Nydia went completely still. She hadn’t missed the iciness in Lamar’s voice. And she knew what she was about to ask him would either make him turn the car around or continue to the restaurant as planned.
“Are you celibate?”
Lamar’s stone-faced expression changed like a snake shedding its skin when the corners of his mouth lifted before his lips parted in a smile. “Well, damn, woman. You truly aren’t subtle about saying what comes to your mind.”
She smiled. It was apparent he wasn’t angry. Just taken aback. “Weren’t you the one who said you’re too old to play head games? Well, it’s the same with me, Mr. Pierce.” She winked at him. “I’m a thirty-three-year-old accountant who in the past year discovered exactly who she is and what she wants for her future.”
“And that is?” Lamar asked, slowing to less than ten miles per hour.
“I’m in control of my own destiny. That I do what is good and best for me.”
“That sounds a little selfish.”
She blinked slowly. “Why would you say that?”
“Because it sounds as if there’s no room in your life for other people. What if you fall in love and marry or have children? Then it can’t be all about you.”
“I wasn’t talking about marriage or children. Of course my life would change if I had a husband or a child. Now, back to my question. Is your daughter the reason you don’t date or sleep with women?”
“I never said I don’t sleep with women.”
A flash of humor swept over Nydia’s features. “So, you’re not celibate.” Leaning to her right, she peered closely at Lamar. “Are you blushing?”
His mouth tightened. “I don’t blush.”
“Yeah,” she drawled, “and I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell.”
Lamar signaled and then pulled into a parking area behind a one-story clapboard building that needed a coat of fresh white paint. The lot was filled with old and new vehicles ranging from pickups to SUVs, minivans to sedans. There were even a few motorcycles. He shut off the engine and rested his arm over the back of Nydia’s seat, his expression a mask of stone.
“When my daughter lost her mother I made myself a promise that I wouldn’t do anything that would have her believe she isn’t the most important thing in my life. And that’s why I’m not involved with a woman, because I don’t want her to think I’m replacing her.”
Nydia silently applauded the sacrifice and loyalty Lamar afforded his daughter. He had deprived himself of female companionship for the sake and emotional well-being of his child, who probably was still grieving the loss of her mother.
“You are an incredible father.”
Lamar shook his head. “No, I’m not. I’m just a father who happens to love his daughter.”
“A lot of men love their daughters, but that doesn’t mean they would be willing to give up having a woman or women in their lives.”
“It depends on the circumstances, Nydia. If Kendra’s mother and I had been divorced, then it would be different. And that’s not to say I would expose my daughter to the woman I was seeing unless it was serious enough for me to consider marrying her. Kendra’s ten, and it won’t be long before she’ll start talking about some boy she likes and wants to go out with and that’s—”
“—when Daddy meets him at the door and threatens to rip his head off if he touches his daughter inappropriately,” Nydia said, cutting him off.
Attractive lines fanned out around Lamar’s luminous eyes when he laughed. “You must have been reading my mind. How did you know?”
“That’s because my father and brothers did the same thing to me. And knowing Papi was a cop had a lot of boys in the neighborhood afraid to even talk to me.”
Lamar unbuckled his seat belt. “Fathers want to protect their daughters because they know what they’ve done to the daughters of other men.” He held up both hands. “I plead the Fifth.” He reached over and caught Nydia’s left hand. “Don’t move. I’ll help you down. I don’t want you to turn your ankle in those stilts.”
She raised her right foot and wiggled her blood red painted toes. “These aren’t even my highest pair.”
Nydia waited for Lamar to get out and come around to help her down. His hands spanned her waist, she holding on to his neck to maintain her balance as he effortlessly lifted her until her feet touched the ground.
He laced their fingers together. “Are you ready to get your eat on?”
She smiled up at him. “Lead on.”
Lamar had mentioned the place where they were going to eat was rustic, and Nydia realized it wasn’t an over exaggeration. The sign over the front door identified the restaurant as Ruby’s, and the establishment had roughly hewn log walls that matched long tables and benches. Tree stumps doubled as smaller tables and chairs. It was dimly lit in contrast to the raised stage where the spotlight shone on a scantily clad, plump, middle-aged woman who was bellowing out a tune about a cheating husband and what she’d planned for him when he came home. The rhinestone-covered black bustier, tutu, and matching thigh-high patent leather boots were better suited to a much younger woman. Several televisions were tuned and muted to news and sports channels.
