Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Zander
One Month Later
The more families within the secret society that I took on, the busier my schedule was.
While they didn’t keep me in court, there was a constant stream of meetings, strategy sessions, and negotiations that filled my days.
Mediations were happening a couple of times out of the week, and I was becoming a more public face, operating as a press secretary of sorts .
. . which certainly wasn’t something I thought I’d have to do.
Though I could code switch with the best of them, when I was truly passionate about something, I didn’t give a fuck about being proper, sounding educated, or being politically correct.
Apparently, the heads of the secret society liked that, because any time they needed to make a public statement, I was asked to do it.
Londen and Noah said it was because my realness resonated with more than just one type of person, which I took as a compliment.
The secret society was like the checks and balances of Rose Valley Hills.
They had their hands in religion, politics, and even street pharmacy.
I’d been in rooms with the most powerful and wealthy citizens of Rose Valley Hills for the past year, and it was leading to increased retainer clients for me and the rest of the firm.
As profitable and fulfilling as it was, it chewed away at my time.
Though I still worked to prioritize spending time with family, friends, and my sweet girl, I was starting to feel like I needed more of her specifically.
We talked throughout the day and saw each other about three times out of the week, but I was at that point where I wanted to go to sleep and wake up next to her. Dates were cool, but I wanted us in the same home.
She spent the night last night and left before I woke up.
I was tired as hell and sleeping with her put me in a deep sleep.
By the time I woke up, I had a good forty minutes to get ready to go.
When I walked into the bathroom and saw that she’d left sticky notes on the counter and mirror with handwritten letters, I smiled.
I’d never been a mushy or sentimental kind of man, but the shit she did for me made me feel soft as fuck on the inside.
The longer we were together, the longer she provided a safe space that I’d never felt with a woman outside of my mother.
She made me feel safe being softer, vulnerable, surrendering, trusting. I loved her more for it each day.
I took the notes down and read them again—I love you, I respect you, I admire you, I trust you, I see you, I choose you—then put them in my nightstand for safekeeping.
After that, I showered and dressed. In the kitchen, I found more proof of her presence.
She had breakfast waiting, red roses, and another note with a gift card for a year’s worth of massages at her favorite spa.
The shit honestly brought tears to my eyes.
No woman had ever given to me or poured into me the way I poured into her—ever.
All the women I’d dealt with expected me to treat them like queens, meanwhile, they treated me like a trick.
I barely got thank yous for the way I showed up in their lives and lightened loads to make them better.
It was expected because I was a man, but no woman ever reciprocated the energy .
. . until Navy. She didn’t just appreciate and show gratitude, she returned the gestures in ways that worked for us.
Nah, she never had to come out of pocket for me, but she always made me smile.
She always kept me calm and made me feel at peace.
She studied me and provided things that made my days better.
She loved me, and listened to me. She respected me and treated me with intentionality.
And more than anything else, she gave me the freedom and space to be a man, to be her man.
The more I did for her, the happier I made her, the happier it made me.
I was already missing her, but this took it to a deeper level.
I got in the car and played the playlist she created for me. She’d created a court playlist, mediations and strategy playlist, and PR and interview playlist. The fact that she knew what songs to include depending on my tasks for the day further confirmed just how well she knew me.
How intimately she knew me.
She saw me.
She loved me.
And it felt good as fuck to finally have a woman like that by my side.
Later that Evening
The crew had gotten together for dinner.
It felt like the first time in a long time that we were able to get together after hours.
Kaos and Serenity were taking a year off so they could focus on Serene and each other.
I loved that for them and stopped by often to check in and make sure they were good.
Kaos had made all of us Serene’s godfathers, and baby boy was spoiled as fuck already.
I never thought I’d look forward to kids and marriage and shit, but now that I was with Navy, I couldn’t wait to start our own family.
“I need y’all to clear your schedules January seventh,” Tristan said as he set his glass down.
“We gotta go to LA and get fitted for these tuxes for the wedding. The final fitting will be a week before the wedding next summer, but he’s so booked we have to go ahead and get fitted sooner rather than later. ”
“Damn,” Carson mumbled. “It’s September and he’s booked until January?”
“Yeah, and what’s crazy is I had to pay the nigga ten thousand for a squeeze in fee. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to take us in at all. His whole 2026 is booked already.”
A low whistle escaped me as Kaos shook his head.
“These better be the flyest tuxes I’ve ever seen in my life for all that,” Kaos grumbled like the old man he was becoming, making us all chuckle.
Tristan pulled up his website, and it didn’t take us long to see why he was booked and busy. Not only were his designs custom and unique for each wedding, but he included all accessories and stitched pictures of the bride and groom into the lining of the tux.
“Sis gon’ love this,” Tyler said with a grin. “She won’t know about the pictures until the wedding, right?”
“Right,” Tristan agreed. “Y’all know we’re doing the engagement photoshoot a month before the wedding, so he’s going to use those photos.”
We continued to talk while the women were in their own little world.
I loved how hard Kaos had gone for Serenity for their wedding, and Tristan was doing the same for Taj .
. . just in different ways. Seeing hard men soften for love had been a concept I couldn’t understand until now.
As if she felt my heart yearning for her, Navy looked around the dining room until her eyes landed on mine.
She gave me that look she’d always given me, that look that told her father I was the one for her.
Every time she gave it to me now, it felt like a reward.
As much as I was enjoying spending time with my people, I couldn’t wait for us to go home and be alone.