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"I thought we said no phones allowed on our babymoon," I grumbled into Toya's ear, my hand sliding over her exposed stomach as I merged my body to hers in a spooning position. We'd just spent a night at a luxury townhouse in Kisho Paradise, the spot recommended to us by Alex and Cheyenne when we expressed that we wanted a vacation but didn't want to leave the city for it.
The townhouse was intricately decorated to give off an air of royalty, with sculpted pillars dividing the downstairs area into a living room, dining room, and a kitchen, golden sconces lining the walls, and elegant ivory drapes with gold embroidery on them opening to captivating views of the well-kept garden behind the house.
We'd both been awestruck when we walked into the house. We had expectations from the pictures we saw on the Kisho Paradise booking website, but nothing could compare to experiencing its beauty in real life.
"I know, I'm sorry. I was just checking on Valerie," Toya told me now, putting her phone on the bedside table and snuggling closer to me in the sheets.
"How is she?" I asked as I trailed kisses down her back, savouring the subtle shea butter scent of her skin.
"She says day sixty is going okay," she shrugged. "She's looking forward to Ma and Chey's visit in a couple of hours.
"That's a lot of progress since the last family day visit when she was ready to bite all your necks off," I pointed out.
"Yeah... I think she realised how serious we were when Ma stuck to her word and left everything to move back here," Toya said with her hand covering the one I had on her stomach. Our baby girl started kicking like she could feel our touch, and that brought a smile to my face, my fingers spreading to cover more of her stomach. "Maybe she's starting to trust that we're really there for her."
"How's your mom adjusting to the move, by the way?" I asked, referring to the decision Bridget made to permanently move back home. It had taken about a month of sorting out logistics and getting the boys settled with Charles's family in England before she finally booked the flight to start a whole new phase of life in Kisho Valley, so I imagined that the transition wasn't an easy one.
"I think it's different for her," Toya admitted. "I don't think she ever had plans to live in Kitalo again. She's left a big chunk of herself back there. I mean, she broke up with her man to come back here."
"Oh?" I voiced, surprised. "She had a man?"
Toya nodded, absentmindedly tracing the veins in my hand as she spoke. "Someone named James. The first guy she dated in years."
"How do you know all this?" I asked, trying to make sense of the sudden shift in openness between Toya and her mom.
"I asked," she answered simply. "There's a lot we don't know about each other, and since she's here, we might as well open up a little."
"I guess," I said with a shrug. "Is she okay since the breakup?"
"I'm not sure. She's really hard to read," Latoya said, turning herself to face me. "But, hey, this little getaway is not about other people. It's about us and our baby, and for once, I want to focus on that and only that."
