Page 108 of The Promise

Prayer works…

That was how we were able to have this moment.

“Speaking of which...” She looked toward the beach. “…where’s my baby?”

“Oh. I sent them back to the boat. She’s been sleeping basically since we got here. No need to keep her in the heat when she can be more comfortable in air condition.”

“Yeah, but what if she’d woken up eventually out here? I could have had her burn lots of energy in this water to tire her out, possibly for the night.”

I shook my head. “Chivon ain’t waking up no time soon. You can try it at the pool onThe Bella. Let’s go get a bite. I’m hungry as hell.”

“Ut!” Her head bounced back. “Must be nice not to care about this since she’s not sleeping with you. I’m going to be up all night again.”

I reached for her hand. “If she wakes up like that later, bring her to my room, and I’ll take her for the night. Chivon’s ass’ll either sleep or stay up in one place next to me, talking to the angels until she knocks out.”

Ashira accepted my hand. “Is that what you do to my child when I’m away at work?”

“Listen, Chivon and her pops got an understanding. Our vibe is different.”

Hearing her feminine laughter behind me felt good. It made me realize how I never got to talk my fatherhood shit to women. It was something I just didn’t do. Chivon was still new to me and so had been dating. Kicking it with her moms felt natural as hell, though.

“Let Mommy do it!” Chivon demanded.

My head shot up, and it seemed at the same time as Ashira’s. We were on our knees with elbows pushed into the mattress. To reach the bed, I propped a round ottoman under Chivon.

Ashira was right. Chivon was lit tonight. We had lunch at a restaurant on the beach, then stayed behind and swam for hours. By the time we made it back to the boat, Chivon was coming out of her post-nap haze. After we showered the sand off and met up at the pool, my girl was her lively self. And her energy kept inclining. She swam for a couple of hours, ran hard in the kids’ playroom, and even watched a movie after dinner with her moms and Rainey. She and Ashira came into the billiard room to say goodnight, and Chivon requested we pray together. That was strange, but I agreed.

“What if Daddy wanna do it?” I posed to her, seeing Ashira’s shocked expression.

This was a Daddy thing. I taught my baby how to pray. Ashira would do it when Chivon was with her, but we’d never done it together.

“No. No.” Chivon’s braids flung in the air, left to right. “Nooooo! Mommy say nighttime pray.”

“Prayer,” I corrected her.

“Pwayer,” she repeated.

Looking Ashira’s way, I took a deep breath, thinking of another way to give her a save.

Then Ashira licked her lips and rubbed them together, then nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll do it.”

“You sure?”

She nodded again, then turned her head and closed her eyes. “God, we thank You for this day You’ve given us. Our hearts rejoice and we are glad in it. In fact, we give thanks for all things because we know it is Your will in Christ. But specifically, we thank You for family. We bow our knees before You because every family in heaven and on earth is named after You, including Jas, Chi-Chi, and Ashira.”

My eyes burst open.

Ephesians, chapter three:For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

Ashira was spitting the Word!

“We believe You honor families. And I know our strength comes from our family. So please remind us that we are to give mercy when someone in our family does something that hurts us. And to give grace when they don’t do something they should—like Chi-Chi going straight to sleeptonight—”

“Mommy!” Chivon pouted at her mother. “Pway.”

“Okay.” Ashira nodded while trying not to laugh. “God, please bless us all tonight as we sleep. Bless Amy and Rainey. Bless all the people on this boat who make sure we’re safe and happy. Bless Daddy, who gives us these blessings to make us happy. He works hard and we are grateful for him.” My dick got hard again.God, this is sickening!“Bless Chi-Chi to continue to grow nicely. She’s the most beautiful and smartest girl in the world with the biggest heart. Please help her to obey her daddy and mommy even when she doesn’t want to.Ame—”

“You forgot about mommy,” Chivon whispered with closed eyes and clenched fists pressing against one another.

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