Glendora agreed. “Renard is a much better cook than I am,” she said with a rueful smile. “But it’s hard to cook for a man who really knows his way around the kitchen.”
“Amen to that,” Alana said with a smile at Roland. “I feel like a rank amateur next to Roland.”
“Don’t listen to her, Ma. She made me a meal fit for a king a few weeks ago, braised short ribs, homemade yeast rolls, macaroni and cheese that’s better than we serve in the restaurant and a made-from-scratch chocolate cake that melted on my tongue,” he said, giving Alana a sizzling look. He didn’t have to remind her that the meal was consumed after the best loving she’d ever had and that the chocolate cake had been consumed while they were naked in bed. Her cheeks were on fire and she had to change the subject quickly.
“Roland, could you be an angel and get something out of the car for me? I have a little gift for your folks,” she said.
He did as she asked and returned with a large flat package wrapped in brown paper and securely tied with string. It was a surprise for him, too, because she’d hidden it under her garment bag. She handed it to Glendora with a shy smile. “I hope you like it.”
Renard cut the string and when the wrapper came off, there was absolute silence in the room. Alana felt the cold fingers of panic tickle her spine. She’d thought it the perfect gift, but it appeared that she was wrong. It was a portrait of Roland stretched out on his sofa with Domino curled up on his chest.
She’d painted it with pastels and it captured the subjects perfectly. There was also another portrait of Roland smiling. This one was executed in colored pencil and it looked so realistic it was like looking at a photograph.
Glendora broke the silence with a voice filled with emotion. “Alana, these are the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I had no idea you were such a talented artist. That’s my son, inside and out. You captured every nuance of him,” she said.
After she finished with her thanks, everyone chimed in, praising Alana’s obvious gift and the brilliance of her art. Roland was just as astounded as his family because he’d had no idea that she’d done the work.
“She’s amazing,” he said, standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her. “Wait until you see Black Beauty. It looks even better than it did before it got destroyed. Those pictures I sent you on the cell phone really don’t do it justice. You have to see it in person so you can see the interior. Ma, it looks just like it did the day Granddad bought it.”
His mother’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at the portraits and then looked at her son with the woman he would love until he left this world. “Alana, restoring that car meant so much to Roland because it meant so much to my father, his grandfather. You’re so good for him.”
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Roland whispered in her ear. She was smiling for all she was worth because everything was truly right in her world now.
Chapter 12
I
t was hard to say who was having the most fun in the Windy City, Roland, Alana or Domino. Domino had formed a bond with Gwennie and they were happy to spend hours playing while Roland and Alana were out visiting friends.
They had to go see Emily and Todd Wainwright and their growing boys, and then they had to visit with Emily’s sister, Ayanna, who was married to John Phillips. Her two oldest sons were so tall that Alana didn’t recognize them and their little girls were thriving. They also had to visit the Chicago eateries that anchored the VanBuren restaurant family.
Alana was enjoying their getaway tremendously. His family was so warm and welcoming that she felt like she’d known them for years. His younger brother, Glenn, looked a lot like Roland, but he also favored his Creole father. He seemed to share his brother’s taste in women because he looked at her with thoughtful eyes and said, “You have a younger sister that’s single, don’t you, Alana? I’m going to have to come visit Columbia really soon.”
That sentiment was echoed by his sisters. They had decided to take her shopping at some of their favorite haunts, once they realized that she was an astute bargain hunter.
Roland was at VanBuren’s, the flagship restaurant, when they decided to go to an outlet mall that boasted a Coach store and a shoe store with fabulous low prices. She was in the front seat and Marisa was driving when they stopped at a red light. Marisa gave her a sassy grin and asked if they’d started planning the wedding yet. Alana was about to tell her that Roland hadn’t proposed when the light turned green and Marisa entered the intersection.
Suddenly there was a thunderous noise like nothing she’d ever heard before and then everything was dead still.
* * *
Alana woke slowly and in great pain. Her eyes didn’t seem to work the first time; her lids were so heavy that they didn’t want to lift so she rested for a moment and tried again. This time she got them all the way up and what she could see wasn’t in any way familiar.
It was a completely strange room and when she tried to look around, she found that she couldn’t turn her head. She tried to sit up and that didn’t work, either. Finally, she heard a voice that she recognized.
“Hey, sweetheart, you’re awake. Don’t get scared, you and Marisa were in a little car accident and you’re in the hospital. You’re fine, she’s fine and I’m here. I’m not leaving you for a minute, baby,” Roland said softly.
She felt his hand grip hers and she smiled before drifting back to sleep. In a few hours she was awake again, but she was much more lucid this time. She could clearly see that Roland was there with a bandage on his forehead and a stunning black eye. To her utter shock, Aretha was there also, along with her father, Arthur, both of them looking concerned.
“Okay, is this some kind of weird theme party? What the heck is going on here? Mama and Daddy, when did you get to Chicago?” she asked. She licked her lips and frowned. “Can I have some water?”
Glendora came into her room then, followed by Renard. Roland poured her a cup of water from the little plastic pitcher on the tray table and she gamely sipped it through the bendy straw while more questions formed. Roland started talking while she sipped.
“Okay, baby, you remember when you and the girls were going shopping? Well, some ass came blazing through a red light and T-boned you. Your arm is broken, but you’ve already had surgery and it’s going to be fine. You’re a little bruised up from the airbags, but you’re still gorgeous. Marisa was fine but her car is toast, which is nothing to worry about.”
Alana nodded her head when he started talking but stopped when she realized that it made her head hurt, for one thing, and she still had on a very uncomfortable cervical collar, for another. “But what happened to you, baby? How did you get that black eye?” she asked Roland.
Aretha was happy to explain. “Sweetie, it was a hit-and-run,” she explained. “When the police caught up with him they brought him to the emergency room because he was pretending to be hurt. He tried to escape and Roland caught him by the neck and beat him up,” she said gleefully. “One of the policemen elbowed him when they tried to pull him off the idiot.”
For some reason this struck Alana as being funny and she started to laugh, but that made her ribs hurt. After giving a proper greeting to her father and mother and Roland’s parents, Alana realized something. “I need a mirror,” she announced.
Aretha and Glendora exchanged glances and seemed to communicate silently. After what appeared to be a mental debate, they sighed and Aretha pulled out her Estée Lauder bronzer compact and handed it to Alana, who took a glimpse and yelped, handing it right back to her mother. She looked at Roland with a half smile.
“At least we match,” she told him.
He managed a smile and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Folks, can we have the room for a minute?” he asked.
The parents vanished as if by magic.
“Alana, I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. As soon as these black eyes heal, we’re getting married. If anything was to happen to you I would lose my mind and that’s the truth. If they hadn’t pulled me off that little bastard I would’ve killed him for sure,” he said.
“Roland, I’m so sorry I put you through this, I really am.”
“Honey, it’s not your fault, it’s not Marisa’s fault. That little bastard was high as a damned kite and texting while he drove. It’s all his fault. I love you so much that I can’t even imagine my life without you. And Domino misses you, by the way. You should be able to come home tomorrow and she’s going to be all over you.”
Alana was sore and hungry, but nothing had ever looked better to her than Roland did right now. She pointed to her lower lip for a kiss. “This doesn’t hurt, kiss me right here,” she said.
“Darling, there’s something else that I need to tell you,” he said. “When you were in the emergency room and they were running blood tests and stuff to get you ready for surgery, the doctor found out something that you should know.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what, I’m anemic or something?”
“No, honey, he found out that we’re pregnant.”
* * *
The next few days were like scenes from the sappiest rom-com ever conceived and Alana enjoyed every minute of it.
Once she got it through her head that she was truly carrying Roland’s baby, she was content to bask in the collective love that surrounded her at his parents’ home. She was so stunned by her test results that a specialist from the GYN department of Stroger Hospital had to pay her a visit and explain. She was a petite Indian doctor who held her hand while delivering some extremely good news to Roland and Alana.
“Alana, I think your doctors were being overly cautious when they told you that a healthy, successful pregnancy might not be possible. You’re going to want to consult your own physician when you go home to Columbia, but the preliminary testing that I did doesn’t show anything in the way of scarring or any other kind of obstruction to a healthy baby. You’re going to do just fine,” she assured her. “You two are going to have a beautiful baby and I want you to come see me when you bring him or her to Chicago to visit.”
After she left, Roland gave her a smile of pure happiness and teased, “Him, her or them, you never know in this family.”
“I hope we have quadruplets in that case. Because you’re going to be a very, very hands-on Dad, especially when it comes to diapers,” she gloated.
“I’ll be more than happy to,” he said promptly. “Anything for my lovely one and our babies.”
He was quite right about Domino missing her because when he carried her in the front door, Domino went crazy. She was on her hind legs doing pirouettes right out of
Swan Lake,
she was so glad to see her.
Glendora installed Alana in a guest room that had every comfort and she was never without company. Besides her mother and father and all of Roland’s siblings, Jared’s sisters, Tamara and Cam, came to visit and brought her a stack of books by Brenda Jackson, Janice Sims, Adrienne Byrd and Beverly Jenkins.
Emily and Ayanna also came, bringing their gorgeous mother, Lucie, who was laden down with brownies and tulips, and best of all, Damon and his children, Courtney and Gabriel, came, too.
“Auntie Alana, we made you a picture,” Courtney told her. They each held a corner and proudly showed it off. They handed it to her and gave her sweet kisses before sitting down on the floor to play with Domino and Gwennie.
Gabriel had his own announcement for her.
“We’re moving to South Carolina, Auntie Alana. We can see Sydney all the time and we’re gonna have a puppy, too,” he said excitedly. “I want a big one like Gwennie,” he added as Gwennie gave him a sociable cheek snuffle.
“I want a little one like Domino,” Courtney asserted.
“Damon, I’m so happy to hear that you’re moving,” Alana said. “Jared and Roland have been talking about putting new restaurants in Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head for a long time now.”
Damon, who was eerily identical to his twin, Lucas, nodded. “I really want the kids to be closer to Mom and Dad. They miss them something awful.” His adopted twins were Afro-Asian; their late mother was black and their father was Chinese and they’d produced two adorable children. “Besides that, Columbia seems to be the place to be to find a wife,” he joked. “My kids need a mom and if three bums like Jared, Lucas and Roland found beautiful brides in South Carolina there’s hope for me yet,” he said with a diabolical grin directed at Roland, who was coming through the door with refreshments.
“You know I’ma get you for that,” Roland muttered as he struggled for balance when Domino dashed through his legs, followed by Gwennie and the twins. “You think you’re funny, but you ain’t.” He put the tray down on a table by the window and turned to Damon, who was laughing at the jab he’d gotten in at Roland’s expense.
“On second thought, I actually know a really nice lady who’d be perfect for you. She’s got a funny name, but other than that you two would hit it off great,” he said with a suspiciously innocent look.
“Yeah? What’s her name?” Damon asked.
“Shimmer. I’ll hook you two up, you’ll have a ball.”
Damon left the room to round up his children while Alana reached for one of the fat chocolate chip cookies Roland had brought her. Before she could delve into the mystery of Shimmer, her father made an appearance.
“Hi, Daddy,” she said, patting the side of the bed to indicate that he should sit down. “What’s up?”
“Just came to check in with you. Your mother and I will be leaving tonight and I wanted to make sure that you have everything you need,” he said after kissing her forehead and taking one of her cookies. Chocolate was a family weakness and he had no shame about getting his fair share.
“I’m so happy you guys came up to see about me. I still don’t understand why you’re driving back instead of flying,” she said as she tried to get her cookie back.
“Look, I just do what I’m told,” he said with a smile. “Life’s much easier that way. So how are you feeling, Lana? Is there anything you need me to do?”
Alana lifted her right arm in its cast and indicated her position with the other. She was fully dressed except for shoes and other than her black eye and a few stitches on her forehead, she looked like herself. “Daddy, I am perfectly fine. I still have a little pain in my arm and my ribs, but I don’t have a headache or anything. I’m lying on the bed because Mama and Glendora have been babying me so much, not to mention that my loving husband-to-be does everything for me except brush my teeth,” she said happily. “There’s not a thing in the world wrong except that a mean man took my cookie.”
“You’ll live,” Arthur said dryly. He relented and gave her another one.
“Thank you, Daddy. Roland made these for me,” she purred before taking her first bite. Roland was stretched out on the bed next to her, fiddling with his iPhone.
“Sweetheart, I have a feeling that there is very little that this man wouldn’t do to make you happy. I’m going to lie down for a while before we hit the road. See you later,” he said as he left the two of them alone.
“Roland, I’m so happy,” she said. “I’m just so happy that I don’t know if my heart can hold it all.”
He captured her lips and licked the chocolate from the corner of her mouth. “You won’t have to hold it all, honey. We’re having a baby, remember? All that extra joy will come in handy in a few months.”
She looked at him with wonder in her eyes. “We made a baby, Roland. We created a miracle, the two of us together,” she said softly. “Our little miracle.” She looked at her perfectly flat abdomen, trying to imagine what it was going to look like as the weeks went by.
“Umm, I hate to say I told you so, but if you recall, I told you that we made one. I knew the moment it happened,” he said, popping his collar old-school style and giving her a sly wink.
“Conceited much? Are there any more cookies on that tray? And I need some milk, too, please.”
Roland looked at her with his whole heart in his eyes. Her hair was messy, her eye was black-and-blue and she had a bandage on her forehead along with cookie crumbs on her cheeks and he knew he’d never see anyone more beautiful in his life. Nothing had prepared him for the strength of the love he felt for her but that was fine with him. Life with Alana was going to be a series of surprises, each one better than the next. He knew it as sure as he knew his own name. He had a couple of surprises for her, too, and he couldn’t wait to see her light up with joy when she got them.
He didn’t have to wait long for the first one. Alana insisted on coming downstairs for dinner with the family, saying it didn’t make sense for her to be lounging around when she wasn’t a bit sick. She only needed a bit of assistance getting in and out of the bathtub so that she didn’t get her cast wet, and Roland was more than happy to help with that.
He also washed her back, a sweet but frustrating gesture because it was more arousing than hygienic. She didn’t mind in the least; it felt so good.
She couldn’t wait to get home so they could have as much noisy sex as possible, and she told him so, making him drop the sponge and get his pushed-up sleeve soaking wet in his effort to retrieve it.