Cashmere slowly sat up, exposing her bare chest. He wanted to reach out and pinch her nipple, but he refrained because he could tell she was deep in thought. Finally, she spoke with her voice low and calculated.
“I have been thinking about selling my house. The thought of going back there . . .” She shuddered.
Savio rubbed her thigh. “I understand. Trust me.”
“It’s hard though. I love my home. It pisses me off that Ivoree ruined it for me, you know? And then I feel guilty for being mad at her. It’s like there’s a war inside me and there’s no winning side.”
“You know that shit is just gonna take time, right? Like, part of me gets mad at Twizz, too, but I give myself grace. I try to anyway.”
Cashmere’s brows rose. “Why do you get mad at him?”
“Because he died. Because he tried to save me instead of thinking of himself. Because I don’t have more time.”
“That’s different.” Cashmere shook her head.
Savio didn’t take offense to her statement. “What I mean is those emotions are gonna take time to even out. It’s okay to be mad at your sister, just like it’s okay to still love her.”
Cashmere sat in thought for a moment. “You don’t use her name anymore. You know . . . I understand you being mad at her too. I feel like you hold it in, but you don’t have to. I’m not the same person who used to run up every excuse when it came to Vee. She was imperfect and insane.” She chuckled dryly.
Savio thought about what she said. He hadn’t even peeped that he no longer called Ivoree by her name, but Cashmere was right. He only ever referred to her asher sisteranymore. The thought of her boiled his blood. It was a super fine line to walk, being in love with Twizz’s killer.
“I hate her. I hate what she did to Twizz. To me. To you.” He lifted Cashmere’s chin. “But that ain’t somethin’ I’ll ever burden you wit’. I never want you to think it’s your fault.”
Cashmere looked like she was about to argue, and then her shoulders sagged. “You know I want you to be good, just like you want me to, right? I know I checked out for a while there, but your feelings matter.”
Savio pulled her into him and kissed her lips. “Thank you for saying that. I love you, woman.”
“I love you, too, Sav.” Silence engulfed them once again. After several minutes, Cashmere said, “Let’s do it.”
“Do what?” Savio asked. He had almost fallen back asleep before she spoke, so his brain took a minute to catch back up to the conversation.
“Move. Let’s move here. I can commute. We can make it work. It’s only like, what, an hour away?”
Savio was wide awake now as happiness surged within him. “You for real?”
Seeing his happiness caused Cashmere to giggle. That sound had been such a rarity lately that he wished he could bottle it up and put it in his pocket.
“Yeah. I love it here. It’s peaceful and reminds me that not everything has to be about work or . . .”
“Your sister?” he asked, taking a guess at what she was about to say.
She nodded. “Yeah. I would love to live here with you.”
“You know that means we go together real, real bad now, right?” Savio grinned.
She rolled her eyes. “Been that.”
“Glad you finally caught up. You would really trade your million-dollar home for this small one?”
She nodded with no hesitation. “Absolutely. Besides, we can always build on to this house if we wanted.”
She was right. He owned the entire private beach. They could build their own million-dollar home right here.
“I love you,” he muttered as he pulled her in for another kiss. He felt real happiness for the first time in weeks, and it was all because of her.
“I love you more.” She grinned when they pulled apart from the kiss.
“Then marry me.” He hadn’t meant for the words to tumble out like that, but he meant them.
