Only One for Me (2 page)

“
Thank you so much for
reading to my class today. You did very well with them.”

“
Thank you. I’m going to
be a pediatrician one day, so I hope children will like me. I meant
what I said about coming back. I’m always available to give a
helping hand.” He reached into his wallet and handed her a card
with his phone number and email address. “Just call me.”

His voice was smooth and casual with a
hint of seduction, which flustered her to no end. She ran her hand
through her hair and hoped when she spoke her tongue wouldn’t be
tied in knots. “Thank … you,” she stammered. “The fall festival is
coming up, and I’m sure the PTA will need extra help.”

“
Whatever you need,” he
said with a sexy half grin. “Well … I hate to read and run, but I
have a study group meeting in an hour. Plus, I have to go back home
to pick up my sister, Raven, whose car is acting up. She’s also in
her second year at Meharry.”

“
I remember your twin
sister. Wow, you’re both in medical school? Your parents must be
very proud.”

He chuckled, displaying his gorgeous
smile and a cute dimple on his left cheek. “They are, but they’re
both doctors. They’ve been training us since birth to be doctors as
well. My brother, Sean, is at Morehouse and should be coming to
Meharry in a few years if he can keep his mind on his books and not
on the girls at Spelman.”

Yasmine laughed, even though deep down
she was disappointed he had to leave.

“
Well, I gotta go.” He
stepped toward her, as if he was about to hug her, but then glanced
at the students. Instead, they shook hands and a spark of static
electricity shocked them both. Her temperature rose, and she had a
feeling her cheeks were flushed pink, as they always were when she
was embarrassed.

He winked and a charismatic grin
flashed across his handsome face.

“
It was really,
really
good to see you
again, Yasmine,” he said in a low, deep voice and squeezed her hand
with a tender caress before letting it go.

After he left, she tried to put her
focus on her class for the rest of the morning, but her thoughts
kept racing back to Cannon.

Even though it had been almost eight
years since she’d seen him, he still had the same captivating
intellect and sexy charm that had attracted her to him in the first
place. But now he was a grown man. Now she wanted him more than
ever.

Chapter Two

“
Girl, guess what?”
Yasmine squealed as she sat down with her lunch at the group center
table to join her best friend, and first-grade teacher, Sherika
Williams. As first year teachers, they opted to eat their lunch in
the classroom instead of the teacher’s lounge to avoid all of the
gossip.

Sherika finished chewing her homemade
lasagna and a wicked smile crossed her face. “Did you hear some
more rumors about the principal and Ms. Woods? Spill the
tea!”

“
No, better. Cannon
Arrington read to my class this morning.”

“
Really?” She paused, with
her fork almost to her lips. “You didn’t faint did you?”

“
Almost. He’s even
dreamier than he was in high school. I was so nervous.”

“
Did he remember
you?”

“
Yes, but only after I
mentioned my mother.”

“
Well … ”

“
Well, what?” Yasmine
asked before taking a bite of her chicken salad
sandwich.

“
Are you going to stay in
contact with him?” She pushed her shoulder length hair behind her
ear to avoid marina sauce on it.

“
He gave me his phone
number if I want him to volunteer or something, but he didn’t ask
for mine.” She shrugged. “So … I don’t I know. Probably
not.”

“
Why is he in
Nashville?”

“
Medical school. I guess
he knows your man since they’re fraternity brothers.”

“
Doug is not my man.
Besides, he accepted the job offer in New York. He starts in two
weeks.” Sherika shrugged it off, but Yasmine could tell her friend
was disappointed.

“
Well, maybe you can date
long-distance.”

“
Naw … it wasn’t serious.
But we agreed to stay in contact, which means we won’t.” Sherika
pushed her food around with her fork. “Plus, he was so wishy-washy
sometimes, and I don’t have time for that.”

“
Well, at least you’ve had
someone to date. I haven’t had a decent date since … who knows,”
Yasmine said, with a delicate lift of her shoulder.

“
You went out with that
guy a few weeks ago.”

“
I said a
decent
date. He talked
about himself the entire time and was rude to the
waitress.”

Buzz.

The timer sounded on Yasmine’s desk,
letting them know that they had five more minutes before it was
time to pick up their classes from the cafeteria.

“
Lunch goes by so fast,”
Sherika said. “At least it’s Friday. What are you doing for the
rest of the afternoon?” She stood and grabbed her blue suit jacket
from the chair, placing her container back into her small
cooler.

“
Thank you cards after
their math test. Cannon gave each student a copy of the book he
read, and since we’ve been discussing how to write a friendly
letter this past week, it will be another way for the students to
practice.”

“
Neat. I’m stealing your
idea. See you later.”

During the afternoon, Yasmine’s class
worked on their thank you cards and drew pictures of scenes from
the book. She tried to stay focused, but nerves overtook her as she
thought about whether or not to contact Cannon to give him the
cards. She’d promised her students she would make sure he received
them, and if he ever came to visit again, she knew that would be
the first question they would ask.

That evening, Yasmine sat on the couch
with her laptop and all of the thank you cards stacked up on the
coffee table. She decided she was going to email Cannon and ask him
for his address so she could mail the cards in one big envelope,
along with the pictures of him reading to the students.

Muffled hip-hop music began to
reverberate through the ceiling, quickly followed by a loud crash
interrupting her contemplative mood. She sighed and stared up in
the apartment she’d lived in since her senior year of college.
Apparently, the new tenants above her were having a party, as
usual. At the time, it made sense to rent an apartment a few miles
from campus, but now she was ready to move.

Trying to tune the music out, she read
over the email, deleted it for the fifth time, and began to type
out another one.

“
Dear Cannon … no wait …
that’s too formal.” She deleted it. “Hey, Cannon. No wait.
Hey
is for a horse, at
least that’s what my mother says. Let’s see. Hi, Cannon. Yep.
That’s better.”

Hi, Cannon!

Thank you so much for
reading to my class today. My students enjoyed it very much. To
show their appreciation, they made you thank you cards, and I would
like to mail them to you. If you could send me your address when
you have a chance that would be great, or call me at
555-0819.

Sincerely,

Yasmine Dubose

“
Perfect. That sounds
better.”

She read it ten times, deleted it,
walked away from the computer, typed it again, deleted it, took a
shower, retyped it without her phone number, and then added it back
in.

Okay, this is ridiculous.
You aren’t the shy little girl you were in high school. It
shouldn’t take two hours to send an email. You’re a strong,
independent woman who simply needs a handsome man’s address to
honor the request of her students.

Yasmine pressed send and closed her
laptop before she changed her mind.

*****

Chime.

Cannon glanced at his laptop when his
email account notified him he had a new message. He was reading
over a ten page paper he received back that afternoon and wasn’t
interested in anything outside of it.

Sheesh.

He received a B+ because he had a few
typos. He hated anything less than an A, unless it was a hard B,
but he was too intelligent and too much of a perfectionist to even
accept that. The professor had written a note in red on the cover
page:

Excellent A paper, but you
need to get a proofreader for the next one because I may not be so
lenient next time.

Cannon read through the paper, taking
note of all of his careless mistakes. He was surprised at his
errors, but Raven blamed it on his lack of sleep and taking on too
many outside projects. She was the more focused twin who
concentrated only on her classes and elected not to have any
extracurricular activities outside of medical school.

Chime.

Cannon tossed the paper on his desk
and proceeded to his bed, where the laptop sat. He had two emails
waiting. One was from his sister, Bria, and one from Yasmine
Dubose. Baby sister could wait. He clicked on Yasmine’s name and
read the short message, imagining her bubbly voice in his
head.

He read it again and smiled. He’d been
thinking about her off and on during the day and kicking himself
for not getting her phone number, but he thought it would be
inappropriate to ask for it in her classroom. Instead, he’d planned
on asking Doug to set something up with Sherika and Yasmine to see
her again, but now he didn’t have to. Her number was staring back
at him on the screen.

He quickly checked his sister’s email.
At seventeen, Bria was into boys, shopping, and sports. Captain of
her soccer team, she wanted him to know that they’d won the game
thanks to her winning kick and that their youngest sibling, Shelbi,
had been elected to sophomore class president. He emailed Bria back
with congratulations to both sisters.

His stomach grumbled, reminding him of
something he’d meant to do since two o’clock. Eat. He glanced at
his watch. It was nine at night.

He proceeded to the
kitchen as he dialed Yasmine’s number and opened the refrigerator.
The left over pizza was gone.
Thanks,
Raven
. Everything else was breakfast food.
He grabbed the eggs, cheese, an onion, a bell pepper, and ham to
make an omelet.

“
Hello?”

His heart smiled at the sound of her
beautiful voice in his ear.

“
Hi, Yasmine. This is
Cannon Arrington. Are you busy?”

“
Nope. Just grading
papers.”

“
Working on a Friday
night? I’m surprised a woman as adorable as you isn’t out on a
date.”

“
Thanks for the
compliment, but I needed a break. The last few dates I’ve been on
were horrible. One guy just rambled on about himself the entire
time.”

“
He was probably nervous
being around you. Some men become big blabbermouths when in the
presence of a lovely woman.”

She giggled. “Thank you.”

“
Just speaking the
truth.”

Silence.

He cleared his throat. “So how’s your
mother?”

“
She’s fine. Still
teaching AP biology and chemistry. She only has a few more years
before retirement, but I have a feeling she’ll work beyond
that.”

“
Your mother is a
wonderful teacher. I learned so much from her.”

“
Thank you. I’ll let her
know you asked about her. I wanted to get your address so I can
send you the thank you cards.”

“
Of course.” He whisked
the eggs into a bowl. “Let me know when you’re ready to jot it
down.”

After he gave her his address, they
caught up on their lives since high school, her funny stories about
teaching so far, and her noisy neighbors. He let her do most of the
talking because he wanted to know everything about her; plus, he
enjoyed listening to her bubbly, sweet voice. She wasn’t the nerdy,
shy teenager he remembered. She was full of life and had blossomed
into a delightful, intelligent woman.

Before he realized it, it was after
two o’clock in the morning. He’d retreated to his bedroom after
eating his omelet and had stretched out on top of the
comforter.

“
Yasmine, I didn’t realize
what time it was…” His sentence trailed off into a yawn. “It’s 2:15
in the morning.”

She yawned. “Yeah … it sure is,” she
replied in a sleepy tone and yawned again. “Cannon, stop yawning.
You’re making me yawn. I have to be up at six in the morning for a
breast cancer walk.”

“
I’ll let you go to
bed.”

“
I’m already in bed,” she
moaned. “Nice and snug.”

Her moan wasn’t supposed
to be sexual, but the thought of her
nice
and snug
in bed had his mind in the
gutter. It was definitely time to let her go, even though he didn’t
want to. Instead, he’d rather listen to her sleepy moans in his ear
until the sun came up.

“
It was really nice
talking with you.”