S M O K E
Keyana had been on my ass half the night after Lace left.
She was happy as hell to see her again and kept asking when she was coming back, where she’d been, and if I thought she was staying in Bellhaven for a while.
I ain’t have shit to tell her, and after hearing Lace’s name enough times, I finally told Keyana to leave me the fuck alone.
She laughed, called me grumpy, and took her ass upstairs.
I tried to chill after that, but Lace had already fucked my whole night up. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her ass against that wall. I could still hear her moaning, taste her pussy, and feel how tight that shit got around my dick when she came.
What really had me fucked up was how that pussy reacted when I talked her through it.
Lace had always loved when I talked nasty to her, but that shit hit a little different now.
Somewhere in them eight years she’d been gone, somebody else had been telling her how good she was taking dick, and I ain’t know how the fuck I felt about that.
I rubbed both hands over my face and sat up. “Fuck.” Laying around thinking about Lace and who she’d been fucking wasn’t about to do nothing but piss me off. I had work to handle, and that was some shit I actually knew what to do with.
I got my ass up, showered, threw my work clothes on, and headed downstairs.
Keyana was already in the kitchen wearing jeans and a Bellhaven K-12 hoodie, sitting at the counter with a bowl of Cinnamon Crunch Pops in front of her.
She had one AirPod in and was so busy scrolling through her phone that she barely looked up when I walked in.
“You got lunch money?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Smoke. I have money.”
“Aight.”
I poured my black iced coffee and leaned against the counter while Keyana finished her cereal.
She’d been getting herself ready for school for years, but that didn’t mean I stopped checking behind her ass.
I’d been making sure she had what she needed since she was little, and that shit wasn’t about to change just because she was damn near grown.
Keyana took another spoonful of cereal while scrolling through her phone. “I still can’t believe Solace was here yesterday.”
“I know.” I took a sip of my coffee and kept my eyes on my cup.
“You good?”
I looked at her. “Why the hell wouldn’t I be?”
She shrugged. “Just askin’.”
“Then stop askin’.”
Keyana gave me a look but knew better than to keep pushing. She finished eating, dropped her bowl in the sink, and grabbed her backpack from the chair. “I got student council and pep rally practice after school.” She came over, kissed me on the cheek, and headed for the door.
“Have a good day, aggy. Love you.”
“I love you too.”
The door closed behind her, and I finished my coffee before grabbing my keys.
I had to stop by Cole Hardware before heading over to Loretta’s, which meant I’d be seeing Lace again whether either one of us was ready for that shit or not.
By the time I got to the hardware store, I had already snapped on Byron twice and been there less than a half hour.
The second time, Tanya stopped what she was doing behind the counter and stared at me.
I looked over at her. “What?”
“You tell me.”
“Ain’t shit wrong wit’ me.”
“You’ve been here twenty minutes and threatened to fire Byron twice. Everything alright?”
“Byron needs to stop fuckin’ up, then I won’t have to fire his ass.”
“He hasn’t fucked anything up.”
Before I could tell her to mind the business that paid her, the bell over the front door rang.
I looked up and damn near started drooling right there behind the counter when Lace walked in.
She wore tight black jeans, boots, a fitted black sweater, and a long coat, her hair hanging around her shoulders.
She looked good as fuck, and after having her body against me yesterday, my mind went straight back to that shit.
Her legs around my waist. Her pussy squeezing my dick.
Her ass in my hands. I had spent eight years without touching her, and one time clearly hadn’t gotten that shit back out of my system.
I shifted the box in my hands and cleared my throat. “Mornin’.”
“Morning.” Lace kept her eyes on me for another second before looking toward the register. I followed her eyes and caught Tanya standing there watching us instead of doing whatever the fuck I paid her nosy ass to do.
“Don’t you got some shit to do?”
Tanya laughed under her breath and grabbed the box cutter beside the register. “I’ll go help Byron wit’ the delivery in the back.” She waved at Lace before walking off, and I waited until she disappeared down the aisle before setting the box on the shelf beside me.
Lace adjusted her purse strap. “My mama needs cabinet pulls.”
“Darius pickin’ ’em up.”
“Oh.” She glanced toward the aisle before looking back at me. “Can we talk?”
I already knew what the fuck this was about. I nodded toward the stairs. “Come on.”
Lace followed me up to my office. I opened the door and let her go in first before following behind her.
She walked toward the windows while I stayed near my desk, waiting for her to say whatever she had come there to say.
After yesterday, it wasn’t hard to figure out what the fuck we needed to talk about.
“What’s up?” I finally asked.
She turned toward me. “I’m sorry I left the way I did yesterday.”
I rubbed my hand over my beard. “Key was all over yo’ ass.”
“Keyana wasn’t the reason.” Lace looked down at her hands before looking back at me. “It was everything. We said all that shit to each other, and then we had sex. I wasn’t expecting it to feel the way it did.”
I frowned. “Fuck that mean?”
“Not bad.” She shook her head. “I thought if we ever had sex again, that’s all it would be. We’re older now. It’s been eight years, and we’ve both been with other people. But then it happened, and you still felt like you.”
I ain’t have to ask what she meant because I knew. That shit had fucked with me too.
“That scared the hell out of me,” she continued. “It was too familiar after all this time, and then Key walked in and hugged me like I hadn’t missed eight years of her life. I needed to get out of there before I completely lost it.”
I rubbed my hand over my beard again. “You coulda said that instead of takin’ off on a nigga... again.”
“I know.” She gave me a look, but there wasn’t much attitude behind it. “How did you feel?”
“’Bout what?”
“Yesterday.”
I looked at her. “You want me to tell you I wish that shit ain’t happen?”
“No.”
“Good, ’cause I don’t.” I leaned back against my desk and folded my arms. “I ain’t gon’ bullshit you and act like it ain’t fuck wit’ my head either.
We finally talked ‘bout shit we shoulda talked ‘bout years ago, then twenty minutes later I had yo’ ass cummin’ on my dick.
We went from not speakin’ for eight fuckin’ years to all that shit in a few days. ”
She laughed a little. “When you put it like that, it sounds insane.”
“’Cause that shit is insane.”
Her smile faded. “I don’t want you thinking I slept with you because I’m confused about Tyler or because I needed something after ending my engagement.”
“I don’t.”
“How do you know?”
“’Cause I was there too, Lace. I know what the fuck that was.”
“What was it?”
I looked her dead in her face. “That was me still lovin’ yo’ ass after eight years apart.”
She held my eyes. “I meant what I said yesterday, Sherrod. I didn’t leave because I stopped loving you.”
That shit hit me different this time. Yesterday I had been too pissed off trying to understand how somebody could love me and still cut me off the way she did. Now she was standing in my office, saying that shit again, and neither one of us was angry.
“You can’t tell a nigga you never stopped lovin’ him, cum all over his dick, then pop up the next day expectin’ him to act like none of that shit mean nothin’.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Then what the fuck you askin’ for, Lacey?”
She took a breath. “I don’t know yet. I just... I know I don’t want to run from you again.”
I stared at her. I didn’t know what the fuck she wanted from me yet, but that was the first thing she’d said that I could actually do something with. If Lace was done running, I damn sure wasn’t about to stand there and pretend I didn’t still want her.
I walked over, grabbed her by the throat, and kissed her.
Lace grabbed my shirt and kissed me back just as hard while I grabbed her ass with my other hand and pulled her against me.
Her tongue slid against mine, and my dick got hard almost immediately.
After yesterday, there wasn’t shit confusing about what my body wanted.
I slid my hand down and grabbed her ass through her jeans, squeezing that shit before pulling her tighter against me.
Lace moaned into my mouth, and my dick got hard as fuck.
I damn near bent her over my desk and did exactly that, but I finally pulled my mouth away with my hand still gripping her ass.
“Fuck.” I looked down at her, licking my lips. “You busy tonight?”
She blinked a couple times before answering. “Tonight? I was just gonna catch up on some shows and go to bed early. Why?”
“You wanna go see a movie or some shit?”
A smile started spreading across her face. “Are you asking me on a date, Sherrod?”
“I asked if you wanna see a movie. Don’t start makin’ shit more than what I said.”
She laughed. “You haven’t changed that much.”
“You comin’ or not?”
“Yes, Smoke. I’ll go to the movies with you.”
“Aight.” I kissed her again before letting her go. “I’ll come get you from yo’ mama’s house ‘round seven.”
“No.” The shit came out so fast that I looked at her confused. “I’ll just meet you there.”
It took me a second before I caught on. “Oh, you don’t want Loretta knowin’ you goin’ somewhere wit’ me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You ain’t have to.” I smiled and shook my head. “Yo’ grown ass still scared of Loretta.”
“I am not scared of my mother, Smoke. She just doesn’t need to know everything I do.”
“Aight, damn. Meet me there at seven.”
“Seven.” She headed for the door before stopping to look back at me. “And for the record, that was definitely you asking me on a date.”
“Fuck out my office wit’ that corny shit, Lace.”
She laughed and walked out. I watched her ass until she disappeared through the door before I went back to my desk. I had work to do, and instead I was already thinking about seven o’clock.
The rest of my morning at the hardware store kept me busy enough that Lace wasn’t on my mind every damn second.
Mrs. Nolan came in needing some shit for a leaking sink, another nigga had me walking him through what he needed to replace part of his porch, and the delivery Byron and Tanya were checking in took way longer than it should’ve.
By the time I helped to get the last of that shit put up, checked on Terry with the Dawson job, and handled some paperwork, it was damn near one o’clock.
I smoked a blunt on the way over to Loretta’s because I already knew I was about to be in that bitch for hours.
By the time I pulled up, I was good and ready to work.
Darius and Mike had most of the drywall up, Shawn was finishing some shit near the front, and I spent the next few hours checking behind everybody while handling my own shit.
Loretta stayed on our asses the whole damn time, changing her mind every fifteen minutes and then swearing up and down she had already told us exactly how she wanted everything.
By the third time she called my name, I looked over at her.
“Loretta, if you touch another one of my fuckin’ measurements, I’m addin’ an aggravation fee to yo’ bill. ”
She cackled like I’d told a big ass joke before turning to walk away. “You wouldn’t play with me like that, Sherrod.”
“Aight. Don’t say shit when you see that invoice.” She waved me off and went right back to telling Darius how she wanted some shit done, and I shook my head and got back to work.
Lace was around most of the afternoon too.
She stayed busy signing the diner up for FastDash delivery, going through boxes with Cheryl, answering emails on her laptop, and handling whatever else Loretta had her doing for the festival.
I kept my ass working, but that didn’t stop me from looking at her every now and then.
A couple times, she caught me doing that shit too.
She’d look right back at me for a second before going back to whatever she was doing, and every damn time, my mind went right back to having her in my office earlier.
Neither one of us gave anybody shit to work with.
We were grown as fuck and didn’t owe nobody an explanation, but this was Bellhaven.
These nosy mahfuckas could turn one look into a whole relationship by breakfast. Let somebody catch us looking at each other the wrong way, and by tomorrow we’d be back together, fucking every night, married, and probably expecting a damn baby.
Loretta damn sure didn’t need any extra information after Lace almost lost her shit over her finding out we were going to the movies.
By the time we wrapped up at five-thirty, I was ready to get the fuck home. I told the crew what time I wanted everybody back in the morning, listened to Loretta complain about the mess even though we were coming right back to make another one, grabbed my shit, and got out of there.
On the drive home, my mind finally had time to go wherever the fuck it wanted, and apparently it wanted to go straight back to Lace.
Taking her to the movies tonight wasn’t that serious.
We had been around each other for a few days, fucked once, kissed again this morning, and still hadn’t figured out what the fuck we were doing.
I damn sure wasn’t about to start putting a name on the shit.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t trying to slide up in that gushy ass pussy again.
Yesterday had only made me want her more, and kissing her in my office damn sure hadn’t helped.
I wanted my hands back on her, but what I really wanted was my face between her thighs again.
I had gone eight fucking years without tasting that pussy, and after finally getting my tongue back on it yesterday, one time wasn’t enough.