Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
Selah
A few weeks later…
I didn’t know what I was doing, but it felt good.
He felt good. For the first time in forever, I felt seen in a way that only I understood.
He was busy, yes. So was I, but he was present.
In the last weeks I had learned so much about this man and his focus.
It was unheard of how dedicated to the sport he was.
This was the second boxer I’d date, and I still didn’t know a thing about the sport or the main players.
That didn’t matter to me, none of it did.
The person under it all mattered, and it was wild that I felt like I knew so much about Indiri even though I was starting from square one with him.
I liked that we weren’t rushing into some quick relationship but instead getting to know one another and actually dating.
“Look at you round here floating on a cloud. Can I get about five of those brownie cookies and a sugar cookie, please?”
I looked up from the red velvet brownies I was icing into the big brown eyes of my sister. A smile immediately overtook my features. As sisters we talked almost every day, but we both led very busy lives so we didn’t get to see one another as much as either one of us would have liked.
“What are you doing this way?” I immediately grabbed the items she requested.
“Came to check on you. Our mother says she hasn’t seen you and Granny is planning to come kidnap your ass. Figured I’d come check in with you myself, especially since you’ve been tucked pretty low these days with a certain mystery man.”
I rounded the corner, pulling her into a hug before holding out the items she wanted in the brown paper bag.
“Um no, ma’am. I’m a regular customer and I wanna pay for my stuff.”
I laughed. “It’s on the house and I literally just spoke to your mother and grandmother yesterday.”
“I’m sure you have but they haven’t seen you, Selah. You know how they both are, especially since ol’ boy’s business was sprawled all over the news. I hear he has a fight coming up.”
“That’s good for him, I guess.” I shrugged.
Nathanial had been the furthest thing from my mind.
And the way I saw it, he was out of sight out of mind because I didn’t watch much TV nor did I get on social media.
Hell, actually, I had allowed Lori and Joley to run the bakery on social media and I muted my own since ol’ girl DMed me.
Long story short, I lived in real life and not on some timeline full of loud and wrong fools.
Funny enough, Indiri was the same way, preferring to be more present than seen.
“Yeah and I hope ol’ boy knocks his head off his fucking shoulders.”
I laughed. “Now I’d pay to see that.”
“Anyways, when am I going to meet the new beau? I feel like he’s hogging you.”
I laughed. “No he isn’t. Splitting my time between two bakeries is hogging me. But we aren’t like that yet, we’re just enjoying getting to know one another in the grand scheme of things.”
“Well then tell him your sister needs to get to know him before anything. With that being said, dinner is Friday and I expect to have you and him at the table.”
I cackled. “You’re bossing up on me now?”
“No bossing up at all. Calling big sister rank before I have to tell Mommy you let somebody in the cookie jar.”
I pointed my finger. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would, especially since she still thinks you’re her baby. Now like I said, Friday, six, and don’t be late. Now let me go pick my kids up from school before your niece gets to calling her father and telling him I’m late.” She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
“Okay. Love you.”
“You too. And also Friday, bring a pan of honeybun brownies.” She was out of the door before I could tell her no.
Shaking my head, I moseyed back around the counter to finish icing the red velvet brownies, so I could cut them and display them for the evening rush.
Before I left for the evening I also wanted to make a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies, because not only had I been craving them, but they too sold well.
When I was baking, it always felt like time ran past. When I was in the kitchen, I was exactly where I belonged in terms of my passion.
I had always felt that way, even when I was a teen.
Unlike my sister, I was the homebody. I always felt like I was at my best alone cooking and or putting my energy into making things.
A few hours later I was headed up to my place to retire for the evening and look over some numbers when my phone began ringing.
I glanced down and saw it was Indiri, which was sorta normal around this time.
It was at that point when the day had died down and he got a moment.
Besides a few text messages throughout the day, this was usually our time.
“Good evening, champ. How can I help you this evening?”
“By not giving me lip when I tell you Bigs’s big ass is on the way to get you and I need to kidnap you for the weekend.”
“Um, sir.”
“You asked how you could help me. I have a press conference Friday and that damn all-white thing tomorrow evening.”
“And?” I was standing still in my living room, biting into my bottom lip thinking about it. He never gave me time to turn him down, kind of always springing things on me at the last minute with as much urgency as a turtle.
“I want you to go to both with me.”
“Um. I guess, but Friday evening after your press conference I need you to go to dinner and meet my sister with me. She’s not gonna let it go and I’d rathe—”
“That’s cool. Feel like you've been keeping me a secret anyway.”
I laughed hard. “That is not true. And I know that ain’t you, Mr. Move to the Burbs in a Gated Community because you love your privacy.” One minute he had Bigs bring me to his condo and the next I was being taken to a property in The Bluffs.
He chuckled as well. “I told you that was all Jordyn.”
“I know,” I responded, thinking back on our conversation before he relocated.
I often forgot he was a public figure seeing as how he didn’t act like one.
He didn’t wear gaudy chains or overdo it with flashy cars and a loud, boisterous personality.
He was regular, like me. He lived in his privacy and loved to be left alone.
He said he had done his clubbing phase and now the only time he stepped out was to show face at an event.
I believed him because I had no reason not to.
“So I got you for the weekend and maybe a lil after that?” he asked, his voice breaking my thoughts.
“What do you mean a lil after that? What are you not telling me, Indiri?” This was that last minute thing I was talking about.
“Nothing. Do you have a passport?”
“For wha—”
“Yeah, I think she has one. Go ahead and book the flight. Three days and tell Jade to stop calling you about me.” He was speaking to someone in the background.
I assumed it was Jordyn. She and I had yet to formally meet but had spoken briefly on the phone a few times.
Once to tell me she needed an order of the gluten free sugar cookies I’d made Indiri and another when he’d called me or I’d called him and she was in the room.
“What do I need a passport for, Indiri? What are you talking about? Who is that?”
“Too many questions too fast. I’ma see you when you get here, shorty. Bigs is on the e-way. Get you a bag ready, ’cause I ain’t taking you home till Monday.”
“Indiri, I ne—”
He hung up before I could say anything else.
What the hell? This man said he wanted me to pack for the weekend, meanwhile it was the middle of the damn week.
I shook my head and went to pack the damn bag. I’d curse his ass out or ask too many questions when I was in front of him.
About two hours later, Bigs was pulling into the estate gates and of course Indiri was standing shirtless in the doorway. Instead of Bigs opening the door for me to get out, he did.
“Very kind of somebody who literally just hung up on me.” I hopped down from the truck while he grabbed my bag.
He chuckled. “You be asking too many questions. You trust me, don’t you?”
“Yes, I trust you, but I don—”
“If you trust me, then it shouldn’t be a but, shorty. I got this shit and you told me the other day you technically didn’t need to be in until like Wednesday, right?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yes. Why?”
“’Cause we got shit to do.” With one hand he held my bag and the other he held my hand as we walked up the pathway to the front door. “Yo, Bigs. you good for the rest of the night. We ain’t going nowhere.”
“Bet,” he said just before I heard the car door close.
“How was baking today?” he asked once we reached the kitchen. He’d since dropped my bag on the sofa.
I leaned against the island, taking in every favored part of him. “It was good. I got through everything on my to-do list. But let’s not speed past you asking if I had a passport, then telling somebody to book flights. What flight? When? How do you kno—”
He set the pitcher of water down on the counter in front of him and turned to me, his expression unreadable.
Then he picked me up and placed my body on the counter and wasted no time stepping between my legs.
He leaned in and pressed his lips against mine, his hands immediately at the button of my jeans.
I couldn’t stop him. Shit, I didn’t want to. Fuck.
We parted, those heavy brown eyes on me lighting fires everywhere they landed. “You need some dick. I got you. Gimme ’bout five minutes.”
Then he detached from me fully, moving toward the water pitcher to pour himself water, or so I thought, but instead he took the entire pitcher to the head, gulping it down. By the time he finished, he was slightly out of breath.
I was completely taken aback, but shit, he might have been right. I wasn’t turning down his offering.
“You eat?” He changed the subject, concern etched into his features.
“Earlier. I wasn’t too hungry when I got off.”
He nodded. “Khia made chicken and pasta for everybody else. It’s in the fridge.”