Chapter 22
Savio’s original plan had been to stay at his house in Desmore Bay for only a couple of days.
Here they were almost three weeks later, still enjoying the ocean and the solitude.
Security had set up shop and were in rotation, and for the first time in his life, Savio felt comfortable enough not to be on high alert.
Since the boxing gym, he and Cashmere had only left the house to go shopping.
Other than that, they did what he’d been wanting all along.
They mourned together, they laughed together, they talked, and they loved on each other.
Inside the intimacy of the home, healing took place, and Savio thanked God every day for that.
“You know I have to get back to Ellwood in a couple of days, right?” Cashmere asked as she lazily traced the tattoo on his chest.
They’d just gotten done making love, and they were both lost in their thoughts, a comfortable silence embracing them.
Savio kissed her head before he responded. “I know. You got your super-secret meeting.”
She nodded against his arm. “I don’t want to leave though.”
Neither did he. The thought of going back to Cashmere’s home made him feel uneasy.
“Why don’t we just move here?” he suggested.
Cashmere lifted her head to look at him. “Move to the bay?”
He nodded. “Why not?”
She seemed to think about it. “My work is in Ellwood.”
“You can’t set up shop here?”
“No. It has to be Ellwood. There are some docking ports here, but after everything is unloaded, it’s transported back to Ellwood.”
“Then commute,” Savio suggested.
Cashmere slowly sat up, exposing her bare chest. He wanted to reach out and pinch her nipple, but he refrained because he could tell she was deep in thought. Finally, she spoke with her voice low and calculated.
“I have been thinking about selling my house. The thought of going back there . . .” She shuddered.
Savio rubbed her thigh. “I understand. Trust me.”
“It’s hard though. I love my home. It pisses me off that Ivoree ruined it for me, you know? And then I feel guilty for being mad at her. It’s like there’s a war inside me and there’s no winning side.”
“You know that shit is just gonna take time, right? Like, part of me gets mad at Twizz, too, but I give myself grace. I try to anyway.”
Cashmere’s brows rose. “Why do you get mad at him?”
“Because he died. Because he tried to save me instead of thinking of himself. Because I don’t have more time.”
“That’s different.” Cashmere shook her head.
Savio didn’t take offense to her statement. “What I mean is those emotions are gonna take time to even out. It’s okay to be mad at your sister, just like it’s okay to still love her.”
Cashmere sat in thought for a moment. “You don’t use her name anymore.
You know . . . I understand you being mad at her too.
I feel like you hold it in, but you don’t have to.
I’m not the same person who used to run up every excuse when it came to Vee.
She was imperfect and insane.” She chuckled dryly.
Savio thought about what she said. He hadn’t even peeped that he no longer called Ivoree by her name, but Cashmere was right. He only ever referred to her as her sister anymore. The thought of her boiled his blood. It was a super fine line to walk, being in love with Twizz’s killer.
“I hate her. I hate what she did to Twizz. To me. To you.” He lifted Cashmere’s chin. “But that ain’t somethin’ I’ll ever burden you wit’. I never want you to think it’s your fault.”
Cashmere looked like she was about to argue, and then her shoulders sagged. “You know I want you to be good, just like you want me to, right? I know I checked out for a while there, but your feelings matter.”
Savio pulled her into him and kissed her lips. “Thank you for saying that. I love you, woman.”
“I love you, too, Sav.” Silence engulfed them once again. After several minutes, Cashmere said, “Let’s do it.”
“Do what?” Savio asked. He had almost fallen back asleep before she spoke, so his brain took a minute to catch back up to the conversation.
“Move. Let’s move here. I can commute. We can make it work. It’s only like, what, an hour away?”
Savio was wide awake now as happiness surged within him. “You for real?”
Seeing his happiness caused Cashmere to giggle. That sound had been such a rarity lately that he wished he could bottle it up and put it in his pocket.
“Yeah. I love it here. It’s peaceful and reminds me that not everything has to be about work or . . .”
“Your sister?” he asked, taking a guess at what she was about to say.
She nodded. “Yeah. I would love to live here with you.”
“You know that means we go together real, real bad now, right?” Savio grinned.
She rolled her eyes. “Been that.”
“Glad you finally caught up. You would really trade your million-dollar home for this small one?”
She nodded with no hesitation. “Absolutely. Besides, we can always build on to this house if we wanted.”
She was right. He owned the entire private beach. They could build their own million-dollar home right here.
“I love you,” he muttered as he pulled her in for another kiss. He felt real happiness for the first time in weeks, and it was all because of her.
“I love you more.” She grinned when they pulled apart from the kiss.
“Then marry me.” He hadn’t meant for the words to tumble out like that, but he meant them.
Marrying Cashmere had been heavy on his mind for a while now. If he had the chance to spend the rest of his life with her, he would be the happiest man in the universe.
They stared at each other in silence for a moment before she spoke.
“What?”
He noticed tears filling her eyes, so he quickly cupped her cheeks as he sat up. “Don’t cry, Precious.”
She laughed through her tears. “I just don’t know what to say.”
“I ain’t mean to spring that shit on you like that, for real, but why not?
Let’s get married, baby. We can go to the courthouse right now and make it official.
I’ll buy you a fat ass ring, bigger than any of the ones you got at home.
Just say you’ll be my forever. I been knowing you were mine since the day I first laid eyes on your mean ass. ”
She laughed as she wiped her tears. “I’ll be your forever, Sav.”
“You ain’t just sayin’ that?” he asked skeptically as he eyed her, though his heart beat rapidly in his chest from pure joy.
“No, baby. Let’s get married. Let’s do it today.”
Savio hopped up, butt ass naked, and walked straight toward the bathroom. “Come on, Precious. I wanna hit that pussy one last time while you just my girl. Next time I dig up in yo’ guts, you gon’ be my wife.”
Cashmere howled with laughter. But her ass didn’t know just how serious he was.
After a round in the shower and then another round on the bathroom counter, Savio and Cashmere finally pulled away from each other long enough to get dressed and leave their comfortable nest.
Savio parked the car and then jogged to her side so he could help her out.
“After you, wifey.”
She giggled. They were both on a high, and he never wanted to come down.
“Thank you, hubby.”
He could get used to hearing that.
They walked into the courthouse. Savio lagged behind a bit so he could look at her ass in the fitted jeans she wore.
They kept it casual, her in a white top and him in a black one.
He already promised her that he would give her a proper wedding celebration whenever she was ready.
For now, he just wanted to change her last name.
The process took some time. It seemed as though they weren’t the only ones in Desmore Bay that wanted to get married that day. That was cool with him. As long as they walked out of there with a marriage certificate, Savio would wait all damn day if he had to.
When it was finally their turn, it went quickly.
There was no ceremony or exchanging of vows.
He knew they were both too caught up in the whirlwind of emotions to even think of those traditions.
All they had to do was fill out some paperwork and sign on the dotted line, and Cashmere was officially his.
They shared their first kiss as husband and wife. Cashmere blushed deeply.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mrs. Meekins.”
“I love the sound of that,” he muttered as he nuzzled her neck. “Come on. Let me get you home so we can start our honeymoon.”
They were all smiles as they left the courthouse, though they both longed for the presence of people who couldn’t be there.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” Cashmere said as she looked up at him with stars in her eyes.
He pulled her close by her waist. “I can.”
They shared another passionate kiss. Savio couldn’t seem to keep his lips off her at that point, but the kiss ended too soon because they heard someone clear their throat and speak.
“Excuse me, you’re Savio, right?” the timid voice asked.
Savio tore his eyes away from his wife, and they landed on a familiar face. His eyes grew wide. “Nola, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I thought that was you.”
“This is my wife, Cashmere,” he introduced. Pride surged through him at being able to finally call Cashmere his wife. “Baby, this is Nola. She was a friend of Twizz’s.”
“Nice to meet you,” Cashmere said, still starry eyed from their impromptu nuptials.
He had seen her at the funeral, but his head was too fucked up to really entertain anyone. His eyes couldn’t help but to lower down to the very small bulge in her stomach. He didn’t want to assume anything, but his heart seemed to miss a step as a lump formed in his throat.
When her hand found her stomach and she caressed it gently, he knew.
“We only had sex one time,” she blurted out with a sad lilt to her tone.
She clamped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry.
I swear I’m always saying things that shouldn’t be said these days.
It has to be the hormones. What I meant to say is I’ve been trying to find you.
Twizz and I only knew each other a short while, but he talked about you often.
I wanted our baby to know their father’s side of the family. ”
Tears pooled in Nola’s eyes, and Cashmere gasped beside Savio. He couldn’t really home in on any of that though. Savio’s eyes stayed glued to Nola’s stomach as he processed what this meant.
I have another piece of Twizz right here.
This was something special. God placed him in this moment for a reason. He got married today at this courthouse for a reason. Everything aligned, and he wanted to drop to his knees and give his thanks.
Instead, he cleared his throat and asked, “How far along are you?”
“Just barely two months,” Nola replied.
Savio nodded. “Do you need anything?”
“Just a connection to Twizz. Like I said, we didn’t know each other long, but he impacted my life in a big way. It would be nice to keep in touch and for my child to have a connection with you.” Nola glanced at Cashmere. “With both of you.”
“Of course,” Cashmere said with no hesitation and a whole lot of emotion in her voice.
And that was why he loved her. He was sure she worried about the fact that her sister had killed this woman’s baby daddy, but nobody could blame her for that.
He wouldn’t allow them. Cashmere had no idea that no harm, mental, emotional, or physical would ever come to her as long as he was by her side.
That was his word, and his word meant a whole fuckin’ lot.
Savio exchanged numbers with Nola before he said his goodbyes.
Nola had no idea, but he was about to spoil that baby rotten and make sure she was good too.
He just couldn’t fully explain that to her at the moment, because emotions hit him at every angle.
He was a husband, and now he was about to have a baby in his life that would be a mini Twizz. God was good to him on that day.
When they got into the car, Cashmere grabbed his hand as soon as they pulled out of the parking lot and asked, “Are you okay?”
He pulled his hand away from her, wiped the moisture out of his eye, and then grabbed her hand again. “More than okay. I think I’ll be good for the rest of my life, Precious. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For giving me forever.” He glanced at her and saw her smile. As God as his witness, he would work hard to keep that curve spread across her face for the rest of their lives.