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I looked at him. “You got me flowers.”

He kissed his teeth. “Don’t tell Yoli.”

I laughed. “She already knows, doesn’t she?”

“Unfortunately.”

“That explains why she been texting me smiley faces all afternoon.”

“I hate that woman,” he groused.

“No, you don’t,” I teased.

“Nah, I don’t.”

The familiarity in his voice warmed me. Saadiq had a lot of people around him, but I was beginning to understand that there were only a handful he truly trusted to get close. Yoli had obviously earned that place a lifetime ago. I slipped my hand into his.

“You even got the baby’s breath right in the arrangement this time.”

His shoulders lifted. “I had some help or whatever.”

I kissed my teeth. “Some?”

“Apple, you gon’ sit down or keep interrogating me?”

“Thank you,” I said suddenly, kissing his chest.

His expression changed. “For what?”

“For this. For today. Yesterday. All of it, really.” I looked around at the beach before my eyes returned to him. “For making me laugh. For letting me relax. For sharing this side of you.”

He lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, shorty.”

Lord, I was beginning to believe him.

I kicked off my sandals and sank onto the blanket. Saadiq sat across from me and started pulling containers from a large, insulated basket. Grilled snapper, jerk shrimp, rice, vegetables, fresh fruit, and little individual lemon cakes appeared one after another. I stared at the spread then at him.

“Were you planning to feed a family?”

“You don’t eat enough.”

I rolled my eyes. “Here we go.”

“I’m serious.”

“I tell you all the time I eat. Hell, you can’t tell?” I asked patting one, not-slim thigh.

“I tell you all the time you pick at food.”

“That’s portion control.”

He looked at me skeptically. “Taking six bites and saying you full?”

“I can’t help that.”

He paused whatever he was doing with the food to look at me again. “I know.”

That stopped me. There was no judgment in his tone. And when he fixed my plate, he put a little of everything onto it instead of piling it high. That was so sweet to me.