by Imani King
"How do you mean?" I asked and then watched, baffled, as he got up on one knee.
"I mean," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small box, "that we can make this work. That I don't want to do anything with my life except that - to be with you, to be a father to Henry - that we both need to stop being such chickenshits and just admit we should be together."
It was the box that changed my mental state from confused to weepy to overwhelmed with emotion in about three seconds flat. Was it really happening? Was he really doing what I thought he was doing?
"You - uh, I think you need to stand up for this part," he said, grinning and helping me to my feet.
My knees were shaking. So was my voice. "I don't - Kaden, I don't think I can stand up."
He looked up at me as he knelt back down. "Yes you can."
And because Kaden Barlow said I could stand up, because I loved him and believed in him, I could. He opened the small box as I watched, squinting as the setting sun caught the diamond just right, temporarily dazzling me.
"Oh my God, Kaden," I breathed. "Oh my God..."
"Hold it together, Tasha. Just - I need to say this. Let me say this."
I reached down and cupped his face in my hands, blinking furiously as the tears threatened to blur my vision. "OK," I told him, fighting to stay in control. "OK, Kaden."
"I love you, Natasha Greeley. That's the first thing I need to say. I love you completely. And you love me, I know you do. Whatever roadblocks life has given us or will give us, we can overcome them together. I want you to be happy and fulfilled and to live your life knowing you are loved, that I am always going to be there to catch you if you stumble. You're the only one there has ever been for me. Even if you say no, I want you to know that this is something I have to do. I can't live the rest of my life knowing I didn't even try. Will you marry me?"
"Yes," I said, more of a breath than a word, a response that came without any need to ponder it or turn it over and over and over in my head. Because Kaden was right - we could overcome the things that stood in our way. Love is precious - I'd always known it but the past few years had shown me in a way intellectual knowledge couldn't.
He stared up at me for a good few seconds before speaking again. "What?"
"Yes," I said again, louder that time. "Yes, Kaden. Yes, yes, yes. A thousand, billion times yes."
And then he took my trembling hand in his steady one and slipped the ring onto my finger. I curled my fingers, laughing with joy. "It's too big!"
"I know it is - the jeweler said we can easily have it resized."
I knelt down and we wrapped our arms around each other tightly, fiercely. Who knows how long we stayed there, clinging to each other in the dry, yellow grass, our hearts pounding with love. When we finally pulled away enough to look at each other we were both smiling so hard I thought our faces would break.
"Did we just do that?" I asked.
"We did," Kaden responded. "We fucking did. And now we have to do the rest. Together."
We got back into the car and I looked over at him as he maneuvered it backward down to the dirt road we'd driven in on, overwhelmed with love. I knew he wasn't glowing, but he seemed to be. All the sunshine in the universe seemed to be shining on him, my perfect, patient, gorgeous man.
"I love you," I said, still laughing, as we began the drive back into town. "I'm sorry, I feel like I'm going to explode with it, Kaden. I'm just going to keep saying it, I think."
"Good. Now, where are we going? Back to your house to tell your family?"
I hadn't even thought about that and my first instinctual response was to say no, to institute some process of easing them into it. But that was the past me, always worried, always anticipating a bad reaction.
"Yes," I replied, brave because Kaden loved me and his love gave me the freedom to try on this new bravery. "Let's tell them."
Alisha greeted me at the door with Henry in her arms and immediately knew something was up.
"Why are you two grinning like a couple of fools?" She asked, handing Henry to me. "He's fussy - wondering where mommy is. Probably wondering where daddy is, too."
I handed my fiancé his son. "I'm going to help Alisha with dinner. I'll bring you his bottle."
When dinner was ready and we were all getting seated around the table, Rosa looked at me and then, slowly, over at Kaden.
"Why are they so happy?" She asked, turning to Alisha and Ray.
"I don't know," Alisha replied, "maybe they just won the lottery?"
I'd been thinking we would wait until after dinner but Kaden, holding a content Henry on his lap, spoke up: "Nah, it's better than that."
That got everyone's attention. All eyes were on us.
"Daddy?" Rosa asked, turning to Ray. "What's a lottery?"
"How about I tell you about that later?" He replied. "I think auntie Tash and Kaden have something to tell us."
Did they know? I could see the anticipation on all the faces around the table. Kaden pushed his chair back and stood up and I heard CeeCee make a small, excited noise.
"Yes," Kaden said, looking back and forth between me and every member of my family. "We do have some news. Miss Natasha Greeley - your daughter, sister, aunt and-" he looked at Henry, "your mother, has decided to marry me."
I looked around the table. Seconds passed. They hadn't known. Alisha was the first one to react, leaping up from her chair and screaming: "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"
She raced around to where Kaden and I were sitting and threw her arms around us. Kaden nodded. "Yes, I'm serious. Tasha - why don't you show her the ring."
And then suddenly everyone was shouting and laughing and hugging at once. Ray wheeled my mother over to me and she was crying. Which made me start as well.
"Tash," she said in her raspy voice, "my beautiful girl, my baby. Congratulations."
It went on like that for over an hour, a lot of happy tears, questions, answers, laughter, and hugs. When we'd all calmed down enough for him to get a word in edgewise, Ray stood up with a glass of lemonade in his hand and Alisha jumped up to make sure everyone had some in their glass.
"Well," my brother said, nodding at Kaden. "It's not official yet but it might as well be. And I know us Greeleys can be a bit standoffish with outsiders but you're one of us now. Welcome to the family."
Kaden stood up and held his glass in the air. "You love Tasha. You're protective of each other. Sure I might have thought it a little bit of a hindrance when I was an arrogant kid at Reinhardt, but I get it now. I love Tasha, too. And I swear I've never met a group of people more invested in being there for one another. It's an honor to be a member of this family and to say to you all here, now, that from now on my priority in life is going to be keeping her - and my son - happy. Thank you for being so wonderful. And for not asking for any selfies."
The guys sat back down and Alisha and Ray served dessert - warm banana bread straight from the oven. As we were chattering and tucking in, CeeCee's voice rose above the others.
"Where will you live now, Tash?"
I could hear the worry there, and in it I recognized my own worry, my own fear from what was already, strangely, starting to feel like a former life. Kaden jumped in.
"I have another two years in Dallas, and I'm going to call my agent tomorrow and tell him to get me to Kansas City after that - doesn't matter if I have to take a pay cut. As for what Tasha's going to do, well, that's up to Tasha. I've managed to survive without her so far and if it takes another two years then it takes another two years. Kansas City is just about an hour from Little Falls, so you don't need to worry that I'm going to steal your sister away to the big city so you hardly ever see her. Do you think Tasha would let that happen?"
CeeCee looked at me, and then at Kaden and shook her head. "No."
"That's right," I joined in. "I'm not leaving you guys. I'll probably be moving out soon but I'll never go far. I'm sure there's going to be more trips away while Kaden is still in Dallas but he knows how impo
rtant my family is to me - his parents live here in Little Falls, too."
I watched as my little sister teared up and was going to continue when my mother piped up.
"CeeCee," she said, turning to her youngest child. "One of these days, you're going to meet a man you want to build a family with. We are always going to be family, and just because we don't all live under the same roof doesn't mean we won't be as close. Change is natural, not something to be afraid of. Tash has a baby now, and soon she'll have a husband. We're already packed in here like sardines!"
"I know," CeeCee sniffled, "I just - I'm happy for you, Tash. I really am. It's all just a little scary."
Later that night, as I sat outside Kaden's parents' house in the Audi I asked if he meant it, about the transfer to Kansas City.
"I meant it," he told me. "Are you nuts? Do you think I believed I would ever get Tasha Greeley away from her family? No, I meant it. I'm calling Barry tomorrow. He's going to fight, but he can do it until he's blue in the face. It's not just about you - or me - anyway, is it? I want Henry to grow up around his family - yours and mine. I already have enough money for the rest of our lives and I don't intend to spend it being lonely just so I can get a little more. I've thought about it a lot, actually, this wasn't something I just decided yesterday. Money matters, I'm not going to deny that, but only to a certain point. And family matters more. Much more."
It was at that moment I remembered I had forgotten to tell Kaden something important. I took his hand and told him I agreed with everything he was saying, that I was happier than I had ever been and that there was something I needed to tell him.
"What's that?" He asked, lifting my fingers to his mouth and kissing the tips, one by one.
"I forgot to tell you Henry's full name. You know he's Henry after Henrietta for my mother, but his second name is Kaden. I put it on the birth certificate."
Kaden leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes and it took me a few moments to see that he was trying not to cry.
"Don't mind me," he said, his voice thick. "I'm not crying, I think I'm just overflowing a little. Really, Tasha? His second name is Kaden?"
I nodded. "Yes, really. He looks exactly like you. You're his dad. It was the only thing to do."
Chapter 35: Kaden
Six months later, I married Natasha Greeley at the church in Little Falls where her mother had been attending services since she was a little girl. We managed to keep it almost entirely under wraps, even after the story of our son, and our engagement, had broken in the media.
I was nervous that day, more nervous than I expected to be. The church was packed - with our family and all our friends and I remember standing at the altar, looking out over all the faces and feeling - knowing - that I was the luckiest man on earth. My parents had come around to the idea surprisingly quickly, especially after they met Tasha's family and got to know them. Tasha's mother and my mother got along like a house on fire, always chatting away about this or that handsome doctor at the local hospital. It was important, I think, for both of them to finally have a friend who truly understood living with disabilities. Henrietta Greeley even taught my mother the family cornbread recipe. If ever there was a sign of a true merger between the Barlows and the Greeleys, it was that.
Henry helped, too. Both my parents fell instantly and hopelessly in love with the little blue-eyed, caramel-skinned boy with the dimples in his chunky cheeks. I can still remember my father's face when he met Henry for the first time - shock, at first, as he stared from me, to Henry, to Tasha and back again, and pronounced his grandson a perfect blend of his proud parents - and then tears, for the second time ever, when he held him for the first time.
Henry, being the stubborn, charming boy he was, took it all in stride. More fans? More people to dote on him and hang on his every gesture? He would take them.
And then there was Tasha. I was determined not to cry at my own wedding - and I managed to succeed - but the sight of her as she appeared at the church doors in the white silk gown I'd flown her to Paris to have fitted, was almost too much. Her brother Ray walked her down the aisle as Roberta Flack's 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' played and I swallowed, hard, even as half the people in attendance started reaching for their tissues. Our eyes met and we held each other's gaze the entire way, all the way through our vows and then afterward as the church filled with clapping and cheers and we made our way out to the town car waiting to take us to the reception.
She was beautiful. Tasha was always beautiful, even if she was in sweatpants and a t-shirt and functioning on less than five hours of sleep. But that day she was radiant, and it didn't have anything to do with the makeup artist. She lit up the entire church, the whole town of Little Falls and it all came from within. When we were sitting in the car sipping champagne as we were being driven to the reception she caught me looking at her with awe.
"What?" She giggled, giddy after the formality of the ceremony. "Why are you looking at me like I'm from Mars?"
I sat back, taking it all in - taking her in. "Because it's not enough for me to say you're beautiful right now," I replied. "It's not just the surface, it's the inside, too. You're glowing."
"Am I? Glowing?" She smiled. "Good. I feel like I'm glowing."
We were almost there. I took Tasha's hand and looked her in the eyes, suddenly serious. "I am never going to forget this," I told her. "I mean that - just you, sitting there in your wedding gown full of light and love - until the day I die I will not forget this image of you, right now."
The reception was raucous, to say the least. Raucous in a good, warm way. Henry - who was toddling by then - and Rosa ran around with the other children and the older folks sat back chatting, sipping champagne and generally looking on as the generations below them reached for the reigns. Tasha danced all night, most of the time with me but with everyone else, too. The next morning, after having not slept a wink, we made our way straight from the reception to the airport to catch our flight to a private island in the South Pacific. She'd mentioned it a long time ago when we were in high school, that she'd seen a photo of the night sky taken on one of the South Pacific islands and how she had, ever since then, had this image in her mind of standing on a tropical beach at night, with an ocean breeze on her face and all the bright southern stars over her head. Even at the time, I had known from the wistful tone in her voice that she didn't think she would ever get to see it for herself.
There was something else, too. Tasha had insisted on a sex ban for the four weeks leading up to the wedding, saying that it would make our honeymoon even more special. I tried to argue, but she was firm - and she clearly enjoyed my increasing frustration. So although we spent most of the thirty-eight hours it took us to get to our destination asleep, we were already barely able to keep our hands off each other as soon as we left the reception.
The lodge where we were staying was like something out of a fantasy, all shiny dark teak and white linen blowing in the wind. When the driver dropped us off and a member of the staff had finished ferrying our bags inside, I pulled him aside and asked that we be given total privacy unless we specifically called for someone.
Tasha ran into the bedroom and immediately threw herself onto the enormous bed. "Look," she said, picking up one of the pink flowers scattered on the cover. "These are real! Here, smell them." She held a flower up to my nose and I sniffed.
"Vanilla?" I asked, lying down beside her and running my hand down her luscious thigh. "Something sweet, anyway."
She rolled over and looked at me, grinning. "It's been a long four weeks hasn't it, sailor?"
"Damn right it has. Long enough that if you keep looking at me like that, I'm probably going to come in my pants."
Tasha giggled and reached down between us. I watched her expression change when she felt what she was doing to me.
"Oh my God," she breathed. "Kaden..."
I rolled over on top of her, settling myself between her legs, exactly where I wanted to be and kissed her n
eck.
Within seconds we were ripping our clothes off, suddenly and intensely needy for each other. She made a little sound when I pushed my cock into her, a breathy, feminine little snarl that jolted its way down from my brain to my loins and made all thought impossible. She felt so good. So wet and open and desperate for me.
"I love it when you're like this," I whispered in her ear as she squirmed underneath me, rocking her hips up against me in an ever-increasing speed. "I love how much you need this."
It didn't take long. Not for me and not for her. I can feel it when Tasha is going to come, the tension building in her body, the sweet little contractions of her pussy around me, the way her breathing starts to get slow and then very, very fast.
She dug her fingers into my back as I watched her head loll back on the pillow and moaned my name over and over. And as soon as I felt her falling off the cliff I followed, burying myself all the way inside her as ecstasy spilled out of me until I felt like it would never end.
When it was over and we were lying next to each other, panting, she looked at me and laughed. "I was planning on tormenting you, you know. I wanted to go swimming first."
"Were you?" I asked cocking an eyebrow at my wife. "I guess that didn't work out too well, huh?"
"Mmm...apparently not."
We fell asleep like that, curled up next to each other, and didn't wake up until the sun was starting to set. The villa's bedroom was open to the beach and Tasha sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"Oh my God, look at the sunset," she whispered sleepily, nudging me. "We should go for a swim and watch it."
So that's what we did. Tasha walked ahead of me down the sandy path to the beach, clad only in panties and a t-shirt and I watched as she pulled the latter up over her head and tossed it aside. The panties went next and she turned around with a little grin on her face.
"We've got the whole island to ourselves, right?"
But I couldn't answer because all the blood in my body was rushing away from my head. I just stood and gawked as she delicately picked her way through the rocks at the top of the beach and skipped to the water's edge, her dark, perfectly curved figure silhouetted against the sun. I'd seen a few stories online about the 'regular girl' who managed to 'land' Kaden Barlow and marveled at how very wrong they were. She wasn't the lucky one. I was.
