31. Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Echo
A year later
"Baby Doll," Remi called into the living room from our bedroom, straight out of the shower, buck naked.
"Yeah, honey?" I leaned against the kitchen island.
"Why do I have a ring on my finger?"
"We got engaged in the middle of the night."
He came up to me and looked at my hands. I wiggled my fingers so he could see I was wearing the ring he'd bought for me, the one he'd been hiding in his sock drawer for three months. I decided to finally put him out of his misery. It seemed wrong that only a man could give a woman a ring to announce his engaged status—so I got him a platinum band.
He looked at the ring on my finger and then at me.
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"No. I thought since you moved in without telling me, I decided we should be engaged without me telling you." I put my hands on my hips in a challenge. "And the ring has an engraving."
He took the ring off and read what was written on the inside. " I love you, my smooth operator ?"
I hugged him then; went on tip toe to kiss his lips softly. "You are, you know."
"A smooth operator?"
" My smooth operator."
He lifted me up, so my legs were around his waist.
"Hey, I have to go to work," I protested as he took me to our bedroom.
"We have to celebrate our engagement."
"We can do that tonight."
"Sorry, Doll, we got engaged in the middle of the night, so we need to fucking celebrate in the morning."
He threw me down on the bed.
"You're crazy," I told him, smiling from ear to ear because I was so happy.
Life with Remi was exciting as hell. Our schedules were messed up. He worked late, and I left for work early. We still had lunch together whenever we could. We still went on long rides on the Ducati on the weekends. We spent time with his family—and his Mama would never be my best friend, but she wasn't my enemy any longer.
Lani decided to stop pretending to work at GeneVerse and opened a fashion boutique on Main Street in downtown Memphis. It was perfect for her, and she loved what she did. I'd never seen her this happy. Her mama didn't know, but she was dating a police detective whom she met when there was a break-in at a store next to hers. Remi and I thought Brandon was awesome and just perfect for Lani. But we knew Sierra would lose her shit when she found out that Brandon was African American. Dallas was preparing her and knew that Sierra would finally get past her prejudices and start to see people for who they were.
To be honest, I didn't think so, and I didn't care. Sierra wasn't a big part of our lives, and she wouldn't have to be in Lani and Brandon's either. We didn't spend a lot of time with her. Our friends circle was small and tight. There were no Tommys and Marinas. Instead, we hung out with Teresa and her boyfriend, Martin and his new girlfriend, and even Alex from Paint the Town Red. We had dinner with Lani and Dallas whenever Sierra had her book club meeting—that way, she didn't have to pretend to be busy to decline our invitation.
All relationships had some baggage, and this was ours. We were making it work.
"I'm crazy about you, Echo. Now get naked." Remi was already taking my clothes off.
Remi had started to delegate more at work and tried not to work too many late nights—but he still came home three times a week at four in the morning. We would have to talk about that and buying a new place—especially now that we'd need more space.
When I was naked, he kissed me as he entered me. I was already wet and wanting him.
"How come we got engaged last night, love?" Remi asked, his eyes on mine.
"I'm pregnant."
He grinned. "I think you should call in sick from work. We're going to be celebrating all day long."