Page 118 of The Sweetest Return

“Well.”

I almost laughed. “That all you got?”

“I’m processing.”

“I don’t walk around with bodyguards. I also don’t walk around stupid.”

“You had that on you last night?”

“In the truck. I don’t carry into AWU, ballrooms, or places where I don’t need it.”

She nodded slowly.

Then her gaze lingered on me a little too long.

I knew that look too.

“You like that.”

“What?”

“Knowing I keep something close.”

“I did not say that.”

“You don't have to.”

Her eyes narrowed, but the flush in her face told the truth.

The old Imani had once admitted she liked a little edge on a man.

Apparently, maturity had not cured everything.

I closed the compartment and pulled into traffic before either of us forgot where we were.

Purple and gold appeared more often the closer we got to campus. Flags from car windows. Alumni jackets on sidewalks. Families crossing streets in AWU gear. Music coming through somebody’s open windows at a red light.

Crown Weekend never stayed neatly behind AWU’s gates. Neighborhood businesses had purple and gold in their windows. Church lots became parking. Barbershops had Kings games playing on televisions near the ceiling while somebody argued about this year’s team like Coach Wallace had personally asked for assistance. Students bought food from people whose families had been feeding Royals longer than some of the campus buildings had existed.

We talked, which gave the heat between us somewhere useful to go. Nia and The Nocturne came up first, then Saint Aurelia. Imani was already imagining what kind of private event the two brands could create together. She asked about my businesses too, and I told her enough to give her the shape of the life I had built without turning the ride into an investor meeting.

Her questions were different from everybody else’s.

Why had I chosen dealerships?

Why restaurants?

Why did Jones Outdoor matter when I clearly had enough money to leave landscaping behind?

That last one made me look at her.

“My father.”

She waited.

“He started with landscaping. One truck, tools, whatever work he could get. Jones Outdoor is what grew out of that. I wasn't ever gon’ make the part that started us disappear because I could afford something shinier.”

Her face softened.