by E. N. Joy
“No. It’s just that I’m not quite sure what you mean.”
“I meant what I said. Paige, let’s do this. Let’s hop on a plane, train, boat, or automobile and just go. Do you have a passport?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“No buts. As a matter of fact, I got a Groupon e-mail earlier today. It’s to the Dominican Republic. An all-inclusive resort that even includes airfare. It was dirt cheap. I think up to six people can go.”
“So you want to bring the kids?”
“Heck, no! I was thinking more like bringing your parents and my parents. Maybe your girls can stay with the Vanderdales. My boys can stay with my neighbor. The couple next door and their daughter, who just started college, have helped me out a lot with the boys over the years. I trust them to keep them while I’m off making you my wife,” Ryan said. He then envisioned it all. “It would be like a dream come true. That way our parents can get to know each other in paradise. What more could we ask for?”
The excitement in Ryan’s voice was contagious. Just listening to him go on and on about how amazing and fairy tale like it would be pumped up Paige to the point where she was in total agreement.
“Our parents are going to flip,” Paige said.
“Our parents are going to love the fact that they get a free vacation.”
“So we’re going to flip the tab for this?” Paige questioned.
“It would be the same cost as throwing a wedding, getting a dress, having a reception, going on a honeymoon. Heck, we’ll probably come out cheaper this way. Besides, I’m flipping this tab. I’m going to show my new wife the time of her life. What would I look like, making you put five on it?” He laughed.
Paige had never really talked with Ryan about how financially set she was. She still lived a regular and simple lifestyle. Even though she knew she wouldn’t live forever, by God, she wanted to. And just in case God did decide to answer that prayer, because He was a God who could do anything, she would have the finances to do so. The cherry on top of it all was that however many more days she did have on this earth, she planned on spending them with Ryan. She didn’t think she’d ever disclose her financial situation to Ryan. He’d never asked, and he planned on being the man and taking care of his woman. But she wouldn’t have him sign a prenuptial agreement, either. What was his was hers and what was hers was his. That included both money and the children.
Just the thought of it all made Paige shout out, “Let’s do it! What the heck. You get on the phone with your parents, and I’ll get on the phone with mine. Let’s shoot for boarding that plane not this weekend, but the next. Do you think that’s too soon?”
“It’s not soon enough, in my opinion. Both our parents are retired. I run my own office. You don’t have to report regularly anywhere.” Ryan knew better than to flat out say that Paige didn’t have a job. Although she didn’t clock in on a time clock, he knew her day was full of work.
Paige wiped the tears of excitement and joy from her eyes. “Babe, this is a dream come true.”
“After the nightmare you have had to endure in your days, you deserve for all your dreams to come true. And I’m going to be the man to make sure that happens.”
“Ryan, I love you. I’m ready to love you. I’m so ready for this.” Paige was 100 percent sure.
“Paige?”
“Yeah?”
“Woman, I’ve been ready for you.”
Chapter 26
“Oh, I just love that man,” Mrs. Robinson said. “He’s just perfect for you.”
“Yep, just as perfect as this dress is going to be on me when I say, ‘I do.’” Paige spun around in the long sand-colored dress with lace trim, which she’d just walked out of the dressing room in.
“It’s lovely,” Mrs. Robinson said, walking over and fingering the sleeves. “It’s going to be hot there, though. I’m going to have to cut off these long sleeves and make some spaghetti straps or something.”
“I know. That’s what I was thinking.” Paige twisted and turned in the mirror a couple more times. She ran her hands down the dress, her fingers indulging in the silky material. She tingled inside, just imagining Ryan running his hands down the dress on their wedding night, not to mention slipping it down her body so that she could step out of it and into his arms.
“I can’t believe this. It’s a dream come true,” Mrs. Robinson declared, snapping Paige out of her daydream. “Ryan really knows how to give his woman a fantasy. And you deserve it. Like I said, he’s just perfect.” Mrs. Robinson clasped her hands together and stared off, as if she were envisioning rainbows. A smile rested on her lips.
“Mom, you’ve been around him only a couple times,” Paige stated. It was true that Mrs. Robinson had met Ryan when Paige first introduced him and his boys to both her parents. And the second time she saw him was when they all had dinner with Ryan’s parents and the girls. “Yet you’ve said how perfect he is about a hundred times.” Paige raised an eyebrow. “Are you living vicariously through me, Ma? Is he perfect because not only is he up and taking me out of the country, but he’s letting you and Dad tow along too?”
“Well, that’s not the only reason.” Mrs. Robinson let out a mischievous giggle.
“Uh-huh. I knew it.”
“Well, honey, can you blame me? Your dad and I got married at the courthouse. Exchanging vows on a faraway island somewhere had always been what I imagined when I was a little girl. So what if it’s not my wedding? A sista is going to the Dominican Republic, baby!” Mrs. Robinson clapped her hands and stomped her foot.
Paige laughed. “Well, I’ll have you know you needn’t have guilt or shame. Ryan’s mama is acting just as bad as you. I think she’s texted me about twenty different outfits she plans on packing, to get my opinion.”
“Twenty outfits?” Mrs. Robinson scrunched up her nose. “I thought we were going to be there only a week.”
“Exactly.”
Mrs. Robinson thought for a moment. “Well, I ain’t mad at her. A free vacation . . . I’d live it up too. Besides, she looks like she has really nice taste . . . the way she was dressed at dinner in that Donna Karan outfit. Nice. Both Ryan’s parents are really nice people. Makes me feel that you’re even safer with him.”
Paige paused for a moment. “What do you mean by that?”
“Well . . . ,” Mrs. Robinson began. “I think our family has been blessed in the sense that for generations back, we have all been raised by both parents. The women didn’t leave. The men stayed and helped raise the babies. We weren’t the Huxtables, but there was the biological mother and the biological father raising the children in our family in the same home. It goes way back to my great-great-grandmother and grandfather. We didn’t have to deal with the void and the brokenness so many people have to deal with today. That feeling of abandonment. That feeling of seeking validation. Just carrying that hurt and pain into their own relationships, then causing pain and hurting the person you are in a relationship with.”
Mrs. Robinson went and sat down on a stool in the dressing room area. She continued her words to her daughter. “I’ve never told you this before, Paige, but I understand why you did what you did with the whole having Norman sign Adele’s birth certificate and whatnot. No, I don’t believe in telling lies and keeping secrets, even by omission. But at least you knew that eventually you were going to have consequences to face and deal with.”
Paige sighed. “And, boy, did I have to face them, all right.”
“But you faced them. You didn’t run, and you didn’t try to hide. You were even the one who suggested to Blake that he meet Adele.”
Paige nodded.
“So, like I was saying, I understand why you did it. To protect your child. To protect your baby girl from just being so broken at an age when she wouldn’t know how to deal with or process not having a daddy or having a daddy that was in jail. It’s too much for a child. And what good parent in their right mind would want to purposely do that to a child? I know people like to s
ay that black women have an attitude problem. They say that’s why black men turn to white women to get with.”
She went on, “What I say to the black man is, ‘If you don’t want a black woman to break her foot off in your butt, then don’t break your promise to her. Don’t lie to her. Don’t cheat on her. Don’t betray her. Don’t leave her and her children for dead. Oh, you will see the ugly side, indeed. Black women, women in general, are the most caring and nurturing creatures on this earth. But do something to make us lose respect for your sorry self and see what happens.’” Mrs. Robinson rolled her eyes.
“Ma, you crazy. But I did hear Iyanla Vanzant say something like that to one of the guests on her show.”
Mrs. Robinson nodded her head. “I agree one hundred percent. But Ryan gets it.” Mrs. Robinson stared off into space and smiled. “Yeah, that boy gets it. And I’m not saying that men and women who don’t come from two-parent homes are just jacked up and can’t make it. I’m just saying for me”—she pointed to her chest—“as a mother, my preference is that my children marry partners with a history of a two-parent home in the family.”
Paige put her hands on her hips. “Uh-huh. I remember Naomi had a preference for who she wanted her kids to marry as well.” Paige was referring to how Mrs. Vanderdale had felt the best thing for her children was to marry within the white race.
“Well, she got her wish. Kinda, sorta. Her son might not have married a white woman, but her daughter did.” Mrs. Robinson doubled over in laughter.
“Mama, stop. You bad.” Paige made a shooing motion with her hand. “Let me go take off this dress.”
“You know I’m just playing. Sam is my girl.”
“Yeah, whatever, Ma,” Paige said as she walked into the dressing room to remove the dress.
“But back to our serious conversation,” Mrs. Robinson said. “Take Ryan’s sons, for example. He’s been raising them in a single-parent home, but those boys are amazing.”
“Aren’t they?” Paige agreed through the dressing room door. “They are going to be the perfect husbands for a couple of young women out there. And that was long before a stepmother ever stepped in to raise them and turn it into a two-parent home. Ryan did the thang with his boys.”
“That’s because he knew how. He had men before him who had raised him up well and had taught him. He was able to pass that on to his boys.”
“And he finally got the fact that he’s a promise to a woman, her godsend. He learned that the hard way with the boys’ mother.”
“Again, that’s what separates Ryan from some other men. He realizes that everything in life is to learn from, and he learns from it, and then he teaches it. He passes it on. If we could get all men to do that, we could have the trickle-down effect and change the way a man loves a woman and a woman responds to his love.”
Paige came out of the dressing room, dressed in her own clothes again. “Dang, Ma, you ought to make a YouTube video for this. You are dead serious.”
“Child, I am. I must admit, I be watching them trifling reality shows as well. At first I thought it was funny to see those women acting like that. But then I realized that they weren’t acting. Some of that mess ain’t scripted. It’s who they are. It’s been in ’em, and they’ve been acting like that long before a camera ever came around. They just be acting crazy over those men who be dogging them out. Their emotions be all over the place having them do some crazy things.”
“Homeless emotions,” Paige said.
“Huh?” Mrs. Robinson asked.
“T. D. Jakes said that anytime someone proves that they are not safe to love and you have the unfinished business of loving them, anyway, the torment that you feel is the homelessness of your emotions. Those women are tormented.”
“That’s deep, and that’s good, but I’m not sure he was talking about them crazy broads on that show.” Mrs. Robinson shook her head.
Paige chuckled. “Come on, Ma. Let’s go pay for this dress and then go find you one.” Paige went to exit the dressing room area.
“Two dresses.”
“Two?” Paige stopped in her tracks.
Mrs. Robinson stood. “Well, if Ryan’s mother is going to have twenty outfits, the least I can do is one-up her by changing into a second dress for the wedding.”
“Mom, that’s something only the bride does. And I’m not even going to do a dress change.” Paige rolled her eyes and continued her trek to the checkout counter.
“Well, I’m starting a new fad.” She followed behind Paige. “The mother of the bride gets to show out to. After all, you get it from your mama.” Mrs. Robinson started snapping her fingers and twisting her hips.
“Oh, Lord,” Paige said, looking over her shoulder at her mother. “Let’s go before this ends up being the honeymoon you and Daddy never had, instead of my wedding.”
Both women laughed as they went to the cash register to pay for the dress. On the way there, Paige’s cell phone rang. She fumbled in her purse to get to it. By the time she had it in her hand, it was too late. She’d missed the call. “It was Pastor Margie. I’ll call her back after I do this transaction. Lord knows, I need to tell her about the pending nuptials. She wasn’t too thrilled the last time, when I came to her after the fact.”
“I know the feeling,” Mrs. Robinson said, rolling her eyes and sucking her teeth.
Paige ignored her mother’s little dig as the two of them stood at the checkout counter and the clerk rung up the dress.
“Where to?” Paige asked her mother as they exited the store.
“I’m thinking some of those consignment shops over there on Fifth Avenue,” Mrs. Robinson answered. “I don’t want to pick up something off the rack at the department store and risk one of Miss Thing’s twenty outfits duplicating mine.”
“Trust me, I’ve seen everything my future mother-in-law is packing in her suitcase. I’ll know whether you two are going to end up being Twinkies. I say we go to Easton.” Paige pulled out her keys as they walked across the parking lot. “They have a lot of new shops there now. And if we don’t find anything there, we can always hit the consignment shops another day.”
“We’re leaving in five days. We don’t have time like that,” Mrs. Robison spat as they approached Paige’s car. “By the way, have you and Ryan taken care of everything you needed to take care of? The wedding license or whatever?”
Paige used her key fob to unlock the car doors. “We went downtown, to the courthouse, and took care of that on day one,” Paige answered as she laid her dress across the backseat. “But we didn’t really need to do that here in the state of Ohio. We’re working with a wedding planning company that’s taking care of everything for us over in the Dominican Republic, though.” The women got inside the car. “Ryan has been fooling around with me for long enough. If things don’t go right and I don’t show up, ready to marry that man, he’s going to be done with me. He’ll write me off and find someone else to put the ring on.”
“Well, we don’t even have to worry about all that,” Mrs. Robinson said.
“You are right about that,” Paige agreed as she started the car. “Nothing is going to keep me from getting on that plane and marrying the man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.” Paige drove out of the parking lot, none the wiser that she was only partially right. Nothing would keep her from getting on that plane, but perhaps someone would.
Chapter 27
Paige compared her checklist against everything she’d packed in her carry-on and large suitcase. She wasn’t missing a thing. She’d placed her passport in her laptop bag, which she would keep on her person at all times. She’d already checked everyone in online the day before and printed out their boarding passes. It was such a convenience that airlines allowed passengers to check in within twenty-four hours of the flight’s departure. Not only had she printed everyone’s boarding pass, but she texted them to both her and Ryan’s cell phone as well.
Ryan had arranged for an airport shuttle to pick everyone up at
their homes later on that day, which was a Friday. The flight was scheduled to depart at six thirty that evening. Final boarding was around six, six fifteen. It was the best flight available that had seats for all six of them on such short notice.
The shuttle would pick up Ryan first, then his parents, and lastly the Robinsons. Paige was the only one who was going to meet the group at the airport. She was going to pay seven dollars per day to park at the airport. The girls had dance class on Friday evening, and it began at 5:00 p.m. sharp. The meant the girls had to be dressed and ready to begin class at five, so Paige and the girls usually arrived at the dance studio at around 4:30 p.m. Paige would be away from her girls an entire week. She wanted to spend every last minute with them before her departure.
She had put them on the school bus that morning. She would be getting them off in a few minutes. She’d give them a snack, talk about their day, and before she knew it, she’d be dropping them off at the dance studio. Samantha had agreed to meet her at the studio, where she would take over the care of her nieces. While Paige was away, the Vanderdales would help out with caring for the girls as well.
Paige and Ryan had spent a little bit of time discussing what their living arrangements would be once they returned, and they would devise a more concrete plan while honeymooning. What mattered the most to them now was that even if they did have to live briefly in separate homes, in a couple of days they would be joined as one spiritually forever.
Their families would be joined as well, but right now Paige had to make sure she got everything loaded into her car, including the girls’ luggage. Because Adele and Norma spent a decent amount of time with their aunt and paternal grandparents, they had quite a number of items at their respective homes, so Paige didn’t have to pack too much for the girls. By the time Paige finished loading up the car and double-checking her list again, as if she was Santa Claus, the girls’ bus was dropping them off.
“Mommy,” the girls yelled as they exited the bus and ran into Paige’s arms.