Author's Note:
I'm not sure if I'll stick it through, so just know…it all works out in the end.
They get together. They get married. They have two beautiful daughters.
But damn near a decade later, I'm back.


Prologue

"To the summer sunset, on a holy night, on a long black road, all these tears I fight." – Beyonce


February 14, 2024

Life had flown by so fast.

It seemed like just a moment ago, she'd been sixteen herself.

Now, she had her own daughters. Living breathing, double-digit aged daughters.

Jazmine may have had a few more life lines and more wisdom in her eyes. But at her core, she was still the loving, soft hearted girl who had spent many of her younger years crying at the drop of the hat.

That's why staring at her girls made her heart burst with a joy that she could've never imagined.

Hayley, their eldest, had just turned 16 on February 3.

She was the splitting image of her mother. Orange hair, tanned skin, with maroon-colored eyes. She was her father's daughter in every sense of the word. An activist and a kickass karate coach to boot. She was strong, courageous, and falling deeply for her best friend, though she vehemently denied it to anyone who would listen. She was outspoken, witty, and more often than not, a straight shooter. She was already being scouted by several schools thanks to her phenomenal track record. Being hailed as one of the up and coming athletes on the rise. Well on her way to being a possible Olympian.

Then, there was Jamie, who would be turning 13 in May. She looked like her father in girl form. Already, giving him new grey hairs by behaving more like her Uncle Riley than anyone else in the house. She had inherited her mother's heart, though she would never admit it - even when crying in the rain listening to a Lauryn Hill record. She was a hoot. She kept the house interesting. So interesting that people often wondered to themselves if maybe Jazmine had secretly conceived with Riley. She was a strong artist, a great cook, and she was a devoted and loyal friend with a strong love for animals. She was always taking care of the local animals and strays, and she was seriously starting to consider the possibility of becoming a veterinarian.

She was a mother now.

An endlessly worried mother. Worried about if they listened. If they ate. If they ate enough of what they needed. If she was doing the right thing. If they were doing the right thing. If they were ready. If they weren't ready. If they would be okay when she was gone.

Still, looking around at the table, at this moment, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of warmth surge through her as she looked around at her dream come true. Her family was so beautiful. The girls were just so amazing, so smart, so kind, so strong, and so loving. So much more mature than she had ever been. They were everything she'd ever wanted. Even better than the fabulous dreams she'd conjured up as a child.

And so was he.

Their father, Huey Freeman, still just as sinfully beautiful as the day that she'd met him. His maroon eyes serious, his lips normally straight, but twisting only slightly upward for her. Spreading into large, bright grins for his girls.

As if reading her thoughts, he looked up, a teasing smirk on his face "What?"

Typical. The red blush spreading from opposite ends of her cheeks to the bridge of her nose almost immediately. He sat at the table with brood shoulders, though older, with a sexy goatee, he was still an incredibly attractive man. Her lips pursed, as she returned his now blatant gaze, discreetly trailing down her blouse into the dip of her -

"Mom, Dad, PLEASE," Jamie's maroon eyes darted from left to right before raising her left brow and staring at opposite ends of the table as if determined to stare at them both simultaneously, "Dad is fifty-one. You are forty-seven. Aren't you guys a little old to be gazing at one another like-"

"Like what?" Jazmine raised her own brown, her green eyes dashing nervously across her children's then back to his end of the table, ignoring Huey's discreet chuckle of amusement.

"Like we're not even here," Haley snorted, taking a break from her salad to pipe up and raise her own brow. Something she rarely did these days, "Not to be disrespectful, but your love is gross. You look like you two would go at it right here on the table if we weren't here."

She wasn't wrong. After all they had gone at it. On the table. Right there, and there, and even there. Her husband clearly agreed with her. His eyes began tracing the same areas on the table, matching them in chronological order before speaking.

"That's how you two got here," He raised his own brows, before eating his salad, "When you two are older you'll understand."

Jazmine nodded, "If you two are lucky enough to be in love, the way that we're in love. You'll find out that some things just don't fade that quickly. Especially when you look as good as your parents do. You're welcome."

"Plus our love isn't based on sex alone," The mention of sex made both girls and their mother cough almost immediately, "Your mother and I love one another, truly love and appreciate the other for being who they are. It hasn't dissipated with age for us, and that's what we want. For both of you."

The girls glanced at each other. Their dad was never this verbal about his love for their mother, not that they didn't know it. He always showed that he loved her. That he'd go to the ends of the Earth for any of his girls. To space, the depths of the worst parts of hell if they needed it. He had always been their protector, their solid rock.

And to hear him acknowledge it, to see their mother's eyes glistening. It made them all melt.

"It's not just about the attraction," Huey murmured. Hyper aware now of just how emotional his own voice got, "It's everything. Everything about them. And when you find that-"

He pushed himself back, snatching his plate and Jazmine's to head to the kitchen, "You hold on to it. As tightly as you can. You never let it go. Ever."

Hayley, Jazmine's identical twin outside of her maroon eyes, finally looked up again "It's just. You two are so different."

"We know." The married couple rolled their eyes upwards as their children blinked

"How'd you two even get together? And we want the whole story this time. Not the whole 'We met onthe farm and fell in love and lived happily ever after.' story either. We want the truth this time. The one you've been putting off our whole lives," Hayley's voice was surprisingly soft. Curious about something that made her mother melt and her father's fist clench under the table.

"It's a Friday night," Jazmine said evenly looking at both of the girls, "There's a huge dance, there's a huge concert, a fair, and you want to hear about….your parents love story."

"The ones you can't even watch gaze lovingly at one another," Huey raised his own brow at the girls, "Without freaking out."

"That gaze was lus- OW!" Jamie cried moments after Jazmine's hand departed from the crown of her head, "MA, what was THAT even for?! Ya'll did look at each other like you wanted to – OW!"

"Anyways," Huey ignored them, "I guess it all started in Oklahoma."

"You lived in Oklahoma?!"The girls exclaimed.

"So did your mother," Huey started, his eyes glazing over as he remembered. The beginning much more profound to him now than he'd ever thought it would be then.

"YOU lived in Oklahoma too?" The girls squealed.

"Yes," Jazmine smirked, "He was a rancher at his Aunt Cookie's farm. Really his farm at that point. He practically owned the place."

"I was a cowboy," Huey started, "living in Oklahoma, helping at the farm like your mother said, and the moment, I saw her."

"You were in love" Jamie whispered excitedly as Huey's lips turned slightly upward, clearly thrilled that his teens still showed clear signs of being his little girls. Her hand slid underneath her chin, and in the most adorable way possible, she turned over to glance at her parents. Her eyes dreamily opening and closing.

"Not yet," He glanced at Jamie before his eyes slowly drifted over to Hayley's, meeting her suddenly intense and invested gaze before his fist clenched, and then unclenched again as he noted how his daughter quickly looked away, "But I was well on my way, and I didn't even know it."

He got up again, moving to the armchair of the living room, watching Jazmine plop in the chair next to his.

"It was 2008," Huey continued, "We were in the Great Recession, I was a cowboy, and your mother had just moved to Oklahoma, starting over-"

"Why?" Jamie asked, reclining on the sofa she'd taken over while her big sister, Hayley, sat on the sectional perpendicular to her, trying (and failing) to look like a reluctant indifferent hostage.

"Because" Jazmine found herself interjecting with a loud snort, "I was a damned mess."