Page 74 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

Denny grinned. “Do you have diabetes?”

Eyes wide, Jucee shook her head. “No...”

“Well, let’s just say you might after drinking that tea.”

I cracked up. He was funny.

Jucee danced in her seat as she pulled the drink toward her and grabbed the straw Denny had placed on the table. She gave the drink a stir with the straw before taking a healthy sip. With her lips puckered, she sat back on the bench seat and bounced her shoulders.

“Oooh,” she drawled. “Now that is how I like my tea! Thank you, Denny!”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a slight bow before spinning on his heel and heading back to the restaurant.

Reaching for my own straw, I pulled it and the frosted glass that held my drink toward me. It was so hot outside that I could already see my drink melting back into pure liquid at the bottom of the glass. So, I used the straw to stir the drink back up and then tasted it. It was amazing. The perfect combination of tart and sweet, which was exactly how I liked my fruity lemonades. I drank it down a little bit more, loving the feel of the coolness traveling down my chest, fighting the heat. Pushing it to the side, I once again folded my arms across the table as I looked up at Jucee. It was now or never.

“So...”

Jucee sighed and linked her fingers on top of the table. The sound was a mixture of resignation and dread. There was a slight warble that indicated her nerves as well. Was she as nervous as I was? Was she anxious in the same way that I was? Did she have the same fear that this might be the end of us like I did?

So many questions. There were so, so many that I had, and the only way I would get an answer was if I started to speak. So I did.

“I love you so much, Jucee.”

Her eyebrows rose and she sat forward as if she was preparing to speak, but I held my hand up to stop her. “Just...just let me get everything out first before you say anything. Even if it sounds like something that you’re supposed to respond to immediately like a question or whatever, just let me finish, please. Please?”

She nodded but otherwise didn’t say a word. Nodding my thank-you, I took a deep breath before continuing on.

“I love you so much, Jucee.” She sucked in a breath, but to her credit she didn’t say a word. She rolled her lips inward as she sat forward, propping her elbows on the table and bouncing her chin on her closed fist.

“I know it’s been a bumpy road while we find our footing in this romance thing, and—” I grinned sheepishly “—I can admit that most of the speed bumps were caused by me.” Lifting an arm onto the table, I opened my hand palm-up. To my relief, Jucee instantly placed her hand over mine, wrapping her fingers around my wrist. “But I want you, I want us, and I want to do all of the necessary shit to smooth the road and keep moving forward.”

I waited for her to speak or give me some sort of a reaction that said she heard me and agreed, or something, but the only thing I got was her biting her bottom lip and looking out over the street. Trying not to immediately take it negatively, I blew a breath out through my nose and squeezed her hand.

“You don’t have to say anything right now. If you need some time, you can have what you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

Her eyes flitted back to me and her lips lifted upward marginally. “Thank you for understanding. There’s a lot to process and I just need the space to do that.”

I blinked. There it was again. That slight bump in the rhythm of her voice that let me know something was off. I wanted to demand she confess every single thought, big and small, that caused her hesitation. I wanted to insist that she spill it all so I can know precisely how to soothe those concerns, but if I did any of that then I’d be contradicting myself. If I said she didn’t have to say anything right now then I had to stand on that.

Nodding, I lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist.

“No problem,” I murmured with a confidence I didn’t feel.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jucee

The Talk

When I told Poppa that I needed some space after her pop-up at the gym and then our lunch date, I was really just buying time. As much as I loved that woman, love didn’t mean shit if respect wasn’t present. She’d sounded so earnest sitting across from me at the restaurant with the bill of her fitted at that forty-five-degree angle, but how could I trust that?

I was going to have to make a decision sooner than later, but until then I just tried to focus on other things. Amani was with his father this week, but Samir had called and explained that Sanai had a bad case of colic. While he and Morgan were doing everything they could, the kids were miserable with the crying baby in the house. Their solution was to relocate the bigger kids until the baby was better. LeeLee and Pooh had gone to their grandmother’s house, but Amani said he wanted to come home. It was a perfect excuse for me to decline Poppa’s texted offer to bring over dinner.

I just needed more time.

It was after nine when Samir showed up with my baby draped over his shoulder. Amani was already in his pajamas and passed out like a rag doll. He didn’t stir, not once, as his father laid him in his bed and pulled the covers up over him. I stayed in the living room, waiting for Samir to come back out before heading for the door. On a normal day, we might kick it for a little bit before he headed out, but with Morgan home alone with Sanai, I didn’t want to keep him longer than necessary.

We reached the door and I hugged Samir to my side before twisting the handle, but instead of releasing me so that I could open the door, Samir stared at me.