AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Again, they waited for me to start before eating.
I’d never experienced males who were so doting. Not forced, either. No staccato movements or second guesses about what they were doing. It came naturally to them, being with a mate or a potential mate. They knew how to treat a female. Made sense, of course. They had been mated before.
“I know you’ve had a long day, but there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you,” I started.
“We’re open books, Haven,” Collyn asserted. “Ask us anything. That’s the reason we’re here.”
“How did your mate die?” I cringed hearing the question come out of my mouth, but they were right. We were here together to be transparent, to know each other and if it were to become a significant relationship, then we had to know the good and the bad about each other. But that question was so bald. “Actually, can you start with how you met her?”
Collyn crossed his arms over his chest. “We met Sela on a Wednesday. I remember because I had a job interview that day with the company I’m with now, and they only interviewed on Wednesdays. Fitz and I were headed to the grocery store and we bumped into her cart with ours.”
They both had smiles on their faces. “Accidentally?” I prompted.
Fitz cracked up. “No. Totally on purpose. We were less than smooth back then.”
“I can’t imagine,” I mumbled.
He shook his head. “Things went fast after that. We were mated and marked within a week. We knew she was sick when we mated with her. We tried to help. Took her to the best healers in the country. They said it was rare but happened to females sometimes. No cure. No relief for her pain. No hope. A month after that, she was gone.”
Collyn patted Fitz on the back. “It was hard watching her suffer. We did everything we could for her—even bought her some not-so-legal things to help with the pain, but it only took the edge off.” He balled his fists on the table. “We watched her wither away, totally incapable of doing a damned thing to stop it.”
“Do you have a picture of her?” I asked.
“Of course.” Collyn took out his phone and showed me a few images. The woman he showed me was nothing short of breathtaking. She had long, shiny brown hair and deep-brown eyes to match. Other than the length of the hair, we were opposites.
“She’s gorgeous. Such a beautiful smile.”
They both nodded. “It killed us to lose her. We have been surviving since then.”
I wanted to reach for them. Get up and tug them both into my arms, little as they were, and give them some of the comfort they’d given so freely to me. “How long has she been gone?”
There was no stopping the tears already welling in my eyes. The pain in the room was palpable, their memories of her filling up the room with a stagnant air.
“Four years. Seems like a decade and yet, sometimes, like yesterday.” Fitz picked up our bowls and started the water.
“She was blessed to have been loved by the both of you,” I said and noticed how late it was. Shit. What a time to have to get back to work when all I wanted was to stay with them and do whatever it took to take their sadness away.
“Thank you. She’s the reason we believe we can love again,” Collyn added.
Chapter Fourteen
Collyn
We’d talked and shared with Haven into the night and after a while, she said the work she had wanted to get to could be handled the next day.
Haven listened to us talk about Sela as though she knew her. The tears in her eyes and the sentiments she shared were genuine and sincere. For some reason, I assumed Haven wouldn’t want to talk about our late mate. I thought maybe there would be some sense of rivalry, or she would try to ban us from talking about her.
Perhaps I’d been watching too many movies. Keeping Haven up into the wee hours of the morning had become something of a habit. Our conversation flowed with ease. I felt like there was nothing in the world I couldn’t tell her.
The least I could do the next morning was to help Fitz make her breakfast. She was ours. I was sure of it, but I honestly didn’t know how we could possibly add to her life, and I mentioned it to Fitz as he made her a quick breakfast sandwich and I put her coffee, tons of sugar and creamers, according to her wishes, in a travel cup.
“Maybe we should ask her. Otherwise, our thoughts are going to go wild, and we’ll start thinking up reasons that make no sense. Or worse, reasons we shouldn’t be here at all.”
We both looked up, hearing footsteps coming down the stairs. They were light and lively, much like our mate. Yeah, I called her mate in my mind already. Hopefully the sentiment wouldn’t pop out of my mouth sooner than intended.
“Good morning,” Haven said, her words half muffled. She sat on the bottom step and had her jacket in her mouth while putting on some tall black peep-toe heels. Sela had taught us all about women’s shoes. She’d taught us so many things. “I’m late.”
I took the jacket from her and helped her get into it while Fitz brought over her bag, her purse, and her breakfast, along with the coffee. “Drive safely, okay?” I said, running my hands down the front of her jacket and winking at her. The gesture had made her blush the night before.
