted to allow her all the time she needed to say goodbye to her past life. When she looked up at me again, she smiled. “You know, when that pipe burst, I thought God was punishing me for some shit I did in my past life.”
I chuckled. “You’re an angel. Ain’t no way that was a punishment.”
She nodded. “I was wrong. He wasn’t punishing me. He was giving me a shove in the right direction.”
“My direction?” I asked with my brows hiked up.
“Your direction.”
I hugged her tighter. “It’s a good direction.”
“Indeed, it is.” We stayed in our silent embrace for a few more minutes before she pulled away and wiped her eyes. “Okay, I’m ready.”
I grabbed her hand and kissed her ring finger where the beautiful ring sat. “You know I got you, right?”
“I know, and I got you.”
“And our terrorists got us.”
She laughed. I swore I loved that sound. “Not too much on my babies.”
“Nah. It’s always the absolute most when it comes to them. They deserve it.”
She elbowed me, and we laughed as we took one last walkthrough of the house before we stepped out the front door, officially ready to start the rest of our lives together.