by Bailey West
“I love you too.”
“Prove it.”
Ezekiel
I stood from my kneeled position. Zora pulled me to her by my waist and started working on untying my pajama pants.
She freed my erection and started to stroke it with her small soft hands. She flicked her tongue across the head to collect the precum that had leaked out.
“Damn, Z. I love it when you do that.”
She looked up at me and did it again before taking as much as she could into her mouth. She used her hands to stroke the rest. My head is already spinning from her using the right amount of pressure and the noises she is making let me know she is enjoying pleasuring me. My knees almost buckled when I felt my head hit the back of her throat without her gagging. Damn, she’s the best at this. I looked down to watch me disappear into her mouth and then reappear. I almost lost it when I saw my ring on her finger. She increased the pressure of her grip on me and the pressure of her sucking motion. I wanted to tell her that I was about to bust but I know it wouldn’t have been any use. She was claiming this one as her own.
“Ugh!” I yelled as I released down her throat.
She stood from her kneeled position and pulled her nightgown over her head.
“Lie down.”
She followed my directions. I pulled her toward the edge of the bed by her legs. I bent down to kiss her while entering her at the same time. I pulled all the way out and entered her again. This time making sure I was completely buried inside her. She put her hands on my waist trying to push away.
“No, don’t run from me.”
I moved both of her hands and held them above her head as I continued to deep stroke. She moved to free her hands then rested them on my ass encouraging me to go deeper. Just when I think I’ve got her she maneuvers and does something to try to make me come. I felt myself about to blow. I pulled out.
“Hands and knees!” She flipped over and assumed the position.
I could see her juices running from her.
“You’re dripping baby. Is this all for me?”
“It’s all your’s, baby.”
I lined myself up with her opening. I took a moment to enjoy the curve of her hips and the plumpness of her behind. I got excited when I realized she said yes. She is all mine.
“Tell me again,” I said as I caressed her ass.
“This pussy is all your’s ba…”
I plunged into her cutting off her sentence.
“Zeke!” she yelled my name.
“Come for me, baby.”
I felt her vibrate all around me before I felt that grip from the inside and knew I was about to come right along with her.
After our lovemaking session, I called Roman and asked him to bring BJ to us. I needed to talk to him.
I was a little nervous about having this conversation with BJ. I’m not sure why a four-year-old was making me nervous, but he was.
He arrived about thirty minutes later.
“Hey man. We need to have a talk.”
“Okay.”
BJ sat on the couch next to me. Zora was in the bedroom. I told her that this was another one of those conversations I needed to have with Braeden by myself.
“I asked your mommy to marry me. She said yes. Do you know what that means?”
“It means that you are going to be my mommy’s husband like Uncle Blue is Tee Tee’s husband. We will live together all the time.”
This kid is so smart.
“Yes, that what it means. How do you feel about that?”
“I like it. Can we live at our house with the pool?”
“That’s something that your mother and I will have to discuss,” I chuckled. “I have a question for you. What would you think about me becoming your dad?”
“You want to be my daddy?”
“It would be my honor to be your daddy.”
He jumped up and wrapped his arms around my neck.
“I want you to be my daddy. Would I be a Bluette man?”
“B, you’re already a Bluette man, but yes your last name would be Bluette instead of Chambers.”
“I can call you Daddy?”
“I would like it very much if you called me dad.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
I was not prepared for the rush of emotions I had hearing him call me Daddy. He hugged me while I let a couple tears fall.
“I love you, Braeden.”
“I love you too, Daddy.”
“You want to go and tell your Mommy?”
“Yes!” he sang.
He got down off the couch and ran to the bedroom, “Mommy! My Daddy said he’s going to marry you and change my last name to Bluette!”
15
I said yes! I was so happy. Ezekiel is happy, and so is BJ. When I heard BJ call Ezekiel Daddy, it just felt right. It sounded correct. I’m so happy. Today has been the best day of my life. I got my family back. Found out that my mother loved me and I’m engaged to the love of my life.
Countee invited everyone over to his house, so Roman, Nette, and Paxton came with us. We pulled up to large iron gates. They opened as we pulled up to them. We drove down a long driveway until we arrived in front of a large white home that was a mixture of contemporary and traditional style. It was stunning.
Countee was standing at the front door waiting for us.
“Come in,” he moved to the side so we all could enter.
“Chambers,” Paxton nodded towards Countee.
“Bluette,” Countee responded.
“You two know each other?” I asked.
“Yeah, Bluette and I served in the same Army unit for a while,” Countee answered.
“Small world,” Blue smiled.
“Very!” Paxton added.
We followed him into the heart of his home. My other brothers were already there. So was my dad.
“Everyone, these are Ezekiel’s brothers, Roman and Paxton.”
My dad walked over to them with his hand extended.
“Pastor Roman, nice to meet you.”
“Same here, Reverend Chambers.”
“I heard you say you served with my son?”
“Yes Sir, we served together briefly,” Paxton responded.
“Thank you for your service.” They shook hands.
My brothers came over and shook hands with the Bluette men also.
“Daddy, this is your grandson, BJ.”
BJ walked up to my dad and said, “Hi Grandpa.”
My Dad bent down. BJ wrapped his arms around my Dad’s neck. My dad hugged him back.
“What does BJ stand for?”
“Braeden James,” BJ responded proudly.
My dad looked at me with tears in his eyes. I smiled.
“Did you know that your name is my name?”
“It is?”
“Yes, well my name is James Braeden. People used to call me JB when I was your age.”
“Wow, mommy my grandpa’s name is the same as mine!”
“I know sweetheart. I named you after him.”
“Grandpa, I go to school, and at school, I play with my friends. Their names are…”
“Whoa, Daddy don’t let him suck you into that conversation! Let me introduce you to your other uncles first.” I laughed.
I turned BJ’s attention to my brothers.
“BJ, these are your uncles, my brothers.”
“Oh, I like having uncles ‘cause they learn me stuff.”
“Teach you, B,” Ezekiel corrected.
“Yeah,” BJ slapped his forehead with his hand, “they teached me stuff.”
Everyone chuckled.
“BJ this is my brother Countee. He’s the oldest.”
“Hi, Uncle Countee. I remember you.”
“You do?”
“Yes, when we were at the park.”
“You remember that, huh?”
Countee rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.
“What is he talking about Countee?” I asked.
�
�I found you in New York. I watched you and BJ at the park one day. I wanted to say something to you but like we discussed earlier, I didn’t.”
“Mommy, I told you I saw a man that looked like you.”
“I thought you said I looked like a man! I started wearing lip gloss and earrings!”
Everyone laughed.
“How did you find me?”
“I own a Private Investigation and Security firm. I can find anyone. I came back to get these two. You’d moved by the time we got back to New York.”
“You might have to give BJ a position. He blew your cover,” Paxton laughed. “You slipping, Chambers?”
“Never that, Bluette.” Countee rolled his eyes.
“I’m Amiri.” BJ hugged him. “It’s nice to meet you, Braeden.”
“Thank you, Uncle Miri.”
“This is Langston,” I pointed to Langston.
“Hi BJ.” They hugged.
“I have something I want to tell everyone since we are all together.” I grabbed Ezekiel’s hand. “I accepted Ezekiel’s proposal. We’re getting married!”
Zanetta shrieked. She ran over and hugged me. I showed her my ring.
“Wow, I didn’t know circus clowns made enough to afford something like this!”
“Whatever Nette,” Ezekiel laughed. “Reverend Chambers, I’d already asked Zora once, and she said no. If I had known that you would be back in her life, I would have asked your permission first.”
“It is because of you that I have my daughter back. For that, I will be eternally grateful. If she chooses you, then I do too. Just know that I missed someone hurting her once. That will never happen again.”
“I got it, Sir. Thank you.”
They hugged.
Countee had a ton of food cooked. We sat and enjoyed each other’s company. I saw my dad laughing. I can’t remember the last time I saw him laugh. BJ was glued to my dad’s side the entire night.
BJ fell asleep, and all the men followed Countee to the back of his house to check out his gun range. Zanetta and I stayed in the house.
“So, when is the wedding? Before you answer that, can we take a moment to acknowledge that you are engaged to be married? Then we also have to acknowledge that we are going to have the same last name!”
“I know!”
We both squealed.
“I don’t know when the wedding is, we haven’t discussed it. We were too busy celebrating,” I smiled, “but I want it to be soon.”
“You better celebrate!” We slapped hands and laughed. “You don’t want to wait until after Peanut is born?”
“No, I would do it right now if we could. I love him so much. I shouldn’t have waited to say yes.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“My mother. I dreamt about her, and she told me to let him love me.”
“That was great advice.”
“Yeah, I’m ready to build a life with my church boy.”
Ezekiel
We stayed at Countee’s house until late into the evening. Zora’s brothers are all cool. Countee owns a PI and Security firm. Amiri is a Zookeeper. He takes care of the Polar Bear at the Saint Louis Zoo. Langston is a College Professor. He teaches African-American Literature. James (he told me to call him James instead of Reverend Chambers) asked all of us if we would come to his church on Sunday. Blue, Nette and Paxton had to get back to Houston so that Blue could be at our church, but Zora and I decided to stay.
Zora and I were sitting in our hotel room relaxing. BJ was spending the day with his grandpa James.
“Have you thought about the wedding?”
I was sitting up in the bed with my back against the headboard. She was between my legs with her back against my chest. I was rubbing lotion on her stomach.
“I was telling Nette that I want something small and intimate. I don’t want a full production. What do you think?”
“I want whatever you want. We can spend a million or a thousand. I’m cool with either one.”
“What if we plan something on the property that you took me to.”
“That would work. When do you want to do it?”
“I want to do it as soon as we can get it planned.”
I smiled. I was happy to hear her say that.
“What do you expect from me as your husband?”
She turned to face me.
“I expect for you to mean what you say. Tell the truth no matter what. Be open and honest about how you feel. Like, let me know if I’m not giving you enough attention or if I’m being too clingy. I expect for you to keep me first no matter how many little nuts I push out for you.”
“Little nuts?” he laughed.
“You know what I mean, Peanut, Cashew, and Almond.”
“I knew what you meant. Cause there is nothing little about the nuts you push out.”
“Shut up Zeke. That’s it for me. What about you? What do you expect from me?”
“I expect for you to continue to be great. I expect you to put a lot of energy into being the best Doctor you can be. I expect for you to always be honest with me. Let me know if I’m messing up because I will. I expect for you to stick it out with me even if things get real crazy. This is for life.”
I nodded my understanding.
“What about cooking, cleaning, bills?”
“You keep an immaculate house now. I don’t expect that to change. We can keep my housekeeper if you want. You cook when you can. I will cook too. I would like to have dinner as a family as much as possible. We always have Chef. She can prepare things that can be frozen. I will take care of the bills. I will expect for you to invest a portion of your salary, pay your tithes and some of it should go into a retirement fund. I am doing the same thing with mine. We can sit down with Paxton to work on that. My money is your money. You will have access to everything that I have.”
“My money is your money too.”
“My momma always said that a woman should have a little money that she keeps to the side for herself. I think that’s a great idea.”
“Where will we live?”
“Where do you want to live? We can stay at your house, or we can stay at mine. We can build something on the property. It’s up to you.”
“If we move into your house, can we still keep my house? It’s my first big purchase. I don’t want to sell it right now.”
“We can keep it. We will figure out what we want to do with it later. We will work on getting Peanut’s room together. We can turn that room next to our bedroom into your closet and office. Would you like that?”
“I would love that!”
“Good, then it’s settled. We have another wedding to plan.”
“We do!”
Ezekiel
“Good morning church!”
“Good morning!” The church responded.
“It’s a good day to give God praise for all of his marvelous blessings, amen?”
“Amen,” the church responded.
We were sitting in the front row of Pool of Siloam Church, James’ church. All three of Zora’s brothers came today. James had just taken the platform.
“I want to share some things with you today if that’s alright.”
The audience encouraged him to continue. Someone placed a stool next to him, and he sat down.
“When I accepted Christ into my life over twenty-five years ago, I gave up everything I knew to follow him. I came to him after having lost the love of my life and was left alone to raise four children on my own. I know a lot of you didn’t know that detail. I never shared it with anyone because I wanted to start fresh. I married a girl from the church that I joined. She promised me that she would help me raise my children as her own and we began our life together. I didn’t look back. I was called to ministry about two years after I became saved. I read, studied, researched and did everything I could to learn about God. I left the raising of my kids up to my wife because in my mind God and ministry came first.
After some time, I st
arted this ministry. I started out with my wife and my kids as my members, and eventually, we grew. By the way, I am very proud to call myself your Pastor.”
The crowd shouted out affirmations, and he continued.
“As this ministry grew, I spent more and more time with ministry and less and less quality time with my family. I missed some things, y’all. Some huge, very important, life altering things, with all of my children. From my oldest son Countee to my baby girl, Zora. The ministry became my mistress. I took better care of my mistress than I did my family. I am grateful that Yahweh is a God of second chances. All of my children are here with me today.” He pointed to the front row.
The audience stood up and started clapping. After they finished their applause, he continued.
“I didn’t think I would live to see the day that I had all of them together again under one roof let alone joining me on Sunday morning. I want to publicly apologize for putting ministry before you, all of you. I apologize for not protecting you, and I apologize for not being there when you needed me most.”
I held Zora’s hand a little tighter. Someone passed her a tissue to wipe the tears.
“I wanted to announce a couple of things to you today. First thing, I am a grandpa, and I have another one on the way. My baby girl and her fiancé, Ezekiel, are expecting my next grandchild in a few months.”
The audience cheered.
“I was introduced to my first grandson the other day. Would you like to meet him?”
The audience cheered.
“BJ, come up here with Grandpa.”
BJ climbed down out of his chair and joined James on stage. He picked him up as the audience clapped. They were wearing matching bowties from BJ’s collection.
“Can you tell everyone your name?”
BJ put his mouth to the microphone and said, “You know my name, Grandpa. It’s your name!” BJ looked at my dad confused.
“Well, the audience doesn’t know your name. I wanted you to tell them,” my dad responded.
“Oh, okay my name is Braeden James Cham…Bluette!”
My heart swelled hearing him use my last name.
The audience laughed.
“How old are you, Braeden?”
