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“Her mother looks at me the same way. Ledger, take care of my daughter. I want to spend more time with you to make sure this feeling I got about you isn’t a one-off,” he said sternly.

I chuckled. “I got you. Trust me; she is and will be well taken care of.”

I meant that from the bottom of my heart. I loved the fuck out of my baby and everything that came with her. The day her sister told me that I needed to reevaluate the lighting in my cigar lounge was like the first light that lit up on the path to my forever. Every day that I spent with Mem was another light on the path to my forever. She was mine to have, love, and protect on that path.

Some Time Later

The Sooner is Now . . .

“She is going to love this. Oh my God!” There were tears in Sasha’s eyes as she did a walkthrough of the venue where, in a few hours, I would ask my woman to officially be my forever.

Cole had his arms wrapped around her waist from behind. I wasn’t sure what the hell their relationship status was. If you asked either of them, they were just chilling. They had been chilling extremely hard since the night they were formally introduced to each other.

I knew my best friend enough to know that Sasha challenged him. Who he was didn’t impress her at all, and he wasn’t used to that. Cole was a to-himself kind of nigga who was extremely selective with whom he gave his energy to, much like myself. In his line of work, he had to monitor different threat levels constantly. He always said he didn’t want to be with a woman whom he felt like he had to do that with. His woman should be the one place he should always be safe.

“Yeah, you did this, bro. I can’t believe these folks let you come in and change all this shit. Money is a muthafucka,” Cole jokingly said. He was right, though.

On the outskirts of Charlotte, I found a gorgeous venue that had glass ceilings. When I toured the place, I knew that this was where I wanted one of the most important nights of my life to take place. This was the place.

Everything was perfect about the venue except the lighting. Over the months that I’d been with my baby, lighting was something that caught my eye more than it ever did before. When I walked into a place, my eyes automatically went to the lights. My mind asked if they were right for what the business owner intended. What would Memoree Layne say about the lights?

“Man, I don’t know any business that wouldn’t allow someone to come in and help them out, especially when they were already struggling. God works in mysterious ways.”

The Moonlight Love was a high-end restaurant that had lost its luster. My mother told me about the restaurant. When I got there, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t have more business. After a conversation with the owners, who were an older married couple, I offered an assist. They were at the point where they were entertaining the thought of closing the restaurant. I didn’t want that for them.

After my proposal to them, we came to a happy median. Now, I was partial owner of the business with a promise that I would increase their bottom line. That was the reason I was able to come in and make the changes I did to pretty much everything.

“I don’t care what it took. It’s the fact that you did it that says a lot. I love this for y’all,” Sasha said. Her phone made a tweet noise. “Speaking of my best friend.” Her finger went up. “My location is off . . . That’s probably why she’s texting me. Let’s go, Cole, so I can turn my location back on.”

I shook my head at her silly ass. I wanted her to see the layout before tonight because I knew if I knocked it out of the park with her, then my baby would be happy as well. My eyes scanned the restaurant as I blew out a sigh of relief. A lot of work went into tonight and would prove to be beneficial for years past tonight. “Let’s get ready for a life changing night.”

From the moment I picked her up, she looked at me sideways. Everyone around her knew what I was planning except her. Her parents did their walkthrough yesterday of the venue and loved it. They had the complete experience as I treated them to a date night. I replicated tonight’s menu for them. By the end of the night, they alluded to adult things that they planned to do. Ew!

When we pulled up to the restaurant, she glanced at the signage then me. “The Moonlight Love. I’ve never heard of this place.”

I didn’t acknowledge her statement, because it seemed rhetorical. It took seconds for me to get out of my car, walk around to her side, then help her out. “You are so beautiful. Damn, I’m a lucky nigga.”

“Baby, you’ve said that like five times already tonight,” she said with blushed cheeks. When I gawked at her, she giggled. “I know, I know. The fifth time makes it no less true than the first.”

I kissed her lips. “See, you get it. Let’s get in here to get our night started.”

When we walked into the building, she walked ahead of me after I opened the door for her. I almost ran into her back when she stopped in her tracks. My arms instinctively wrapped around her waist. After I kissed her lips, I asked, “Did you want to eat in the doorway?”

She didn’t respond, but her head moved around as she observed every inch of the place. She noticed everything. It didn’t matter that she had never been here before. “Ledger, baby. How are these lights so perfect?”

“Baby, perfect is subjective. They’re just lights,” I lightheartedly said. I knew I was talking out the side of my neck because the answer was and would never be they’re just lights.

She turned in my arms. Her brows furrowed. “Ledger, do not play with me. You know good and damn well that when it comes to lighting, nothing is subjective to me. Perfect, in fact, does exist.”

Her eyes moved around the room as she mumbled about soft amber, low illumination, recessed lights, and no glare. While she mumbled on, I moved to our table that was in the dead center of the room. Once there, my hand went into my pocket and clutched the ring box that had burned a hole in my pocket, back of the closet, and glove compartment for a while now. “You good, beautiful?”

My baby was beautiful in a dress that clung to every curve of her sexy body. It would take everything for my dick to not take over the night. My attention didn’t stray from her as she walked toward me. She stopped steps outside of my reach. “Ledger, what the hell is going on? There is no way that these lights are this perfect.”

I chuckled. “I had a little help with the lights to make sure they were, as you say, perfect. Clearly, they did a perfect job.”

Her arms crossed over her chest. “Who helped you do this?”

I heard the arrogance in her question. Yes, my baby was the best in the business here in Charlotte. “Well, I know that you are the best in this lighting business around here, so I had to go up. I reached out to your old boss in New York to come help me create the perfect lighting atmosphere for tonight.”