From One Night to Forever (22 page)

“You don’t hear what the guys in this town say about the women in my family,” he said with rage in his voice.

“Yes, I do. You can’t protect us from the few people who can’t see beyond the past to what our family has accomplished.”

“You sleeping with Aaron behind my back doesn’t help things either,” he said. “Instead of telling me the truth, you’ve been sneaking around with him.”

Kacey flinched. “I knew that if you found out you wouldn’t want to partner with him.”

“Damn right, I don’t. I can’t trust him.”

A shadow passed by the window. Kacey had watched for that shadow enough to know it was Aaron coming in. Reggie spun to see what she was looking at.

“He’s back. What did you do? Drop him off a few blocks down the street so he could walk home? Pretend as if you hadn’t spent the night laid up with him?”

“Quit trying to make it sound dirty. It’s not like that.”

“If you can’t tell your family who you’re with, then it is dirty.” He stomped to the door and wrenched it open. Reggie turned to jog up the stairs to the second-floor apartment.

Kacey chased him. “Reggie, stop. There’s no need to ruin this deal. Your business is more important.”

“Family is more important, Kacey,” he said over his shoulder. “He disrespected my family by not telling me.”

Reggie got to the top of the stairs and banged on the door. The door flew open. Kacey couldn’t see Aaron, Reggie’s body blocked the view, but she heard his wary chuckle.

“Reggie, what’s up?”

“Are you screwing with my sister?”

“What… Come on, Reggie.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Reggie said in a low, angry voice.

Kacey pushed past Reggie to stand between him and Aaron. Aaron stepped back and brought her with him. “Reggie, stop. He wanted to tell you but I asked him not to.”

“Really,” Reggie said with a bitter laugh. “How hard was it to convince him to lie? Not too hard, I suspect. That’s his game. I’ve known him for years, and he only pretended to want to tell me in order to show you he cared.”

Kacey glanced at Aaron, who frowned and rubbed his eyes. “Reggie, man, I wouldn’t do that to your sister.”

“Why am I supposed to believe that?”

“Remember what I told you?”

“I remember you lied to my face when I asked you straight-up if there was something going on between you and Kacey. I even gave you permission.”

Kacey jumped forward. “I’m not a kid, you don’t give anyone permission.”

Aaron placed a hand on her waist and pulled her to his side. “I get what he’s saying, Kacey.” He looked at Reggie. “I wasn’t sure what was going on with me and Kacey then. I knew I liked her and that something could grow between us, but I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure.”

“How in the world can I trust you?” Reggie asked. “Is that going to be your excuse if you make a deal without telling me? Or if you hire or fire an employee, or sign a new contract without telling me?
Oh, Reggie, I meant to tell you but I wasn’t sure of your reaction
.”

“Come on, Reggie, you know I wouldn’t do that in business.”

“How the hell am I supposed to
know
that, Aaron?” Reggie said, tossing out his hand. “I can’t trust you, and I can’t go into business with you. I’m tearing up the contract.”

“No!” Aaron said. “We worked hard on this, we both saw the numbers and this merger is the best thing for both of our businesses. We can’t grow any other way.”

“I’ll find another way.”

Kacey tried to stop Reggie from turning to leave. “Reggie, don’t do this. Not over this.”

“Reggie, I care about Kacey,” Aaron called out. Both Kacey and Reggie turned to him. “I care about her a lot, and walking away from her this morning knowing it was the end of our relationship was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

Kacey’s mouth fell open. Aaron looked at her and Reggie with so much sincerity she wanted to believe him. A spark flared in her chest. Hope maybe, but something she hadn’t allowed herself to feel in years.

“It was?” she asked.

He nodded and swallowed hard. “Yes. Kacey, I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t felt this way about another woman. The thought of settling down scares the shit out of me, but I don’t want to leave you. I don’t want to lose you.”

Her heart swelled, and the feeling she’d tried to suppress gave way to a happiness she never thought she could feel. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

Aaron’s relieved smile only made her want to jump into his arms. He looked to Reggie. “I know the way Kacey and I started was screwed up, but I want to be honest moving forward. I can’t take back what happened, but I can make things right. I promised I’d treasure her. Let me show you I’m honest.”

Aaron walked forward and held out his hand. Reggie looked at her happy grin, then glared back at Aaron.

“Are you serious?” Reggie asked.

Aaron nodded. “It’s like you said about Camila. I don’t want to go out with any other woman, and I damn sure don’t want to see Kacey on the arm of another guy.”

Reggie lifted and lowered his chin. He reached out and clasped Aaron’s hand, and they shook. “Fine. If you mean it, and are done sneaking around, then I’m okay.”

“I never wanted to do that, and I’m ready to be a one-woman guy,” Aaron said. He grinned at Kacey. “If she’ll have me.”

He opened his arms and she accepted his hug. His body was rigid—surprising, compared to the easy grin on his face. She leaned back to stare into his face, but his was filled with a look of happiness and contentment. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and looked at Reggie.

“And the merger?” Aaron asked in an urgent voice.

Reggie looked at the two of them and smiled. “Back on.”

The tension left Aaron’s body, and he held out his hand to shake Reggie’s again. Kacey frowned. Too much knowledge of the games men played started doubts in her brain. Had she just been played?

Aaron turned to her with a look of joy and adoration in his eyes. “Kacey, I’ve never felt this way before, but tell me if it was just as hard for you to leave me this morning as it was for me to leave you.”

Anxiousness filled his eyes, and his easy grin was gone. She pushed the doubts away. He couldn’t fake that look in his eyes. “It was.”

Relief swept across his features, and he kissed her quickly. “I’m going to make you happy.”

Aaron sat on his parents’ back porch with his brother, David. Music played from the Bluetooth speakers around the patio, and sunlight glittered off the surface of the pool. The smell of the grill filled the air, and he expected their dad to be out there soon with burgers if he didn’t get sidetracked by their mom. David sat next to him, feeding his ten-month-old daughter with an ease that scared the crap out of Aaron. David usually came dressed like a runway model even for family events. This Sunday afternoon, David wore a plain gray T-shirt and khaki shorts that Aaron wasn’t sure had been ironed. A pink polka-dot blanket draped his brother’s shoulder and he looked as if he needed a haircut.

Aaron’s heart went from zero to sixty in his chest. Was that what kids did to you? Turn you into a shadow of your former self? Was he next in line?

“I messed up,” Aaron blurted out.

David looked up from his daughter. He bounced his knee to gently rock her as if he’d been handling babies all of his life. “How?”

Aaron sat forward in the chair and ran his hands through his hair. He wanted to pull the curly strands out. “It happened during the merger. I met this woman…”

David chuckled. “Let me guess. You met her, she fell in love, you promised to come back and see her, but now she’s acting all
Fatal Attraction
on you.”

Aaron cringed and shook his head. “I haven’t had that situation happen since Keisha two years ago.”

“Okay, then how did you mess up?”

He cleared his throat and told David how Reggie had found out about him and Kacey the previous weekend.

“You lied?” David asked.

“No, nah, not really. I mean, I do care about Kacey. A lot. I wasn’t ready to leave her and I had moments when I thought I could be with her long-term. But when Reggie confronted me, all I could think of was saving the deal.”

Aaron’s leg bounced, and he ran a hand over his head. “Now, when I’m on the phone with her, the conversation is still good. She still makes me laugh and we talk about everything, but she sounds different. Happier. And all I can think about is whether or not I rushed into things.”

“Are you going back to see her soon?”

“I don’t know, I mean, I’ve got to go back to Resilient, but before her I figured it would only be a few times a year. She hasn’t asked when I’m coming back, but she said she missed me.”

And he missed her. A hell of a lot more than he expected. But the feeling that he hadn’t really thought through making them “official” bothered him. That entire afternoon seemed like a blur.

David looked down at Davina and checked the amount of milk left in the bottle. “You should talk to her and tell her what happened.”

Aaron glared at his brother, whom he’d happily hit if he wasn’t holding Davina. “Yeah, then I’ll really be considered an asshole. I can’t tell her or Reggie. Not until everything is done.”

David looked up and shrugged. “Then what, you break up with her after the paperwork is signed?”

The million-dollar question. His lawyer had looked over the contract and everything was good. All he needed to do was sign the papers. But he hadn’t signed yet. He didn’t know what to do after he signed.

“I don’t like feeling rushed into things.”

“Then let things play out and see what happens. You said yourself you’ve got feelings for her. For once, just see where the feelings take you.”

“I know where the feelings take me, and I’m not ready for that.”

“For what?”

His niece gurgled and spit out the bottle. David grinned as if seeing a baby finish eating was the most adorable thing in the universe. David patted her on the back, again looking as if burping a baby and wearing a wrinkled T-shirt was normal for him.

Aaron pointed to his brother. “That. Marriage, kids, all of that.”

“Marriage and kids aren’t bad.”

“They change you.”

“Not really.”

Aaron raised a brow. “When was the last time you got a haircut? And I’m not trying to call you out, but is your iron broken? You used to dress as if you were about to walk down a runway.”

David shrugged as if it was no big deal, but he did run a hand over his head. “Some things just don’t take as high a priority. Kareem’s cutting my hair later, and I’d much rather have Davina spit up on this T-shirt than one of my other shirts. Besides, being with her doesn’t mean this.”

“Really? You reunite with Sandra and six months later she’s pregnant. Fred and Janiyah get married and already she’s pregnant. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Kareem say that Neecie’s pregnant.”

“Neecie’s what?” Kareem’s loud voice broke the peace of the afternoon.

Aaron turned to his brother, who’d just walked out from the sunroom, a glass dish filled with hamburger patties in his hands. Kareem’s eyes were wide with something very close to panic. Aaron still hadn’t gotten used to seeing his brother without his signature dreads, which he’d cut last year. Or in a color other than black, though the dark brown shirt and dark jeans didn’t stray too far into the bright color realm.

“I was making a point to Aaron. Everyone is hooking up and having babies. I was telling Aaron that you’ll be making the announcement next.”

Kareem nostrils flared with a heavy breath, and he shook his head. “Hell, no. Not anytime soon over here. I love Neecie, and one day I want kids, but today ain’t that day.” He strolled over to the grill and lifted the lid.

“Kids aren’t so bad,” David said.

“I never said they were, but I need to figure out this relationship stuff before I go throwing a screaming, hungry kid in the middle of it.”

Aaron nodded in agreement. After Kareem got out of prison, Aaron never thought he’d see his wear-all-black, growl-at-a-pit-bull angry brother as in love and relaxed as he’d been since getting together with his fiancée, Neecie. Getting Kareem out of all black had seemed like a miracle, but Aaron still couldn’t imagine Kareem cradling a baby with a pink polka-dot towel on his shoulder.

Kareem glanced back at David and shrugged. “Not that your girl screams that much.”

David chuckled. “I know she’s a screamer.”

Kareem turned back to the grill to drop a few patties on the hot surface. “Why ya’ll talking ’bout babies anyway? Did Aaron knock up some chick?”

“No, I didn’t,” Aaron said. “But I did walk right into a shotgun relationship.” He explained to Kareem what had happened with Kacey.

Kareem didn’t interrupt or say anything right away. He finished with the burgers and wiped his hands on a towel hanging on the grill. When he turned, he looked at Aaron with a serious expression.

“You think she told her brother on purpose.”

Right to the thought Aaron had tried to suppress. Aaron couldn’t get over how Reggie just happened to find out about Aaron and Kacey the day he was supposed to leave. How he came barging at Aaron’s door with Kacey right after him. He didn’t want to think Kacey would do that. She wasn’t that type.

“I don’t think she would.”

“You don’t know that,” Kareem said. “She was a one-night stand and you hooked up with her a few times while you were there. Women get hooked and try to find ways to make a man stay.”

“But she wouldn’t.”

“What if she would?” Kareem countered.

David glanced from Kareem to Aaron. “How did she look when her brother broke the deal?”

“Shocked, and she told him he didn’t have to do it.” He frowned and thought about that day. “But then when I said I wanted to make things work, she looked…happy.”

Kareem grunted. “Maybe because that’s what she wanted.”

The baby burped and David cradled her in the crook of his arm. “Don’t listen to Kareem, Aaron. He’s still hovering on the side of the neurotic.”

“Shut the hell up, David,” Kareem said without malice.

“Don’t get mad because I’m speaking the truth. We all know your trust issues run deep. Especially before you got together with Neecie. Let’s not assume the same with—” He looked to Aaron. “What’s her name?”