“With the season starting next week, I figured you’d be busy.”
“Yeah. I am.” He shrugged. “But I’d still want to see you.”
I’d want to, I repeated silently as we walked.
I didn’t want to read too much into it. ButI’d want towas hopeful. It wasn’t definitive. Our connection was electric, and our feelings were real, but from the beginning, I’d known what it was. Even if I’d let the way he handled my body skew the reality of our relationship for a moment, the fact remained that he was too busy for more with me, and I was too scared to admit I wanted more with him.
I cleared my throat lightly. “I’d want to see you, too.”
“Good.” He draped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into him. “We’ll have to figure something out.”
Nodding, I put my arm around his torso as we walked through downtown Richland. “Are you off tomorrow?”
“No. They don’t give a damn about a holiday since the regular season starts this week. It’s a half day though.”
“And school starts Tuesday, so I guess we should get back to my place and enjoy the rest of this Sunday.”
He kissed me and caused butterflies to ripple through my belly. When he pulled away, he whispered, “I like the sound of that.”
We got to his SUV, and he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Excuse me for a minute,” he told me, before answering the call. “What’s up, Ma?”
He opened the door for me and then climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Yeah, I know. I’m going to miss it. But depending on what they have us doing on Tuesday, I might drive down and bring her gift because I won’t be back down for the rest of the season.” He started the engine and turned the air-conditioning on. “Yeah, I’ll let you know tomorrow after the morning session if I’m driving down. Yeah, okay. Love you, too. Bye.”
He disconnected the call and looked over at me. “My bad.”
I shook my head. “You’re fine.”
He pulled off from the curb and made his way to my place. “My niece’s tenth birthday party is this weekend, and they’re having a party at my mom’s.”
I noticed the disappointment in his voice. We’d talked about our families before, and I knew he was a big family man. “You’re going to miss it?”
“I’m going to try not to. I usually miss it and it’s fine. I send a gift. But my nephew’s birthday is in May, so I was at his party. And apparently today my niece said something to my mom about me never coming to hers.”
I reached over and intertwined my fingers with his. “I want to say that she’ll understand, but she’s ten.” I squeezed his hand. “Butbecause she’s ten, and I know you’ll make it up to her, she’ll be okay. Everything you’ve ever told me lets me know that she knows you love her.”
“Yeah. I might drive down there on her actual birthday. I don’t know. I’m gonna figure something out.”
“Yeah, you will. You have a way of making everything better, so your niece is going to be fine. Everything is going to work out.”
He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “I appreciate you saying that.”
We got back to my place, and even though the plan had been to dress up and go to dinner, we holed up in bed for the rest of the day. We got up only to eat Thai delivery, and then he packed up to leave my place around seven o’clock.
“Thank you for spending the weekend with me,” I said as I walked Lamar to the door, slightly limping and fully drained. I tightened the belt of my robe before looking up into his eyes. “It was fun.”
He dropped his bags at his feet. “Thank you for inviting me to spend it with you,” he replied, pulling me flush against him. “I had a real good time.”
“Me, too.” I reached up to clasp my hands behind his neck. “I almost didn’t ask. But I’m glad I did.”
“You weren’t going to ask me?” he scoffed, grabbing my ass through the robe and giving me a light spank. “Why not?”
“When it occurred to me that I needed a date, we hadn’t seen each other for almost two months. We didn’t really talk in July and talked when we could in August. It was last-minute. I didn’t think you’d have the time to come. I didn’t think you’dwantto come.” I lifted my shoulders. “I guess I just felt like I was asking for too much.”
He stared into my eyes, and I felt like he was piercing my soul.
He brought his face close, allowing his mouth to hover over mine. “You can get anything you want from me.”
