Page 89

“I appreciate it, beautiful. I promised her mother I would step up and give her everything we planned. It’s not easy, but I refuse to let her down. I’m not perfect. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, but I’m determined to give her the life she deserves.”

I smiled as I listened to him speak. As a former daddy’s girl, I loved to see another young girl experience the love of a present father. Knowledge wasn’t perfect, but he loved me, and I never questioned it for a second.

“Aniycia has been telling all of her friends about your work, so don’t be surprised if you have an influx of mothers reaching out to you. She attends a private school, and they host a lot of dances and events. The tuition alone is enough to make you want to cry, but my daughter loves it there. They have a high ranking when it comes to academics, but every time she comes home with a new activity, there’s a bill attached to it.” Antonio chuckled.

There was something about his smile that seemed familiar, but I had never seen him before. He said he had recently moved to Liberty Heights to be close to his daughter’s family, but I wondered if he had family there that I’d met before.

“Yeah, I can only imagine. My nieces and nephews are still young, and even their school tuition is expensive. A part of me wants to keep my role as the rich auntie because I don’t think I’m ready for kids.” I giggled.

When Yaya told me how much daycare cost per week, I understood exactly why she preferred for the kids to stay with family. At one point, I thought about opening my own daycare, but I quickly changed my mind.

“I don’t know. You seem very nurturing. I’m sure you would make a great mother one day.”

I grew nervous because, although he hadn’t made an advance toward me, I could tell he was trying to flirt. Truthfully, I rarely interacted with men in my business unless they were connected to my family, so this was new to me. Antonio was a handsome man. He was tall, with light brown skin, a strong build, and gorgeous eyes. If I had to guess, I would assume he played football in school because his physique reminded me of a defensive player.

“I don’t know. I love being able to spoil and love on my babies and send them home to their parents when I’ve had enough, but I’m still young, so I have plenty of time to figure it out.”

“Usually when people say they don’t want kids, they end up with six of them. I used to want to have a gang of kids, but baby girl drains my pockets enough for three kids.”

We both laughed. His daughter Aniycia was on video chat with her friends as she showed off her dress. She already had her hairstyle, jewelry, and shoes picked out for the event. Her friends gushed over the dress, and I was glad everyone seemed to love it. It didn’t matter how many dresses I made; they were all special, and I wanted my clients to feel satisfied when they left my store.

“I would never have six kids. After growing up in a house with four siblings and a gang of cousins, I’ll pass. Two is the max for me, and even that is pushing it. Are you an only child?”

I used the topic as an opportunity to probe into his family history because I couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity.

“No. I had a brother, but they both passed away. I never got the chance to become a rich uncle, as you put it.” He chuckled, but I could hear the hurt in his tone.

“Oh, wow. I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sure you would have been a great uncle since you’re such a great father.”

“Thank you. Aniycia is older now, so she doesn’t want a sibling, but I think about getting married and having more kids one day. I guess only time will tell.”

We continued to have small talk until we went over the final details concerning the delivery. I was ahead of schedule, but I wanted to make sure things were perfect for his daughter.

After they left, I answered a few emails and had a virtual consultation with two new clients. I still couldn’t get over how much my business had taken off. I loved being able to create and share my love for fashion with the world.

My phone rang, and I smirked when I saw Freedom’s contact pop up on the screen. He normally called to check in when he was filming for a show or movie, but since he had been home, he wanted to hang out all of the time.

“What’s up, cousin?”

“Nothing much. Oh’Shun and I were about to hit up that new seafood boil spot over there on Main Street. You want to join us? Triniti and River are supposed to be meeting us there.”

The benefits of having cousins and siblings close in age were that you basically had built-in best friends. I had a few girls I hung out with from time to time, but I spent the majority of my time with my cousins, and we had a ball.

“A seafood boil with one of those swamp water drinks sounds so good right now. I’m at my office, so I’m gonna close up, and then I’ll meet y’all there. I can meet y’all there.”

“Alright. Well, you might as well stay on the phone with me until you leave. You know I don’t like you being out there this late,” Freedom fussed. When Solomon purchased the building for me, Messiah insisted I have a top-of-the-line security system built in even though I thought it was unnecessary. I worked on a strip with many other businesses, and it was a low-crime area. None of them cared, though, so they made sure my building was secured like a prison.

“I’m usually not here too late, but I wanted to finish a few projects so I can take the weekend off.”

“I feel you. Aye, I need to run something by you to make sure I’m not trippin,” he told me.

I giggled because I had a feeling it was either about his baby momma, Breyoun, and a new girl. Freedom was a bit of a ladies’ man, and he stayed in drama. You would have thought he would have gotten his act together after his accident a few years back, but outside of becoming a better father, not much had changed.

“What’s going on? Please don’t tell me you have another baby on the way.” I huffed sarcastically to mess with him.

“Hell no. I haven’t fucked without a rubber in years, and I have no plans to start back. I love my son to death, but I don’t think I’ll ever have any more kids.”

“Yeah, yeah. You say that now until you fall in love with some fashion model or something.” I snickered.