Adam quietly nodded in response to Derrick’s revelation.
Derrick’s jaw tightened as he asked, “Please tell me you didn’t let your father get away with how he spoke to Janae?”
Derrick’s smooth features were marred by tightly set lips and a furrowed brow as he waited on Adam’s reply.
Derrick was fun and lighthearted most of the time. But he didn’t play about the people he cared about, and that included Janae.
“Of course, I didn’t.” Adam’s reply received a hearty nod from both his friends. “She would’ve been witness to it if she hadn’t run away before I did.”
Adam rubbed his hands up and down his thighs, hoping to get rid of some of the nervous energy coursing through him.
“Have you tried to talk to her?” Derrick’s gaze held a spark of hope, but Michael’s impassive expression didn’t seem to hold such illusions.
“I’ve tried calling her several times, and I went to her house. She wouldn’t come to the door. Just left me out there for over an hour. She’s cut off all lines of communication.”
He groaned, leaning back on his couch, trying to stop his mind from racing and his heart from aching.
“I gotta find a way to straighten this shit out.”
“You damn sure better,” Michael encouraged.
Adam grabbed another beer, twisting the top off and throwing the cap into the shopping bag with a little more force than necessary.
“Not helping, Mike.” He took a long swig from his bottleneck and sighed heavily after swallowing. “Tell me how to fix it. She won’t talk to me. If I keep showing up where she doesn’t want me, she might be calling you to lock me up.”
Derrick laughed. “Nah, Janae would handle you herself before she ever called anyone else, the law included.”
Adam couldn’t help but laugh at that. There wasn’t a single bit of exaggeration in Derrick’s statement.
“What am I gonna do, y’all?” Adam could see his plea fell on compassionate hearts as he watched pity fill his friends’ respective faces. “Janae left that hospital room madder than the time I beat her on that AP chem class final.”
“Daaaaammmn.” Derrick blew out a long whistle. “I remember that. She bitched to Cree for two weeks behind that.”
She hadn’t said anything to him and spent most of their coexistence in school ignoring him. Up until that point, her not noticing him hadn’t felt intentional. After that test, he’d definitely detected a chill in the air whenever they were in class together.
“How do I fix this and get my woman back?”
Derrick smiled, rubbing his hands together like some sort of evil genius coming up with a master plan.
“I think I got something.”
Adam glared at Derrick.
“I’m afraid to ask what it is. Am I gonna like it?”
Derrick shook his head. “Probably not. I think it’ll win you back your woman, though.”
“Don’t worry,” Michael said before Adam could go into full-blown panic mode. “Whatever Derrick is about to get you into, we’ll both be right beside you.”
Hearing Michael say that was a relief. His shoulders and chest felt lighter at the immediate mention of his friends’ aid. Because whenever Derrick got that devilish gleam in his eye, it meant only one thing. He was about to get them in some shit that would be super fun, but possibly dangerous or humiliating as hell.
Chapter 29
“Hey, diva, how’re you feeling?”
Janae looked up from the untouched cup of coffee on her kitchen counter to find Vanessa walking toward her. Poised as always, even in jeans she looked like she stepped off a fashion runway. Her hair had grown out of the sharp bob Vanessa had worn when she first moved to Monroe Hills. Now, her tresses sat in long waves past her shoulders. With a designer T-shirt, a motorcycle jacket, and six-inch platform boots, she may as well have been wearing an evening gown with how gorgeous she looked.
“Hey, girl,” Janae offered, trying her best to keep the sadness she’d been carrying out of her voice.
