Chapter 11
At seven forty-five that night, Vanna eased the glass dish containing a bubbling and delicious-smelling lasagna out of her oven. She’d gone straight home from work and hopped in the shower, then came downstairs to cook. With the music on one of her favorite playlists titled #rbthrowback , she relaxed enough to sing and move about the kitchen, cooking the food she knew would help soothe a young soul tomorrow. And probably another night this week, since she planned to put some in a separate container for Sanni to take home. She also made chocolate pudding for Mikal because he loved it and Sanni didn’t know how to make it.
Dressed in legging shorts and an old New Edition T-shirt—because she didn’t dare wear the one she, Jamaica, and Ronni had gotten last year when they’d seen the group in concert—she put the dish on top of the warming pads she’d set on the island. She sang along to the lyrics of one of her oldie-but-goodie favorites, Deborah Cox and Whitney Houston’s “Same Script, Different Cast,” and had just moved to the refrigerator to grab the bottle of wine to pour herself a second glass when there was a knock at the door.
Setting the bottle on the island, she grabbed her dish towel and made sure her hands were wiped clean as she went to answer it.
“Aden?” she asked in surprise when she saw him standing on her porch, dressed in blue basketball shorts and a gray sleeveless T-shirt.
“Hi, Savannah,” he said. “I would think after the weekend we shared, you’d stop seeming so surprised to see me.”
His tone was light as he spoke, but she was still confused. “Um, I’m not ... Well, yes, I guess I am surprised. Were we supposed to see each other today? I mean, with the day I’ve had, I definitely could’ve forgotten. But I usually put all my appointments into the calendar on my phone.”
“So, I would be an appointment?” he asked.
“Well ...,” she started to say, then closed her mouth.
He chuckled. “On second thought, don’t answer that. Can I at least come in?”
“Oh, yeah. Sure,” she said, and stepped aside to let him into the house. Once he was inside, she closed the door and walked up the stairs behind him.
He followed the music back to the kitchen and leaned against the island in a way that was far too familiar for her liking. Yes, they had a good weekend together, but this was still her house and hers alone. But he’d come in and now looked like he belonged here. She didn’t even want to consider how much that possibility frightened her.
“Okay, I have to be honest, I’m not used to this,” she said. “You just popping up whenever you feel like it and coming in here like you’ve been coming here forever.” She stopped and sighed because she didn’t know what else to say to articulate how confused she was feeling at the moment. Today was just a roller coaster of emotions, and she was ready to get the hell off right now!
“That’s fair.” His hands were clasped in front of him, and he looked annoyingly calm ... and sexy. “I’ll call or text before I come next time.”
“There’s going to be a next time?” she asked.
Now he raised a brow. “I’m going to ignore that question because we already had this conversation.”
She didn’t know which conversation he was referring to. They’d had their after-sex discussion early Sunday morning, then another after-sex chat before he’d left and she’d gotten ready for church. Throughout the rest of the day yesterday had been full of text messages that she’d been unusually excited to return. So technically, there were several conversations he could be referring to.
“And I had lunch with Jovani today. He told me about what was going on with Caleb. I figured you’d need a distraction this evening, and I meant to get here earlier, but I had a meeting with my marketing people that lasted way longer than planned,” he said.
She folded her arms over her chest. “Isn’t that a violation of attorney-client privilege? Jovani telling you about my case?”
Now she was certain the look he was giving her was one of mild annoyance. It was unfortunate for her that he still looked hot when he was getting pissed.
“We talked about Caleb, who was a frat brother to both of us,” he told her. “So there was no privilege violation.”
She didn’t have a response for that.
“But since you seem so tense and obviously bothered by me being here, would you like me to leave?” he asked.
Damn. She was not in the mood for Aden’s Superman routine tonight. All day long she’d planned for this quiet time—well, her alone time, since Faith Evans’s “Love Like This Before” was now blaring through the speaker. Sanni’s dilemma had altered the lie-back-and-relax part of her evening a little, but she hadn’t minded that because she needed to eat too. But now, he was here, and while her immediate feeling about that was, Wow, this man must really be into me, and damn, doesn’t that feel good for a change? she was having a hard time figuring out if she should be feeling that way.
Like, was it smart to let herself get swept away by this man from her past? Wasn’t part of her FFSF celebration to start this next phase of her life anew? To leave all the things in her past—including the feelings, disappointments, and expectations—behind?
“I didn’t say that,” she replied, in answer to his question, not all the ones popping into her head right now.
“Then what are you saying, Vanna?” he asked. “I stopped by to check on you and to maybe take you out to clear your mind a bit. Nothing serious, nothing nefarious. Should I have called or texted first? Yeah, I can admit that, and I’ll do better next time. But if there’s something else you want me to stop, now’s the time to let me know.”
Great. Just great. Now he wanted her to put her cards on the table when what she really felt like doing was crawling under the table and sleeping until all the mess in her life was resolved. But as she inhaled deeply, Vanna knew that wasn’t how this worked. Every second of every day, she was on duty. There were no breaks or getaways from life, and she knew that well. So even though her frustrated mind instinctively wanted her to yell Get the hell out and never come back , a bigger part of her—the needier part she tried so damn hard to keep hidden—warned her that this was a mistake. It was reactionary and she’d regret it later.
“I was just about to have dinner and a second glass of wine,” she said. “You can join me if you want.”
She dropped her arms and walked past him to pick up the bottle of wine again. He didn’t move at first—or at least, she didn’t notice him moving—so she removed the cork from the wine and was about to pour it into her glass when she felt him behind her. Like, directly behind her, so close that his breath brushed over the side of her face as he leaned in and covered her hand that held the bottle with his. “How ’bout we skip the second glass of wine and head to the gym?”
She spun around so fast the bottle wobbled on the island. “The what?”
He took a step back. “The gym. I figured we could go and get a short workout in and—”
“And you could what? Get me to lose some weight?” She gave a derisive laugh. “Man, this has been one unbelievable day. No, bump that, an unbelievable two, almost three weeks.” She stared at him, at the calm gaze he was giving her as she spoke. “Is that what all this was about? You claiming to want me all this time, finally getting me, and then deeming me too fat for your tastes? But instead of leaving me alone, what? You’re up for a challenge. Want to step in and change my whole life around? I shouldn’t have married Caleb, but that’s okay because now he’s gone and you’re here. I shouldn’t drink this wine? I should go with you to the gym and get in tip-top shape like you. Boy, please,” she hissed, and pushed past him.
He grabbed her wrist before she could get completely away, but he didn’t pull her back to him. Instead, he simply held on to her.
“I liked you just as you were back in college, and I still like you just as you are now,” he said. There was an edge to his tone, though. She’d definitely pushed a few of his buttons, but so the hell what? He was irking her nerves, adding to all the other things that threatened to push her over the brink. She had to stop it, stop him, and preserve her peace—or the peace she struggled to maintain each day.
Yet she didn’t pull her wrist away from him, didn’t turn around and tell him he could either let her go or get punched upside the head. Didn’t threaten to call the cops or worse, Granny with her dog and gun.
“Physical activity does more than just foster weight loss, Savannah. It relieves stress, helps you to maintain sound sleeping habits, clears your mind.” His grip loosened just a little. “I know you’ve had a rough day and, as you’ve said, a rough couple of weeks. I’m just trying to give you an hour or two of not-so-rough time. That’s all.”
She sighed and wanted nothing more than to get away from this man. To run upstairs and close herself in her room so she could be alone with all these conflicting thoughts and emotions. The latter having definitely been brought on by him. Her emotions toward Caleb right now and in the past years were clear—dislike, disinterest, and disdain.
But where Aden was concerned ... Hell, it had only been a few days since he’d popped back up in her life. And now she’d slept with the man and argued with him. She released a heavy sigh, knowing that running away was not an option. For one, this was her house, so if anybody was leaving, it was going to be him. But honestly, she didn’t want him to leave. What she wanted was for him to stop confusing the hell out of her, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. He was holding too many of the cards in this hand of her personal life as it was.
“I’m cranky,” she said quietly.
He chuckled. “And don’t say it’s because you’re hungry.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “Shut up.”
His grin grew wider, and this time he did pull her to him. He pulled her until she was positioned directly in front of him and his arms had snaked around her waist. She reluctantly rested her hands on his chest.
“Forty-five minutes at the gym. A light workout, and then we’ll come back here and eat,” he said.
“And have my glass of wine,” she said. And when he raised a brow, she continued, “Well, if I’ve gotta go walk on a treadmill or lift some weights, I might need something stronger by then.”
He kissed the tip of her nose, and she blinked at how tender the action was. “I’ll make you a stronger drink if you really feel like you need it when we come back. Deal?”
She stared at him, wanting to protest but also wanting to get this gym nonsense over with. “Deal,” she said.
“Good,” he replied, and moved one hand down to slap her ass. “Go get yourself a bag with a towel and a water bottle. I’ll meet you in the car.”
Vanna didn’t comment on him slapping her ass; he’d done that the night before. And she didn’t say a word about him walking through her house again and going out the front door. And, a few minutes later when she had her duffel bag packed with the towel and water bottle he’d suggested—as well as a change of underwear and clothes because if she was too sweaty, she wasn’t even sitting in a car for a ride home like that—she found herself walking out her front door and climbing into the passenger side of his car.
Aden’s gym was amazing. Everything was state-of-the-art. The space was huge, in a building she’d passed hundreds of times but had never wondered what was inside. Of course, it hadn’t always been Aden’s gym, but she never imagined there was this much space in here either. There were two levels. A brightly lit reception area just inside the tinted windows at the front of the building; rooms for spin, Pilates, kickboxing, yoga, and some other classes he’d rattled off as they passed them; and the pool and sauna area toward the back. Upstairs was a more open-floor concept, with all the machines she supposed were usually found in a gym. Since she preferred pulling up one of those in-home walking videos on YouTube when she was in the mood and walking to the beat of one of her many playlists, she didn’t know what half the stuff in this place was.
But that was just fine when her escort was the owner and a certified personal trainer.
“Relax,” he said as he stepped closer to her and reached for the strap of her bag, which she’d crossed over her body.
She sighed heavily and lifted her arm so he could remove it.
“That’s easy for you to say,” she replied. “You look like you belong here, like you actually live here.” She huffed. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“But you have an excellent trainer,” he told her with a grin and a wink. “So just relax.”
She tried, but that wink had set off a whole other—not fit for a gym—set of thoughts. At least, until he’d finished with what he called “stretching exercises,” one of which had required her to bend as far forward as she could go comfortably. She knew this was really the touch-your-toes exercise and hadn’t wanted to embarrass herself so quickly in the process, by one, not making it nearly close enough to her toes, and two, being out of breath when she stood up straight. So she’d given it only half the effort, until Aden stepped up behind her and placed his hand at the small of her back, where he applied just enough pressure to push her down farther.
She groaned at first, but then, when that same hand started to move slowly, back and forth over her back, she relaxed, took a deep breath, and tried to go lower.
Later, when she was on the treadmill and he was leaning against the wall across from her, arms folded over his chest, she frowned. “You should be on that other machine, not watching me like you think I’m gonna hop off here and make a run for the door.”
The twenty-minute session he’d programmed into the machine had just started, so the stride was slow enough that she could still talk normally.
“Nah,” he said with another one of those slow, sexy grins. “I like the view from here.”
“I’m starting to think this wasn’t about me feeling better, but more about you getting free looks at me stretching, bending, and jiggling all over the place.”
He laughed then, a hearty sound that ripped through the air and had a couple other people in the space looking in their direction.
“You might know me a little better than I thought,” he said when he was finally able to contain some of his chuckling.
She shook her head. “Actually, I don’t,” she said.
Sobering slightly, he asked, “Do you want to? Get to know me better, I mean.”
At one time, before that step show and the meeting of the man she did not want to think about any more tonight, her answer would’ve been a quick-ass Hell yes . Now, though, she needed to be cautious. And while it might be a little too late for that train of thought in the physical sense—considering they’d both gotten to know each other pretty well in that area over the weekend—on a bigger scale, she had to practice some common sense where he was concerned.
“I want to know why me,” she said. “Why now?”
“Maybe our time is now,” he replied. “And a better question might be, Why not you? Why wouldn’t I be interested in a smart, beautiful woman who’s loyal and ambitious and a pretty decent bowler?”
“I’m a good enough bowler to have helped beat your team in two games,” she replied, and felt the burn in her thighs as the machine beeped and she had to pick up her pace.
“Touché,” he said. “Is it my turn to ask a question?”
“Sure,” she said, because she wasn’t certain how much longer she’d be able to talk normally.
“Have you been involved with anyone seriously since you and Caleb separated?”
Oh, wow, she hadn’t expected that question. And really, she could probably use the fact that this inclined uptick in pace was hindering her conversating abilities, but that would be cowardly. “No,” she replied, and knew exactly what was coming next.
“Why?” he asked.
She wouldn’t look at him. Kept her gaze forward to the window that overlooked this corner of the city. From the outside, all the windows were tinted, which she personally liked. She never understood why people would want to be all hot and sweaty on a treadmill and be in a window on display at the same time. This way, she could see out, but nobody could see her sweaty boobs bouncing and thighs swishing as she struggled to maintain the next steps on this thing.
“I didn’t want to,” she replied.
“Why didn’t you divorce him?”
Damn. Damn. Damn. She hadn’t expected that question either.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Yes, you do.” His words were a challenge, and she hated each one. Hated that he was calling her on a point she’d battled with for far too long.
“I planned to,” she said, still not looking his way. “This birthday is my new beginning, so one of the things I’d planned to do next month was get a lawyer and start the proceedings. I probably could’ve just filed the paperwork myself and had him served, but he might have fought it, so I wanted to be prepared.”
And look at her now. Caught off guard by Caleb’s death and the other legal problems he’d sent her way.
“You’re right,” he said. “He would’ve fought it.”
Her head jerked in his direction then. “How do you know? Did he tell you something about it?”
He shook his head. His hands were pushed into the front pockets of his shorts now. “Right after I came back to town, one of our brothers mentioned Caleb was living back with his mother and that you had kept the house. That’s how I knew I could find you at the address he’d given me a while back. But Caleb also didn’t like to lose, at anything. Losing you, forever, would’ve definitely been a problem for him.”
She was out of breath now, but that didn’t stop her from asking, “So, that’s how you knew we weren’t together. That’s why you had no qualms about shooting your shot at the cemetery?”
Their gazes held for a few seconds while she waited for an answer and she supposed he contemplated which one he was going to give her.
“I already told you I wasn’t going to let another opportunity pass me by,” he said, then shrugged. “So I didn’t.”
“And now ...” She huffed. “Now you feel like you’ve ... accomplished something?”
He tilted his head. “Now I feel like we’re on our way to something.”
“Oh,” she said, because she didn’t know how to respond to that admission. And because she couldn’t say much else while her thighs burned and her heart felt like it was going to thump right out of her chest.
“I feel energized,” she said two hours later—after the gym and after they’d each had a plate of lasagna and water when they returned to her house. “Like, I’m still kinda tired. Definitely ready for bed since it’s almost eleven, but I’ve got energy. You know?”
He nodded. “I do know. And I’m not gonna say I told you so.”
When they’d returned from the gym, Aden had brought his duffel bag into the house with him. When he’d placed it at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the bedrooms, she hadn’t said a word. Was he planning to stay the night? Or was this just his take-a-shower-and-put-some-fresh-clothes-on bag? She didn’t ask, wasn’t sure what she would do with the answer if she did. But after dinner, when she declared it long past time she took a shower, he agreed on his own behalf and climbed those stairs with her. And joined her in the shower.
Vanna hadn’t taken a shower with a man since Caleb. Not one of the men she’d slept with since her separation had she showered with. Hell, she hadn’t even slept with any of them in this house because this was her house now. Her space, and hers alone. Except Aden had been in her bed, her shower, and he was sitting on the side of her bed again.
How was this her life?
“It’s about feeding your body the right things,” he said. “And no, I’m not just talking about food. Although we both know the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.”
She’d just finished putting on her lotion and had stood to return it to her dresser when this conversation began. “Are you insinuating that I don’t lead a healthy lifestyle?” she asked, and propped one hand on her hip.
“Woman, you love to argue, don’t you?” he asked, and tossed his head back to laugh.
“I’m not arguing, but trying to clarify what you’re saying,” she countered.
“Come here,” he said, and patted the space on the bed next to him.
After their shower he’d put on another pair of basketball shorts and a ribbed white tank top. Again, like he belonged here. Like this was his bedroom, their bedroom. She shook that thought away as she walked over to the bed and sat where he’d told her to.
“I said, I don’t like to—”
He put a finger to her lips to halt her words. When she only glared at him, he smiled again. “Are you comfortable with your weight, Savannah? Are you fine with how you look?”
“Yes,” she said without any doubt or dishonesty.
“Okay. Are you happy with how you feel on a daily basis?”
She opened her mouth to respond, then closed it. Then she tried again. “Not all the time. I get stressed and tired, and that’s when I don’t feel like myself.”
“Good, that’s fair. So maybe you start doing some things to work on that.”
“Are you trying to fix me again?”
“You’re not broken,” he told her. “In fact, I think you’re perfect,” he said, and took her hands in his. “But we’re all a continuous work in progress, especially as we go through things and get older. So, if you want to, I can set you up with one of my reps at the shop, and we can maybe find some holistic supplements that might help you feel better physically.”
She pursed her lips. “And if I say no ...,” she replied.
He shrugged. “I’m cool with that.” He leaned in and kissed the shoulder left bare by her sleeveless nightshirt. “Just as long as you don’t tell me no when we’re here, like this.”
Those kisses continued to rain over her shoulder until they landed on her collarbone and then her neck. “You’re not slick,” she said. “Ever since you showed up at my door tonight, you’ve been getting your way. And I don’t like it.”
“Hmmmm,” he said, and kissed his way up to her ear, where he nipped her lobe and she moaned. “You sure you don’t like it?”
He was grinning as he licked her ear again—she could hear it in his voice—but she didn’t bother to deny it. “Oh, I like that well enough. It’s all this other Go to the gym, drink this water instead of the wine, take some supplements that’s rubbing me the wrong way.”
“Because you’re used to being in control,” he said, moving a hand up to cup her breast while his kisses returned to her neck. “Used to making all the suggestions and decisions where you’re concerned.”
“Um, I think that’s called being an adult,” she said, and tried not to moan again. The combination of his mouth on her in one place and his hand on her in another was making her warm all over.
“It’s called being controlling and not being open to suggestions.” He squeezed her breast in his strong hand, then pinched her nipple and she hissed.
“I seem to be letting you suggest an awful lot right now,” she replied.
“You are,” he said, then pulled his mouth away from her neck. “And I’d like to reward you for such good behavior.”
His smile was enigmatic. His tone husky. His touch, when she hadn’t bothered to stop him, was addictive. In the next moments, her nightshirt and underwear were on the floor. Aden was naked, and they were in her bed, again.
This day that had started out so irritating, and had only grown worse by the hour, was ending on a blissfully sweet note.