Page 35

Story: Just Right

“She’s breathing,” I reported dryly. This moment felt a little too much like déjà vu. Except this time Sincere was holding on to our thief like she was the missing piece of him.

Sincere always woke up before everybody in the house no matter how late he went to sleep. It took him forever to fall asleep at night and he was allergic to sleeping in.Hewas the reason I’d been workshopping an insomnia tea for the past two months.

And here he was, sitting damn near upright and still knocked out at 9 o’clock.

“What the hell was in that moonshine?” Enzo whispered, tilting his head to study Goldyn.

“Moonshine, nigga.”

“I know butdamn.” He paused, shaking his head. “Sin texted me saying he was staying down here until she fell asleep after her shower, but that was nine hours ago. Do you think this means she agrees to be our girlfriend?”

“Look at them and you tell me,” I said, ignoring the tug in my chest.

Between Sin’s infatuation and Enzo’s fascination with Goldyn, I swore I was the only sane one left.

It wasn’t like I was blindsided though. The talk we had at dinner last night made sure of it. The talk where they told me that even though they wanted Goldyn, they’d pull back if I wasn’t comfortable with having someone new around after all this time of it just being the three of us. The talk where they told me no matter how awkward it was, they’d call off this thing with Goldyn if I didn’t feel comfortable. The same talk where I lied and told them I was fine and that she didn’t make me uncomfortable.

It wasn’t a complete lie. Goldyn didn’t make me uncomfortable, but she did disrupt my equilibrium and I was still trying to figure out exactlywhythat was.

Luckily, now that she’d obviously accepted their offer, it would be easier to ignore the random jolts I felt whenever she was near. Every time she got close to me, it was like a static shock of awareness assaulted my senses. I didn’t like that shit.

But I knew her dating Sin and Enzo would be the cure. The women they dated were automatically off-limits to me. It was an unwritten rule I’d always forced myself to abide by. My indifference was just taking longer than usual to set in.

When I snapped out of my thoughts, I caught Lorenzo holding up his phone to get a picture of them from above.

I scoffed at him when he put it back in his pocket. “Why are you taking pictures of them?”

Enzo gave a nonchalant shrug but the smile on his face told me everything I needed to know. “I don’t know. It’s kinda cute. I haven’t seen Sin like this with anybody but me in a long time.”

“Y’alljustmet her. And am I the only one who remembers she broke into our house?” I whispered.

Lorenzo tossed me a scathing look, but playfulness lit his eyes. “Sometimes I forget how much of a fucking brat you are.”

I wasn’t a brat. I just liked structure and I could already see that flying out the window if she stuck around.

“And it doesn’t matter if we remember because you’re gonna remind us every other hour,” He followed up, his tone unfazed. “It’s been six days, by the way. We met her on Tuesday and it’s Sunday now. And you know we did a thorough check on her. You’re the one who helped me with that.”

He was right.

And everything she’d told Sincere voluntarily had shown up in her report.

No parents.

Raised by her grandmother.

Degree in Hospitality.

Two years traveling and dancing on the road.

She wasn’t a criminal. People around town loved her. There was no reason for me to be this apprehensive. And yet…

I forced the retort on the tip of my tongue away. If I didn’t leave soon, I was gonna be late getting to the farmer’s market to set up. For the first time in two years, neither Lottie nor my back up could make it, so I had to man the booth all day.

It was like Goldyn jinxed me by saying she never saw me at my booth.

“Y’all can’t whisper for shit. And why are you watching me sleep?”

Lorenzo flinched at the sound of Sincere’s groggy voice and both our heads snapped in that direction.