Page 211 of Buy Back My Love

“You could’ve stayed in the room.”

Instead of answering, he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me clean off the floor.

“Van, what are you doing?”

He sat me on the counter and stepped between my legs.

Apparently I had only been allowed out of the bedroom long enough to save dinner.

Van kissed me, his hands sliding up my thighs as he pulled me closer to the edge of the counter. My legs opened around him without me even thinking about it, and he stepped between them, one hand settling at my waist while the other stayed on my thigh.

The kiss got deeper, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer until my legs were locked around his hips. At that point, I had completely forgotten about the food sitting behind me.

Van broke the kiss just enough to look at me.

“Look at me.”

I did.

“I love you, Leona.”

Something about him saying my whole name with me sitting on the kitchen counter and my legs wrapped around him damn near took me out.

“I love you too, Evander.”

Van pulled me closer, his mouth near mine.

“You know I’m gon’ marry you one day, right?”

I looked him dead in his face. “You real sure of yourself.”

“Very.”

I tightened my legs around him and smiled.

“Good, ’cause I don’t think I’m ever gon’ be able to let this dick go.”

Epilogue - Van

Two Years Later

“Spend My Life With You” played through the speakers while I slow danced with my wife in the middle of my grandparents’ backyard.

My wife.

I’d been calling her that in my head all day and still wasn’t tired of it.

Lee had both arms around my neck while we moved slowly across the grass. The ceremony had been right here by the river a couple hours earlier, with white chairs filling the yard, flowers lining the aisle, and about fifty of our closest family and friends watching us get married. Now the chairs had been moved, tables sat underneath the string lights, the DJ was set up near the back porch, and everybody had settled into the reception.

When we first started talking about getting married, I expected her to want something bigger. She liked nice shit. A good handbag, nice shoes, nice hotels, and she wasn’t scared to spend money when she wanted something. I figured I was gonna end up in some ballroom wearing an expensive tux while two hundred people watched us say our vows.

Then she told me she wanted to do it here with immediate family, close friends, good food, music, and the river behind us. That was enough for her.

The longer I knew Lee, the more I realized that simple things made her the happiest. She liked game nights where everybody talked over each other. She liked holidays when the house stayed full half the day and people left carrying plates. She could sit around with Anika doing absolutely nothing for two hours and still call it a good time.

Love-Lee Nails was the same way. She loved making money, but she loved her clients too. I knew more about some of those women’s marriages, kids, jobs, and personal problems than I had ever asked to know because she came home telling me their business like I knew them personally.

I looked down at her. Lee caught me staring and smiled, her fingers playing with the back of my collar.