New Beginnings
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Lyric greeted me with a bowl of cut mangoes when I walked into her shop on Thursday, her eyes bright and her smile easy. One thing I’d learned in the week since shadowing her was that this girl liked to eat. And if she wasn’t making jewelry, she was eating. Or about to eat. Or planning what she was going to eat in the next hour.
There was no occasion too small for a snack.
Inventory? Snack.
Catching up on emails? Snack.
Printing shipping labels? A bigger snack.
And she wasalwaysin a sharing mood. I’d been anxious and hungry enough in the last week to appreciate that about her.
Right now, my period was turning me every which way but loose, but I guessed the alternative wasn’t one I wanted.Still, I couldn’t lie and say taking a nine-month hiatus from Aunt Flo hadn’t crossed my mind more than once in the last few weeks. Maybe that had just been my ovulating brain playing tricks on me.
There was something about the way Rico held us down that made me want to give him a baby. Something about the gentleness Soul showed all of us that made me want to be walking around growing his child. Something about the quiet comfort and love I got from Christian that kinda made me hope—andpray—it’d be twins.
We were making up for lost time and?—
“Girl, what the hell you get into last night that got you zoned out like this? You ain’t heard a word I said since you walked in here.”
My cheeks warmed more under her attention than they had in the sun earlier, and I couldn’t help but bite my lip. “Sorry, what’s up?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Her eyes tapered into playful slits. “You know what? I’d be looking like that too if I had three men to spoil me every day when I went home.”
There was nothing in her words I wanted to deny, so I grabbed the toothpick she offered and pierced the juicy fruit before bringing it to my mouth.
Our secret was pretty much out all over Onyx Cove.Everybodyknew.
Christian’s parents.
Soul’s brothers.
Mr. Tiny.
Ms. Tabitha at Soul’s gym.
Lyric.
Simeon.
Zay.
And not surprisingly, they all cited the same well-meaning but loose in the lips source: Edith Westbrook.
I didn’t know what it was about knowing her granddaughter had three boyfriends that made her want to go tell it on the mountain, but she wasn’t letting up.
It wasn’t like we’d been hiding it from anyone. We’d been outside all summer and all over each other while doing so.
For the most part, life kept moving. Minus a few good-natured jokes, nobody paid us and our quad any mind. Which made my mother’s blow up feel that much more out of pocket.
Eleven days and shestillwasn’t talking to me. Even after I knew she and Rico shared words at my grandmother’s house. It ate me up for a few days, but I was proud of myself for not fawning or reaching out to her.
And the more time passed, the easier it became.
Shaking away the thought, I looked around the shop and the natural light soaking every corner.
