Chapter 26
Deuce and I were having another date night. We were ecstatic about it. He was still sending me text messages daily, and we talked on the phone every day since I visited him three days ago. I had not been back to see him though.
I was serious about taking out time to get to know myself better.
But tonight, I planned to tell him the news about my pregnancy.
I had paced back and forth in my hotel room all day because I was nervous about how he would receive it.
My nervousness was in part because I knew he had been expecting a child with Lena.
The last thing that I wanted was to go through my pregnancy comparing myself to her, his experiences with me to his with her, or bringing him sadness because that child didn’t make it.
I knew that it would be emotional for him, and I expected that.
I just prayed that in the end, our little one would bring him joy.
Every day that we had been apart, I prayed and asked God to grant Deuce total and complete healing of his heart, even as I prayed for it for myself.
In my time alone, I had come to recognize that, while I may not have been grieving Ethan like people would have expected me to, I was still grieving my grandmother and the life that I had before losing her or Ethan.
I also was working on forgiving Ethan for how he had treated me during our marriage. Until I was alone, I hadn’t realized that I still held bitterness in my heart that he cheated on me and never took up for me with his family.
I pushed those thoughts aside as Deuce gripped my knee. “A penny for your thoughts.”
“Huh?”
“What’s on your mind? You’ve been over there biting that nail for a while now.”
“I’m fine. Just thinking about what tonight will hold for us.”
“We’re going to have fun, Sevyn. We’ll have a good time, so just relax, and let the evening flow the way that it should.”
I smiled and nodded as I took in the light in his dark eyes again and the structure of his masculine jaw, small nose, and the hair on his face. Deuce was a handsome man with a beautiful color. I wondered who our baby would look like, and would it be a boy or a girl.
I wondered what type of father Deuce would be.
Would he be silly and goofy, playing all the time and acting like a little kid with our child?
Or would he be focused, determined, and disciplined, making sure our child got the best of everything and had a strong male role model?
Would he spoil our child and indulge their desires, or would he be the more balanced one of the two of us?
My belly knotted again as anticipation grew inside of me. I was excited about sharing the news with him. By the time we arrived at his house, I had to talk myself down from blurting it out. I knew how I wanted to tell him, but I wasn’t certain when to tell him.
“Oh wow. What are we getting into tonight?” There were canvases and paint in the living room.
“I thought that maybe we could do a little sip and paint. I’ve got a bottle of champagne on ice for us.”
“I see,” I stated, trying not to panic. I would have to turn the champagne down, and I wasn’t sure what excuse that I could use to deny the drink.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No. Not at all. This is exciting.”
“You always talking about going to a paint and sip. I just wanted to give you what you desired and deserved. I probably should have taken you out instead, but it’s easy to be selfish where you’re concerned and keep you to myself.”
“You did very good, Deuce. I really like it a lot. Besides, it wouldn’t be fun if we had to fight off the media if we went out in person.”
“Yeah, that’s still the headline news right now. I didn’t want to bring that up and spoil our evening for you, baby.”
“You haven’t spoiled anything.”
I had eaten an early dinner, so we had agreed that we would just have dessert tonight.
Deuce went into the kitchen and returned with brownies and ice cream on top.
I had told him earlier that I had a taste for brownie a la mode.
I had almost called it a craving, but I was thankful that I caught myself before I slipped up.
He had made my favorite brownies, turtle caramel.
“Ohhh, they’re still warm.”
“Yep, just the way that you like it.”
“Look at you trying to get into my good graces.”
He laughed. “I’m just trying to make my baby happy.”
“You sure you’re not trying to get in these panties?”
“Nope. I will get back in those in time. Trust me, there’s only so long that you can go without letting me put this good dick on you. Before you know it, you’ll be out there salivating in the streets and pulling your hair out, begging for someone to help you find that cop with the good dick.”
I choked on a bite of brownie as I laughed at his foolishness. He rushed to my side and patted me gently on the back before he returned to his side of the table.
“The cop with the good dick, huh? Well, it is good dick, and it is the best that I ever had. But I doubt that I’ll be going that far. I’ll simply pick up the phone and tell you to come through and make a booty call.”
“Damn. That’s all I am to you now?” he asked, pretending to be offended as he pressed his hand against his chest.
I laughed again. Now that the truth was out between us, Deuce had relaxed a lot. I never realized how tense he was, holding that secret inside all that time. It had to be a great weight off his shoulders.
I, on the other hand, was about to explode with my secret. I prayed that he wouldn’t be angry when I told him. We finished our dessert, and Deuce headed to the kitchen to rinse our plates before he placed them in the dishwasher.
He met me in the living room where I had already sat on the stool in front of a canvas.
“How did you know that was your seat? Look at you running up in the place like you own it,” he stated, teasingly.
“I do.”
“All right now. Don’t have me running to that hotel packing your bags up.”
“It’s coming, baby. I promise.”
“A queen has to claim her throne before the people thinks that she has abdicated it, and they find themselves another queen.”
I paused in mixing my paints and frowned at him. “Excuse me?”
Shrugging, he replied, “I’m just saying. I saw GiGi the other day at Frost’s house, and she was still applying and requesting a performance interview.”
I shook my head. “You’re really gonna have me kicking that old lady’s ass if you don’t chill out, Deuce.”
“I don’t know, baby. I think she can take you. She’s got some hands on her. Have you seen them?”
“Big ass hands got her looking like she was a dude in another lifetime,” I muttered.
Deuce spit out the champagne that he had been drinking. “A’ight, chill with that.” He laughed.
“You chill. Don’t come flaunting big panties in my face, and we won’t have any issues. Talking about those are thongs, and they look like shower curtains.”
“You’re not drinking your champagne. You good?” he asked, chuckling.
“Yeah. I’ve got a little headache. That’s not going to help at all,” I lied, bobbing my head at the glass of champagne he had poured for me.
“I can take you back to the hotel if you want, or you can go back there and lay down in your bedroom.”
“No, I’ll be fine. I’ve been looking forward to this date night, and I know that you have too.”
“But I’m not interested in you being uncomfortable either. I’d rather you be able to rest and relax. We can do this on another night when you can enjoy yourself.”
“I’m going to enjoy myself, baby. Can you get me some water or juice? I’ll be fine.”
“How about I get you both?” he suggested as he stood and returned to the kitchen.
I applied a couple of strokes to the canvas while he went to get me something to drink.
When he returned, he handed me a large glass of juice and a bottle of water.
We talked while we painted. He shared what was going on at his job now that he was a detective.
We hadn’t talked much about his cases, because he had been so immersed in the trial no sooner than he made detective.
I was excited to hear the passion in his voice when he talked about his new position.
He shared with me how he had to go back and discuss with his former supervisor why he hadn’t disclosed his relationship with Lena among other things.
He told me that things were tense for a while between him and some of his old coworkers, but what made it easy was that he was no longer in the same department, and his new coworkers weren’t interested in the issues from the prior department.
An hour and a half later, we had finished painting.
“Are you ready?” he asked, removing his canvas from his stand.
“Yeah.”
He turned the canvas around. He had painted a table covered by a black velvet tablecloth with a bottle of wine and two glasses of wine sitting on the table.
At the bottom of one of the wine glasses was a ring.
Everything was so detailed that it almost looked like a 3-D painting.
It took me by surprise, not only the details but also how quickly he completed the painting.
“I didn’t know you could paint that well.”
Deuce shrugged and replied, “It’s just a hobby. I rarely have time to paint anymore.”
I looked at the canvas closer and asked, “What’s this about?”
“Look at the paintings on the wall in the background of the painting.”
I looked closer and saw that the images I thought were flowers were actually words. There were four paintings with one word each, and they spelled out “Will you marry me?”
“Deuce, is this for real?”
He bobbed his head, and I sobbed so hard. I couldn’t believe that he was asking me to marry him and in the most romantic way possible. It took several seconds for me to calm down.
“Why would you want to marry me?”