Page 76 of If You Love Me

“I was just telling Nana how I was happy she and Paw Paw didn’t have other kids.”

“You didn’t want to be a big sister?”

“Nope. I like having them all to myself.”

“Well, I wanna be a big sister,” Summer said, matter of factly.

My mother and I looked at each other.

“You heard my grandbaby,” she said. “She wants to be a big sister.”

“I want a little brother first,” Summer clarified.

I laughed. “First? How many siblings do you want?”

“Only three.”

“Three!” I exclaimed. “Tyrion!”

A few seconds later, he stuck his head in the door. “What’s up?”

“Please get your daughter. Talking about she wants three siblings.”

He grinned. “I mean, we said we wanted five kids once upon a time. It’s not too late to make that happen.”

“You’re done.” I rolled from under Summer and tossed the last of my clothes into the duffel, not bothering to fold them. Zipping it up, I motioned for Tyrion to take the bag. “I’m ready.”

“Good. Your weekend is waiting.”

He walked over and grabbed the bag. We filed out of the room and headed to the living room. After saying goodbye to my parents, we left the house, got in the car, and got on the road.

Summer was trying her hardest not to tell me about the weekend plans, but said about five times that I was going to love them. As soon as we turned into the neighborhood, she covered my eyes.

“We have a surprise for you,” she said excitedly.

I sat there patiently until I felt the car come to a stop. Tyrion got out and came to open my door. He, too, covered my eyes as he helped me out of the car.

“No peeking,” he said.

“Yeah, no peeking,” Summer chimed in.

I giggled. “Well, I can’t see anything through y’all’s crusty fingers.”

Tyrion poked me with his free hand. “First of all, I have very nice hands, and so does my baby. Second, just go along with it, woman.”

“Okay, okay!”

They led me up the front steps. I heard the door unlock and open before they guided me inside. Once they counted to three, their hands dropped, and I opened my eyes to see Nina, Jaime, and Jersey standing under a big congratulations sign. Balloons were everywhere. There was a spread of food that smelled delicious. They yelled surprise and started blowing whistles. Out of nowhere, I heard a loud pop before confetti rained down on me. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Y’all really didn’t have to do all this,” I said, looking around.

“Um, yes we did,” Nina said, coming over to hug me. “You deserve to be celebrated, babes.”

“I just wanna point out that this was supposed to be just us,” Tyrion said. “Your bestie Deebo’d me into letting them be here and put up decorations.”

Nina kissed her teeth. “I sure did, ’cause how are you gonna celebrate without decorations and me? Whatchu’ thought this was?”

I laughed. “I love you guys. Thank you. This is amazing.”

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