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Rounding the corner into the living room, I first found Marco kicked back on the couch. He tipped his head to the piano, where Julien and Zadie were side by side, playing together. When she discovered he was the pianist of the house, she’d begged him to let her play our piano. Since neither Marco nor I especially appreciated his music, he’d been giddy to share it with her.
My girl turned her head, the grin that was already on her face brightening. I stood there as she sang about training wheels, moving her fingers over the keys without looking. Julien’s floated over the keys like butterflies. From my uneducated ear, he had mad talent. He’d played for as long as I’d known him. Zadie, of course, sang and played like an angel. Watching her and my best friend happy, making music, my other best friend enjoying the sounds, soothed the bitter, angry mood I was in.
I couldn’t say I didn’t have an ounce of jealousy boiling in my blood. That wouldn’t be true. But I trusted the two of them, so I let it slide and allowed their friendship to cement. I planned on having Julien as a part of my life until we went to the grave, and with the way Zadie had reached into my chest and wrapped her soft little hand around my heart, she just might be there too.
The song came to an end with a dramatic pounding on the keys from Julien. I stuck two fingers in my mouth to whistle my appreciation. Marco gave a slow clap from his place on the couch.
Laughing, Zadie hopped up from the bench and threw herself at me. I caught her, pulling her into my chest, needing her soft more than I realized. I shoved my nose in her hair, taking in her berries and rain and the silk of her curls.
“Hi,” she murmured against my chest.
“Hey, mama. You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
Julien got up from the bench with his arms outstretched. “Don’t I get a hug too?”
I cocked my head at Marco. “He looks lonely over there. Go ask him.”
Julien bolted across the room and launched himself into Marco’s lap. Marco shoved him off, sending Julien sprawling to the ground. Zadie swiveled in my arms when he knocked the coffee table onto its side.
“He’s impervious to damage,” I told her. “He falls, and he bounces. Been that way since he was a toddler.”
Julien sprung up and took a bow. “I think I stuck the landing.”
“Fucking aces, man,” Marco agreed.
I buried my nose in Zadie’s hair again. “What’s cooking in the kitchen, mama?”
“I’m roasting garlic right now. In a little bit, Marco and I are going to make risotto.”
I turned her around to face me again, holding her shoulders. “Marco? As in the Marco who lives in this house? The kid who can’t make toast?”
She nodded, grinning. “That Marco. He claims he can’t cook, so I told him I’d teach him. When I get back from Oregon, we’re conquering salmon.”
“Have you domesticated us? Is that what’s happening here?”
She gave an innocent shrug, but I saw through her. Zadie wasn’t required to cook for us anymore, but she still did a few times a week because she liked it. What she didn’t do was change my sheets. I’d learned my girl could hold a grudge, and every so often, she brought up my slutty sheets, even though she was the only one who’d been in them in alongtime. So I changed them now, and she watched.
Utterly domesticated. It came with copious blow jobs, a plump ass parked on my dick pretty much any time I wanted it, and a sweet girl who touched my face as she was falling asleep, so I wasn’t even complaining.
I pulled Zadie into the kitchen, backed her into a cabinet, and took her mouth. She responded immediately, curling her arms around my neck and rising on her toes so she could get to me. Lips parting, she invited me inside, and I went, sucking on her tongue and lips, licking her mouth. I’d needed this, to sip from her sweetness, drink her nectar, remind me of what was vital.
“Mama…you taste too good,” I rumbled against her lips.
“I like when you taste me like that.”
“Can’t get enough.” I took a breath, staring down at her. “I’m going to take you dancing tomorrow.”
“Okay.” She blinked up at me like she was trying to remember where she was. She got that look when I kissed her for a long time. She lost her sense of place and time entirely. This fucking girl. “The same place? I loved that night.”
“No.” I took her chin between my fingers. “We’ll go back when there’s rain in the forecast. Need to get caught in the rain with you again.”
She huffed a laugh. “We could just have Julien spray us with the hose.”
My forehead wrinkled. “You want him being there when I fuck you?”
She shook her head fast. “No, I do not. I’d never be able to look at him again.”
I grinned at her, my shy Zadie, only wild for me. “I’m taking you to a club. Gonna show you off.”
