“So, what happened next?” she asks, drinking from her glass again, turning to face him.
He blows out a breath, laughing. “Danica beat the hell out of me.” He lifts the hair falling across his brow. “That’s how I got this.”
He points to the scar running across his forehead. Jahlani tsks in mock pity, running her fingertips across the strip of skin.
“Poor Roman.”
His eyes catch hers and she freezes momentarily before removing her hand, her body flushing.Want, need, mine.
“Sorry, I don’t know why I did that,” she says into her glass, suddenly very interested in an intricate bird painting on the mantle.
“It’s fine.”
He clears his throat. “So, Taylor pretty much shut her down. She didn’t talk to me for about three months.”
Jahlani laughs. “Three months?”
“Oh yeah. It was bad. Mom even thought about putting us in family therapy,” he says, scratching under his chin. “Eventually, she woke up one day and asked what I wanted for breakfast, like nothing had happened. She’s over him now, but I think she’s secretly been plotting some form of revenge.”
Jahlani steps forward, pointing to them outside. “Roman, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but she’s very muchnotover him, and she’sdefinitelyplotting her revenge.”
He turns to watch them, his brows furrowed.
“I’m going to get a refill,” she says and starts to move toward the kitchen when three new bodies fill the hallway. One is Gwendolyn with an uncomfortable smile on her face, the other is an older gentleman, holding a bottle of red wine and wearing an even bigger smile, and the third makes Jahlani’s stomach flip because she has a look in her eyes as she stares at Roman. One that Jahlani’s grown to recognize within him.
Yearning for something you can’t have.
“Audrey,” Roman says as she waves the food in her hand cautiously.
“I made pie.”
Much to Jahlani’s dismay, the pie isreally fucking good. She deliberately avoids eye contact with Roman as they seat themselves around the table. She isn’t sure why she’s so upset. They’re not a thing. She has no right to feel anything yet she does.
Want. Need. Mine.
Suddenly his breath is tickling her ear. “You okay?” he asks in a hushed tone.
“Yeah. Fine,” she says, giving him a closed-mouth smile, not meeting his eyes. “Danica, can I get the butter, please?”
From the corner of her eye, she can see his hand drag down his mouth as he watches her before turning to adjust Lucy in her seat. For a while, they all pass around plates of food and chatter aimlessly. Jahlani constantly turns down food, claiming that she already ate, and the conversation volleys around with Lucy being the main star of the show. Audrey somehow managed to weasel her way next to Lucy and has now taken the role of helping Roman feed and soothe her.
Jahlani’s knee bounces under the table when Roman reaches forward to give her a napkin and their hands touch. She takes large gulps from her glass.
“Jahlani, what do you do for work?” Audrey asks.
All eyes float to her and she shouldn’t feel intimidated, especially considering she stands in front of twenty times that amount at school, but still.
It’s his family, she thinks, feeling compelled to make a good impression.
“I teach.”
A chorus of oohs and ahhs spread throughout the room and she feels her face warm at the attention. Audrey tilts her head.
“Where do you teach?”
“At the college. I’m a graduate teaching assistant—temporarily,” she feels the need to add. Audrey’s grin spreads like the Cheshire Cat and Jahlani can’t help but feel like she’s fallen into her trap.
“Temporarily?” she parrots, making a point to wipe the mashed potato from Lucy’s chin.
