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“What you looking at?” I asked him.

He made a noise.

“Yeah, I know. Your daddy getting old,” I said with a laugh.

Eternity shook her head.

“Stop saying that.”

I looked down at him again, and I mean really looked at him. He had gotten bigger since we brought him home. It seemed like every time I looked at him, something had changed. His cheeks were fuller, his little legs were getting chunky, and he was starting to stay awake long enough to look around and pay attention to what was happening. I missed so much of the simple shit with my older kids over the years. Not because I didn’t love them, but because life had been different back then.

With Malachi, I wanted to be present for all of it. I wanted to get up in the middle of the night and walk to his room when he cried. I wanted to chase him around the house when he started getting into everything, and I wanted to be standing on my own two feet when he took his first steps. I looked at Eternity.

“You remember what I told you?”

She smiled.

“About what?”

“Walking before him.”

Her expression softened.

“Yeah, baby. I remember.”

I looked back down at my son.

“I meant that shit.”

She rested her hand on my shoulder.

“I know you did.”

I kissed the top of Malachi’s head and held him a little closer. I wasn’t thinking about how far I still had to go. I was thinking about how far I had already come.

Chapter 32

Maliah

SIX MONTHS LATER…

Icouldn’t help but smile as I looked around the backyard. Everything was how it was supposed to be. Tahari sat to my left while MJ sat to my right. Directly across from me was Penelope.

“MJ… you cannot put a draw two on a draw four,” she said to him as she pointed at the blue draw two he just placed on top of her wild card.

“And can. You said the color is blue. There’s a blue card.”

“Na bro. You can’t do that shit,” Tahari jumped in on Penelope’s behalf.

“Where the rules at? Y’all tripping.”

MJ picked up the nearby UNO box and started inspecting it.

“MJ, you cannot do that. Once she threw down a draw four, you pick up your cards, and that’s it,” I added.

“Matter of fact,” Penelope picked up six cards and then slid them his way, “and here’s two extra for your foolish mistake.”

He squinted his eyes and then pouted a bit, but he didn’t argue about it. I loved her for him. She kept him on his toes and kept him in his place.