28. Sincere
AUGUST
The next morning, Goldyn entered the kitchen with a complacent smile on her face. Without speaking, she fell into my side for a lingering hug, giving me time to kiss the top of her head.
“I haven’t seen you since Saturday. You okay, love?”
She nodded, that same grin glued to her lips. “Very okay.”
Searching her face, I found the truth of her words in full effect. She looked happy and that made me happy. I hadn’t caught Rome before he left for work this morning, but I bet he had a matching look on his face.
“I made you breakfast,” I told her, squeezing her tighter and adoring the rush of warmth that touching her always gave me. “And cinnamon rolls,” I added before jutting my chin toward the island where her plate was waiting.
“You’re the best,” she whispered, leaving my side.
Her praise made me grin as I filled my new favorite espresso mug. It was only half-covered in hand painted cherries because Goldyn and I had spent the rest of the date making out in the back of my truck. Every time she offered to finish painting it, I turned her down. Because it was perfect just like this.
A few minutes later, Enzo walked in, looking a little more distressed than usual for a Monday morning. The emergency text he received from a client this morning on his way to work out had everything to do with that. In the two hours since then he’d bought a plane ticket, showered and packed his bags.
“Why is there an extra two-hundred fifty grand in my business account, Enzo?” Goldyn quizzed in place of a greeting.
He faced her, snapping the lid on his travel mug of coffee. “There was a grant for new business accounts that opened in Q2. Applications were open all of July. Nobody else applied, so the money went to the last person to join the bank. You joined at the end of June, so it was perfect.”
She screwed up her face. “That’s not how grants work, Enzo.”
“Hmm,” he hummed noncommittally, walking over to grab the back of her neck. “Give me your lips, mamas.”
On command, Goldyn inclined her head and let him cover her mouth with his.
But the moment she pulled away, she asked, “Did you really just sneak a quarter million dollars in my account?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He glanced down at his watch and then over his shoulder at me. “And I have to go if I’m gonna make it to the airport on time. Ready, Sin?”
“You’re leaving?” Goldy’s voice held alarm as her eyes darted between the two of us.
“Emergency business trip. I have to go help my client clean up a mess. In person.” Lorenzo smoothed the frown on her face and kissed her again. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s already hard enough to leave. When I get back, Sin and I wanna take you out. We need to talk to you about something.”
“Why would you tell me that? Now I’m gonna obsess over it until you get back.”
A quiet laugh escaped me at her crumpled expression before Enzo kissed her again and whispered something against her lips.
Whatever he said washed away her frown and turned it into a shy smile as she breathed, “Okay.”
I loved glimpsing the softness he brought out of her. Goldyn was hyperindependent by default, but she melted into him, dropping her defenses enough to just…be. Because she knew Lorenzo had her. I’d been loved by him for a decade and still wasn’t used to the way he made everything so easy by being his naturally dominant self. I loved her with him. I loved her . I was so in love with her it made me question if we’d known each other in a past life because she felt so familiar.
Goldyn fit in with us like a missing piece we never knew we needed. She felt like a part of our family even though it’d only been a little over a month and I never wanted to go back to being without her.
Quieting those thoughts, I pushed off the counter and walked over to her.
“I’ll be back in a few hours, love,” I told her as Enzo gathered his bags and walked to the front of the house.
“Be safe,” she said against my mouth when I bent to kiss her.
As we pulled out of the driveway, my mind obsessed over how good it felt to know she would be waiting for me when I got back. Our home was exactly where Goldy belonged. For good.
Goldyn
Endometriosis, you raggedy bitch.
I hadn’t dealt with this ho in nine weeks and she wanted to show up on a random Wednesday and terrorize me with cramps from the blazing pits of hell. On the day I was supposed to go kayaking with Sincere. Instead of getting my sunscreen and snacks together, I was doubled over in the bathroom with tears streaming down my face.
Sweat dotted my forehead from the intensity of the pain. It felt like someone had wrapped their fist in barbwire and was going to town with my insides. I hadn’t even started bleeding yet, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything past wincing and gripping the bathroom sink until my hand shook and my knuckles turned white.
There was no way I was getting in a cramped kayak when I couldn’t even stand up straight without wanting to faint. Grabbing my phone, I walked into the guest bedroom and curled into a ball near the foot of the bed. I couldn’t be bothered to move toward the pillows. I just needed a break from being upright and I would worry about my position on the bed later.
Holding down the home button on my phone, I waited for Siri to prompt me and told her to call Sincere.
“Hey, love. Got your sna?—”
“Sin, I can’t go anywhere. I’m sorry, I don’t feel good.” Every word I spoke pushed me closer to another torrent of tears and my voice cracked on the last one.
Sincere apparently heard the tears too because a silent beat passed before I heard footsteps headed down the hall to my room.
“Can I come in?” he said into the phone when he reached my door.
“Please,” I groaned.
Relief flooded me when the door opened and he rushed to my side. “Hey, love. What’s wrong?”
“I have cramps and it hurts to do everything right now.”
His hand landed softly against my back, rubbing in slow circles while his eyes darted over my face. He tried to mask the sadness in his eyes before I could see it, but I did and it made me sadder. I felt guilty for making him worry and more moisture coated my cheeks.
“What do you need right now?” Sin’s soft voice soothed me while the soft press of his fingers under my shirt gave me a sliver of comfort. The pain wasn’t the kind that could be massaged away, but having him this close felt better than being alone.
“Can you just stay here with me?”
“Of course, love.” He gingerly scooped me up and carried me to the head of the bed, placing me against a mountain of pillows before he swiped away the mess on my face.
He climbed in with me and cuddled me to his side, his soft murmurs pulling me out of my panic a little more.
Sincere stayed with me all day, brought me food when my appetite finally returned and let me nap off and on across his lap while he worked on his iPad.
“What are you working on?” I asked quietly.
“Researching vendors for if I wanted to bake on a larger scale.”
“A larger scale like a bakery?” I asked, hope swelling and pushing down some of the pain.
“Mhmm,” Sincere replied, using his Apple Pencil to write something on his screen.
“Does that mean I can hire you when my store opens?”
He hedged. “I don’t know about that yet. I’m just seeing what’s out there for now.”
“I’m proud of you,” I said, nuzzling deeper into his touch.
“Don’t say that yet. I haven’t done anything.” He tried to laugh off my praise but I cut my eyes up at him as best I could in my predicament.
“You don’t need to do anything for me to say I’m proud of you and mean it, Sincere. You don’t have to downplay who you are until you do something you think is worthy of praise. Because I’ll always find a way to remind you of how amazing you are for simply existing.”
Sincere didn’t speak, but he did set his iPad to the side and kiss along my hairline. “Okay.”
“Now, let’s try this again. Sincere, I’m so fucking proud of you.”
A dry snort of laughter escaped before he followed up, “Thank you, Goldyn.”
His acceptance lulled me to sleep that afternoon and when I woke up again, Sincere was knocked out on my left while Rome took up space on my right, quietly reading a book beside us.
The pain in my abdomen was at about a three right now compared to the raging ten from earlier, so when I sat up to greet him, my smile was real instead of a grimace.
“What are you reading?” His phone was in dark mode so I couldn’t see much more than a white blur of words on the screen as my eyes adjusted to being awake. The only light on in the room was the little lamp on my nightstand.
“ The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.”
“Hmm. I’ve heard good things,” I muttered, wrapping my arms around his torso from the side. Rome tossed his phone on the bed and pulled me fully onto his lap, kissing my face while he breathed me in like it’d been months instead of hours since we saw each other.
“Why didn’t you call me to tell me you were sick?”
His lips hovered over my neck, placing featherlike kisses there until I answered him.
“I didn’t want to bother you. And I had Sin here with me the whole day. He took care of me,” I answered.
Romeo grumbled low in his throat and lifted his head to stare at my profile. The heat of his gaze compelled me to face him.
“You’re not bothering me when you tell me something is wrong, G. I wanna be bothered by you. It made me feel worse to know you weren’t okay all day and I never checked on you.”
“You’re checking on me now,” I pointed out, puckering my lips for a kiss.
He relented, but he still studied me like he didn’t believe I was okay when he pulled away. “Are your periods always this bad?”
Heaving a sigh, I shrugged. “Yes and no. I’m not even on my period yet, but the cramps a few days before are atrocious.”
“And you’re not in pain now?” The earnestness in his eyes melted my heart.
“A little. But it’s nowhere near as bad as it was.”
“How long as it been like this?” He followed up.
“Since I was a teenager. I’ve had bad periods all my life. I have endometriosis and up until two years ago, I had fibroids. But I got them removed after I graduated college. I couldn’t take it anymore.” Bleeding through my clothes wasn’t something I’d wish on anyone, and it took me until my senior year to find a doctor who listened to me about it not being normal.
Rome’s voice sounded tortured when he tried to soothe me. “I’m sorry, G. I can’t imagine how much that shit hurts.”
I shrugged. “I’m used to it. I know it’s fucked up, but I used to see it as a silver lining that I only had to deal with my period a few times a year. But now when I do get them, the pain is so bad that I just want a consistent, normal cycle.”
Rome nodded, still deep in thought as he settled his hand over my abdomen. He apologized again and again, his voice growing more faint with every repetition. “I’m sorry, Goldyn.”
The helpless look on his face sparked a familiar emotion in my chest.
I didn’t know how I’d gotten so lucky to stumble into their lives. Every man in this house made me feel cherished. Seen. Adored more than I ever had in my life.
They were so sweet it made me want to cry.
Too emotional to speak, I laid against his chest. The only person we were missing was Enzo. I felt his absence just as deep as I felt Sincere and Romeo’s presence. And I knew if he wasn’t on his business trip still, he’d be crowded on this bed with us. The thought made me smile, and that smile quickly slipped when I realized the next time this happened, they probably wouldn’t be around to comfort me. And that made me want to cry a little bit too.
I was really gonna miss them. And the only thing I could do about it was soak up the present moment for what it was and be grateful that at least I had right now with them.