Today. Tomorrow. Always by Raven St. Pierre Page A

gesture toward our son. “I’m pretty sure they know we have sex.”
    “AJ! Don’t say that word in front of him!” Sam screeched, trying not to smile as she covered one of Anthony’s ears with her free hand and pressed his other to her chest. “All we need is for our parents to call to talk to him and he blurts that out.”
    I imagined the scenario she just described and smiled. “C’mon… Tell me that wouldn’t be funny, though.”
    She couldn’t even deny it, giggling a bit at the thought. “Oh my gosh… I can’t even deal with you two right now. You’re both trouble.”
    She handed my namesake back over to me, mussing his dark curls with her fingers right after. “I’ll be back in a few. My plan was to be done at the store by the time you made it home, but somebody decided to mess up my plan. I won’t mention the perp’s name, but he’s the shortest person in the room. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
    A kiss went to Anthony’s cheek and then mine as Sam passed by.
    I followed her with my eyes. “Need me to do anything while you’re gone? The guest room’s all set?” I asked.
    She nodded. “Yup, I freshened up the sheets and everything while he napped. But if you’re looking for something to do, could you put him in the tub for me? I still have to cook when I get back and I don’t want to have to worry about it after they get here.”
    “No problem.” I headed toward to the stairs to run the bathwater.
    “Don’t forget to put a towel down on the floor first. You know he likes to splash,” she warned, as if I hadn’t done this a hundred times before.
    “Got it.”
    “And don’t forget—”
    “—the faucet cover so he doesn’t bump his head. I know,” I said with a laugh, already halfway up the steps. “I’ll handle bathing the boy; you go do your thing at the store and quit worrying.”
    When I turned around, she was standing in the foyer. A warm smile crossed her face as it often did when she watched me with our son. She knew I had things under control. “Ok… I shouldn’t be gone long.”
    “Be careful,” I said as she turned to leave.
    “I will; try to stay out of trouble. Both of you,” she called out, closing the door behind herself.
    I turned toward Anthony and he smiled like he knew what was going on. I shook my head. “Geez… Mommy doesn’t let us have any fun, does she?”
    *****
    It’d been about four or five months since our last trip to Boston to visit Terrell and Maisha and now they’d finally arrived to spend my birthday weekend here with Sam and I on Staten Island; hanging out, catching up. After dinner, the ladies made their way into the living room and Terrell and I decided to sit poolside. Every so often I’d glance over, peering through the sliding glass doors at Sam. I’d catch a stray smile on her face here and there, reminding me where our son had inherited that ‘I can get away with murder because I’m adorable’ expression from. That face—it felt like I’d been staring at it my whole life, but I still hadn’t gotten used to how beautiful she is.
    Anthony was asleep in his mother’s arms, looking more and more like her as the days passed. He definitely had my eyes and a combination of Sam’s hair texture and mine, but there was so much of her in him. Watching them, I instantly thought of what a lucky guy I was. Money, cars, things … none of that could make or break me. As long as I had my family, I had it all. When it all began, she was just a girl I had to have, and I was a kid whose every thought seemed to lead to her.
    Even now, years later, that hadn’t changed.
    On cue, without realizing I was watching, Sam’s hand went to her necklace. Her fingers caressed the ring she kept there, a silver band with the inscription “ Today. Tomorrow. Always.” I remembered the day I’d given it to her as her nineteenth birthday gift, although it was meant to be much more than that. It symbolized an implied promise that what we had, our