“I’m getting on, but I’m not going to your place later.” I stomped inside and folded my arms as the door closed. “And you’re not getting any in San Antonio. My friend is going with me.”
“You met someone already?” His easy smile slipped. “No fucking way.”
“I’m single, remember?” I looked at him, daring him to say anything else.
He promptly placed his hands on either side of me, the muscles in his bare chest and arms flexed, trapping me before he lifted my left hand. “Tell your friend that your finger is looking like it’s ready for my ring.”
“What?” I frowned despite the burst of butterflies in my stomach.
“Did I stutter?” Jashaun’s focus drifted to my lips.
“It’s been weeks since we spoke, and because there’s someone else, you suddenly want to be committed? The same man who told me he never wanted to be married or have a family?”
“No different than you finally deciding you wanted to have sex with me when you felt the door closing on the possibility of us.” The elevator opened on our floor, and Jashaun grabbed my ass possessively before planting a kiss on my lips as I exited the elevator. “We’ll talk in San Antonio and figure us out. Seems like you might need some time to decide whether you really want to be with me. I’m headed back to the pool.”
Wobbly legs carried me to my door, and I collapsed on my sofa and picked up my cell.
“Hey, everything okay?” Worry laced Andrea’s greeting.
“Um…I think Jashaun and I go together now.”
She exclaimed, “What? And are we fourteen again?”
“Mm…he makes me feel like this giddy girl waiting for her crush at his locker.” I grinned, and despite my best intentions, love floated down over me like a fuzzy blanket as I relayed what just transpired between Jashaun and me.
FIVE
jashaun
“Daddy,can Mommy and me spend the night?” Jussica walked out of my bathroom, wrapped in her terry cloth robe over her T-shirt and jeans. She’d just showered and changed clothes from swimming.
“You have school tomorrow,” I reminded her as I sat on my bed reviewing proposals for tomorrow, trying to keep my mind preoccupied before I showed up at Soraya’s door. Knowing that she still wanted me had my heart and head spinning, so much so that I impulsively committed myself to her. And I had no regrets. I wanted to be her man.
“No, I don’t. It’s a teacher holiday.” She started dancing around to whatever music played in her head. “Please, Daddy, Mommy has never spent the night over here.”
“Because it’s just you and me over here and you and your Mommy at your other home.” I squinted at my screen, trying to finish reviewing a proposal that should’ve gone out Friday. It was some sort of single dads’ group, ironically, that needed the city’s permission to set up camp at one of the community centers to offer a support space for fathers. The proposal had been a good one, and the city would approve it. I just had to add a fewrevisions to their requests, and they would always have a free place to meet up weekly.
She jumped onto the bed, causing me to make a typing error. I warned, “Hey.”
“Hey, you work too much.” Unbothered by my reprimand, Jussica propped her chin on the top of my screen. This had been the first weekend she hadn’t spent with me or my mother, who’d been ecstatic as I expected when I told her she had a granddaughter. Jussica had gone to a birthday party for a classmate yesterday. Because she missed me, she’d asked if she could come over to swim, and because I missed her too, I agreed.
“I work to pay the bills and to make sure you can have whatever you want and need.” Sounding so much like my mother when I would have the same complaint as a child. I definitely needed to hug Mama more for all she did for me. “Let me finish this email, and we can watch something on TV. Did you like your ice cream?”
“Yep. And now, I’m tired and don’t want to go home.” She faked yawning. “See?”
“Oh, I do see.” I chuckled. Jussica was like this old soul who seemed to know when and where to say things. “I’m sure your mother wants to sleep in her own bed.”
“My bed is comfortable too. Mommy can sleep with me in my room. Please. Please.”
“Okay.” I sighed and moved my laptop to the side. She happily pulled me by the hand to her bedroom, where her mother just walked out of the bathroom, wearing a sundress with a towel wrapped around her head.
Jussica bounced in excitement. “Daddy said we can have a sleepover.”
Mara’s brows dipped in the middle as she looked at me. “What?”
“She wanted both of you to spend the night since she doesn’t have school tomorrow. It’s late, and you’re more than welcome to stay. You can leave here in the morning when I leave for the office.”
Jussica picked up her mother’s hand, “Please, Mama. You can sleep in here with me, and Daddy can make us both pancakes in the morning.” She smiled brightly, holding both our hands, and I wondered if Jussica wanted her parents together or if it was really about not wanting to go home. Mara lived forty-five minutes away, and we stayed in the pool longer than we planned to. I didn’t like the idea of them being on the road late, either.
