Salvatore holds out his glass and Cassius fills it. “Good. You’re a mean drunk. Ginevra is still terrified of you.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Where are the soup dumplings?”
Soup dumplings are Lorenzo’s favorite. I find them in the bag and pass them over, along with the rest of his order, a box of Singapore noodles.
As we eat, we discuss new developments in our quadrants until conversation dwindles. Inevitably, talk turns to our sisters but I don’t want that tonight. I think we need to put that behind us for now and think about the future.
I nudge Lorenzo with my elbow. “Tell them about your idea.”
He raises a brow at me. “Really? I thought you thought it was stupid.”
Not stupid, but it’s strange and caught me off guard. “Tell them anyway.”
Lorenzo shoves a soup dumpling into his mouth, chews for a moment and then starts to speak around it. “The four of us, all in a relationship with the same woman. That’s the idea.”
“Are you sure you’re not drunk?” Cassius asks.
“I’m stone-cold sober.”
Salvatore shoots me a look. Is he?
I nod. “It sounded crazy when he told me about it the other day. It still does, but sharing Coldlake is crazy, and that seems to be working.”
Lorenzo hunts through his noodles with his chopsticks. “It’s going to get fucking lonely if I don’t share a woman with someone. I can’t imagine being in a relationship without the three of you.”
“Figure it out, because I’m not going to fuck you,” Cassius says.
“Vinicius already did that.”
I choke on my wine and nearly spit it up. I assumed Lorenzo would be one of those I’ll fuck you, but don’t tell my friends kind of men.
Salvatore grins at me. “Did you two finally have sex? About time.”
A hot feeling steals over me, halfway between a blush and a glow of pleasure. I dart a look at Lorenzo who has a smile playing over his lips. An affectionate smile. A moment later it’s gone, but it was there.
“Congratulations on fucking,” Cassius deadpans. “Now explain your crazy plan or I’m changing the subject.”
“If I had a woman, I’d always be worrying that she was in danger the second she was out of my sight. Wouldn’t you?”
The three of us glance at each other. None of us deny it.
“This place is secure. If I left a woman here and went out, I’d feel okay about it, but women don’t stay where you put them.” Annoyance flickers over his face. “They want to go out. They want to see their friends, their family. She goes off by herself, and then the next thing you know, she’s fucking dead. She might have a baby with her, she might be pregnant, and then they’re dead, too. I’m not fucking doing that again.”
He drops his box of noodles and chopsticks onto the coffee table with a clatter and shoves his hands through his hair.
Bleak silence fills the room. Salvatore and Cassius look at each other, and then at me.
“Think of it this way,” Lorenzo mutters. “I don’t want the whole of Coldlake. I want to share this city with the people I trust. And I want the same with a woman, too.”
Salvatore sits back, his eyes narrowed as he considers this. “Maybe I’m drunk, because that almost makes sense.”
Cassius swirls the wine in his glass. “What would she be like? What kind of woman is going to suit all our tastes?”
“What crazy woman is going to look at Cassius and Lorenzo and decide she wants both of them?” I ask.
“We’re not that different,” Lorenzo says with a shrug.
“That’s the problem. You’re both assholes.”
Lorenzo gives me the finger.
“What about sex?” Cassius asks. “Would we take turns, or would we all have sex with her at the same time?”
A heated smile spreads over Salvatore’s face. “All at the same time? Fuck, I hope so. Can you imagine?”
There’s a short silence as we picture it. Vividly.
“I want someone clever,” I say. “Someone I can teach a few tricks, and who can teach me a few tricks, too. I want to walk down the street with the four of us flanking her and feel so fucking lucky that we have her.”
“Someone classy,” Salvatore says. “Someone who’s strong and understands family and loyalty.”
Cassius thinks. “Someone sweet. I miss sp—” He breaks off and clears his throat. He misses spoiling someone like he spoiled his little sister. Cassius acts gruff and severe, but he’s got the softest heart of all of us.
“Someone screwed up,” Lorenzo says.
“Don’t stick your dick in crazy,” Salvatore replies.
“Not that sort of screwed up. Someone who’s been through some shit so she won’t fall to pieces when we put her through it, too.”
“You’re not going to torture the poor girl,” I tell him.
“Not on purpose. Well, not much. But she’s going to see some shit just by being with us.”
He’s not wrong there. I muse on our list of requirements. “Clever, strong, classy, sweet, loyal, screwed up. Does such a woman even exist in Coldlake? The world?”
Salvatore looks from one of us to the next, his eyes bright. “I don’t know. We could be waiting a year to find her. Two years. Maybe ten years, but when we do, we’ll all know that we’ve found the right one.”
Someone we all want, and who wants us, too. Someone for all of us.
A woman who’s worth the wait.
Present day
I press my mouth against Lorenzo’s. A slow, heated kiss, our tongues tangled together. Sunlight from the big windows in my loft spills over us. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me closer and deepens the kiss.
How is this real? We don’t have the right to be this happy.
In the next room, the baby starts to cry. I’m in such a good mood that the piercing wails make me smile. That’s my son. Listen to the lungs on him.
“I’ll go,” I murmur between kisses, but Lorenzo pats my shoulder and gets to his feet. He heads into the next room and comes back with Vitali in his arms.
“What a little screamer you are,” he murmurs, kissing the baby’s forehead. “Is it time for your feed?”
I glance at the clock. Chiara won’t be home for another ten minutes, but Vitali’s impatient today. “I’ll make him a bottle.”
Before I can get to my feet, I hear footsteps on the stairs and Chiara pushes the front door open. She’s dressed in leggings and a black crop top and her cheeks are flushed from exercise. She dumps her gym bag on the floor and hurries over to the baby, her arms outstretched.
“Baby, baby, baby, I’m here. Did you miss Mommy?”
She settles down with him in her arms. As soon as she starts to breastfeed him, he quietens down.
Lorenzo settles his back against me as we watch her. I play with a strand of his hair as Chiara nurses our son. All I’ve ever wanted, right here.
“How was the gym?” Lorenzo asks her.
She puffs her cheeks out. “Exhausting. Cassius is such a beast.”
She’s not wrong. I’ve been working out with him too and he’s as punishing as a personal trainer. “Does he shout at you that you’re a miserable worm when you complain your legs are rubber and your arms are like cooked noodles and you can’t go on?”