Chapter 8
Jabarri
After our therapy session a couple of weeks ago, she has been a different person, lighter, happier, and more at ease, and I am loving it. When she talked about her cousin abusing her, I almost lost it, but I made a mental note to find his bitch ass. But her vulnerability broke me down,
“You are the first man that I had real feelings for. You shook me to my core every time I was around you. Even with the few guys I was attracted to, I had never had such a reaction or attraction to one like I had to you. I did everything in my power to stay away from you, to keep you at arm’s length. It was easier to keep you irritated with me then than to face my feelings for you and my relationship with Alayna. I guess everything happens for a reason. Even though I don’t like the way it happened, I am coming to the conclusion that it had to happen.”
“Would you have ever faced this thing between us?”
“No, I was content where I was. Alayna was easy. She was safe, and I was comfortable. I didn’t have to face my past or even attempt to heal from it. Honestly, I feel she was just what I needed at the time, she kept me from spiraling into a depression, or worse. I would have married her, made a life with her forever, and I think I would have been happy,” she says, and I shake my head in agreement because if things had been different with Natalie, I probably would have done the same thing and I say as much to her.
“We both would have made it work with our perspective partners and probably been happy.”
“And miserable all at the same time,” she says, laying her head on my shoulder.
“Indeed,” I tell her. I love that she is facing this shit finally and that even though her cousin tried to, he didn’t break her in ways she couldn’t heal from. howeverHowever, I just want to have a conversation with him. But, the trail goes cold shortly after Skai stopped going to her grandmother”s house. I want to ask Savvy, but then I would have to explain how I know, and we aren’t ready to out our relationship just yet. Plus, Natalie still hasn’t found the courage to tell her parents that her new friend Scottlyn isn’t a friend but a lover. This is all a tangled mess.
Skai called me today to ask me to come over for dinner tonight, so I am heading that way. I made sure to grab her some flowers, and her favorite dessert. I ring the bell with my elbow since my hands are full, and she opens the door, and I forget to breathe. This is the most feminine I have ever seen her outside of wedding attire. She is a legging, sweatpants, and jeans type of woman, and it makes sense, seeing as she is either recruiting football players or is literally out on the field. The short pink ruffled spaghetti strapped dress with pink heels makes her look like walking cotton candy, and I have a sweet tooth.
“You look stunning, baby,” I kiss her lips before handing her the flowers.
“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she says, walking back into the house, her face buried in the bouquet. I stop short when I get to the kitchen. She has gone all out for tonight; there are candles and flowers everywhere, there is soft music playing in the background, and a chef is in her kitchen making us dinner.
“What’s all this?” I ask, pulling out her seat after she hands one of the waitstaff that must have come with the chef the flowers.
“I wanted to do something special for you. To show my appreciation for all of your patience and understanding. I feel like things have been very one-sided between us, and I want to rectify it, not because we’re keeping score but because you are worth it, and I haven’t shown you that.”
“N?ku Ahi, you don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I wanted to,” she says. She really is a different person now, and I love it, but I also don’t want her to change so much she forgets the woman she was when we first met. I fell in love with her mean-ass. We talk about our day as the chef makes a mouthwatering meal before cleaning up and leaving us alone still talking.
I look over to her when she doesn’t respond to me, and see that she has fallen asleep sitting up in the chair. I get up and turn all the lights off before coming back over to her, picking her up, and carrying her to bed. My hands shake as I pull off her shoes before peeling the dress away from her chocolate skin, leaving her in just her panties. She is always in her pajamas when I stay the night, so this is my first time seeing her body. She is pure perfection, small, tight, and compact. I finish taking the dress off and carry it to the closet to hang it up and grab a sleep shirt, but stop myself. I snatch Atlas’ shirt off the hanger and replace it with my dress shirt, slide my t-shirt over my head, take off my shoes and pants, and put my pajama bottoms on. Walking back into the room, I take the t-shirt I just took off and pull it over her head, pushing her arms through the sleeves and pulling it down her body. I swear this girl sleeps like the dead. She didn’t even flinch. I turn the lights off and turn on the TV because she has to sleep with it on or she will wake up. I found out the hard way. I climbed in bed, pulling her in my arms before immediately passing out.
Skai
Well, last night did not go as planned. I wanted it to be our first time, but instead, I fell asleep at the kitchen table. Ridiculous. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I set the cruise control and settled in the car for the three-plus hour ride to Natchez to see about a tight end Saint wanted to recruit. I find a good station and concentrate on the road. I had to talk Jabarri out of coming with me on this trip. I had to remind him I had been doing this for a while now alone. He didn’t like it, but he reluctantly went along with it, having a job to complete today helped, but he made sure my location sharing was on, and I had a backup gun for my backup gun.
And even though I train with my uncles regularly, he has insisted on him and I training, so we’ll start that as soon as I get back home. The man is paranoid. Andy Grammer comes on, and it is a song I am not familiar with, but I love him, so I turn it up and immediately fall in love with the lyrics. As soon as I stop for some food, I send the song Good In Me?. I grab a breakfast sandwich and some apple juice and get back on the road.
It was a good visit, and I think I can convince him to come to Mississippi to play for Saint. I set up for him to come and visit the college with his parents, and I know Saint will seal the deal. The man has a silver tongue and can damn near convince anyone to do anything. I didn’t get a hotel room, the plan was to drive back today, but I am more tired than I thought I would be. I grab my phone to find a nearby hotel, but before I can search for one, the phone is ringing.
“Jabarri,” I say in lieu of a greeting.
“How did your visit go?”
“It went well. I’m pretty sure that once they visit Mississippi, they’ll sign with Saint,”
“Good. Are you on your way back now?”
“Yeah,” I say a little unsurely.
“Hmm, you don’t sound like you are sure about that,”
“I am a little more tired than I thought I would be,”
“Mmm, well, can you do me a favor?”
“Umm, sure, what is it?”
“Go to this address,” he says, and my phone chirps notifying me of a text message. I put the address in the GPS and head that way, it’s not far from where I am. I stay on the phone with Jabarri, telling him about the young man and his stats.
“Wait, it”s a hotel,”
“I know. Give them your name at the front desk and call me back when you reach the room.”
“Okay,” I say, curious about what he is up to. I give my name to the woman at the desk, show her my ID, and she hands me a key card. The suite, of course. I think when I get to the room. I open the door, walk into the living room, and see a clothing rack, bags, and flowers. There is a card in the flowers,
I”ve got something special up my sleeve for us tonight! I couldn”t resist planning a little adventure just for you and me. Get ready for an evening filled with good vibes, laughter, and, of course, a dash of surprise.
I won”t spill the tea on all the details, but picture this: a night where it”s just us, soaking in each other”s company and making memories.
So, throw on the outfit I chose for you because tonight is all about us. I can”t wait to see that beautiful smile of yours as we dive into the fun I”ve got in store. Get excited – it”s going to be a night to remember!
Looking forward to our adventure,
Jabarri
He’s here? I look at the time he said for us to meet, and I rush into the bathroom to wash and change. He thought of everything; all I had to do was get dressed. I didn’t even bother to look at the dress he bought. I take my shower, lotion myself down, put on the bra and panty set he picked out, do my makeup, and finally reveal the beautiful dress he picked out. The one-shoulder-tied neck dress fit me like a glove, I put on the heels on, grab my keys, and head out. I am giddy like a schoolgirl as I ride the elevator down to the lobby, but when the doors open, I lose my breath. Jabarri is standing there and he looks amazing in his suit standing in the lobby waiting for me. My face splits into the hugest smile I can manage, and I rush into the open arms waiting for me.
“What are you doing here? Where are we going?”
“So impatient, and I couldn’t be away from you, not even overnight,”
“I was coming home tonight, Jabarri.”
“Well, now you don’t have to. Come on, let’s go, baby,” he takes my hand to walk me out and to his car opening the door for me. He gets in the driver’s seat and takes off smoothly down the road. He parks and comes around to help me out,
“A dance studio?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer just ushers me inside. And once again, I am at a loss for words. There is a table set up on the side of the dance floor, and the room is blanketed in flowers and candles. The table is gorgeous, and there are domes covering dinner plates. He helps me sit, and a server comes over out of thin air and begins to serve us. Music is playing in the background, as we eat the delicious meal. When we get to dessert, I understand why he chose here to have dinner.
“I listened to the song you sent me this morning,”
“What did you think?”
“It’s beautiful. So I searched to find a song that embodied how I feel about you and came up with this,” he says seconds before the lights dim and the most beautiful music begins playing. A couple appears on the dance floor and dances to the song, telling the story of us through dance.
As I watch, he pulls me out of the seat into his lap and he holds me as this couple glides across the floor. Between their interpretation of our story and the words to the song, I am a sobbing mess when they give their bow.
“Don’t cry, N?ku Ahi. I want you happy, not crying.”
“They are not mutually exclusive, Jabarri. I can be happy and cry. You make me happy. This was,” I take a deep breath because I can’t think of adequate words to describe what he did tonight means. “This was everything. What is the name of the song?”
“Turning Page? by Sleeping at Last.”
“So beautiful,”
“I agree, will you walk down the aisle to me to this song?”
“Jabarri!”
“Are you proposing to me?”
“I am just asking you a question,”
“I’ll answer it if and when you propose,” I tell him. The song ends, and the couple leaves as quietly as they came.
“Hmm, fair enough. One more favor?”
“Mmm,” I hum.
“Dance for me?”
“Dance for you?” I am shocked by the request, I haven’t danced in front of anyone in years. I started out doing cheer dance when I was five, my mom put me in jazz, ballet, ballroom, contemporary, and hip hop. I was a majorette in college but stopped dancing once I graduated. That explains the dress. “Is there a song you want me to dance to?” I ask noticing we are completely alone.
“Whatever song you want to dance to me with,” I hop out of his lap, take my shoes off, search my phone for the song, and begin stretching in preparation to dance for him. This is crazy. I am giving this man a private dance, Jabarri! What reality am I living in? I find the song I want, connect to the Bluetooth, and press play. Jazmine Sullivan’s On It comes on, and I close my eyes and let the music move my body. I forgot how freeing dancing is for me, to just stop thinking and just feel the music take over. I glide across the floor, spin, fall to the floor, and do it all over again, moving however the music tells me. I finish on the floor, back arched, one foot pointed, the other knee bent, pulling my hair and breathing hard. Before I can catch my breath, he is on top of me, kissing the little bit of breath I have away.
I widen my legs to make room for him as he plunders my mouth, coaxing moan after moan out of me. I pull the tie binding his hair, and it falls like a silken cloth shielding us from outside view. I grab it and hold on for dear life, and his hands travel my body, touching everywhere.
“Do you know how beautiful you looked dancing? How sexy? Do you know how bad I want to explore your body from the inside out? Lick every inch, fuck every hole? Do you know how bad I just want you?” he says between kisses, and my body and mind are in a heated battle. I want him, but I am scared to have a repeat of the first time I was with a man. But I am older now, and this isn’t a teenage boy who barely knew what he was doing; this is Jabarri, my Jabarri. “But we aren’t ready, and I can wait. Besides, our first time is not going to be on the floor of a dance studio. Wrap your arms and legs around me,” he demands, and he stands with me in his arms like I weigh nothing. He sits me in my chair, kneels in front of me, and puts my shoes back on. I am not sure why, because he carries me out of the building back to his car.
We left for home early the next morning. Skai led, and I followed. I don’t know how much longer we can keep whatever this is hidden. I want to say we are in a relationship, but I can’t until the situation with Natalie is squared away and she doesn’t seem to want to tell her parents anything anymore. I think she is enjoying having her cake and eating it, too. She’s gotten to the point where she is lying to her parents, telling them she is with me when she is really with Scottlyn. She’s had me put her security camera on her back door on a loop so she can sneak in and out of her house without her parents knowing. Generally, I wouldn’t care, but until she settles this with her parents, my and Skai’s relationship is on hold. But truthfully, even if she told her parents today and blew up her life Skai and I have to tackle our family. I don’t know how Josh or Savvy will feel about her and me being in a relationship. This really is a cluster fuck of a situation. What would I do if they were against our relationship? Would I sacrifice my family for her? Without question, I don’t want to have to make that decision for me or her. She stirs in my arms, and I know she is waking up.
Her therapy is going better, her heart is healing, and she is accepting that the things that were done to her weren’t her fault. Truthfully, the things people chose to do to her have nothing to do with her and everything to do with them. But her mouth, that shit, is still razor sharp. I called her a tiny big mouth and she called me Barbie, her new nickname for me. Out of all the damn nicknames she could have come up with from Jabarri, she settles on Barbie. But honestly that was the first time I saw the old Skai peeking back through the shell of the woman that has been walking around since Alayna betrayed her.
“Did you drool on me?” I ask her when she lifts her face off of my chest and wipes her mouth.
“No, I didn’t drool on you! You get on my nerves, I was touching my face because I lost feeling in it after laying on your Nestle Crunch-covered chest,” she says, and I burst out laughing.
“Now you know you capping. My chest is smooth as a baby ass,”
“Yeah, a baby porcupine,”
“Oh, I see someone woke up with a smart-ass mouth this morning,”
“I wake up smart every morning,” she says, climbing out of bed and damn near running to the bathroom. She uses it, washes her hands, stands in the doorway of the bathroom, and opens her mouth to say something when the doorbell rings.
“The notification didn’t go off,” she says, rushing over to her phone to check and remembering both of us putting on phones on silent so we could get some sleep. She checks the camera and cusses, making me look and see Alayna standing on the doorstep. “What the fuck! Let me go tell her to get her ass back to wherever she’s been.”
“Don’t do that. Go see what she has to say. This may be your chance to get some answers. I’ll stay in the bedroom out of sight. If she ain’t saying nothing you want to hear, tell her ass to leave,” I tell her, and she nibbles on her lip before saying okay and heading to the front door.
Skai
I open the door, bracing myself for the feelings to come rushing back, but it never happens.
“You got some fucking nerves.”
“I was hoping enough time has passed so we can talk.”
“Girl, the only reason you’re not waking up dead right now is because I am trying to be a better me. Come in. Let’s get this over with so you can go back to wherever you’ve been, and I never have to see you again,”
“Wow, the house looks nothing like it did,”
“I removed every trace of you, but I know you didn’t come here to talk about decorating,”
“I have had a lot of time to think about what I did, and I think I wanted you to find out. I wanted you to feel the same hurt you inflicted on me,”
“Hurt? Alayna, what the hell are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I am talking about! You cheated first!”
“With who?”
“Jabarri!”
“Never. Not once,”
“You might not have cheated physically, but you did emotionally, Skai,”
“Are you slow? Is this you taking responsibility for your actions?”
“How can you not see it? I saw the attraction he had for you, hell, everyone did, and you refused to stop being around him!”
“No, I refused to stop being around my family, Alayna. Jabarri is my stepdad’s brother. My mom lives in a house with her husband and all of his brothers. The only way I could stop being around him would have been to stop being around my family. I can’t stop someone from being attracted to me, but what I can control is me, and I have never fed into or encouraged what Jabarri may or may not have felt for me. I loved you.
I was faithful to you! I would have never cheated, I would have never done you like my dad treated my mom, ever! And I would have never left you.”
“Why couldn’t your family have its own time together so they didn’t have to be involved?”
“So let me get this straight, my family needed to have separate family time because you were insecure and didn’t want me to be around Jabarri? Funny how you talk about his attraction to me being the issue, but I can recall you joking about one of the professors at my job liking me. You didn’t have a problem with me going to work every day. You didn’t expect me to leave my job or for my job to change my schedule so I wouldn’t cross paths with him. So it’s not about that. It was simply about Jabarri,” I tell her.
“You’re damn right it was.”
“But why?”
“Because you were different with him. That’s how I know you were cheating with him,”
“You’re ass is delusional, you know that? I’m going to tell you right now, outside of me detesting cheaters, the reason I can prove I didn’t cheat is the absolute fact that he wouldn’t share me with anyone,”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re not going to own up to what you were doing behind my back,”
“Oh, like you’re doing?”
“You’re a fucking bitch! A black heartless bitch! You are all I had, and you fucked me over for a man! And he will never be with you!”
“You’re going to watch calling her out of her name,” Jabarri says from the doorway, and her eyes bug out of her head at him standing there, obviously fresh out of bed.
“I knew it! Are you going to stand there and still lie?! You were just waiting to have a reason to kick me to the curb so you could spread your legs for him! You’re a fucking lying ass whore!”
“I know one thing, that’s the last time you are going to call her out of her name,”
“Fuck you, bitch,”
“Now wait a damn minute, I let you slide fucking a bitch in my bed, and I still let you slide calling me out of my name just now but talking reckless to him is going to get you fuck up expeditiously,”
“You’re taking up for him! You sacrificed me, didn’t blink throwing me out on the curb, but will stand there and defend him!?”
“Man, I’ve had enough of this. Get the fuck out,” Jabarri says, and she springs up from the seat, so mad the tips of her ears are tomato red.
“This ain’t your house! You can’t put me out,”
“I just did!” he says and the next events happened in slow motion and fast forward simultaneously. She turns to him, hocks up phlegm, and spits on him before turning around to me. I punch her so hard that she flies back on the sofa blood sprays everywhere, and I am on her before the second bounce. I punch her again and again before choking her and slamming her head on the back of the sofa. She claws my face, drawing blood, causing me to loosen my grip on her, allowing her to push me off of her. I stumble back, and she hops off the sofa and punches me in my temple. I jab her in the eye, the skin underneath it splits open and her eye instantly swells. I draw back and crack her jaw, before hitting her dead in the mouth, causing both lips to burst open. I pick her ass up and slam her on the coffee table, breaking it before I kick her so hard she slides across the floor. Before I can do any more damage I am lifted off of the ground and set behind Jabarri.
“I suggest you leave before I let her go,” she spits on the floor, and in the midst of blood and spit are a couple of teeth. She struggles to stands, holding her side. I’m sure I broke a few of her ribs when I kicked her.
“You should probably go to the hospital and have your side looked at,” he tells her. His arms band around me, holding me back, when I come from behind him and stand to his side. I look at the woman I loved for years, the woman I planned to spend the rest of my life with and feel nothing but empty regret. The tears in her eyes when she looks at me soften me a little, but I am done nonetheless. I watch her leave, dropping to the sofa when the door closes, and hiss in pain when Jabarri presses a cloth to my face.
“Your face, baby,”
“It’ll be fine,” I tell him, holding the cloth.
“Are you okay,” he asks and I don’t have an answer for him. My face hurts, and where she hit me hurts but hearing how she thought about me might hurt worse.
“I failed her,” I tell him.
“No, she failed you and your relationship. She should have come to you with how she felt instead of acting in retaliation for her preconceived notion that you were unfaithful.”
“I have never felt for another man what I feel for you, and it scared me when we first met, but no matter how much I denied it, she still saw it. I was supposed to be a safe place for her, and she was supposed to be a safe place for me, and I let her down, Jabarri. Yeah, she should have come to me, but she was here in Mississippi because of me, around my family, I should have done better.”
“Don’t do that, don’t take all the blame. Even if you insist on taking the blame, it’s not all on you. She has a lot of the blame on her shoulders, too. It’s all about communication, and she didn’t give you that. Come back to bed so I can tend to you. I want to hold you,” he says, and I am too tired to argue, so I let him pull me back in the bedroom into bed, and even though I just got up a little while ago, I fall asleep almost instantly.
Lennox is retiring, and we have decided to do a Gideon version of Lip Sync Battle, Lennox’s favorite TV show. I need to get to the house to rehearse our songs and performance. I grab an extra set of clothes to change into for afterward since we’re supposed to go out to dinner. I shove the clothes in my bag and brush past Jabarri without saying a word to grab my shoes and other stuff.
“Skai, are you gonna keep giving me the silent treatment?” he asks as he watches me move around my bedroom.
“I don’t have anything else to say, Barbie.” I call him the nickname I gave him.
“Please, Skai, just listen to me.”
“For what, Jabarri? I told you how I felt, and you told me I was the one being unreasonable. She called you and you got up out of my bed with me to rush to her! And if that was a one-time thing, I may have let it slide, but over these past several weeks, it has become a common occurrence,”
“I am only gone for less than an hour in most cases,”
“I don’t give a damn if you were gone for less than one minute! You getting up out of my bed in the middle of the night to run to the aid of another woman is not going to fly with me. I know she is your friend, and you promised to be there for her, and I am okay with that, but what I am not okay with is her constant and increasing need for you. She was supposed to be telling her parents that she is gay, but instead, she is using you to front for her parents and enjoying her relationship with Scottlyn. She has her family believing that Scottlyn is a friend! Even so, what butters my biscuits is the fact that she constantly has you putting us at risk with her requests of you, and it’s pissing me off that you keep going for it. That you expect me to just eat it!”
“You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill, Skai, you knew the situation from jump, and now you’re frustrated that it’s inconvenient? You are being ridiculous being jealous of a woman who isn’t attracted to me at all, and I’m not attracted to her,”
“Are you still planning to take her to the retirement party?”
“I was,”
“Why, Jabarri?”
“She’s meeting up with Scottlyn later, and it’s not like we can go together,”
“Okay, so you’d be okay with me going with a man?”
“Why would I be okay with something like that?”
“Exactly! And you only say that because you know I would never date any other man than you! Okay, well, then what if I showed up with another woman?”
“Our little secret situationship wouldn’t be a secret anymore,”
“Sometimes I swear you are not a real Gideon, but then again, you were conceived from one of your mother’s older eggs! None of your brothers would dare expect any of the women in their lives to accept what you think I should. But don’t worry about it, I’ll make it easy. You won’t have to worry about me being ‘jealous,’ ” I say with air quotes. “Don’t come back here until you can get this shit straight with Natalie. I would never expect you to accept what you think I should, and that is why I am going to take myself out of the equation altogether,” I tell him as I angrily zip my bag and storm past him and out of my house. I get in the car and leave the driveway so fast there is actual smoke coming from my tires. Halfway there, I begin to feel guilty for trying to force him to choose between Natalie and me. I know she needs him, and it’s not a matter of being jealous it’s about respect and the lack of it on both of their parts. I make it to my mom’s in record time, we run through the routine, change, and head to dinner. The entire time I am running off of pure anger, but I put on a front so no one gets to asking me any questions. Luckily for me, since the breakup, no one pushes me too much so I make it through the night without any problems. But once I make it back to my house, and he isn’t there, the loneliness hits me hard. The party isn’t for a couple of nights, tomorrow when I get to work, I am going to ask Saint to send me someplace far away so I won’t be here until it’s time for the party. I shower again and don’t bother with pajamas as I crawl into bed and into a fitful sleep.
“Saint!” I yell for my brother across the field the next morning when I see him getting ready to go towards the other goal post.
“What you want, big head!”
“First of all, I am the best-looking one of our mother’s kids,”
“Please, you see all this six-plus feet of pure dark chocolate perfection?”
“Don’t make me throw up,” I say as I pantomime, throwing up.
“What do you want, sis?” he asks, laughing at me.
“Isn’t there a recruit you wanted that was in Seattle?”
“Yeah?” he asks curiously because when he first mentioned it, I absolutely refused to go all the way over there.
“I’ll go,” I tell him, and he just looks at me for a long while before saying,
“Okay, Skai, set it up,”
“Thanks, Saint,” I say seconds before he pulls me to him in a hug.
I head up to my office to make travel arrangements. I turn on the wax melter and some music as I book my flight, a rental, and my hotel. I pull out my phone and dial,
“What you want, shorty,”
“Shut up. I was taller than you for years!”
“Over twenty years ago. What do you need, sis?”
“I need a hotel in Seattle for a few nights,”
“I got you,” he says, and I hear him clacking away on his keyboard in the background. He has done so well running Peter’s business that Peter has pretty much stepped away from the business completely. “Okay, I have you booked at the Royale penthouse suite. It’s right on the water. You’ll love it. When you get there call the number I text you, and Nathaniel will pick you up.”
“I was renting a car. You know I like to be able to be on the go,”
“Mush,” he says, calling me his childhood nickname. “It is a hotel car, guests can use the cars. No need to spend money on a car.”
“Oh, okay. Is that one of your ideas, or did Peter already have that set up?”
“Naw, that was all me. It’s a five-star hotel, guests are spending a grand a night minimum. The last thing we can offer is a complementary car for them,”
“I bet your hotel stays booked.”
“It does, but there is an owner’s penthouse, and that is where you’ll be staying,”
“Thanks, Shepp.”
“You’re welcome, sis,” he says, and I hang up. So the only thing I need to book is my flight. I open the search engine, type in Continental Airlines, and book to leave early tomorrow morning. I would have left today, but I haven’t packed or called this kid and his parents. I secure my ticket, and call the Colfax’s. They were excited to hear from me, and I made an appointment to meet with them the day after tomorrow. A knock on my door startles me a bit. “Elias,” I say, grabbing my chest to try to slow my heart back down.
“You got a moment, Coach?” some of the faculty has taken to calling me coach because I work with the players and also because you can find her or me out on the sidelines with Saint at any given time.
“Sure, what’s up,” I ask, thinking again what a nice-looking guy he is. He is one of our physics professors, a little over six feet with a runner’s body, green eyes, and dark blond- light brown hair, and the glasses make him look like a sexy nerd. The man is, in one word, adorable.
“Well, this is a little embarrassing and a bit unorthodox,” he says, looking nervous and peaking my curiosity. I get up and close my office door before retaking my seat.
“Whatever you say here stays here. What’s wrong?”
“Praise,” he simply says. I look at him, waiting for more before it clicks.
“My cousin?” I ask, thinking of the woman Uncle Joseph and Aunt Joyce unofficially adopted.
“Yeah, um, is she seeing anyone?” he asks, and I blush for Praise.
“Nope, not as far as I know. She’s too busy running the restaurant,” I say, watching him and noticing the blush that spreads across his face.
“Um, can you give her my phone number? I would ask for hers, but in this day and age, you never know someone’s intent, so it’s better I just give her mine.”
“How about you ask her yourself?” I say, coming up with an idea in the spur of the moment.
“How could I do that?”
“My family is having a retirement for my GrandPeter’s wife and you can come as my guest. That will give you the ability to be around her and ask her for your number yourself.”
“You’d do that?”
“Yeah, why not?” I ask, knowing he will be around all the Gideon men so Praise will be safe.
“Thank you, Skai, I’d love to,”
“Great,” I say, and I give him the particulars and we agree to meet outside at a set time. With that done, he leaves the office and I go back to going over Cole’s stats and planning my trip. They have a ferry that takes you to British Columbia Canada, and I book a ticket for that, too. I just need some time away and to stay too busy to think of him. I shut my computer and head home to pack.
I am irritated as hell. I miss the hell out of her but she is being unreasonable with this Natalie thing.
“Hey, Jabby, try this,” Jaasiel says, walking into my office with a plate of something that smells amazing.
“I thought I asked you all to stop calling me that stupid-ass name,” I snap.
“What the fuck did you do?” he asks me, making me even more irritated.
“Why does it automatically have to be something I did?” I retort and then catch what he says. “You knew?”
“Jabby,” he calls me the nickname again, letting me know to pump my damn breaks. Jaasiel is the quietest one of us, but he might be the scariest and craziest. When he caught up to the man who abducted and tortured his wife, the hell Jaasiel unleashed had us all giving him the side eye. “The rest of our brothers may be too busy in their lives to notice the changes in you, but not me.” Jaasiel and I have always been closer than the other brothers, so it doesn’t surprise me that I am not hiding anything from him. So I give him the quick rundown without betraying Natalie’s secret and how I feel Skai is being unreasonable.
“Hmm, so you’re also basically having your cake and eating it too?”
“What? No? I told you Natalie and I are just friends,”
“Yeah, I heard you, but you are keeping your friendship with her not changing the dynamics of it and being with Skai without a real commitment, getting all the perks without making any sacrifices for it. And you really think that it’s cool and that Skai would continue to accept that arrangement? You’re not that stupid are you?”
“There’s a lot you don’t know, okay,”
“Man fuck outta here! Save that shit for someone else, you’re fucking up. Who is more important, Jabarri, and don’t say both because NO ONE should be on Skai’s level in your life. Not a friend, not a sister, not even your mother. No one comes before Parker, period, and I would never let anyone think they are or could be. You have been pining away for Skai for years, and you are going to tell me you are willing to lose her to save a friendship? And newsflash, if Natalie was as good of a friend as you seem to think she is, she wouldn’t put you in a position to lose Skai. Now try this,” he says, shoving the spoon in my mouth. I chew the food, it’s delicious but that is not surprising. “Amazing,” I mumble out between chews.
“Yeah, I thought so, too,” he says, turning on his heels and walking out, leaving his words ringing in my mind. I grab my keys to head out, I have to see her, but first, I check her location. She blocked her location from me, which may work with everyone else but not with me. I turn the location back on and notice she is in Seattle? Fuck. Well, I’ll have to catch her at Lennox’s party. I think about what Jaasiel says, and I know Skai and I need to talk. Hopefully, we can after the party. One thing he and I can agree on is that I waited too long to have her to fuck up and lose her.
Skai
Seattle was just what I needed, the atmosphere, the food, the people, it was wonderful, and I am not even going to talk about my trip to Victoria, British Columbia, stunning. I had an afternoon at a beautiful hotel, and struck up a conversation with a few other diners and ended up staying until it was time to board the ferry to go back to Seattle. And yes, Shepp was right. The hotel, gorgeous, but the amenities it offered made it easily one of the top three hotels I have ever been too. I was able to find a new dress for tonight’s party and I can’t wait to wear it, and I got Cole to come to the college this fall. Overall it was a successful trip, but even with all that Jabarri stayed on my mind the entire time.
I look at myself in the mirror, and like what I see, the dress fits better on me than it did when I tried it on in the store. I have my hair pulled up into my signature topknot bun, my make-up is full glam, and the heels have my short legs looking long, toned, and sexy. I hurry to grab my clutch and get out of the door so I can meet Elias on time. I had the Jeep washed and detailed while I was away, and she sparkled like a black diamond. I slide behind the steering wheel, press start, and listen to her roar to life. I hit my playlist and head towards the venue.
I spot Elias immediately. As soon as I come to a stop, the valet is at my door helping me out and handing me a ticket for my car.
“Coach, you look amazing,” he says, taking me in from top to bottom, and I return the favor.
“As do you,” I tell him, meaning it. “You clean up nice.” And he does, his black floral textured jacket with the shawl-style lapel over the black slim-style pants are a perfect fit.
“I try,” he says, the tips of his ears turning beet red. Looping my arm through the offered elbow, we make our way inside. “I came all this way and I don’t know if I will have the courage to say anything to her.” He is so cute and Praise couldn’t find a better man.
“Praise is real cool and down to earth, but if you want a safe topic to broach her with, talk about cooking, and I promise she will open up and talk your ear off,”
“Thanks, Skai,” he says my name, and it kinda takes me by surprise, there are times that the staff calls me coach so much that I wonder if they even remember my first name at all.
“No problem.” We walk in the ballroom, and I direct Elias to the table with my mom and the rest of the ladies. Luckily for Elias, Saint begins talking to him, and he ends up hanging with them, and before long it’s time for us to do our surprise performance. We have a ball, and Lennox is so entertained and happy all the hours rehearsing were worth it. And then, like the interlopers they are, the guys surprise us with performances of their own. And even though they are quite entertaining, there is one thing in here that has kept my attention all night, and that is Jabarri over there with Natalie. I want to make a scene, but I refuse to give him that much. I asked him not to bring her, and what did he do? He brings her. Deep down, I expected him to rectify the situation, and I guess he did, just not how I expected him to. I stand in the corner, going back and forth, watching what is going on in the ballroom and watching them. I crack a small smile when I see Elias and Praise sitting at a secluded table talking. Well at least tonight worked out for one of us, I think before my eyes swing back to him.
“What’s wrong, little sis?” Brooklyn asks when she stands next to me.
“Nothing,” I snap, but she follows my eyes to where I am looking, and end up looking at Jabarri and Natalie.
“You can’t do that, Skai, He watched you be with someone for years. You can’t get an attitude now that he is dating,” she tells me.
“Hmp,” I say, finally tearing my eyes off of Jabarri and Natalie.
“That is a completely different situation.”
“How Skai? That man has had it bad for you for years, and you did not give him the time of day, so now that he has moved on and you’re single, you still expect him to be there. That’s not fair.”
“You have it all figured out, huh?” I say, showing way more anger than I intend to.
“Skai,” she tries.
“No, I was in a relationship, in what I thought was a happy relationship. I wasn’t supposed to give him the time of day.”
“Okay, and now?” she asks.
“Like I said, you have it all figured out, right? You have no idea what you are talking about, no idea at all. I have all the reasons to have a problem with what I am seeing over there.”
“How Skai?”
“You know things aren’t always what they seem. I would think someone like you would understand that because you and Aryan are damn sure more than just fucking friends,” I tell her before walking away from her before I say even more than I intend to. I don’t bother saying bye to Elias since he is knee-deep in a conversation with Praise, or anyone else. I head to the valet station, collect my car, and head home. I’m done with today.
Jabarri
I look around the ballroom and no longer see her, but I see the guy she came with sitting and talking to Praise. When she walked in here with him, I can’t describe the anger and jealousy I felt. I noticed early on that her date had gone off with Praise, but that did not take away the jealousy I felt seeing her able to walk in here freely on the arm of another man. Is that how she feels about me and Natalie? I think. Was I really that clueless about how my friendship made her feel? I mean, no one but her knows it’s just a friendship, and is Natalie taking advantage of our friendship? Shit, I have some things to think about. I want to go to her tonight. I have missed her so much, missed being in the house with her, sleeping in her bed, and her putting her cold-ass feet on me to warm them up. I just miss her. Natalie’s voice finally breaks through my thoughts, and I realize she has been talking to me the entire time and I had completely blocked her out. And was her voice always this irritating? Yeah, I need to make some changes but I can’t do it here at this party tonight. I focus back on Natalie and will the night to hurry and be over.
“Jabarri, you have been zoned out since Skai left,”
“Have I?”
“Yes, why don’t you just go to her?”
“Because I can’t go to her right now. There are a few things I need to do first,” I tell her, not elaborating any further.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Naw, not right now,” I tell her. “Uh oh, it looks like they are about to turn this into a real party,” I tell her as I watch the staff rearrange to tables so there is a large dance floor as the live band takes the stage. “You said you wanted to dance tonight,” I remind her.
“I do. When you told me which band was going to be here, I knew I had to come. I love them. This is the perfect night. I am here with you and one of my favorite local bands. I can’t think of anything better,” she says as she pulls her phone out. The band begins to play as she taps the screen, her face immediately splitting into a smile. “Um, Jabarri, I gotta go,”
“Wait, what?” I ask in disbelief.
“Scottlyn sent a car for me, she wants me to come to her house right now. Sorry,” she tells me as she kisses me on the cheek and practically runs out of the room so she can go see her girlfriend. I stand there dumbfounded, she really just ditched me.
“And that’s what you are sacrificing Skai for? She just abandoned you? At your family’s event? Yeah, I can see why you’d be more loyal to her,” Jaasiel says, walking away, his words making me grind my teeth together. Tomorrow I will talk to Natalie and then I am going to go after Skai, again.
The party was great. I stayed and partied with my family until we finally called it a night. This morning, I woke up with a plan to go see Natalie and talk to her about how things need to change, but instead, I get a text from her telling me to stay away from her house because she’s told her parents that I have taken her away on an impromptu trip. In reality, she is on an impromptu trip with Scottlyn for the week. Well, ain’t that a bitch. I wouldn’t dare go to Skai half-assed so I guess I have to wait a week.
Skai
It has been a little more than a week since the party, and no Jabarri. I thought I was hurt by Alayna but his indifference is killing me. I have had to stop myself from going to the compound and confronting him, but I refuse to do it. I grab my notebook and prepare to get some work done tonight so I can have a jump on work tomorrow, when the doorbell rings. I hate my stupid ass heart. It immediately jumps, hoping it’s Jabarri. I hurry to the door and practically skid to a stop when I see not Jabarri on my doorstep but Brooklyn.
“Brooklyn?”
“Skai,” she says, her voice breaking right before tears begin to flow down her face. I reach for her, and she breaks down even more. She finally gets herself together, and we make it in the door to the living room.
“What happened?” I ask, and when she tells me what happened, I am pissed.
“Uncle Aryan is going to make me beat his ass! You can stay here for as long as you need. Do you want the upstairs or downstairs guest room?”
“I’ll take the upstairs room,” she says.
I lead her upstairs to the room and leave her to get settled. “If you want to talk more or just want to sit without talking, I’ll be in my room. Come on down,” I tell her before walking out. Almost an hour later, there is a knock on my door,
“Come in,” I yell through the door. She walks in as I am cleaning up and hanging my clothes in the closet. She climbs up in my bed, grabs a pillow, and hugs it as she watches me move about the room.
“I am sorry, Skai, for assuming the night of the retirement party.”
“I understand, let’s just let it go,” I say quickly, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV to some true crime drama as I crawl into the bed and start working on my paperwork until we both fall asleep listening to why the woman on the screen killed her husband.