“Please don’t. It’s been weeks, and I miss the fuck out of you, Olive.”
“I miss you too.”
Is our fight over? Do I still have to find an employee?
I couldn’t just be, I wanted to know before I let myself fall back into him.
Olive, you haven’t fallen out.
“Highland, as much as this…youfeel good,” I paused for a quick moment as I shifted enough to look at him. He…we needed to be on the same page with this. I pushed out a sigh, “As much as I feel good back in your arms, and want to be here, I have to be sure about what this all means. Are you okay with my career now?”
“Hell no. But I realize you’re right. Well, Kelvin helped me see how much I fucked up by putting you on the spot with that ultimatum. You shouldn’t make those types of decisions without considering every factor that will be affected. I was insensitive to that, and I apologize. Saying all that to say, I am here to help you figure something else out though. Baby, I don’t like the job, and I will never be comfortable with you doing it. But I also know I can’t—we can’tbe without you in our lives. It’s me and you on our forever type of shit, Olive. I ain’t going nowhere and neither the fuck are you.” Highland gripped my neck, pulling my mouth onto his. I was trying to play it safe, it was only supposed to be a peck, but one taste of him had me locking my arms around his neck and Highland slipping his tongue in. I moaned out of pure bliss from the familiarity of his mouth.
It was crazy how this time when Highland said my career was a hell no, I didn’t even take offense. I attributed that to the fact that I was already perfecting a business plan to hire an employee or two. Or it could be the fact that my soul hadn’t felt whole since the day he broke up with me. I wanted to be with Highland, this I knew for sure. And at this point, I would do whatever to make sure it happened.
“Fuck, Olive. Baby, you just don’t know how much I’ve been craving you. How hard these last couple of weeks have been for me,” he said against my lips lowly.
He reached down, and I thought he was going for my ass, but when his hand came back up holding a baggie of seashells, my smile spread wide across my face.
“Every day that I wanted to kiss you, hold you, or taste you, hell. even when I was fucking mad at you, I made a new one.”
I gasped as I noticed the gold anchor charm hanging from the bag.
“Oh my gosh, Captain, it’s beautiful. Thank you, baby.” I gave him another quick kiss.
“You’re welcome Olive.” I blushed as I took it off to see it was a necklace that Highland was already in motion to put on for me.
“Mommy, we sold out!” That was Jo-Jo yelling over at me. I glanced over at them to see a now empty pitcher and Cece counting the bills in the lockbox.
“Welp, I guess that was fun while it lasted,” I said as I got up so I could start cleaning up the lemonade stand.
Highland swatted my ass, making me turn to see him giving me a devilish grin.
“You handle that, and I’ll get started on dinner.”
And just like that, my heart beat for the first time in weeks without aching.
Chapter
Twenty
Highland
Me: Baby, please call me when you’re pulling in. I’m upstairs but want to be down to welcome you home.
Olive: Aye Aye, Captain
I laughed lowly at her message. I loved how I could read her message and hear her voice. Since her slip the other morning of calling me the nickname she had given me, Olive had been in full makeup time using the name. I loved it. Especially when I was planted deep inside of her.
Tunk calling my name had me snapping back to remember I was on the phone with him. I had a special weekend planned with Olive and wanted all hands-on deck when it came to watching the kids. I didn’t want her to worry at all while we were out. Kelvin was already here, sitting on the back patio smoking his cigar and drinking his coffee.
“Lando, you're not even listening to me.”
“My bad, that was Olive. They’re on their way.” He blew out an irritated breath.
“I said I’ma be down there in a couple of days. I got moves to make while Liv is on vacation,” Tunk said through the speaker. I had just gotten done installing Jo-Jo’s TV and making sureit was connected to all the streaming platforms in his sports themed room when Tunk called. Over the last week or so, I made it my mission to finally have it finished so when he came back, he would know his space was official here.
“What kind of moves, fool? Your family should come first. Plus, Kelvin might need help with all these kids,” I cracked as I put baseball cards on the dresser. I wanted to introduce Jo-Jo to the art of collecting them, especially since his interest in the sport since the batting cages had really grown.
