Page 26 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

“Mmhm,” she murmured. “With Lil Miss Afro Puffs.”

It clicked then who she was referring to.

“You talking about Jackie?!”

I watched her roll her neck as she sucked her teeth.

“Oh, is that the raggedy heifer’s name?”

I tossed my head back as I laughed. “You know damn well that girl wasn’t raggedy.”

I was cracking up. Not only because I’d been anything but booed up with Jackie and her discordant-ass laugh, but also because Jucee’s lil attitude had me tickled. She was so damn jealous. If I spent too much time with any woman that wasn’t her, she turned into a brat, and while that was a trait that would have me chunking up the deuce in a relationship, on her, I lowkey found it adorable. Because of her history, Jucee kept her friends close to the chest and was a bit overly protective of them. There were only like three people she even used the word friend with, and I counted myself lucky to be one of those people.

I might’ve been the love ’em and leave ’em type before I met Jucee, but now that a couple of the songs I’d produced had won awards, I was in the studio so much that I barely had the time for the love ’em part of that equation. Yet, if I gave the little time I did have to “some random,” Jucee wouldn’t be the only one to make her displeasure known. My family would have something to say as well. Hell, even Xeno would be giving me the side-eye.

Wrapping my arms around her from the back, I nuzzled Jucee’s neck teasingly.

“Not you being jealous of a groupie.”

She lifted her shoulder to squeeze me out of her space, but I didn’t let her go. After a second she dropped her crossed arms and busted out laughing.

“Man, get off me!”

I froze for a second, not immediately releasing her as my mind raced with questions. I’d heard Jucee’s laugh a million and eighteen times and never thought twice about it, but suddenly I was faced with the sharp realization that her laugh—while loud and goofy—was actually quite melodious, especially in comparison to Jackie’s raucous laugh. It didn’t just sound perfect; it pleased me. I dropped my hands from around Jucee as if she were fire and I was oil.

That was...new.

I’d never compared her to a love interest before—potential or otherwise. I’d never wanted to. Hell, I prided myself on having friendships that were truly just friendships and not loading docks for future romantic relationships.

Was I trippin’?

Yeah, I was definitely trippin’. I mean, things were weird because Jackie’s laugh was jarring and had thrown me off of my natural rhythm, and Jucee was my safe space, so it made sense that my brain would use her to right my mental metronome.

That’s all it was.

I was certain.

Jucee turned around, already saying something slick. I couldn’t tell you what was coming out of her mouth. Couldn’t recall a thing. There was a lot happening in my brain, but where I was usually more than capable of handling it all, now, I fell flat. I felt a little unsteady. Like I would stumble if I took a step. The legs that had supported me my entire life suddenly felt foreign.

When Jucee fully spun around, she stopped speaking midsentence. Didn’t trail off, didn’t choke. Just came to an abrupt halt. Her smile never faltered, but there was a subtle change in her expression. Eyebrows dipped just a fraction. Eyes narrowed a hair. She saw something on my face—in my expression—that gave her pause. This woman could read me like a book, and it was both a blessing at times and a curse right now. She didn’t need to see this hiccup in real time. I needed to process and then tell her about it after I figured out what happened and fully bounced back.

Acrylics pressed into my skin, the familiar sensation comforting me, as Jucee wrapped a hand around my bicep, leaning into my ear.

“You good, Poppa?”

She pulled back as soon as the question left her lips, tilting her head to the side to watch my face as I answered.

Fuck.

It was a simple question asked in a low tone, but it felt like she’d sung the last lines of a love song to me. The adlibbed riffing at the end that wasn’t planned, but I hadn’t stopped recording and just let the artist do what she came to do.

I was so not okay.

Of course she wanted to see my face. One of her favorite phrases was “Lips can lie but eyes can’t.” This woman knew me so damn well that I couldn’t even fake the funk with her. Shaking my head one time, and one time only, I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

“Nah, but I will be.” Her already narrowed gaze shrank even further, and I hurried to calm her before she went into full mama bear mode. “It’s all good, trust me.”

I placed a hand on her hip and leaned forward to drop a kiss at the corner of her mouth. I called myself doing something normal to help cull her suspicion, but I’d fucked myself. The moment my lips touched her skin, a burning desire to shift my aim a little to the left shot through me.