AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PROLOGUE
The winds whisperedas rain fell onto the dry land and soil. After a full day of threats, precipitation had finally arrived. Small, slow droplets preceded larger, more soundly droplets that were accompanied by roaring thunder. Gloom covered the skies, casting a gray sheet across Berkeley, and consuming me in the process.
“Talk to me. What’s the matter?” Anna’s silken skin caressed mine as her slim fingers ran the length of my arm.
Up and then down.
Up and then down again.
Communication was solace for us both, but on days I couldn’t find the words to express my feelings, she recognized my despair in my silence. I stirred, my hand still buried deep in her straightened hair as I looked past her and into the openness of our bedroom. Together, we lie in bed, side by side, with a tiny human between us.
Anna’s cami was lowered on the right side to expose her full, milky breast that our daughter drained with each pull of her cheeks. It had been the same for the last six months, a welcomed change that nearly made my chest burst at the thought.
Family. The one we’d created was everything I needed in this world. My girls were the consolation for the long nights, early mornings, blood, sweat, and tears throughout my lifetime. The reward was incomparable.
“Hmmm.” Groaning, I responded to her question. “Tell me more about this plan.”
“What’s bothering you, baby?” Laced with sugary goodness and all the right nutrients for my soul, her voice serenaded me each time she spoke.
And, like bees to honey, I clung to it, using it as my lifeline when my thoughts pushed me toward the ledge. One smile. One heart. One love. One body.One being. Anna was my person and had been since we were kids.
“If I knew,” I sighed, leaning forward, kissing her lips, “I’d tell you, but I don’t. There’s just this feeling… it’s stifling. Crippling, even. Its heaviness is weighing me down this morning.”
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with you promising the guys you’ll get out tonight, does it?”
“No, because I didn’t promise them anything. That was all you.”
“You didn’t?” Her perfectly sculpted brows creased as she forged her confusion.
Chuckling, I reminded her, “Don’t you remember using my phone to send the text?”
With pursed lips and swollen cheeks, she asked, “What phone? What text?”
“I see. I see.”
After kissing her lips, again, I drew back to give her space. This time, my eyes landed on the peppered ceiling that Anna had hand-painted, trying to place my feelings and find the words to express them. Not just for Anna, but for me, too.
“I don’t think the two are directly related. It’s something else. I just wish I knew.”
“Me, too, so that I can make it better,” she sighed. “You feel so… disconnected.”
“Not my intentions, baby.”
“I know. I just want you to worry me with whatever’s worrying you so you don’t have to sit in this funk alone. Let’s get in and out of it together, quickly.”
“Tell me more about our summers,” I said, encouraging her to continue reciting the vision she’d been building in her head.
“And retirement.”
“And retirement.” Repeating after her, I brushed back a loose strand of hair from her face.
Anna wore the simplest, most sophisticated style I thought a woman could rock. Or, maybe it was my woman that made the style so sophisticated with minimum effort. She had that ability. Her haughtiness was unintentional but she reeked of it, though she didn’t know it. I was partially to blame for it, too. We’d been together since we were children, and from the moment I touched my first pack, I spoiled her.
Anna was a well-kept woman but her keeping didn’t start in adulthood. As teens, there wasn’t anything her heart desired that I wouldn’t make happen for her and vice versa. She deserved it. Anna was the brains behind my operation. That bit of information was kept between the two of us. Whenever a decision needed to be made, it was her I consulted and confided in. She’d never steered me wrong.
A born genius and well-calculated woman, she rarely made ill choices. With both our brains and my hustle, we made the perfect team. And though she’d never run a business herself, she made a career of consulting and helping others make wise business decisions. She made good money that piled in her accounts unless she begged me to make purchases for special holidays. Otherwise, she was only to use the account I’d created especially for her leisure.
It lasted up until her pregnancy with Aussie, which was when I demanded she rested her body and her mind, preparing for the new life we were bringing into the world, along with the ones that were sure to come behind it.
