Page 75 of The Cost of Love

“No.” Pushing me back, she steps around the island, putting space between us.

I stop for a moment, battling with what to say. I know I can support her in other ways, and I have been, but how can I not offer up this solution to all of her problems?

“Why not?”

She levels me with a gaze that is equal parts sassy and tired.

“Despite the many reasons I have already given you, if we break up, then me and the kids will be homeless without notice. It’s too much of a risk to rely on you financially. A man is not a plan.”

“Do you really think I would just throw you out or stop paying?”

She shrugs, and I try not to feel offended.

“People change. What if I do something to hurt you, and you become petty? Even if you don’t, what reason would you have to keep paying if we broke up?” Even though she doesn’t really like the wine, she pours a glass and downs half of it. The last thing I want to do is stress her out more.

“What if I pay for the full year upfront? I can do that every year you live there, so no matter what, you have the place even when we break up.”

Her eyes widen, and she steps back, throwing her hands up. “That’s crazy. That’s so much money.”

“That’s a compromise for what I really want to do, which is to outright buy you a place. In your name, of course.”

She laughs now, clearly on the verge of hysterics. “This is insanity. You know that, right?”

“Think about it. Even if you stay for only a year, you have time to save up for rent, and a safety blanket. You can get to a point where you don’t need to take the offer unless you want to.” Tired of being so far apart, I move around the island and pull her into my arms again. “Say, yes.” Kissing her forehead, I let the smell of coconut wafting from her hair sink into me and settle my own nerves. My hope for her is making me nervous.

“Sometimes I feel like you do way more for me than I do for you.” She sighs the words, and I can hear the worry in her voice.

“I was prepared to be miserable for the rest of my life until I met you. You don’t know what you do for me.”

Her eyes meet mine, a resolute look in them. With a simple nod, she finally agrees to let me help.

“Now that we have that out of the way, you don’t have a reason not to go with me to this event.”

“Fine.” She throws her hands up and stomps back towards the kitchen, but before she can get in there, I wrap her in my arms and drag her towards the bedroom instead.

After tasting almost every part of her skin, I get to hold her naked body flush to mine. She is so soft and silky, and the heat radiating off of her makes me never want to let go. Tonight I don’t have to.

She turns in my arms to face me, her fingers trailing from my brows to my nose. Stopping at the part where it curves in a way it shouldn’t, she looks at me with the question in her eyes. It’s one I get all of the time. A boxer’s nose on a private school kid doesn’t add up.

“My sister’s ex-fiancé hit me, surprisingly hard.” I chuckle. “Granted, I hit him first a few times, enough to leave my own damage, but I didn’t think he would get one in.”

“Why did you fight?”

I sit up on one elbow and lean back a little to see her more clearly. This is a story I want to watch her take in. “My sister Olivia is disowned from our family. She left her soon-to-be husband for her assistant Mei, a week before the wedding.”

She gasps, but then a hint of a smile pokes through. “Damn,” she says.

“Yeah, well, her being a good girl who never ran around with boys had less to do with her caring about her reputation and more to do with the fact that she is a lesbian.”

This causes her to laugh.

“She told her fiancé first, thinking it was the decent thing to do. Even though he is a piece of shit. Well, he hit her, and only stopped because she was able to lock herself in the bathroom. That’s when she called me.”

Her forehead tenses, and I imagine her thinking about Imani or Gabby being in that situation. Every day, she fights to keep them safe, and much like I did, she would dread the moment she wasn’t able to. She grabs my free hand and squeezes.

“When I knocked, he thought I had come to reason with her. I punched him so hard that he hit the floor. I did it a few more times before I realized he wasn’t fighting back. After he stood up, I thought he was going to leave, but when I went to step past him, he hit me. After that, I lost control. It wasn’t until Liv called my name that I stopped.” Reliving that moment, all I feel is pride.

“I got my sister and left, thinking that was going to be the end of it. She wanted to set my nose, but by the time I got her calm, it was no longer a priority.”