18. Clover
18
Clover
“ H appy birthday, baby,” I wrapped my arms around DaVinci’s waist and hugged him tightly. “I love you so much, Mr. Pierre.”
He enveloped me in his warm embrace. “Thank you, mama. I love you more.”
“Can you believe a year ago on your birthday, you were in a coma and now we’re waking up in Tahiti for your 31 st ?”
“Life moves fast, doesn’t it?” He chuckled and hoisted me up onto the counter, his hands firmly gripping my thighs. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being you. For being my rock. You loved me back to life during some of the most difficult times of my life, and for that? Mama, I just wanna give you every fuckin’ thing in the world.”
I felt my throat tightening as I thought back over the last year. A lot of loss, a lot of wins, and damn sure a lot of love.
“You don’t ever have to thank me for that, handsome,” I placed my palm on his cheek and smiled slightly. “I’d do it all over again for you.”
He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine in a kiss that was slow and tender. I could feel his gratitude through the sensuality of the kiss.
“Things will only keep getting better for us, I promise you that.”
“And I trust that it will,” I smiled, believing every word that came out of his mouth.
“Feed me, ma,” his eyes flickered downward, indicating what he wanted. “Before the little baby wakes up.”
Just as I parted my legs to give my husband what he wanted, his daughter’s cries filled the air, putting out the fire before it even really got started. We both gave each other a knowing look and then laughed.
“I got her,” he told me, pecking my lips and then disappearing to the back of the villa.
Moments later, he reappeared, cradling Lucky’s chunky, spoiled ass in his arms. She clung to him for dear life, and the sight of my man being a father turned me into a bowl of mush. The first two months of parenting was somewhat difficult for us because we were trying to find a rhythm and routine. Add in the lack of sleep and sex, we wanted to claw each other’s eyes out. We never gave up on each other though and eventually, we were able to fall into a comfortable routine with our baby girl.
Lucky was now six months old and the perfect mix of me and her dad. She had my slanted eyes and skin tone while she had Vinny’s thick eyebrows, eyelashes, and lips. In my humble opinion, she was the most perfect baby I had ever seen.
“Luckyyy,” I smiled, sliding off the counter. “It’s your daddy’s birthday!” I tickled under her chin, and she laughed lazily. “Oh, bae, she might go back to sleep. She got that look on her face. Go lay down with her and see if we can buy ourselves ten minutes,” I urged him.
“Girl, I can make you cum in three,” he slapped me hard on the ass and chuckled. “I’ll be right back.”
I laughed as he dipped to the back again. Soft, small knocks pattered against the front door. At first, I thought I was tripping but when they got a lil’ harder, I swung the door open without even looking to see who it was. Brooke, Lake, and Blaise stood there with a big ass smile.
So much for sex, I thought, returning their smile. “Good morning! What are y’all doing here?”
“Tryna wish my brother a happy birthday, is he up?” Lake pushed right by me and came inside.
Brooke shook her head and mouthed the word rude , but I waved her inside as well. Closing the door, I turned to face them and nodded.
“He’s trying to put Lucky back to sleep for a lil’ bit,” I took Blaise from him since he was reaching for me. “Good morning, Auntie’s handsome boy!”
“Here’s something that crossed my mind last night while I was sitting on the beach getting high,” Lake started with his antics, flopping down on the couch. “Why didn’t y’all name Lucky Lake ? I mean…similar letters, so y’all might as well had gon’ ahead and named her after me.”
“Lake, stop smoking,” I frowned, sitting down and putting Blaise on my lap.
“I told him,” Brooke sat next to me. “Nigga get high and start having epiphanies and shit. Lucky is six months old and he’s just now wondering why y’all ain’t name her Lake.”
“Aye, y’all ain’t gon’ start that ganging up on me shit,” he waved his finger between us as Vin walked back out without Lucky. “Vinny! My muthafuckin’ brotha!” He jumped up and dapped him up. “Happy birthday, my nigga!”
“I appreciate that,” a smile donned his face.
“Happy birthday, Vinny!” Brooke turned her head and peered at him.
“Thanks, sis. Um, bae, why you let them in here?” He looked at me like I had lost my damn mind.
I laughed and pointed at Lake. “That nigga just bust up in here!”
“Damnnn, it’s like that? We not welcomed here or something?” Lake played liked he was offended.
“I was about to eat my wife’s pussy, so unless y’all planned to watch that…” Vinny said with a serious expression, prompting me to giggle.
Lake sucked his teeth. “I’m sure you did that shit last night. We need to hit the bar and get you a birthday shot.”
“Did you not hear me say…I’m about to eat my wife’s pussy?” He reiterated, still with a straight face.
“Nigga, she’s your wife . That pussy ain’t going nowhere. Tahiti, on the other hand, won’t be here forever. We must take advantage of everything the island has to offer.”
“And I will. Right after I take advantage of what my wife has to offer,” he pointed at the door. “We’ll link up in an hour.”
“I liked you better when you wasn’t pussy whipped,” Lake huffed, snatching Blaise up from my lap. “My crew, let’s go.”
We laughed as they walked out with Lake giving a disapproving look right before he closed the door. DaVinci hurriedly slid my shorts off and laid me back on the couch, placing his face in his favorite spot. In exactly three minutes, I was bucking against the couch and struggling to stifle my moans so that I wouldn’t wake up Lucky.
“Told you, mama, three minutes,” he winked, dragging his thumb across his lips and then licking it clean. “Mm. Nothing like Clover first thing in the morning.”
“That’s because you know exactly what moves to do to make me cum.”
“I’m your husband, I better know what makes you cum and how fast I can make you cum.”
I giggled, knowing full well he took great pride in having my body down to a science. Shit, I took pride in knowing what made him tick sexually as well.
“Let’s shower while Lucky Lu is sleeping,” he helped me off the couch and wrapped his arms around my waist, walking me to the bathroom inside of the bedroom.
Getting a quickie in inside of the shower, we washed ourselves afterwards and then got out and got dressed. My mom had planned a day full of activities for the birthday boy that started with brunch. Charmaine was so damn serious about birthdays; you’d think it was a national fuckin’ holiday with the way she acted. She was the perfect person to bring on a birthday trip because she would make damn sure you had a great birthday.
I got Lucky up, bathed, and dressed while Vin packed her baby bag with everything that we needed for the day. Exiting the villa, we headed to the spot where my mom told everyone in the group chat to be.
“Happy birthday, bro!” River squealed as we walked up, running to hug him.
He squeezed her tight and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, sis. You got your schoolwork done?”
“DaVinci,” she kissed her teeth and laughed. “Yes! Damn.”
“Did she get that shit done?” Vin’s gaze shifted to River’s boyfriend, Cole.
Cole laughed as well and nodded once. “Of course. I made sure of that. Happy birthday, Vin,” he dapped him up.
“I appreciate that.”
Yes y’all, River has a boyfriend. A very handsome ass boyfriend at that. Imagine a brown-skin version of Kofi Siriboe, and that would be Cole who just so happened to be Monty’s son. Even though Vinny did agree to let River date, I think he was way more lax about her dating Cole than he would’ve been if it was just some outside, stranger danger ass nigga.
Cole had his head on straight and was obtaining his master’s degree as well in public health. He truly adored River, and I loved seeing her loved in a romantic sense. Cole brought out a completely different side of her, and it was so beautiful to watch the two of them together. He encouraged her to stay on track with her degree which was so dope to me.
Outside of her speech that was still somewhat slower than her usual, River had recovered very well from her life altering gunshot. Though the bullet was still lodged, Dr. O seemed confident that the likelihood of it doing any damage was slim.
“Happy birthday, DaVinci!” Charm came dancing up with a bottle of tequila in her hand and a shot glass in the other with Josh behind her.
Vinny laughed and shook his head. “Y’all know I don’t drink like that. Why everybody tryna get me drunk?” He hugged Charm next and dapped up Josh. They had grown close over the last six months since Charm spent so much time at our house.
“So that your wife can have a real good time with you later,” Charm winked at me with a giggle.
“She already did that this morning!” Lake’s hating ass retorted.
“Shut up, Lake!” I hollered with a laugh, covering my face.
“Don’t be embarrassed, baby,” Vin draped his arm over my shoulder. “I’ll drown his ass if you want me to.”
“You ain’t gon’ do shit, nigga,” Lake challenged him.
DaVinci looked at me and I tilted my head downward with a mischievous grin. Vin’s eyes shot over to Lake who took off running with Vin right behind him. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard at the two of them running around like little ass kids. It was nice to see DaVinci being so carefree and playful. It was a side of him that had started to come out a lot more since he had started therapy three months ago.
Yes. I was able to get the DaVinci Randall Pierre in therapy because Lord knows he needed it. Like I said before, I’m only one woman and while my love healed parts of him, the damage his mother created needed to be addressed. I didn’t want him carrying those wounds into his role as a father. I also didn’t want him feeling like he just had to bury everything and keep going. He deserved better than that and so did his feelings. Of course, he wasn’t with it at first, but little by little, Vin started to see the value in going to therapy.
Now, he can’t wait to get his therapist every damn week, but I loved that for him. I loved watching him grow and understand his feelings and why he did the things he did. He had become so self-aware over the last few months, and I knew he was doing it all to be the best husband and father. Most importantly, he was fighting to be the best version of himself, and that’s all I ever wanted for him.
He was still extremely supportive of my decision to become a business owner, but I made the decision to put it on hold for a while. I fell in complete and total love with being a mommy. Not every woman was afforded the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mother, so I appreciated the fact that DaVinci gave me the space to do that. I figured I could start off small first, taking a few clients here and there so that I could work from home. Once Lucky turned one, then I’d probably feel more comfortable with being away from her for longer periods of time. At least I hoped so.
For now, I enjoyed being able to create masterpieces inside the comfort of our home. Once I was done with a painting, Vinny would take it and put it inside of one of the galleries for sale. Whatever money was made from the painting was going inside of a trust fund for Lucky and our future children. Even though they would never want for anything, we still wanted to have a bit of money stashed for a rainy day for them.
“Clover!” Lake screamed, out of breath as he ran around the resort, not giving a fuck about the other patrons. “Clover! Get yo husband! Call off yo dog!”
Laughing even harder, my stomach started to hurt from the entertainment Vin and his brother were providing.
“Don’t say shit,” Brooke whispered with an amused expression on her face, balancing Blaise on her hip. “Let Vin catch him.”
“Bae!” I choked out over a laugh. “Bae, stop!”
“You’re no fun,” Brooke playfully blew raspberries and rolled her eyes.
DaVinci stopped chasing Lake and jogged back over to me. He was breathing hard as hell, and Lake eased back over to us doing the exact same thing.
“You saw I was about to get that nigga, right?” Vinny chuckled once he caught his breath.
“Yes, baby,” I kissed him. “You was two seconds off his ass.”
“Oh perfect, everyone is here!” My mother chirped, gliding over to the group with my dad, looking like the royalty they were. “I’m glad y’all are here on time. There’s a Sprinter van waiting on us and if you weren’t here, then you’d just be left,” she grinned. “DaVinci, son-in-law, the happiest of birthdays to you. I have a beautiful day planned for us. We’re going to eat, do some shopping, spend a few hours out on the water, and then end the day with a sunset dinner on the beach, so let’s go!”
Following the queen and king through the resort, we got to the front after a five-minute trek and loaded onto the van. It was fully equipped with car seats for the kids, snacks, fruits, and water. And of course, there were bottles of champagne, birthday balloons, and even a cardboard cutout of Vinny with a crown on it. Lake’s extra ass started making a list of things he wanted my mom to do for his birthday later in the year. I told y’all, my momma was over the top with birthdays, so her silly ass was sitting right there taking notes.
Vinny wrapped his arm around my neck as we chilled in the back of the bus. “I love you so much, beautiful. Thank you for this birthday trip.”
“Awh, I love you, too,” I blushed. “Forever.”
“Yeah, I know it’s forever because it’s what?”
“No fuckin’ go backs,” I chuckled, leaning over and kissing the man of my dreams.