“Maybe I should get you back,” Nyair said. “Cuz I hear everything you’re saying, but all I can think about is kissing you again.”
He stood, but she didn’t give him space to walk away. They stood with no room between them. “I won’t be able to say no twice, Ny,” she said. “We should go before I get used to this feeling. If we stop now, it won’t be hard to let it go.”
“Okay,” Nyair said. He stepped around her and headed for the door, and Lauren had to wipe a tear from her eyes before following behind him. She wanted to simply be a woman at that moment, but she couldn’t. She had to be a mom, and entertaining her son’s football coach could only end in disaster.
Chapter 10
So, can we just forget any of this ever happened?” Lauren asked. Nyair walked her to her car. They had been silent the entire way. Neither wanted to say the wrong thing, so they opted not to speak.
“What we forgetting exactly? You’ll have to remind me,” Nyair said.
She smiled. She was so embarrassed. “How the fuck did I seduce a pastor?” She scoffed as they made it to her car.
“Seduce?” Ny laughed. “Seduce is a stretch. If you gon’ feel guilty being a Jezebel, we might as well take it a little further, so you at least have a reason.”
She burst into laughter. “What’s a little further?”
He leaned into her and whispered in her ear. “I’d have to taste more than your lips for it to count as seduction.”
She held her breath.
“You do that?” She asked, eyebrows hiked.
“Extremely well,” he whispered. Her face reddened, and she hid it in his shoulder while gripping his jacket.
He found amusement in her apprehension.
“Its not funny, Nyair!” She said, hitting him softly.
They didn’t even care that they were standing in the cold. Lauren would deal with frost bitten toes just to live in this moment a little longer because she knew once it passed, it wouldn’t be recaptured.
“You have a good night, Lo. You ever feel like using my number, you don’t hesitate. You hear me?” Nyair asked.
She nodded.
He took a step back, and suddenly, she could breathe again.
The tap of a car horn interrupted them, and when Lauren glanced across the street, her stomach hollowed.
“Mom! Coach Ny!”
DJ ran across the street as Demi slowly climbed from his Cadillac.
Guilt. Pure guilt seized her and Ny took one more step back.
“Hey, baby! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be with your dad all weekend. I’m supposed to pick you up from school Monday.”
Demi trudged his way across the snow, hands stuffed in his coat pockets, face bent from the harsh wind biting it.
Demi read the room instantly. “You a few blocks from the church house, ain’t you, Coach? You playing with the devil?”
Nyair scoffed. “I’m good in every hood, my man. The Power upstairs and what’s on my hip keep me covered.”
Demi pushed his tongue into his cheek, and Lauren knew he was losing patience. There was too much ego on this one-way street.
“Coach, what are you doing here?” DJ said.
“Yeah, Coach, what are you doing here?” Demi repeated.
