Page 79 of If You Love Me

“He absolutely does.” Evenie agreed. “I’ve been awakened from my sleep many nights by it. And don’t let you be sick. Your daddy is the biggest baby when he’s sick, Summer.”

I smirked. “I just liked your mommy taking care of me.”

“Ooooo, Daddy, you be faking!”

I pinched my fingers together. “Just a little.”

Evenie playfully slapped my arm, causing me to laugh. With the shenanigans out of the way, we finally settled into our meal. It was nice to have a family meal void of the tension that had been between me and Evenie for the last couple of weeks. I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully, what waited for us on the other side was nothing but sunshine and blue skies.

What should have beena quick trip to the store turned into an hour and a half stay. I was quickly learning that I couldn’t take my wife and child to this place together. Summer ended up finding a ton of pink things for her room, and of course, being the sucker that I was, I bought them. Evenie found everything she needed to repurpose the dresser and more.

Even though she wasn’t living at the house full time, she still found little things to enhance the space, so I bought that too. It was her home, and when she was ready to come back, it would be waiting for her. Currently, we were outside, prepping the dresser before we could do anything to it. I’d shown Summer how to takeoff the hardware, and Evenie was about to show her how to strip it.

“Why do we need to sand it down?” Summer asked, looking around at the tools.

Evenie took her hand and rubbed it across the wood. “Do you feel how rough that is? It’s important to remove the old finish so the new paint will stick. The last thing you want is paint something only to have it start chipping later. Now, we could use sandpaper, but I prefer the electric sander. It just cuts down on time. You always want to sand in the direction of the wood grain.”

She demonstrated for a few seconds, then motioned for Summer to try. Baby girl pulled down her goggles and took the sander.

“Like this?”

Evenie smiled. “That’s perfect, baby. Look at you being a natural! Once we finish sanding, we’ll wipe it down with a tack cloth. That helps remove all the dust. You never want dust in the paint. It leaves a grainy look and feel and that’s just not cute. Once it’s all dusted, we’ll do a coat of primer.”

“What’s primer?”

“It’s like giving the dresser a blank white canvas. It creates a smooth, even surface and helps the paint stick better.” Evenie grabbed the paint can. “This is chalk paint. It’s the best paint for furniture. You ready to get started?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

While they worked on sanding the body of the dresser, I decided to sand the drawers. My babies were having too much fun. I could tell Evenie loved sharing something she loved with our daughter. Summer was like her in so many ways. When she got old enough to tell me what she liked and didn’t like as far as decorating her room, I saw her mother in her more and more.The day she decided she wanted a pink bedroom, she came to me with a hand drawn picture of what she wanted it to look like.

There was glitter all over the damn place from her making her glitter wall on the diagram. She gave me an entire presentation and explained her vision. All I could do was smile because that was very much Evenie coming out of her.

We got all the sanding done, then Evenie showed Summer how to use the spray gun to apply the primer. I was glad I decided to put on old clothes because my wife thought it was funny to use me as target practice.

“You just point and sweep. Like this.”

She pointed the spray gun at me and sprayed a coat of white paint across the front of my sweats. Summer found that funny.

“Really, baby?” I said, looking down. “Don’t let me get ahold of that thing. Payback is a mutha.”

Evenie giggled. “Okay, okay.”

She did the first layer and allowed Summer to do the second. While I was minding my business and priming the drawers, she came up and sprayed me a second time before taking off running through the backyard. I dropped what I was working on to chase her. Her cute little squeals echoed throughout the yard.

I finally caught her and snatched her up, tossing her over my shoulder.

“Daddy!” she screamed, trying to tickle her way free.

“I’m gonna drop you.”

“You better not drop my baby!” Evenie yelled.

“You come here, ’cause I know you put her up to that.”

She laughed as she took off running too. I placed Summer on her feet, and she started chasing her mother, while I chased both of them. There we were in our backyard, running around like children. I finally caught Evenie when she grew tired. She screamed as I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder, smacking her thick ass in the process.

“You can’t outrun me, woman. You forgot I ran track?”

---