Page 214 of Buy Back My Love

“What are you doing here?”

“Wanted to see the sign.”

“You already saw the sign.”

“Not finished.”

She rolled her eyes, but she smiled too.

I knew what that place meant to her. She had built it back her way this time.

When the lease on her cottage ended, she finally gave that up too. She hadn’t slept there in months by then, but I knew why she had kept it.

Instead of wasting money renewing a lease on an empty place, she bought herself a small rental property and rented it out. Love-Lee was still her main money, but the rent gave her a second stream of income that belonged to her too. I helped replace a garbage disposal over there once. That was about it. Lee made it clear pretty early that the property was hers and she wasn’t looking for me to turn it into some project.

I understood. After everything she had been through, I wasn’t about to ask her to give up every damn thing with her name on it because she loved me. Hell, I liked knowing she had choices and still came home to me every night.

Lee was still beside me, holding my hand while we stood near our table.

“You happy?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“For real?”

I smiled. “For real.”

She reached up and kissed me.

I had always wanted this part of life. Marriage. Kids. A house with a family in it. After my first marriage ended, I stopped being in a hurry to get there.

Raya and I had wanted two completely different things when it came to children, and there wasn’t any compromise that would’ve made both of us happy. Somebody would’ve ended up giving up something too big.

With Lee, I didn’t have to talk her into wanting the same kind of family I did. She was already a damn good mama to Myles, even when that boy had her looking half-dead from exhaustion. She worried too much, carried half the damn house with her every time we went somewhere, and could hear him getting into something from the other side of the house.

And she wanted more children. So did I. At least two more if I got my way. Another boy and a girl.

With Myles finally semi potty trained, Lee had already promised me we could start trying on the honeymoon. Me and Lee didn’t agree on everything, but when it came to family, we wanted the same shit.

A microphone squealed near the DJ table and everybody turned.

Maisie stood there with a champagne glass in one hand and the microphone in the other.

Lee stayed beside me, and I slipped my arm around her waist.

“I ain’t finna keep y’all long,” Maisie said. “I just wanted to say something about my baby and her new husband.”

The yard quieted down.

“I watched Leona go through more than I ever wanted either one of my daughters to go through. When she came home, I wanted to fix everything for her because that’s what mamas do. But I couldn’t fix all of it.”

Lee’s hand found mine.

“She came home and got to work. Got her business back going. Had that baby. Kept moving even on days I know she wanted to sit down somewhere and cuss everybody out.”

People laughed, and Lee smiled beside me.

Maisie looked straight at her daughter.