Chapter 18
“I can’t believe you made me give up my Saturday for this car wash bullshit.”
Adam turned to Derrick, smiling as he handed the man a paper coffee cup.
“It’s for a good cause, D.”
Derrick’s straight face turned Adam’s smile into a chuckle as he watched his friend’s expression grow terser. Out of their trio, Derrick was the one who could always find a reason to smile. He was upbeat and easygoing, which didn’t hurt his ability to make people love him either.
Derrick’s perpetual good mood and easy nature was exactly why Adam was enjoying the man’s uncharacteristic crabbiness so much.
“Come on, man.” Adam slung his arm around Derrick’s neck. “It’s a fundraiser to help keep the arts program from shutting down.” When that didn’t seem to bring out Derrick’s compassion, Adam said, “It’s for the kids,” like that was the only explanation needed to change Derrick’s mood.
Derrick cut sharp eyes at Adam, a clear sign he was not amused with Adam’s shenanigans at all.
“Man, don’t nobody give a damn about these kids at seven on a Saturday morning. I should still be in my doggone bed. Not here watching kids give bad car washes to the entire town in the high school parking lot.”
“D, do me this solid. If we don’t have a certain amount of adult supervision, we have to cancel the event. With a last-minute faculty drop out, you’re the only thing standing between these bright creative minds losing their program.”
Derrick puckered his lips and took a quick sip of his coffee. By the tight flex of muscle at his jaw, Adam knew his boy wasn’t totally convinced.
“Please stop trying to sell me that ‘it’s for the kids’ nonsense. We both know the only reason you don’t want this event canceled is because you’re trying to get next to Janae, and you think looking like her savior is a direct route to getting in her panties.”
Adam shut his mouth and drank his coffee. One, Derrick didn’t know that Adam already had been to Janae’s promised land. Two, Derrick wasn’t completely wrong in his assumption that Adam wanted this event to go perfectly to help his cause with Janae.
Although they’d slept together—slept being a euphemism for sexing until they were damn near dehydrated and comatose—Adam still hadn’t secured the bag. He wanted more than a jump-off situation with Janae, and she’d yet to even agree to go out on a real date with him.
“How’s that going, by the way? She giving you the time of day yet?”
Adam shrugged. Derrick had a big mouth. There was no polite way to say it.
He wasn’t a malicious gossip, but things sometimes slipped from his lips that shouldn’t.
If you didn’t tell him specifically this was something classified, he often let things slip between friends.
Again, he wasn’t a gossip, but he was so honest, keeping secrets was as unnatural to him as short haircuts were to Adam.
“She’s feeling me,” Adam admitted. “I just can’t seem to figure out how to go any deeper than that. She’s really focused on her kid. That’s an admirable thing.”
“But.”
That was also another quirk about Derrick’s personality. He was truthful to a fault, and he could always sense when others were holding back the truth too.
“There is no but. She’s dedicated to her kid and pouring her all into him. I’d love for there to be space to explore this connection we have, but even if we can’t, I’ll always admire her loyalty. She’s something special. She always has been.”
When Adam looked up, Derrick’s dark eyes had softened, and he could see compassion filling them.
“More than most, I know what it is to want more and never know if you’ll get it. At least you’ve found the courage to tell Janae how you feel. I’m still stuck in the friend zone and will likely be there forever.”
Adam groaned as he took in Derrick’s words and caught sight of Michael arriving with Vanessa.
“Do you realize how pitiful it is that outta you, me, and Mike,” Derrick continued, “he’s the one that wound up with a fine-ass woman on his arm?
We both know that boy had no game until we taught him how to talk to a woman. How did we end up here?”
Adam pointed between the two of them then tipped his head in Michael’s direction across the parking lot where their friend had just parked in front of the high school and was giving his girlfriend, Vanessa, what looked like the best goodbye kiss ever.
“D, of all the things I saw for the three of us, Mike getting more play than us never crossed my mind.”
They watched as Michael finally released Vanessa from an enviable lip lock and waved hello at the two of them before getting back in his cruiser and presumably heading to the sheriff’s department.
“God I hate him.” Adam’s lament was met by Derrick’s usual full smile.
“I do too,” Derrick responded. “But I gotta admit, seeing you this miserable makes me having to get up at the ass crack of dawn on a Saturday almost worthwhile.”
“I need new friends,” Adam bemoaned, only making Derrick laugh aloud.
“What you need to do is show Janae you want something serious with her.”
Adam shut his mouth again. Derrick was dropping consecutive truth bombs where Adam’s interest in Janae was concerned.
Derrick was right, and as Adam scanned the faces congregating in the open parking lot, sighing when his eyes finally met hers, he knew he had to figure out some way to do exactly as his friend suggested.
“You’re right, D. I do.”
“Well, I’mma stand here and drink my coffee before I gotta deal with these teenagers. You need to go over there and handle your business.”
Adam nodded and turned to walk in Janae’s direction but stopped briefly to meet his friend’s smiling face.
“D, one of these days I’m gonna say those exact same words to you.”
Derrick tilted his head. “Probably sooner than either of us would like.”
Again, Derrick was right. Determined he would get his own situation handled before he told Derrick how to deal with his, he headed toward Janae.
There were people milling about her as she stood in the center of a circle handing out supplies, and no doubt instructions to everyone around her. She wasn’t bossy. She was a boss, and organizing and directing folks had always come naturally to her.
As bodies dispersed, presumably to whatever station she’d assigned them, her full body came into view and Adam nearly tripped over his own feet.
It was mid fall, and the weather was holding up surprisingly well, still warm enough that you only needed a light jacket or sweater toward the end of the day when the sun was setting.
Her box braids were piled high on her head in a neat bun. Coupled with the v-neck Monroe Hills Area School District T-shirt she was wearing, the tempting line of her neck was on display, reminding him how he’d buried his face there at the climax of their joining.
That would’ve been enough to send him overboard into lust, but then he’d made the mistake of taking in the path of her curves to the Capri-length leggings she was wearing.
Nope, nope, nope. This ain’t gon’ work. No, sir, no way.
“Hey, Adam! How you doing this morning?”
Adam followed the voice coming from his right side and saw Cree approaching him.
He was trying to find words to speak, but his brain kept pulling his attention back to where Janae stood. It wasn’t until Cree was closer that he noticed the playful snicker sliding past her lips.
“Ah, did you need something, Cree?”
She shook her head. “Just saying hello and looking for Derrick. Not to mention, even if I did want something, you’re too caught up checking for my girl to do anything about it.”
“That’s really nice, Cree.” He absentmindedly replied as he started walking in Janae’s direction again. “I’ll chat with you a bit later.”
Her snicker had blossomed into a full-blown laugh. He was certain it was at his expense, but he didn’t care in the least. He needed to get to Janae and see if her ass looked just as good in that form-fitting garment up close as it did this far away.
By the time he was standing in front of Janae, all the people surrounding her had dispersed, and she was jotting something down on the clipboard she was holding.
“It really should be illegal to look this goddamn good in a pair of leggings.”
She lifted her head slowly, a knowing smile gracing her full lips and a twinkle lighting up those bottomless brown eyes of hers. On most women that response would reek of conceit. But for Janae, this was confidence, plain and simple, and it was sexy as hell.
“We are on school property, Dr. Henderson. I would think we wouldn’t engage in that kind of talk here.”
“That would normally be true, but since we’re outside and no one is close to us, I figure I can tell you how you’re torturing me in that damn outfit. Knowing you, you did it on purpose too.”
“Possibly,” she replied, her coy smile broadening, lifting the apples of her cheeks high on her face.
“Please tell me you’re going to come back to my place after this so I can at least find a release from this torture.”
“I would love—”
“Hey, Ma!”
Adam’s body immediately stiffened, and not in the fun way either, when he heard a young man’s voice. He turned to see a tall teen whose face looked like a carbon copy of Janae’s running up to them.
“Hey, baby, glad you made it.” The young man leaned in, kissing Janae on the cheek before staring up at Adam. “James, this is my friend, Dr. Henderson. Adam, this is my boy, James Sanders.”
Adam didn’t need the introduction. Except for his height and slim build, everything about him was the spitting image of Janae. From his deep brown skin, to the dimples puckered into each cheek, to the wide brown eyes, this boy was his ma’s child.
“You’re the new superintendent, right?”
Adam nodded. “Yeah, I am.”
“I guess I should be thankful Ma has friends in high places. Thanks for tryna work with us to save the arts program. Did you two meet when you came to work here?”
He’s just as forthright as his mama is too, I see.