Chapter 3 Jamaica #3
“’ Tempted’ is the perfect word.” Placing my hands on her sturdy shoulders, I acknowledged, “I’m so tempted it’s crazy. He just said my name, and my heart damn near stopped. Maybe it’s because he’s such a big star now that I want to forget my life and go to him. Even if it’s for one night.”
“Maybe. I just know that I would so fail if he looked at me like he just did, AND my husband cheated. Ba-Bee, it would be so on.” She checked her watch. “Hey, we need to stop hiding out like we used to in high school to avoid the mean girls. We are in charge tonight.”
I nodded, and as we started toward the door, my stomach churned. I touched her forearm. “I don’t think I can go back out there and see him. Can you cover for me? Kody isn’t here anyway. Make up an excuse or something using Kody.”
“We still have a whole program that you planned.” She frowned.
“You know as well as I do that no one will pay attention to me. It’s all about Freedom now.” I opened the door to a few of my classmates, smiling broadly.
“We want Freedom to sing.” Teeyana, the girl that Freedom used to mess around with before me, pursed her bow-shaped lips.
She was a pretty and popular girl, then, and a high-powered attorney and badass now.
Her green dress hugged every curve and dip, stopping right below her muscled thighs.
“Freedom said he would be down as long as you were.”
“Why are you asking me? He doesn’t need my permission,” I retorted, unable to hide my annoyance that Freedom still talked to her and that he wanted to sing.
Lord knows if I heard his voice, my resolve would be completely destroyed.
I’d managed to avoid listening to his music all these years because I didn’t want to be helplessly and hopelessly in love forever.
“He said that he didn’t want to disrupt the program, and if you were okay with it, then he would sing one song.” She squealed. “Why didn’t you prepare us and tell us that he would be here? We could’ve had him raise money for the school or something.”
“He surprised us all.” I managed a weak smile.
Lori edged past me. “Can you stop blocking the door so she can get out of here?”
Someone from the back agreed. “Yes, I really have to use it.”
The small crowd tittered and allowed the jumpy woman to walk through the bathroom door.
“Hey, Jamaica needs to run a quick errand. I can take it from here.” Lori squeezed my hand.
Eternally grateful for my best friend, I conceded, “Tell Freedom he can perform until his heart’s content.” I excused myself. “I really do have to run, y’all. I’ll be back in a few.”
I hurried through the small lobby of the banquet hall and out the door without anyone stopping me. I nodded at a few of my classmates who would soon have the biggest surprise. Upon approaching my SUV, I clicked the door knob, and it didn’t open.
“Shit,” I yelled. My keys and cell phone were inside my purse at the reception table. I would be forced to go back in and hope that somehow, I could get in and out again undetected. More importantly, I wouldn’t run into Freedom again. Once in fifteen years was enough to last a lifetime.
A few more cars drove into the parking lot. From here, I could see that these people weren’t my classmates. Of course, news spread that one of the hottest singers had made a surprise appearance at a random hall in Dallas. I wouldn’t be surprised if Freedom didn’t post it himself.
Leaving, at least right now, wasn’t an option.
I couldn’t leave Lori alone with uninvited guests.
I walked back in and found one of the security guards.
“Um…there are people outside who aren’t a part of our class, and I suspect there’ll be more.
We need crowd control. Can you get more of your people to get here? ”
“On short notice?” he raised his brows.
“It’s Freedom Cade.”
He grinned. “You’re right. Let me make a few phone calls. You’ll owe double for the two additional men on short notice. Is that okay?”
“Yep.” I gestured behind me. “Freedom is paying for it. Triple their pay, including yours and the other guy.”
Screams and yells grew louder. We both looked toward the open double doors.
“He’s about to perform,” I explained.
The guard’s stern face broke into a smile. “A free concert?”
“Yes, and I need you to stand in front of the door and keep people from coming in unless they show you a reunion ticket.” His smile disappeared, and I suggested, “Maybe you can take turns with the other guards so you can see him sing.”
He picked up his walkie-talkie. “Hey, need you up front, we have a situation.” The guard nodded in response to whatever his coworker said and walked away. “I know. It’s why we have a situation. Jamaica said we can take turns seeing the concert.”
My nerves ached in my stomach as I walked to the now-empty registration table that Lori and another classmate had abandoned to see Freedom.
Not that I blamed anyone. If he didn’t break my heart, I would be inside excited to see him perform, too.
Freedom was an award-winning hip-hop country star who had sold out concerts whenever he did tour.
Why couldn’t he be just a former classmate of mine who’d done well so that I could enjoy the night I’d planned for the last six months like everyone else?
This was supposed to be a fun time for our class, and I wouldn’t be a part of it.
Dejectedly, I picked up my purse from the box underneath the table.
“Oak Valley.” He growled in the mic, and the women screamed their appreciation along with my fast-beating heart. “It’s been a long time, and y’all still look fucking good.”
More yells and squeals.
“Take off your shirt,” A woman yelled.
Freedom was known to perform shirtless, wearing only jeans and his guitar, adding to the allure of his natural charisma and looks. He’d been named one of People’s Magazine's Sexiest Men twice.
Not that I was checking.
“I didn’t come here tonight to perform. I don’t have my guitar. I wasn’t even sure that I was coming until the last minute. I didn’t exactly leave here on the best of terms.”
“That’s alright.” A man’s voice called from the audience. “We still claim you.”
He chuckled. “Appreciate it because I still claim y’all.”
“As you should,” A woman yelled, and more applause sounded through the hall.
My purse became my security blanket as I hugged it to my chest. I couldn’t seem to take one foot back out the door, and I couldn’t take a step into the ballroom.
Instead, I stood stuck in between. The irony is that I’d been in this position when he first left me—stuck between wanting to wait for him or moving on with Kody, who had more than stepped up to the plate.
“It’s been a few years since I’ve been in Dallas.
Traveling here and abroad. Even with all the fans and awards, I had this void inside.
Then it hit me, sometimes you have to lose your way to remember you knew the way back home all along.
” He said, “I’m going to sing a song I used to love as a kid.
It was one of my mother’s favorites and a classic.
If you want to hear my songs, then I suggest you make it to my show tomorrow night. ”
Several people yelled, “It’s sold out.”
He laughed. “Aww, shit, that’s right. Who has tickets?”
More yells from what sounded like most of the crowd of two hundred or so people.
“Then I guess I’ll have to take a few requests of mine after this first song for those who can’t get in tomorrow night. Give you a little bit of my show. DJ, are you ready?”
The first chords of The Temptations' Just My Imagination played, and tears sprang to my eyes. Freedom used to sing that to me when he would crawl through my window long before we made love. He’d once told me that the song soothed him whenever his soul cried or when he thought of his love for me.
My cheeks streaked with tears while he sang clearly and strongly about a man who dreamed of being with this special woman.
After fifteen years, Freedom Cade had returned home to claim me.