Chapter 26 Rhythm Brooks
RHYTHM brOOKS
Idramatically twisted in my seat to look at Sincere as he drove. “Where are we going?”
He smiled like he was enjoying my impatience. “Somewhere.”
I poked out my lip. “That’s not an answer.”
His hand slid over and squeezed my thigh. “It’s enough of an answer.”
I huffed. “You could just tell me.”
He glanced at me and smiled his warning. “Rhythm.”
“What?”
“Shut up,” he said gently, like it was a joke and a command at the same time.
I opened my mouth to argue, but he reached over and cupped my face. My eyes drifted over the healing burns on his hands and wrists as he kissed me quickly before the light changed.
After resetting my mood, he pulled back and kept driving. I stared out the window, forcing myself to stop asking questions and trust my man.
A few minutes passed before he spoke again. “You still okay? You still alright with Kodi being gone?”
My throat tightened with emotion. He’d been asking me that a lot, like he needed to hear it from my mouth every few days, so he was sure that I didn’t suddenly hate him for what he did.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “I expected nothing less from the Cartiers. I was surprised you did it yourself, though.”
He nodded as if he understood.
“I’m not mad,” I reminded him. “I feel…honored, if that’s the right word, that you thought I was worth doing something like that for.”
Sincere’s jaw flexed like he was reliving those moments. “I would never let anyone hurt you, and if they do, I’m not letting him get away with it.”
I swooned, leaning towards him over the console. “I appreciate you. But I need you to be careful too. Don’t go off doing anything dangerous because of me. I can’t imagine losing you.”
He glanced at me again, and his smile came back. “You got any more obsessed, controlling exes out there?”
That made me giggle. “No.”
“Good. Then we shouldn’t have any more problems.”
We laughed as I settled back into my seat.
I expected to feel sad that Kodi was dead. I expected to feel something ugly toward Sincere when he finally told me what happened. But I didn’t. All I felt was relief. In that car, I knew Kodi wasn’t going to stop until he killed me. He might’ve killed our kids too.
KJ and Kinsley thought their daddy died in the accident. That was what the world thought too because that’s how the Cartiers made it look. Since the crash happened on a vacant block, by the time the police discovered the scene, Kodi had been returned to the driver’s seat.
Sincere turned down another street and slowed down.
“We’re here,” he announced.
I looked out the window, confused. It looked like a storefront or an event space.
Sincere got out of the car, but I continued sitting there, wondering where in the hell we were.
Sincere stood on the other side of my window, laughing at me. “Girl, get out.”
I didn’t move right away. I just looked at him.
He was standing there smiling, looking handsome as hell, with the sun sitting on him like it was in love with him too.
We locked eyes, and then he kissed my forehead.
I thought about that hospital room, how he’d been upset with me, how I expected distance and aggression.
But instead, he pulled me in closer and assured me like he did not know how to love halfway.
Still laughing, Sincere opened my door and held his hand out. “Come on.”
I finally took it and stepped out, and he closed the door behind me. He led me to the door, pulled a key from his pocket, and unlocked it, making me even more curious.
Sincere opened the door and stepped aside. “Go in.”
I walked in and stopped, staring at the LED sign that glowed on the wall, big enough to catch my breath: RHYTHM brOOKS STUDIO.
My mouth fell open, and I turned slowly, taking it in. The space was set up with fresh paint, worktables, shelving, and a corner already staged with supplies. Canvases leaned against the wall like they were waiting on me.
I couldn’t speak.
Sincere came closer behind me as I looked around with golf-ball sized eyes.
“Before you start,” he said, already talking fast, “I’m not trying to control anything or make any big decisions without you.
It’s a gift. You can change whatever you want.
If I got the wrong supplies, we’ll get the right ones. ”
I turned toward him, still speechless.
He kept going. “If you hate the layout, we’ll redo it. This is yours to work. I just—”
I shut him up by kissing him. He froze for half a second, then kissed me back.
I was filled with emotion as I looked around the space. “Why would you do this much, Sincere?”
He held my face, forcing me to look at him. “Because I want you to have the space you need to create.”
I blinked, trying to hold myself together.
Sincere kissed my forehead. Then he took me on a tour around the space.
After a few minutes, I checked my phone and remembered reality again. “I have to go pick my kids up from my mother.”
He gently grabbed me by the waist and pulled me closer. “I want to see you tonight.”
I pouted. “I don’t have a sitter. My mother is going to bingo tonight. That’s why I have to pick up the kids. And I don’t want to ask Joi to babysit on a Saturday night.”
“Then bring them,” he replied, like it was simple. “It’s time for them to get to know me, and vice versa. I’m not visiting your life. I’m in it. I plan on sticking around.”
Though he had picked my kids up from school before, I hadn’t allowed him to hang out with them again because I wanted to protect them, especially after what happened between me and their father.
But, as I stared up into his eyes, all of my reservations, worry, and stress, all of the responsibility that I was carrying softened all the way down to my bones.
I could recognize the difference between a man who liked you and a man who was claiming you.
I nodded. “Okay.”
He stepped in close, slid his hand to my waist, and pulled me into him like he needed the contact. He kissed me slowly, then rested his forehead against mine.
“You and them kids are mine to protect. Not because I own you. Because I love you.”
My eyes burned again. I held onto him and let myself feel it, let myself believe it. For the first time in a long time, love didn’t feel like something I had to beg for or bargain for. It felt like something being placed in my hands on purpose.