That’s not my style, she thought as she shut her computer down and prepared to leave the office. It wasn’t easy to keep saying and pretending that she didn’t want more from him. She just couldn’t say it to him. Fear froze her tongue every time she tried. As she walked out of the office toward her car, she decided to head to the gym to burn off some nervous energy.
Would tonight be the night that she and Jamal took the next step in their relationship?
What was this big surprise? She knew that he wasn’t going to propose. That thought made her laugh. It wasn’t as if they’d known each other long enough for her to start fantasizing about being Mrs. Carver. She put the blame squarely on Mimi’s shoulders for making marriage look so good.
As she pulled into the parking lot of the gym, Michael’s cell phone rang. She wasn’t happy at all when she saw Nic’s name flash across the screen. She started to ignore the call, but she knew he wouldn’t stop calling because obviously he needed something.
“Yes, Nic.”
“Don’t sound so excited. I just wanted to see if you had time to meet with me tomorrow. I have some great ideas that I want us to look at for the jazz festival.”
“You do realize that it is way after office hours, right?”
“Since when did we start standing on ceremony?” Nic’s laughter actually made her blood boil.
“Nic, you’re simply a client. We aren’t in a space where you can call me in the middle of the night because you have an idea. You made it clear that we’re all about business. So, respect me enough not to invade my personal time because you have a freaking idea.”
“I’m sorry—am I interrupting you and Mimi talking about whatever it is you two cackle about when you get together?”
“No, you’re interrupting me and a very handsome man making a beeline between my thighs. Good night.” She ended the call and tossed the phone in the glove compartment. Michael was ready to punch something really hard now.
* * *
It was times like this when Jamal was glad he lived out in the burbs. Tonight he’d have a clear view of the sky and he had a fire pit that he didn’t have to worry about getting zoning permission to light. He took his telescope to the edge of the woods that abutted his property and gave him the clearest view of the sky. Not many people knew that Jamal was an astronomy nerd. Since he was a kid, he’d enjoyed looking to the stars for answers. He would’ve been an astronaut if the Challenger incident hadn’t scarred him. But still, he enjoyed watching the universe. And though he wouldn’t tell his boys, he was a man who wished on stars sometimes. Especially when he was in Iraq. He’d prayed and wished for all of his comrades to make it through the night. He’d prayed and wished that the people he shot in the heat of battle were terrorists and not human shields.
The stars calmed him, made him feel as if he’d have his normal life back. After two years in the Middle East and an injury that left him unfit for combat, Jamal had lost partial sight in his right eye. And though he had surgery to correct the injury and remove the shrapnel from his eye, he hadn’t been able to pass the physical requirements of the Marines to rejoin the corps. For about a year, he’d been a recruiter in Alabama. But Jamal missed action. Missed helping people and saving lives.
Deciding not to reenlist, Jamal had moved back to Atlanta and opened First Line of Defense. His grandmother had not been pleased. The matriarch of the Carver family wanted her only grandson, at the time, out of harm’s way. She needed him to settle down and carry on the family name. For years, he’d ignored her constant nagging about finding the one. Jamal wasn’t interested in a family. His father was MIA and that had had a huge impact on his life. He’d watched his mother cry over this man who’d broken his promises. One thing that Jamal could say about the women he dated was that he never made promises to them. He tried not to play with their emotions and make them believe that he was going to provide them a future.
In all these years he’d taken three women to his family’s annual low-country boil in Savannah, but he now knew it had been a mistake to take any of them there. Introducing a woman to his family was unfair to her if he wasn’t serious about the relationship, so Jamal had decided that the next woman he took to Savannah would be the one he planned a future with. And for a long time, he’d felt he wouldn’t be bringing anyone down there for a while.
But lately, Jamal had caught himself wondering what it would be like to take MJ to Savannah. Would she even want to go with him this year? He figured that she’d say no. But he liked the idea of Gran and the family meeting her. He wouldn’t even step in if they started asking uncomfortable questions like Are you guys serious?
That was a question he wanted an answer to. Could they be serious? What was holding her back from being his? Glancing at his watch, Jamal saw that he needed to get the shrimp on the grill and grab the graham crackers for the s’mores. Tonight was going to be simple and fun. And he hoped that it would lead to MJ understanding that he wanted her and no one else. She was a woman who made him feel like love did exist, without cameras and tabloid headlines. Too many women in Atlanta wanted to live like reality-TV stars. He wasn’t about that life and he was glad that MJ felt the same way.
Even though she might not believe he was ready to be a one-woman man. But Jamal was so ready for MJ to be the only woman in his life.
Michael stood under the cool shower spray after her hour-and-a-half workout. She’d hit the heavy bag, run for three miles on the treadmill and flipped a 350-pound tire thirty times. She was sore and tired. She wanted to call Jamal and see if they could reschedule, but she wanted to see him. She was excited about his surprise. Closing her eyes, she imagined him slipping in behind her, his big hands stroking her breasts until her nipples were rock-hard. Leaning her head back underneath the shower spray, she slipped her hand between her thighs, imagining that her fingers were Jamal’s tongue. Hearing a throaty moan escape her mouth, Michael snapped back to reality.
Shutting the water off, she grabbed her towel and dried off. Lord, grant me self-control when I see this man.
After getting dressed in her favorite purple romper and silver sandals, Michael decided to get a surprise for Jamal as well. She drove to the Sunshine Café and ordered two slices of the sinfully delicious chocolate cake. She waved at her favorite waitress as the latter crossed the full dining room to greet her.
“Cake, huh? Where is Mr. He-Is-Just-My-Friend?”
“I’m taking this cake to him, because friends do stuff like that.” Michael smiled.
“Umm, my mama would say that you’re working on getting to his heart through his stomach. Good job. But you better learn how to cook, if you don’t know how to already.”
Michael broke out into laughter. “I’m so not after his heart and I can cook.”
“And Shakespeare would say, the lady doth protest too much. Girl, if you don’t jump on that man, I know a bunch of women in Atlanta who will.”
Michael held her tongue because she knew a bunch of women in Atlanta already had. How am I any different?
“Well? I hope you have a thong and a cute bra on underneath that outfit.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“Not at all,” Michael said. “Just friends.”
“Keep in mind that we do cater weddings.”
Michael took her slices and shook her head. “You’re worse than my friend Mimi. Sounds like something she’d say on her blog.”
“As in Mimi Collins? You know her.”
“Yep.”
“Tell her I’m her biggest