“And what you said he does again?”
“Commercial real estate. Daddy, just Google ‘Banks Enterprises Atlanta’.”
“Reg, stop harassing the child before she doesn’t come at all,” Mama fussed as she playfully elbowed him out of the camera’s frame.
It was time to wrap it up before they started doing the most. “Alright, I gotta go. Love you both!”
“Love you, Jas,” Mama said, blowing a kiss at the camera before I ended the call.
I set my phone down as Cash walked into the kitchen. “Your parents?” he asked.
I nodded. “They are so pressed to meet you.”
I thought it’d take weeks to get everything in order, but three days after he showed me the place, my apartment was packed up, and the remainder of my lease was paid off. Cash bought a few pieces of furniture to get us started, then handed me his black card and told me to buy whatever I needed to make the penthouse feel like home. Of course, I let him pick out the art since that was his thing.
“We can go next week,” he said, loosening his tie.
“Just like that?” I asked skeptically.
“Just like that,” he replied and closed the distance between us. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug as he buried his face in my neck. “I never get tired of walking through that door and seeing you here.”
He kissed me softly as I ran my fingers over the back of his head. “Aw, what would your boys think if they saw you being a big softy right now?”
“Fuck them niggas,” he said with a low laugh. “They wish they had somebody like you to simp over.”
I leaned into his chest and smiled. Never in a million years did I think taking a nursing contract in Atlanta on a whim would lead me here—wrapped up in the arms of one of the most powerful men in the game.
Cash ruled everything—including my heart.
EPILOGUE
CASH “MONEY” BANKS
Jasmine wantedthis to be a quick trip so her parents would stop bugging her about me. I couldn’t blame them for being cautious. Things had moved fast between us, and she was their only child. But there were no rules to this love shit. To take some of the pressure off, I suggested we turn it into a group trip. I roped Jelani and Monica in since they were giving an exclusive relationship a go. Slim invited himself as soon as he heard—he claimed he was bored—but we knew it was an excuse to see his shorty in Brooklyn.
Fontaine had left for Miami a few days earlier after getting a lead on where Nairobi might be.
“You bringing her home?” I asked when we linked up before he left.
“I don’t think she knows where home is,” he said. There was a heaviness in his voice I’d never heard before. I wasn’t sure how their story would end, but I hoped my boy wasn’t getting caught up chasing a ghost. We all loved Nairobi, but she was hardheaded, and Fontaine might be wasting his time trying to get her to come to her senses.
We settled into our seats on the plane. Two flight attendants were working the flight, and the pretty brown-skinned one immediately set her eyes on Jelani. She was gonna be a problem. Her hair was pulled back into a sleek, low bun. Her uniform was about a half size too small and clung to her curvy body. Every time she passed Jelani, she showed all thirty-two of her teeth and lingered a little too long.
“The fuck she keep smiling in your face like that?” Monica muttered under her breath, side-eyeing the woman.
Jelani brought her hand to his lips for a kiss. “Chill, Baby Doll,” he said. “She’s just doing her job.”
The captain’s voice announced we’d be taking off soon as the attendants did their final sweep, and of course, that same flight attendant made her way back to Jelani’s seat, this time with an extra button on her blouse undone.
She leaned over him and batted her eyelashes. “Can I get you anything else?” she asked sweetly.
“You can get the fuck out his face,” Monica snapped. “He don’t need shit else.”
“Here we go,” Jasmine muttered next to me, shaking her head.
The attendant quickly stepped back, mumbling something about preparing for takeoff.
Jelani snorted, trying to stifle a laugh. “You ain’t have to do all that.”
