Page 32 of Nothing Without You

Chyna and I laughed before she finally spoke up. “You guys are really okay with this? Bear, honey, this means we won’t be going back home. This is our home now.”

“This home is better,” Liam said with a serious face, as if he didn’t understand why he had to explain that to his mother.

Chyna smiled and rubbed his head. “And what about you, KJ? Are you okay with us moving in and sharing your room with Liam?”

“Him my brudder, and you my mommy number two.” He held up four fingers.

“Boy, you a mess.” I laughed as I looked around the table. This was my family now. I couldn’t believe it had gone from just me and KJ to the four of us so quickly, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

“I got ideas,” Liam announced.

“What kind of ideas?” Chyna asked wearily.

“For da wedding,” Liam explained. KJ nodded excitedly next to him. “Cake.”

“And dinosaurs,” KJ exclaimed.

“Bouncy house,” Liam said as he ticked off his fingers.

“And chicken nuggets.” KJ finished their list and looked at us.

Chyna’s eyebrows were damn near to her hairline. “You two have been thinking about this, huh?”

They nodded.

“I, for one, sign off on all those,” I said with a grin.

Chyna snorted. “Yeah. We’ll see about that.” She looked at me with fresh, happy tears in her eyes. “That’s that, then, huh?”

I held my hand out for her to take once again. “That’s that, Chyna Doll.”

We finished eating dinner and bounced crazy-ass ideas around for the wedding. I couldn’t remember a time when I had ever felt so content in my life.

I’d never taken so many days off from work before Chyna moved in with me, but this one was necessary.

A couple of weeks had passed since we got engaged, and it felt like time passed quick as hell.

Now, here we were, standing inside Chyna’s empty duplex as she went from room to room, looking around.

“It feels so small here,” she whispered as she touched the wall of Liam’s old room.

“It is.” I grunted as I looked around. Personally, I couldn’t believe my queen had lived here. It wasn’t fit for her. She deserved much better, and for the rest of her life, she would get that.

She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my middle as she laid her head on my chest. “I’m conflicted right now. I love this place so much because it was my own. It’s the place I lived when Liam was born. It’s the only home he’s ever known, and I made this place our little slice of heaven. I worked hard for it, you know? But I’m also happy to leave it behind. There was so much stress and loneliness here. Balancing everything on my own was tough.”

I kissed the top of her head. “Don’t I know it.”

She looked up at me. “Thank you. For everything. You’re everything I needed, and I didn’t even realize it.”

I pushed her hair out of her face and gazed into her eyes. How wrong she had it. Chyna Drayton, soon to be Slater, was the key to my happiness. She was the piece of the puzzle I didn’t even know I was missing. My world spun because of her. My life moved forward and progressed because she blessed me with her presence. The universe began and ended with her. Maybe I was what she needed, but she was what I couldn’t live without. She was the air I breathed and the fuel I needed to die a happy man.

I didn’t know how to explain that to her, though, so I didn’t even try. I knew I would spend the rest of my life making sure my actions showed her everything I felt.

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you more.” We hugged for a few minutes. I wanted to allow her all the time she needed to say goodbye to her past life. When she looked up at me again, she smiled. “You know, when that pipe burst, I thought God was punishing me for some shit I did in my past life.”

I chuckled. “You’re an angel. Ain’t no way that was a punishment.”