Page 70 of Bae

“Your cake is here.” I lifted a silver lid off a small plate to reveal a giant-ass piece of cake dripping in chocolate.

She came over and poured herself a mug of coffee and added cream and sugar. I flipped off the lid on my plate, which held a huge steak, a pile of roasted vegetables, and a skewer of grilled jumbo shrimp.

“C’mon. I’ll share with ya,” I told her and lifted the plate to get back in bed.

“I’m not that hungry,” she said, sipping at the coffee.

I scrutinized her as I sat and shoved a shrimp in my mouth, patting the mattress beside me. It pleased me when she picked up the cake and a fork and joined me. The plate filled with chocolate rested on the bed in front of her drawn-up legs, the mug cradled in her palms.

“Romeo?” she asked quietly.

“Hmm?”

“Do you think it’s disloyal to Evie to try and have another baby?”

I set down the fork and then the plate, turning to her. “I think your heart is so big we could have ten kids and you’d love them all equally as much, including the one who isn’t here.”

“Really?”

“You keep bringing home dogs, ugly ones at that, and you love them all just as much as Murphy,” I quipped.

“Ralph is not ugly. He’s unique,” she scolded.

Sure was. Uniquely ugly.

“It’s not disloyal, baby,” I said instead of arguing about the R’s attractiveness. “You know how I feel about loyalty. Especially where family’s concerned. We won’t ever forget about Evie.”

She nodded. “Valerie said something similar.”

The shrimp between my fingers paused midway to my mouth. “My mother?”

Her eyes crinkled around the corners with her smile. “I went to see her earlier this week. We talked.”

I threw the shrimp back onto my plate and pressed the back of my hand to her forehead. “You feeling okay?” I joked. “First you get into a brawl at the game, and now you tell me you went to visit my mother.”

She wagged her eyebrows at me. “We had tea.”

I gasped dramatically, then went back to eating the shrimp. I was starving. “You for real went to see my mother?”

She nodded, setting aside the coffee. “I thought she might understand how I felt better than most people…” Her voice faded away.

She was right. If anyone understood exactly what Rim was going through, it would be my mother. I’d always hoped someday they would find a way to move past all the shit Mom did, but this wasn’t the way I would’ve chosen for them to do it. Maybe this was a silver lining in the otherwise black cloud that hung over us.

I took her hand and laced our fingers together, silently offering support.

“How did it go?” I asked, slightly wary.

“Really good. Just hearing what I was feeling was valid and normal from someone who’d been there really shifted something inside me.”

“In a good way?”

She nodded. “I feel stronger now.”

Her words cut me even though I knew that was the last thing she intended. I felt like shit I hadn’t known she was still blaming herself and fearful of losing another child. “I wish it had been me that made you feel stronger.”

Her fingers tightened around mine. “I wouldn’t have been able to get to this point if it weren’t for you. I never thought anyone could ever love me the way you do, Romeo. I truly thought it wasn’t possible. But you do.”

“I’ll never stop,” I vowed.

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