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She snickered. “I’m just saying.” Her shoulders hunched. “You easy on the eyes, seem to have a few dollars, and now you talking nasty. For sure, Brother Love energy.”
“You trying to be my Caresha?” He looked over at her as he pulled up to a red light. “You seem like a city girl, magical and shit.”
The smile that almost touched her ears turned into a frown. Images of the girl she used to be flashed in her mind. Candi didn’t like that girl. She didn’t want to be that girl anymore. “Look, I appreciate you taking me home, but can we just ride in silence? I had a long day.”
Jay pinched his nose. There was so much he wanted to say, but instead, he refrained and kept his thoughts and comments to himself. She didn’t know him from a can of paint and it was clear he’d said something that rubbed her the wrong way. Instead of getting into all that, he turned his music up and let Joe’s angelic voice sweet-talk her.
Candi rested her head on the headrest with her eyes closed. It didn’t take long before the situation with her car popped up in her head. She desperately wanted to see if her car was still where she left it. “Hey, you think you can stop me to see if my car is still parked where I left it? It’s on the way to my house.”
He thought about ignoring her since she’d just insisted they ride in silence. She was lucky she was cute. “Yea. Where you park it?”
“I’ll tell you how to get there. Let me know when you get to the McDonald’s on Duffy Road.”
“Aight.” Jay nodded, gripping the steering wheel.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Candi assessed him. With a white tee on, his arms and hands were exposed, showing off his inked-up body. His light, ochreous skin was the perfect canvas for the colorful ink that rested on his neck. When he got out of the car earlier, she could tell he had the perfect height at about six feet even, maybe a little taller. She wasn’t sure.
“You like what you see?” His deep voice calling her out made her jump.
Candi didn’t respond though. Instead, she noticed they were getting closer to where her car was, so she directed him on how to get there. The way his sweet and spicy scent sent signals to the parts of her body that hadn’t been touched in a while, she knew she needed to get out of the car with him before the old Candi reared her slutty little head.
Jay pulled into the abandoned parking lot where her car sat all alone and untouched. “This you?”
“Yea. Let me make sure ain’t nothing missing or out of place.” She wasted no time pushing the car door open. The night air was thick and muggy, telling of the rain prediction.
Circling her car, she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. When her eyes landed on the bare rim, she cringed on the inside.
“Damn, Magic.” Jay walked up behind her, causing her to jump back into his chest. His arms wrapped around her as if he had taken his armor off to place it on her. The earthy scent from his earlier smoke session mixed with his signature sweet and spicy fragrance swept across her nose. “Don’t worry about the car. I got you.”
Candi’s knees weakened and tears rimmed her lower lids. His words were comforting and felt sincere. Still, she needed to create some space because he didn’t want to attach himself to a girl like her. Her past was murky and her future was up in the air. Jay seemed to have life all figured out and he didn’t need her indecisive ass dirtying his waters.
Stepping out of his embrace, Candi tucked her wet and wavy hair behind her ear. “We can go now,” she suggested, not commenting on his claim to take care of her car situation.
Jay’s tongue swiped across his dark lips. Pulling his sweats up, he went around to her side of the car to open the door for her. He could tell her walls were high and he told himself that if they had another run-in, he was going to be on her ass like white on rice. Until then, he would let her make it.
THREE
Rolling over to the sound of his phone, Jay groaned at the sun peeking through the floor-to-ceiling windows that he insisted on keeping uncovered. It was bright as hell and too early for his phone to be ringing.
“Yea?” he answered, crossing his free arm over his eyes.
“Son.” Big Pete’s hearty voice came through. “Early bird catches the worm. Why you still sleep? Don’t shit come to sleepers but dreams.”
“Man.” Jay drug the word and rolled back over after he put the phone on speaker. “What time is it?”
“Six in the morning and time for you to get your light-skinned ass up.”
Six in Alabama meant it was seven in Sapphire City. There was an hour time difference— and too damn early. “I look just like you, but what’s up? What you need, Big Pete?”
All of Pete’s kids called him by his name, apart from his only daughter. His baby girl had him wrapped around her finger and won him over every time she called him daddy. His two boys were dead set on simply calling him Big Pete and he was okay with that. He hadn’t been the best father to either of his boys, so he never pressed them about tradition.
“Damn, nigga, I can’t just call to check in on my baby boy?”
“Not when it's seven in the morning.”
Pete laughed at that. “Shit, I’m up, on my way to work, and wanted to shoot the shit with you. You ain't been home in a while and your sister has been running herself ragged, jumping from her house to yours. I think you need to come check in on things and relieve her.”
“I just talked to her the other day. Meechie ain’t say shit about being tired of going to my house. Shit, I pay her good.” Jay was confused by his father’s claims.
