Jaheim
I was definitely in love. Anyone who knew me knew that. Even Rex had called to congratulate me on finding a good thing. His words were finding the best thing. I hadn’t corrected him because he wasn’t wrong.
“Liana, we are going to be late. I cannot show up late for dinner with your people. No excuses.”
“You already have his blessing. It’s Lawrence and Crimson.”
“Yeah, maybe to you. But I want to be your husband one day, so being late is a no-go.”
“Okay, but you have to drive. I need to finish my makeup.”
I grabbed the keys and headed for the door.
Shit had gotten domestic fast around here and, to be honest, a nigga was thriving in it.
I loved rubbing her feet after a long shift.
I loved unclogging the toilet at The Bloom at eleven on a Wednesday because when she called, I came running.
I loved paying for Steelo’s new music subscription so she didn’t have to think about it.
I loved all of it in a way that used to scare me and now felt like another Tuesday.
I hadn’t grown up in softness. Pity yes, but softness never. It was a foreign feeling I was still learning to receive and give in equal measure. Bloom was teaching me without trying. The softness to my edges. We worked, we fit, and there would never be another. It was that simple.
She kissed me and pulled my hand toward the door. “That smells good. What is that?”
“Miim.Miic Tomato on the Vine . You really like it?”
I pulled her back and nibbled on her neck. “Hell yeah. The southern boy in me is delighted.”
“Can’t be late, remember. Unhand me.”
I followed behind her on cloud nine. It smelled like summer on her skin, like us. When I thought about us, it always led back to summer. The bar, the dog park, Bloom Day behind the barn, Nashville with the top off her Jeep. All of it summer. All of it her.
Luckily for me, this summer loving didn’t have to end.
I was making sure of that today.
When we pulled up to her parents’ house, her eyes went wide and cut straight to me. I said nothing. I got out, came around, and helped her out of the car.
“Jaheim. Speak fast.”
I said nothing.
Her hands were shaking as I led her to the front yard lined with candles, flickering against the Sunday evening sky.
She gasped when she saw the sign.
Will You Marry Me?
When she turned around, I was already on one knee.
“Trini, I had so much to say up until a second ago. But looking at you with tears in your eyes, I don’t need a lot of words for you to understand what you mean to me.” I held the box open. “You said you’d say yes. I’m hoping that still stands.”
She laughed through tears.
“Bloom, I want to marry you. I want to make you happy for the rest of my life. I want to wake up every morning thinking of ways to make you smile. Blaise love. We sang that to each other, and as intense as it’s been, it’s been equally easy.
It may not be that way every day, but we are in the thick of it, and I wouldn’t want to be in it with anybody else.
” I looked up at her. “Will you marry me?”
She was already nodding before I finished the sentence.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
I slid the ring on her finger and stood up. The best part came when she jumped into my arms. We shared a kiss until we heard Lawrence clapping from the porch where he had been standing the whole time, Crimson tucked under his arm.
“You said yes, right, Babygirl? I kinda like this one.”
She flashed her ring and jumped up and down. Lawrence came and shook my hand. That was the whole conversation, and it was enough.
Noeva was wailing somewhere behind us while Beau held her shoulders, looking equal parts moved and terrified by the volume. Roya had a cigarette going, clapping loudly, telling anyone who would listen that she knew, she always knew, nobody ever listened to her.
Esme came barreling out the front door and lost her mind at our feet.
“Welcome to the family, son.”
Dinner commenced with a few more guests showing up. I had the backyard and deck decorated, steaks, grilled corn, and potatoes were on the grill, courtesy of Lawrence, who had welcomed me with open arms since the moment I answered his question right on his front porch.
We’d made it to the range like we promised. Two men who had seen different versions of the same hard thing, no explanation required. He understood me. I understood him. War did that to you, whether foreign or domestic.
I had fought to get here. Fought my mental.
My emotions. My circumstances. My grief.
My biases. All of it. And truthfully, I was still fighting some of it to this day.
The difference was I wasn’t fighting the same fight anymore.
I used to spend every day fighting to survive.
I spent most of my life trying to make it through shit.
Now I was learning how to keep the good.
Maybe that was what healing looked like.
Maybe that was winning.
Someone seeing that meant a lot to me, but I didn’t have the right words for it yet. Liana Bloom was going to be my wife. I had all the time in the world to find them.
She was glowing as she hugged different family members who had come for the night. I stood off to the side watching her, thinking about our future. A future I was ready to start.
Her head tilted back in laughter. She looked over and winked. I was down bad.
“You know this is some bullshit, right?” Beau said, walking up beside me with a drink and a handshake.
“Man, what did I do now?”
“How in the hell you get a fiancée before me, nigga. That’s that bullshit.” He shook his head before laughing. “I’m fucking with you. Congratulations, bro. I’m proud of you. Neither of us was supposed to be here on some different shit. But here we are.”
“Our girls would be proud of us for what we’ve become.”
“Yeah, they would be. We did that shit, bro.”
Later, when the guests had thinned and the cake was mostly gone, Liana took my hand and led me toward the flower farm without saying where we were going. I followed because I always followed her.
“Where we going, Bloom? I got my loafers on.”
“Jaheim, please just come with me. Almost there.”
We made it past the barn that gave me flashbacks, past the trees, until a lake came into view with the moon’s light bouncing off it.
It was beautiful.
She had laid a blanket out earlier. I hadn’t noticed until now. That told me everything about how long she had been planning this moment while I was busy planning mine.
We ended up on our backs at the edge of the lake, away from the lights and the noise. You could hear the water moving slightly. It was peaceful.
“I like to come out here and watch the stars. Me and Noeva used to drink Muscadine wine out here.”
“Damn baby, y’all was drinking that cheap shit.”
We laughed at that for a second. Then it settled. We both looked up. The stars were out, clear and close, nothing competing with them.
“When I came back this was my first stop. I snuck out of the house and had my first cry here. I’d been holding that cry for a long time. I released it and signed the paperwork for the bar the next day.”
“You took your life back here.”
“Yeah. The fruit of that is you.”
“If I hadn’t proposed already, I’d do it right here,” I said. “But don’t give me that credit, Bloom. You did that shit.”
“Don’t you dare. The first one was perfect. My family was there, you looked good, had me looking good. Right now is a moment for us. And as I said, you are the reward for that. I refused to let Odeal make me bitter.”
My eyes traveled down to her dress and bare feet and I smiled to myself. I had picked out a helluva dress for her tonight. Couldn’t wait to get that bitch off later.
“This place is perfect. Home. I’m glad I found Bloomington and you.”
She put her head on my chest and held her hand up to look at the ring in the dark, turning it slowly, watching it catch what little light the moon offered.
“Hi, fiancé,” she said.
“Hi, future Mrs. Harrison. We might as well pass all that fiancé shit.”
She laughed softly and let her hand fall back down.
“You asked me if I still believed in marriage,” she said finally. “I do. Because of you. And not just marriage, but partnership. Being loved by someone who actually wants to love you.”
Her eyes dropped briefly before finding mine again.
“I not only love you, Jaheim. I trust you with my heart. I don’t know what your plan was when you walked into my bar that night, but my life is better for it.”
She leaned up.
“Please don’t hurt me.”
I held her face in both hands and searched her eyes. She had done the work to get here. We both had. And she was giving me what that work produced. I wasn’t going to rush past that.
“Hear me clearly. I ain’t here on some fun shit.
I want forever. And if I want forever, then your peace, your trust, your heart, all of that is of the utmost importance to me.
I love you. I only want to see you smile.
Happy. At peace. Doing what you love and being who you love to be.
” I pressed my forehead to hers. “I got you, bloom. That’s the whole sentence. ”
She exhaled, “That was beautiful.”
“It’s real. I’m real.”
We talked about our plans. She wanted to move into the loft, but we needed a yard. I told her I’d make it happen somehow.
Starting a family with me was on the table now. That thought alone kept pulling smiles out of me.
She wanted to pour her newfound money into something meaningful, and I respected that. Whatever she decided, I already knew I’d be right beside her helping.
Life was good.