Chapter 9
“Price check on register four.”
Janae pushed her cart through the familiar aisles of the grocery store.
It seemed it was her most frequented place besides work.
Usually, she was in and out, knowing where each item she needed was located.
But someone must have moved things around, because some of her favorites were out of place, and she’d spent twice as much time looking for the Louisiana hot sauce as she normally would have.
She hated when things changed. Her work was exciting enough. She needed every other part of her life to be calm and predictable, including which shelf to get her damn hot sauce from.
Change often brought chaos and friction, neither of which she needed right now. Which was why she’d been avoiding Adam like the plague since their impromptu dinner in the hospital parking lot a few days ago.
Adam unnerved her in the best way, and being around that kind of magnetism didn’t mix well with her plan to focus on her kid, get him into college, and watch her boy make all his dreams come true.
Relationships took time and effort. The only place she could spend her time outside of her son was working as many hours as she could get.
College was expensive. and the more overtime she could get, the better off she would be when those tuition bills started coming in.
No man would want to be with someone who could never be around.
Did she get lonely? Sure she did. She was human.
It wasn’t simply about physical intimacy either.
It would be nice to cuddle up with a big warm body.
The companionship, the having someone there to call and tell about your day—the ache for that was forever present and getting harder and harder to ignore.
It was a hardship, a sacrifice for sure.
She was a parent. That’s what parents did.
They put their wants and needs aside to make sure their kids had what they wanted and needed.
The thought of James getting everything he’d worked so hard for over the years warmed her. Even though she wanted that with everything within her, there was something in her that kept wondering, What about your dreams?
Her dreams? Right now, the only recurring dream she kept having was of Adam Henderson.
From the moment he’d planted that almost kiss at the side of her mouth, all she could think about was Adam in her face, in her space, and in her bed, doing unspeakable things to her with those impossibly soft lips.
Wondering about her own dreams was a big fat no at the moment.
“Is that you, Janae Sanders?”
Janae looked around to find the person calling her full name. Adam’s mother was standing on the other side of the condiments aisle.
Just what she needed, to be caught red-handed by the mother of the object of her lusty thoughts, in the midst of said lusty thoughts.
The guilty “Huh” spilled out of Janae’s mouth so fast, she could hear her own mother in her head reply, “If you can huh, you can hear.”
“Ah, Mrs. Henderson.” Janae recovered quickly, hoping the woman wouldn’t notice the hint of awkwardness in Janae’s voice. “What are you doing out so early this morning?”
The woman skillfully moved her cart in front of Janae’s so they wouldn’t block traffic in the aisle.
“Oh, just trying to beat the crowd. Besides, Adam has a bunch of running around to do for the reunion tonight. I didn’t want to make him late by making him drag me all over town to do my shopping.”
“Adam’s here with you?”
“Sure am.”
That familiar deep voice came from behind her, daring her to turn around and witness him in all his glory.
Adam didn’t wait for Janae to turn around.
Before she could blink, he was standing beside his mother’s cart, easily placing a gallon of milk into it.
He looked up at her, pinning her with a look that made her want to forget they were in the middle of a grocery store with his mother standing next to them.
He wore his locs loose today, long and flowing down his shoulders and back.
He was casually dressed in a T-shirt and dark wash jeans with a dark brown cardigan that took the outfit from everyday casual to sexy professor.
The herringbone chain around his neck was there again, dipping seductively beneath the white cotton material of his shirt, the perfect accessory to set off his tanned skin.
“Morning, Janae. It’s good to see you again.”
“Again?” Adam’s mother asked.
“Adam was kind enough to bring me dinner the other night when I got stuck at work.”
Adam’s mother patted his arm, her pride in him evident in her light brown eyes. “I’m glad my boy is using the home training I gave him.”
His mother turned to Janae again. “I hope if you’re out this early in the morning that means you’re going to the reunion too.”
“Ah, well,” Janae tried to reply. Unfortunately, Adam’s mother saw her pause as an opening to continue.
“Adam, if you had any sense, you’d be taking her. I don’t know how someone so pretty and accomplished has managed to stay unattached in this town.”
Janae’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped.
She wasn’t a woman who was easily surprised.
She’d been in the trenches of critical care, she’d raised a child, and she had managed to survive a hypercritical mother and a manipulative spouse.
Never had any of those scenarios or people ever caused her to lose her ability to speak.
Although her words were simple, the genuine warmth Mrs. Henderson wrapped around the description of Janae was something she’d never experienced before, not coming from an elder anyway.
“I would love to take her, Mama.”
His mother pulled her cart away and maneuvered it around to where Adam and Janae stood.
“Well, then, I’ll leave you to finalize the details. Come find me in the produce section when you’re done.”
And just like that, Janae was alone in the middle of the condiments aisle with Adam as a sly grin crept up his face.
“Don’t,” Janae muttered.
“Don’t what?” Adam replied as he stood in front of her. “No worries, Janae. I’m not going to ask you to go to the reunion with me.”
Okay, of all the things she thought he’d say, that certainly wasn’t it.
“Why the hell not?”
She chided herself that once again her brain to mouth ability was malfunctioning in the presence of this man.
“Because, you’ve spent the last few days avoiding me, following what I thought was a nice time together. I take that to mean you’re too afraid to be around me.”
The hazy fog she always seemed to be in whenever she ran into Adam lately immediately lifted.
Afraid? Her?
She was Janae Sanders, she didn’t let anything make her shake. Not doctors with big egos, and certainly not this fine-ass man who was probably used to women just fainting at the sight of all his gorgeousness.
“Listen, dinner was nice, and the company was good. But being in New York must’ve dulled your senses if you can’t remember that I don’t run or back down from anything, least of all you.”
He shrugged, and the sheer casualness of the gesture grated against her nerves.
“I mean, what else was I supposed to think when you don’t return any of my calls and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of you since we talked on my truck.”
“Are you insinuating I’ve been avoiding you?”
“Insinuating?” He raised a brow to emphasize his skepticism. “Janae, we live in a town small enough that if someone sneezed on one end, someone else from the other end of town would say bless you.”
She folded her arms, planting her feet, refusing to give an inch to his accusation.
“I’ve been busy.” She waved her hands in the air.
“I’ve had a bunch of errands to run.” She shook her head, letting the tiny box braids she’d just gotten put in yesterday swing back and forth.
Since her head was still tender as hell, she had to force herself not to let the pain creep up on her face.
“And I had to get my hair done yesterday, as well as do this pesky thing called work.”
“You don’t work that much, and there isn’t that much space in Monroe Hills for us to go more than a couple of days without seeing each other. Also, we have best friends in common. For that reason alone, we should be more prone to running into each other than not.”
He had her there. Monroe Hills was small enough that you could probably drive through it in all of twenty minutes.
It was hard not to bump into your neighbors if you lived in the city proper.
And since she’d never lived on one of the rural spreads at the edge of town, there really was no excuse for not seeing Adam other than the obvious.
But damn if she was about to admit that to him. Nope, she sure as hell wasn’t.
“I’m not avoiding you, Adam.”
“If that’s true, then why aren’t you going to the reunion?
Even if you don’t want to go with me, it’s your reunion too.
With the lack of resources this district has, it’s not guaranteed we’ll get another one anytime soon.
Come tonight. Or are you really that afraid of little ole me that you’d miss out on a night of fun with your friends? ”
To be clear, Janae wasn’t afraid of Adam.
After he’d reached past her defenses the other night and called her out on her inability to trust people to do right by her, she felt too raw, too exposed.
And that was what she feared. His ability to get past her walls and make himself comfortable within them.
The last time she’d allowed that she’d ended up married to a man who tried to change everything about her.
She knew it wasn’t fair to paint Adam with the same toxic brush as her ex-husband, Marq.
Nothing about Adam seemed remotely as controlling as Marq was.
The truth was, she couldn’t risk finding out either way.
There was too much at stake. She had to be there for her child, and the last time a man had broken her heart, she’d barely been able to find the strength to show up the way she needed to for James.