Chapter 40 Emani
“Tell me how you managed to finish an EP, do all these photoshoots, help Andrew through his tests, start Sanaa in dance classes, decorate the house and have time to get the last minute gifts?” Jahlil asked, sitting on the other side of the bed wrapping the last minute gifts Emani scored while he was away.
After thanksgiving, Jahlil was on the road for back-to-back games, leaving her and Aunt Violet to lock in with the kids schedules and get things done.
Even if that meant recording in the closet for a few hours so she could be at the house to do the morning shift and sleep while Aunt Violet took over the night.
The women made it work and neither one bothered him about the details.
Emani tied a bow around a box for Andrew and pushed it to the side.
“Honestly, I don’t know. EP drops New Years Eve and then I’m back in the studio getting the album finalized.
I’m on autopilot right now. I guess it’s the same as playing back-to-back games.
One – I’m hungry. I’ve been waiting on this moment to lock in with a producer that gets me and my sound.
Two – I’m being loved properly so my mind isn’t on what you are or aren’t doing, who you’re with, and you’re not blowing my phone up with dumb shit.
Three – I gotta win now because later, I’d like to just sit home comfortably and make sure our kids grow into well-rounded and responsible adults. ”
Jahlil finished wrapping the last gift while Emani talked. When the path was clear, he grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her across the plush carpet to him. Without missing a beat, she settled in his lap.
“All you had to do was say please,” she softly giggled, resting her head against his chest.
Jahlil kissed the top of her head and hummed. “I love the way you love them. I love the way you love me. It’s a direct reflection and you don’t complain, even on the hard days.”
“These hard days, compared to what they were without y’all, are nothing. Seriously. Like the four of y’all is the best gift I could’ve gotten. It literally saved me.”
“You saved us. For real. We make sense. We’ve always made sense.”
Emani picked up his hand, laced her fingers in his and brought them to her lips. Kissing the back of his tattooed hand, she hummed. “We do. We just lost ourselves for a minute.”
“I promised Andrew I’d asked you if you’d. be willing to adopt them. I’ve noticed that you’ve gone from Mani to mommy,” Jahlil muttered.
“It’s more like mami, because she heard someone call me that. What do you mean adopt though?” Emani asked, turning completely around to see his face.
“Like be their mother for real. You’ll be theirs, they’ll be yours.”
Her heart began to pound against her chest, not for anything other than an overwhelming feeling of belonging. “Don’t we have to be married or something for that to happen. Are they sure they want me? I-”
Jahlil’s body rumbled with laughter. “I mean being married would make it easier. And yes, we all are sure we want you. You don’t need to give me an answer now and if you say no, I won’t press it.”
“I wouldn’t say no. I just…” she paused as her lips trembled. “All this damn crying…ugh. Get it together, Emani, get it together. I love y’all, like with my whole being and adopting them just tells the courts they’re mine. They’ve been mine.”
Jahlil reached up and swiped her cheeks. “Oh, this soft life got you so soft. I love it.”
She swatted his chest. “Be serious, you just asked me to be your kids mother.”
“I’m going to get you one way or another.”
Emani laughed. “Asking me to adopt them is a no brainer. When you’re ready, I’m ready.”
Jahlil kissed her face and took his time with her lips. “Thank you for loving us.”
“Thank you for loving me. Now listen, you can get some lovin’ or some sleep, either way we’re going to be woken up by Sanaa and her life-sized Barbie in a few hours.”
Jahlil stood with her in his arms making her quietly yelp. “Get my lovin’ and fall asleep in it. Ashton can keep his ass out my room.”
Emani laughed as he placed her in the bed. “Come get what you need, Daddy.”
When morning came, it was ushered in by a scream from Sanaa. Emani had woken up an hour before to mark up the floors as if Santa had traipsed through in the dead of night. The remaining gifts were placed under the tree and now, she was in the kitchen alongside Carson, making breakfast.
“You know you’re glowing,” Carson pointed out. “This shit looks good on you.”
Emani beamed, balancing her attention between Carson’s words and Sanaa running through the massive house to wake everyone up. “Thanks. I think I’m living my dream with my eyes wide open.”
“You’re not dreaming, baby. You are in exactly what you prayed for. I don’t ever want you to look back.”
“I promise…whose going to look after you now?” Emani asked, realizing that the days of them being tied at the hip were going to change. “I just realized it’s kinda been us in our bubble for the last seven years.”
“We’ll still have our bubble when you need it. When you need a reset or a reminder of who you are. But you got your nigga and your family now and you don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be cool.”
“You’re bullshitting. You’re not going to be cool because you aren’t cool right now. You forget that you’re my best friend and I can feel you?” Emani asked, pausing dipping the toast in the red velvet batter to look up at him. “There’s a shift in you. Tell me.”
Carson paused his flipping to grit his teeth. “Jahlil told you?”
“Jahlil doesn’t tell me any of your secrets. He’s keeps the shit between men between men. But this is you and I, so be real with me.”
Carson shrugged slightly. “It’s the watching you turn all his shit into gold and a house into a home effortlessly.
It makes me think about where I’m headed and how, as of right now, I have no one to share that shit with.
Loneliness is real and for a long time I had you to fill it and now I’m looking at this transition and don’t get me wrong, I’m over the moon for both of you, but that means I got to look at myself now and fix this shit. ”
Emani bumped him with her hip. “You know I know that feeling. And you know I know you need someone. But before you do that, check your heart and your mind and make sure you’re ready. The carrying of someone else’s emotions and spirit is a lot. Like you told me, be ready for the responsibility.”
“You’ll help me vet?”
“Thought you would never ask. You know how to get them up out of here,” Emani shared with a laugh, hearing a stampede of feet down the back stairs. “Merry Christmas!”
Andrew was the first to appear with a smile on his face. The Christmas basket she left in his room was the reason for it. He hugged her in thanks.
“I missed those baskets. Sanaa thinks it’s from Santa,” he muttered.
Emani laughed, softly kissing his cheek. “You did too, don’t ruin it for her. When she loses that, the innocence is gone. Already bad enough she’s got a little boyfriend.”
Andrew laughed. “I say we take her door.”
“You ain’t taking shit, ugly boy,” Sanaa huffed, pushing Andrew out the way to hug Emani.
“Um, little Miss Sanaa,” Emani started.
“Yes, miss mami,” Sanaa retorted.
“Just because you made it twenty four days without bad words and Santa came doesn’t mean I can’t send all that stuff back to sender,” Emani replied, squatting down to eye level with her. “No more colorful words.”
Sanaa huffed. “Fine.”
Emani rose a brow in silent correction.
“I meant, yes, mami.”
Emani laughed at the mami reference. “Thank you. Merry Christmas, beautiful girl.”
Sanaa blushed. “Merry Christmas, pretty lady. Can we open presents?”
“In a minute,” Jahlil called from the living room. “Dining room!”
“We can open presents after we eat,” Emani shared. “Deal?”
“Deal.”
Emani stood and went back to cooking with Carson. Once everything was almost done, Donnée came into the kitchen to take over.
“Jahlil wants you to go change for pictures,” Donnée directed, bumping her out of the way. “Go, go.”
“Of course you show up after all the hard work is done,” Emani said with a laugh, after giving her the towel. “I do all the cooking, you show up to take credit.”
“It’s been like that all of our lives, why would I change it up now? Go, go. We want to eat and can’t eat until you change.”
Emani walked out the kitchen and up the stairs to the bedroom.
She took a quick shower and changed into a pair of white silk pajamas with red bows.
The slippers matched the set. After sliding her feet into the plush red slippers, she walked out of the room and followed the rose petals scattered over the floor and Santa’s boot prints.
“What are y’all up to?” she mumbled to herself, walking down the back stairs.
The lights that were previously on were turned off and the decorations she put up immediately after Thanksgiving illuminated the space.
Everyone, including Derrick, was in a pair a red pajamas matching the red, white, and green theme of their Christmas décor.
“What’s all of this?” Emani asked, looking at Ashton standing on a chair to hang mistletoe over Jahlil’s head.
“Ashton trying to kiss your nigga, looks like,” Kyrie muttered his joke.
“Keep it up,” Ashton warned. “I’ll come kiss you next.”
Emani laughed and looked around at everyone. “Jahlil, what are you doing?”
He offered her a slacked grin. “It was our second Christmas and I remember you and Andrew asleep on that orange couch and I was just staring at you, wishing I had enough money to buy a ring and ask you right then to be mine. I was in awe of you. I mean I was in awe of you the minute I met you but over the first year that grew. I’ve been feeling like that since homecoming.
You’ve woken up parts of me I swore were dead.
I knew I was just going to raise these kids, play ball, and die.
Then the images of you on the couch came back and I woke up.
“I speak for everyone in this room but really for myself when I say, we can’t live without you.
I can’t live without you. I tried. I hated every second of it.
Emani Rose Lame Ass Last Name, you keep me intact, you remind me every day how beautiful it is to be in and have love.
You don’t just love me good, you love my kids good.
You make everywhere you are feel like home. I never want to lose that again.”
By the time Jahlil got on his knee, Emani’s face was wet with tears. “Jah…”
“Emani Rose, you mind dropping Wheaton and picking up Savage?” Jahlil asked, opening the box he’d been carrying around since his first away game.
She swayed her head and sniffled. “I don’t mind.”
“You mind being my wife?”
“I don’t mind.”
“Tell me yes,” he urged. “Will you marry me?”
“Us. Will you marry us?” Sanaa and Andrew asked on cue. They’d practiced this.
“Yes,” Emani croaked, dropping to her knees to accept her ring and hug and kiss Jahlil. “Forever and ever and ever yes!”
“Yesss!” Derrick cheered. “That’s how you take the baddest bitch out the game.”
“I love you,” Jahlil muttered, holding her.
“I love you.”
Breakfast was enjoyed, the prepped dinner the women worked on the day before was coming out of the fridge to be cooked. Presents had been opened and gifts amongst the adults had been exchanged and now Jahlil was walking toward the pool house, hand in hand with Emani.
“I cannot wait to drive you down the coast in that car,” he rumbled in reference to the Fox body fully restored Mustang.
“I can’t wait to flash my ring at every car we pass,” Emani said, holding her hand out for the hundredth time since he’d adorned her finger. “You did so good.”
Jahlil opened the door and grinned. “Does this beat the ring?”
Emani walked in behind him, finding a fully operable recording studio. “No, but it’s a close second!”
She ran around the space before running back towards him and jumping on him. “Lock the door.”
Jahlil laughed. “Aunt Vi said-”
“Lock the door, Savage.”
Holding her, he reached behind him and locked the door. Emani wiggled down his body, pulling his pants off in the process. His dick sprung to attention and she kissed the tip, making him rumble.
“Merry Christmas.”