Page 77 of Breeze and Melodie

“We have approximately four and a half months to make it happen.”

“That’s not much time. I’ll be as big as a house soon, and I don’t want to waddle down the aisle. Let’s wait until after the babies are born. I don’t want to feel rushed.”

“What happened to you being married before having children?”

“That’s still very important to me, but . . .”

She sighed and used her fork to move her food around on her plate.

“But what, baby?”

“It’s not that big a deal. As long as I know we’re getting married, I’m good.”

I could tell by her solemn expression that she was lying. However, I knew what I could do to make her feel better.

“We can go to the courthouse and make things official and plan the wedding for after the babies are born.”

“I thought the courthouse was out of the question.”

“It’s my last choice, but I’ll do it for you.”

She smiled widely before saying, “I will never doubt how much you love me. Thank you.”

I wasin awe of how much my body had changed over the past few months. It was truly a thing of beauty. I’d outgrown my clothes and was forced to go shopping. My shopping excursion wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, so I had to create my own maternity style.

“You look cute!” Raine said when she entered the classroom.

We were teaching a class today on hair color in the student salon, and she’d just arrived. I did a little twirl at her compliment so she could see my whole outfit.

“Thank you. It was time for me to accept that I have two basketballs in my stomach. I kinda like being pregnant, though. These babies have been so good to me.”

“RJ dragged me for nine months, but my baby girl is showing me so much love.”

Raine was two weeks ahead of me and found out last week that they were having a girl. Her and Shyne were excited about it.

“I can’t wait to find out what we’re having tomorrow. Ohh, we should have a joint baby shower.”

“You think so? I think you should have your own since these are your first babies.”

“Girl, I don’t care about that.”

“Are you sure? I think all of the attention should be focused on you, Breeze, and the babies. I’m not sure if I want a baby shower this time.”

“Raine, you’re my sister, and you’re giving birth to my niece. I want to do it together.”

She hesitated briefly but eventually gave in. “Okay, fine. If that’s what you want.”

“Yessss! Let’s start planning tonight.”

We talked for a few more minutes about ideas for the shower before the students began to arrive. I loved being a hairstylist, but teaching had become a very close second. The excitement from our students when they perfected a skill was confirmation that we’d done a great thing by expanding our business.

When we broke for lunch, Raine went to check on RJ in the daycare, while I went to the salon to check on things and wait for Breeze to bring my lunch. Mari and Yvonne were perfectly capable of running things without us, so I wasn’t concerned. Thankfully, Harmonee got along well with them and fit perfectly into our dynamic. Although my sister was still building her clientele, she’d gained several returning customers thus far.

“How are things?—”

Everything happened so fast. One second, I was walking into the salon, the next, I heard one gunshot, then another right after,and I was tackled from the side. My arms immediately went to protect my stomach as I fell on my arm. My head hit the hardwood floor, and everything went black.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was in a dark room, and all I heard was beeping. Memories of what happened flooded my mind, and when I reached for my stomach, only one arm moved, and I felt excruciating pain in the other.

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