Page 39 of Yours, Now and Always
Colin’s leaning against the counter beside me, arms folded, watching the whole thing in the same way one would watch a scientific case study. He likes Gage. I know that. But Colin doesn’t rush in like Tim. He watches and waits. Makes sure.
He hasn’t said it out loud, but I know what he’s doing. Logging data. Watching Gage move through my life. He’s not looking for a reason to doubt it. He’s just making sure I was right to bet my forever on this.
Tim eyes the glittery sticker on the jam jar that reads:MARIN’S. DO NOT OPEN UNLESS ENERGETICALLY READY.“You labeling jam now, Black?”
“Wasn’t me,” Gage says, still focused on assembling cheese. “It came that way.”
“You get extra parmesan?”
Gage eyes him. “You think I’d forget yours and your sister’s love of parmesan? There’s enough in the fridge to feed you both for a week.”
“That’s what I thought,” Tim says, awe in his voice. “I, for one, am ready to crown you a Sinclair.”
I bite down on a laugh and immediately tear up. I’m already emotionally unstable and it’s not even 1 p.m.
The side door swings open, and Gage’s brothers join us. They’ve been settling into their cottages and out walking the property. Doing whatever it is Black brothers do when they’rerelaxing together. Probably talking football. And just letting the quiet do what it does out here.
Callan’s first, beelining for the bread basket. “Smells like Marin’s casting something.”
“Only blessings,” she says. “Unless someone touches the moon jam without permission.”
Yes, Marin loves her jam. She got the moon jam from Bloom & Bury, the flower shop in Avelen Hollow. Well, kind of a flower shop. It’s also a little witchy. And maybe sentient. The same shop Gage collected the fig jam from this morning.
Ms. Rosewood runs it. She wears all black linen and talks like she once dated the moon. Marin dragged me there the time she came with me to Blackbriar and said I needed to pick a flower that resonated with my heart wound. I told her I didn’t have one. Ms. Rosewood looked at me for all of five seconds and then handed me a dried peony and said, “For the part of you that’s still learning how to be loved gently.”
So now I go once a week and pretend it’s for the tea.
The jam came wrapped in velvet with a handwritten note about “lunar vibration and soft closures.” I don’t know what’s in it. Marin says it’s safe but also told me only to eat it if I’m in the right emotional state. Since I’ve no idea what the right emotional state actually is, I’ve made peace with never tasting it.
Ethan looks at Marin. “What the hell is moon jam?”
“It’s grief in fruit form, obviously,” she says, likewhy wouldn’t you know that.
“Right,” he says, looking even more confused. “Obviously.”
“It’s made under a waning moon,” she elaborates, “and blessed with rose quartz for soft grief extraction. Don’t touch it unless you’re emotionally fluent or spiritually flame-retardant.”
Ethan stares at her for a beat, then grins, wide and easy, like she just told him something important. “Yeah, okay,” he says. “I can respect that. That’s jam’s doing shadow work.”
Then he glances at Gage, still grinning, and adds softly under his breath, “Your people are intense.”
Gage, completely unfazed, just carries on with what he’s doing. Which is scanning the room, silently taking inventory of who’s arrived and what they might need.
Bradford walks a slow lap around the kitchen island, inspecting all the food. He zeroes in on the truffle honey, picking up the spoon with the confidence of a man who plans to enjoy this and apologize to no one for eating it.
Before he can sample it, Kristen walks in and is suddenly beside him, one brow arched. “You’re not actually going to eat that now, are you?”
“I was just inspecting the flavor profile,” he says smoothly.
“Mmhmm.” She plucks the spoon from his hand. “Don’t play cute, senator. I’ve seen this game before. You’ll eat half the damn jar before lunch.”
His lips twitch as if he wants to argue with her. But that’s not it at all because the look in his eyes says something very different. It’s love. Easy, open, deeply amused love. It says he’d let her steal the spoon and every single comeback from his mouth every damn time and still thank her for it.
Ethan shakes his head, grinning again. “Man, you are so gone for her. It’s honestly inspiring.”
“Inspiring?” Callan snorts. “It’s borderline alarming. Bradford folds the second Kristen eventhinksabout raising an eyebrow.”
“I value my life,” Bradford says, completely unruffled. “And my marriage.”
