Fool and Her Honey (9781622860791) Read online

  As part of my total body healing, I’d also started seeing a professional counselor to help me realize and understand why I’d made poor relationship choices. Dr. Bell gave me exercises and thinking points that helped me to focus on the woman I was inside and to see myself in a positive and beautiful light. I’d done a lot of growing and still had a lot of growing to do, but I knew now that I was worthy of love. True love. Not a counterfeit love that belittled and tore down, but one that edified, encouraged, and supported.

  I had kept in contact with Keith and had kept things platonic between us. I appreciated the fact that he had never disrespected or tested the boundaries that were around my marriage, but had always provided a listening ear when I needed one. He was the first person that I’d shared my divorce filings with, and while he didn’t cheer like he was at the Super Bowl, he was relieved that I’d moved on.

  Somewhere in my heart, I had to thank Equanto for doing all that he did, because through it all, I’d become a stronger and better person for it, and it showed. I was even five dress sizes smaller, having lost fifty pounds, and was no longer ashamed of myself and my life. God had been really good to me, and it felt so good to be free.

  Chapter 37

  Candis

  Everything that I thought I wanted, I never really wanted those things. I wanted exactly what I had, a man who feared God, loved God, and loved me.

  Today I married my friend, a man who loved me for me, regardless of my shortcomings, my flaws, my mistakes, and my mishaps. I knew everybody thought that I was crazy and I was being foolish, but what God had for me was for me. I guess there was such a thing as destiny and purpose, after all. The odds were against us, but the way I saw it, the odds were against every marriage. No marriage was going to be a sunshiny day every single day. There would be rain for sure, but knowing that God was on our side made every step of this journey worth it.

  As SeanMichael held me in his arms and swayed me to Heatwave’s “Always and Forever,” I fell in love with him all over again. I never wanted to let him go, and I never would. He whispered all kinds of loving things in my ear during our dance. I found myself in tears when he shared that he’d taken the money he’d been saving for a car, decided to forego his cell phone, and made other cuts, including doing without an earlier trip to Phoenix, to be able to get me the ring I wanted.

  “I love you, Candis,” he whispered in my ear.

  “I love you too, baby.” We kissed all over again in the middle of the floor, with our reception guests watching, until the DJ broke us up by speaking into the mic.

  “All right, all right, wait for the honeymoon,” he teased, causing our guests to erupt in laughter.

  While we reluctantly pulled away, Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” blared from the speakers.

  “Okay, all you single ladies, it’s time to come on out on the dance floor for the bouquet toss,” the DJ announced.

  From all corners of the room, various women, some whom I knew, and some whom I didn’t, gathered in a bunch, preparing to catch a specially made bouquet for this particular part of the celebration. In the traditional fashion, I turned my back, counted to three, and tossed the bouquet over my head and into the crowd.

  Turning to face them, I saw that a young lady who had come with one of my male cousins was jumping up and down, full of giggles, with the prize bouquet in her hand. It took only a few minutes before she got back to her seat and screamed out again, having found a pair of one-carat diamond stud earrings nestled inside the bouquet.

  End

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  A Fool and Her Honey Copyright © 2013 Kimberly T. Matthews

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN: 978-1-6016-2382-9

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

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