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“Hi, baby,” she said with a radiant smile, leaning down to kiss me. Our lips brushed in a sweet kiss before she stared at me with unguarded emotion covering her face. Her hand caressed my jaw as she sighed and turned her attention to Rome. “Hey, lover.”

“Hey, G. You okay?” he asked, the emotion in his voice thick and heavy with concern.

Goldyn paused to think for a second and sighed wearily. “For the most part yea. Got an MRI but won’t have the results until next week, but the ultrasound was productive.”

Before we could ask what that meant, Lorenzo walked in, tucking his shades into the open collar of his shirt.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he approached and he smirked when he noticed my attention pinned on him.

Goldyn scooted into her place across from Rome and grabbed his hand over the table while Enzo bent to kiss me.

“We fucking missed you today,” he said roughly, gripping my jaw to deepen the kiss. I would’ve been self-conscious about thechili and cheese clinging to my breath if he didn’t lick into my mouth like I was his favorite flavor.

Enzo pulled away with a groan and gave Romeo a quiet nod in greeting, sitting down beside Goldyn.

Romeo and Goldyn were having their own hushed conversation, so I focused my attention on my husband. “How’d it go?” I asked.

“So many damn tests.” He shook his head, scrubbing a hand down his darkly-stubbled face. “I was more anxious than her. I don’t know if I can do that shit again. By the time we got to the pharmacy after the appointment, she was trying to calm me down.”

I shot him a sympathetic smile, knowing exactly what he meant. All three of us were fucked up when it came to Goldyn. Romeo was the most extreme which was exactly why he’d been left at home today. But I wasn’t far behind him. None of us liked the idea of her suffering and not being able to do anything about it.

Pushing my fries across the table, I motioned for Enzo to eat. If the rigid set of his shoulders was any indication, I knew he’d been just like Rome all day and wound too tight to feed himself.

Quietly, he started eating and I let my eyes roam over everybody at the table. All the people I adored in one place. The man I gave my last name. The woman who felt like home. And my best friend who was the mirror to my soul.

I flagged down the waitress and ordered more food for the table before I let my eyes rest on them again. Especially the woman who turned out to be the perfect missing piece for all of us.

Because of Goldyn, I was finally taking my baking seriously. When we met, I knew right away that I would do anything to help make her dreams come true. But I didn’t know she’d end up doing the same for me. She was my partner in more ways thanone, lifting me up and pushing me to do things I’d shied away from for too long.

We were in the middle of designing the bakery connected to her store together, and every day I got to work on that, more of my former insecurities were laid to rest.

Loving the people at this table and letting them love me in return had given me everything.

JUNE...AGAIN

“I can’t even get my lashes on!” I groaned, turning my back to the mirror. I was two seconds away from sliding down the side of the vanity when my eyes snagged on a pair already trained on me.

“Hi, Baby,” I cooed, crouching down to scratch between my dog’s ears.

A few months after she was born, Sincere went to collect her from Ms. Ruby’s house and brought the Pit bull home to me.

He’d remembered my drunken confession about wanting a dog once I settled down, and I’d cried so hard holding her for the first time. Yes, I’d always wanted a damn dog. But it was more than that. Getting her meant I was gonna be here for a while. I had a home. A permanent place to exist with three men who loved me unconditionally. The puppy was just the icing on top.

She was almost a year old now and stared up at me with her little head cocked and her eyes focused so intently on me it tugged at my heart.

“I can just stay home with you and watchBraxton Family Values.”

“You tryna flake on us, mamas?” Lorenzo popped up in the doorway, leaning against it as he stared at me with adoring eyes.

I had yet to get accustomed to the way he snuck up on me when I was lost in my head.

Lorenzo was always there. My constant in the midst of everything else in my life changing. He was so sure of himself and his place in this world that it was infectious, sneaking under my skin and branding me with a renewed confidence in whatever I was doing.

“Maybe,” I mumbled, tossing the tube of lash glue on the counter behind me.

“You know I’m not letting you do that.” He walked into the bathroom we shared with Sincere, his electrifying presence crowding the space in a way it usually didn’t.

Baby shuffled two steps to the side, refusing to move out of my orbit. A smile quirked my lips. I loved my little velcro bestie.