Page 102 of Betrothed To Love

“I’ll be right back,” I say before walking out of the kitchen.

My wife calls out for Niya. “Sweetheart, you wanna come help melt the butter?”

“I coming,” she yells as she whisks past me.

Coming home to my family is the best feeling in the world. As I walk through the house, I take it all in. My wife is finally in the home I built. Her favorite painting, by my Shuga, is hanging in the small book room. The small pieces of décor and furniture accents she’s added blend perfectly and her plug-ins and aroma satchels in the air vents have the house smelling like a home. This is us and I love it, her, and our family.

Once in the room, I undress, remove my Hublot, and change into sweats and a tee. After washing my face and hands, I return to the kitchen. On the island, there are two large aluminum pans filled with deshelled snow crab legs, king crab, jumbo shrimp, corn on the cob, red potatoes, and sausage. My wife is holding my baby girl up as she drizzles melted butter over the food.

“I left some for me,” Niya says as she very carefully places the bowl on the island. She lifts her head and sees me. “We eating here,” she explains.

“You want a beer?” my wife asks as she places Niya on the floor. Nothing tastes better with seafood than a cold Bleu Mountain Brew. Since I always have Niya with me at the Seafood Spot, I never indulge, but tonight, I can. I’m home with my family.

“Yeah,” I answer.

“I’m going to have one too,” she says.

While she grabs the beers and a bottle of water for Niya, I snag a sausage and pop it into my mouth. I’m hungry as hell. Between my team meeting to discuss Alami’s start tomorrow, my battery case, and my meeting with Shuga and Asali, I haven’t eaten anything since a chicken biscuit for breakfast.

“Daddy,” Niya exclaims with a giggle. “We ’bout to eat.”

“What did he do?” my wife asks playfully when she turns around.

“He got a sausage,” Niya says.

“And we didn’t even say grace,” my wife adds while shaking her head. “He’s hungry like us.”

“I’m so ready,” Niya says.

My baby girl walks over to my side of the island and I lift her and place her in the high back stool. After sliding the drinks closer to me, my kyau joins us and sits between Niya and me. I blessed the food and Niya gets up on her knees and starts grabbing crab legs and corn. I swear she dips her entire little hand into the butter before biting the crabmeat.

Everything is delicious, perfectly seasoned and cooked. I hate overcooked shrimp and that’s never a problem at the Seafood Spot. Niya tastes the king crab, and when I see her big eyes light up, I know our bill is going to get even higher going forward. She really likes it. So much that she abandons her normal snow crab for the king crab.

“Daddy, we doing the muffins,” Niya announces with a big ass smile and I have no clue what my baby girl is talking about. My wife instantly reads my face and explains before I can ask for more details.

“Once a month, the kindergarten team does Muffins with Mom. A different mother volunteers and brings them to the school. I’m doing January and I’m getting those giant muffins from a place in Crescent Falls and taking them in,” she says.

“Except Jordan,” Niya adds.

“Right. Jordan gets a mini muffin,” my wife says before turning to me and whispering, “I’ll explain Jordan later.”

“I want strawberry.”

“You can have strawberry. They have all flavors but you’re going with me to pick them out. It’s your class and your day. You’re even going to pick Jordan’s little one,” my wife says and Niya laughs.

Honestly, I don’t know why Jordan is getting a mini muffin and I don’t care, at least not right now. I’m just taking this moment and their conversation in. The love, connection, and bond between these two is so heartwarming. So effortlessly and naturally, my wife has stepped into the role of being my baby girl’s mom and Niya’s face says it all.

I heard right. Niya for sure finally called my wife Mommie.

They continue with their conversation and I just sit back, drink my beer, eat my food, and soak it all in. If there was ever a perfect moment to immortalize, it’s this. I’m truly a happy man.

We eat until there’s a dent in both pans; then together, we pack up the leftovers and clean the kitchen. While my wife gets Niya bathed and in her pajamas, I take a much-needed hot shower.

I make it to Niya’s room just in time. She’s tucked under her covers. Her small head, big ass bonnet, and arms are the only things visible. My beautiful wife is setting up the television. When I step to the bed, Niya smiles then pulls her covers back.

“Daddy, look at my new jammies,” she gushes. “Imma princess for real.”

“These are so pretty. I like them,” I compliment.