Page 69 of Spending Forever With You

After breakfast, Luke got dressed and left me. I called Callie with a 911 for a hair appointment. It was my fake anniversary and my husband made plans, so I was getting cute. Since he had been sweating my silk presses out every chance he got, I had been wearing my natural curls but needed something special for this occasion.

“I shouldn’t have taken your appointment. You’ve been M.I.A, over there making new wife friends and whatever.” I snickered as I leaned my head back in the bowl while she scolded me, clearly not amused by my antics.

“Oh shut up lying. I haven’t been missing in action, I’ve been playing my role as a baseball wife, ya know the life you wanted for me.” I shrugged, closing my eyes, as the nasty ass memory of how Luke put me to sleep came flooding back in. Then I remembered that I’d rushed out and didn’t let him know I was headed out.

I pulled out my phone to text him.

Me: Hey, I left to get cute. I’m at the shop with Callie. I put lunch in the oven for you.

Deke: You’re already beautiful, baby. But I was about to hunt you down, I just got back. Thank you for lunch, Hershey.

It wasn’t a lot, just spicy Cajun chicken tortellini I had a craving for and had to satisfy before I left. I knew he would need something to hold him over until dinner. I smiled silly at my phone as I reread the first sentence of his text.

Yes, Luke constantly reminded me how beautiful I was, but I wasn’t too playa to admit I loved hearing it.

Callie flicked water in my face, getting my attention again.

“Ey!”

“Uht uht, heffa, and now you’re ignoring me. Since when do we do that? Who is more important than me?”

Through my smile I answered, “My husband.”

“Since when? Last I checked you didn’t even want to admit you still liked Deacon and now he’s pulling rank over me. Me!”

I had kept things between Luke and me so hushed that no one knew that we were in the first phase of working our shit out.

“Umm… a couple weeks ago, when we both decided to work it out. Or maybe he told me and I accepted that I didn’t want to be without him anymore. The details are blurry, doesn’t matter,” I said, texting Luke back.

Me: You’re welcome, Deke. I love you.

That was another new development. Those eight letters had come out to play and I loved to say them to him.

Deke: I love you too, baby.

“Huh? I mean, yeah, this is what we all wanted, but I’ma be honest. I’m not sure how I feel playing second to him again. And before you say something, no you don’t play second to Derek. You’re my apple and he’s the peach, I love y’all equally.”

I playfully rolled my eyes.

“Heffa, lies, but please don’t tell anyone yet. I want to be sure about us this time. We might get to the end of this six months and he might not want to be with me anymore. Remember, technically speaking, we’ve never fully lived together longer than that due to him being gone the majority of the time.”

“Then tell him to take it slow. No one is rushing you to jump back in headfirst. And if he is, let me know and we can get Eshon to kick his ass.”

I laughed so hard at her mentioning one of our crazy cousins who was the third triplet along with Elyon and Engy.

“Absolutely not. I love my man too much to sick Eshon’s crazy ass on him.”

“I’m glad you’re living in your truth, now I feel like I can finally tell you mine since things are working out so well between you two.” She got quiet before she continued. “I’m the reason why you two are still married. That night after we got back from your divorce party, I stole the papers out of the mailbox and threw them away.” I went to sit up when Callie held me down.

“What! Callie, why did you do that? No, and not tell me.”

“Because I knew my sister still loved her husband, and how Deacon felt about you. Why would I tell you, so you could kill me and go print them again? No, you two were making a mistake, I just didn’t think it would take this long for y’all to reconcile.”

“Callie, but you didn’t know that. What if I had met someone else to marry or him? How did you see this plan of yours going then?”

She shrugged, “oh trust, I knew that was never going to happen, you and Deacon were made for each other, nobody else was coming in between that, and I was right.”

As bad as I wanted to be mad at her, I couldn’t she was right. There would never be another man for me, and I knew Luke felt the same. I got quiet not believing that my twin had gone this long with a secret between us. I crossed my arms over my chest.