Chapter 15
fifteen
RYLEE
Laughter traveled around the table, bouncing off the ceilings and walls of the restaurant.
Seated at a long table that stretched from one end of the room to the other sat Rylee, Xander, and all the people they loved.
They were in a softly lit, upscale restaurant in Brooklyn, a mile from the brownstone.
Floor-to-ceiling windows gave views of the city street at night. Traffic lights lit up. Passersby peeked in. And Rylee basked in the intimate ambiance of the evening.
Xander had reserved the biggest table in the restaurant for the night for their baby shower. A very lowkey, last minute affair.
He placed a hand on her stomach as he leaned in, his other arm already around her shoulder. “You good?”
She nodded.
She was more than good. Surrounded by everyone she loved—including her parents, Lennox’s parents, her girlfriends, children, and Xander’s mother, their extended family, and his firefighter crew—how could she be anything but good?
Nova and LJ sat to Rylee’s left, between her and her mother, who was cutting a piece of the chocolate cake that remained on LJ’s plate to feed him.
The baby shower was the most laidback setup one could have ever seen.
There were no blue balloons. No shower games on the table.
This was for the grown. Just how Rylee and Xander wanted it.
In his free hand was a cigar, courtesy of Rylee’s dad, Gannon.
“So, you guys have everything set up, right?” Xander’s friend, Jamal, asked.
He sat beside Xander’s mother, who was seated beside Xander.
Jamal gestured toward his wife who sat to his left.
“If I remember anything from our kids, it’s best to have all that stuff set up to be prepared for any and all surprises. ”
“Been had those things set up.” Xander peeked over at Rylee and winked.
“Xander insisted,” Rylee added with a smile. “For the biggest event of the year, he’s been preparing for it from before we knew what we were having.”
“Well, it won’t be the only biggest event, ain’t that right, Xander?” Gannon chuckled from the other side of the table beside Lennox’s parents, The Walkers, who insisted on being present for every major milestone… including this one.
Xander scratched the back of his neck and shot a look across the table at Gannon, who quickly folded his lips into his mouth to laugh to himself.
Rylee looked between the two, noticing their silent exchange—her internal voice flagging what just happened, something that seemingly went unnoticed by everyone else at the table.
“Well, Xander knows all about those surprises,” Xander’s chief confirmed from down the table. “He’s had to deliver quite a few babies during his EMT years.”
“Oh yes,” Xander’s mother, Michelle, chimed in, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. “I’ve heard a few of those stories.”
Rylee peeked over at him, and he looked to her.
“Regular ol’ Superman, huh?” she teased between them.
Xander popped his collar and placed his cigar in his mouth, making Rylee giggle. “Superman ain’t got nothing on me, baby.”
She laughed this time.
The night felt good. Surrounded by family and friends, conversation easily flowing from one topic to the next. It was everything Rylee imagined it being and then some.
“All right,” one of the servers who had been catering the group announced as she approached. “I’ll place this here.”
She set the black book—with the bill tucked inside—on the table between Xander and Rylee.
“Whenever you’re ready,” the server added.
“Oh, we’re ready,” Xander said, prepared to push his chair back and pull out his wallet.
“Oh no, Claudia and I got it, Xander,” Gannon said across the table, hand outstretched for the book.
“No, no, no,” Lennox’s father, Mr. Walker, voiced, waving a hand in the air and beckoning for the black book a second later. “Ivy and I can take care of it.”
“Aw, y’all are too sweet,” Michelle was next to speak over them all, reaching for the book. “I’ve got it.”
“There’s no way the department is going to let anyone pay for tonight’s meal.” Chief Logan pushed his seat back. “Just send it down this way, Cox.”
Rylee scoffed a laugh. “You guys, please,” she said, picking up the book. “We got it.”
“Rylee, don’t you touch that book,” Michelle warned, tapping Xander. “Baby, give it to me.”
“Nope!” Parker, Rylee’s friend, shouted from down the table. “Send it here. Nadia and I already said—”
“I am paying,” Gannon said over everyone. “And that is final.”
By that point, debating ensued, everyone stating why they should settle the bill. All of them on their feet except Rylee, Xander, and the giggling kids who found humor in the exchanges.
Rylee peeked up at the server. “I’m so sorry.”
“Oh no, please.” The server giggled, pressing a hand to her chest. “What a beautiful problem to have. We usually see the opposite.”
Xander laughed.
The server smiled. “You guys take your time figuring it out. I’ll be back.”
Over the voices that traveled around the table—everyone stating why they’d take care of it—Rylee locked eyes with Xander.
He leaned in and kissed her softly before rubbing his nose with hers, making her giggle.
“What a beautiful problem to have, for real.”
“To be so loved by stubborn people.” Rylee leaned her head on his shoulder.
Xander’s hand moved to her stomach to rub as they listened to everyone around them. “Definitely.”
Rylee’s chest swelled with gratitude as she listened to everyone playfully arguing, wondering... could the night get any better than this?
“The fact that they split that bill all them ways just so they could all pay,” Rylee said as she shut off the water in the bathroom. “These people.”
Xander laughed from inside of the bedroom.
She chuckled, reaching forward to pick up one of the folded face towels on her vanity.
Rylee felt a slight ache in her lower back and pressed a hand there while stretching back and sighing.
Before she could feel the dull pain for too long, Xander was right there, pressing a hand to the area, gently massaging it.
“Thank you.” She smiled. “He’s getting heavy.”
“I seen this thing online,” Xander told her, moving in closer behind her. “Let me know if this helps.”
Xander grabbed her belly from its underside and gently lifted it, slowly, balancing the weight of it in his hands.
Rylee gasped at the sudden wave of relief that washed over her. The comfort of feeling several pounds lighter was instant and overwhelming. Her head fell back as the weight lifted—off her body and off her shoulders—giving her a glimpse of the relief she hoped to feel once she gave birth.
She was in the last day of her eighth month and this was around the time she started to feel fed up with being pregnant. This pregnancy had been the easiest of them all, though, as Xander promised.
Mostly because if he heard a complaint or heard Rylee express a craving, he was right on it.
Like right now, holding her belly up carefully so she could experience the bliss of weightlessness only for a few breaths.
“Oh, I love you so much,” she whispered and he snickered behind her, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“Go ahead and lay down,” he directed, gently releasing his hold on her belly. “I’ll be there in a moment to get back to rubbing your back.”
She moaned. “I am so spoiled and I love that for me.”
He kissed the top of her head and Rylee turned to leave the bathroom as advised.
She made her way to her side of the bed, still beaming from the day. Rylee really enjoyed herself at their baby shower. It was unconventional but dressed in so much love, she was still buzzing from the energy.
She’d gotten to her side of the bed, pulled back the covers, and blinked hard when she spotted a diamond ring on her pillow.
The black velvet box that held the diamond in its slit was small, but not the ring. The ring’s diamond was prominent, and glowing under the lamplight on her side table.
The stone caught the light at every angle, causing Rylee to completely freeze in place.
She turned to the bathroom, doing her best to find the words to ask Xander about it, when she found him down on one knee inches away from her.
That made her gasp then press her hand to her chest.
Xander was silent for a beat before he chuckled nervously. “I’m scared as hell right now.”
Rylee released a small laugh that was all breath.
Instantly, she remembered her father’s comment during dinner and the look him and Xander exchanged in that moment.
“I’m terrified,” Xander continued, “Not because I don’t want to marry you, because, God, I really do. And I’m not terrified because I don’t think I’ll be a great husband or father, because I know for damn sure I will be.”
Her heart was pounding now.
“I’m scared you won’t let me show you any of that, Snoop.”
Rylee’s eyes were blinking so quickly now, tears forming as she kept them on Xander.
There he was, all six-foot-something of him. Arms bulging, shoulders squared. Just a whole lot of man, on one knee… for her.
“Three years ago, this life I’m living now with you was the furthest thing from my desires,” Xander confessed. “I wasn’t thinking wife, kids, house… a house she won’t accept.” He shook his head then licked his lips. “But then I saw you… snooping through my mother’s trash—”
“Aye,” Rylee cut in, pointing at him. “I was not snooping through nobody’s trash.”
He smirked. “Yeah, you were.”
Rylee rolled her eyes and tried to fight back her smile but lost.
“And it was the greatest discovery of my life, Rylee,” he said, waiting for her attention again.
“Because you entered my life with not just your amazing self but with absolutely awesome children who stole my heart just as quickly as you did mine.” He sniffed back his tears.
“So for real, Rylee? I’m not asking you to marry me. ”
Rylee’s brows wrinkled.
“Because that would be too easy, too cliché,” he added, pressing his hand to his chest. “I’m asking you to let me love you the way you deserve.
To show you how amazing of a husband I can be to you because…
you’re the love of my life. And it’s like I said, I understand Lennox will always be a part of you.
But you’re my future, and though I’ve never met him, I think he’d like that for you… at least I’d hope he would.”
She smiled, the tears pooling more now in her eyes.
“And I think he’d like me for you too.” He nodded. “I know that shit. ‘Cause I’m me.”
She laughed softly this time.
“And because I love you so much, Rylee.” Xander extended a hand to her and Rylee closed the distance between them.
Once her hand was in his, Xander asked, “So, will you allow me a chance to do that? Will you be my wife, Rylee… please?”
Her bottom lip quivered at the sight of him and at his words. The gentle caress of his thumb over the back of her hand and the soft look in his eyes.
Her hand went to her belly and his hand covered hers on top of it.
And even though her heart was racing, her mind moving even faster with how much things had changed in just a few months, the only answer she wanted to say came out of her mouth with ease. So much ease.
“Yes,” she said, softly and with tears. “I absolutely will. Yes!”
The smile on Xander’s face could’ve lit the Manhattan skyline.
He rose from his knee and pulled her to him. Pressed a kiss so deep against her lips, Rylee went warm all over in his embrace and wrapped her arms as far around him as she could manage.
A moment later, Xander broke their kiss to retrieve the ring, plucking it from the box and sliding it onto her finger.
“Thank you,” he said to her, pulling her close.
“Thank you.” Rylee pressed her head to him, closing her eyes, a tear escaping once more. “Because you’re already making me the happiest woman in the galaxy.”
Xander tightened his arm around her then kissed the top of her braids. “And I’m just getting warmed up.”
Rylee laughed again, hugging him tighter.
Earlier she wondered could the night get better.
And it did.