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“Enough.” She grabbed two glasses before leading the way to the tiny living room we’d passed through to get to the kitchen.
Her house was small, wide open where you could see almost everything aside from the bedrooms that were above our heads. I noticed stairs that led to the second level just beyond the door as soon as you walked in.
Once settled onto the tiny, worn, canvas sofa, she filled the bottom of our glasses and then cozied down beside me. She had come out of her shoes while upstairs getting Gracie ready for bed so she lifted her legs, tucking bare feet to the side and beneath her, which tilted her body slightly toward me.
“Thank you for today,” she said after sipping the drink and peeking at me over the rim before she lowered it and cuffed the glass in both hands.
“It was cool. Can’t say I’ve ever been to anything like that before.”
“See country living isn’t so bad.”
“Nah, it’s not but I think that’s more about you than anything else. You make it look good.”
“How do I make a picnic look good?”
“Shit, you just do.” I wasn’t ashamed or bashful about the way I took her in, tracing the outline of her curves which were on display again because of the tight white V-neck she wore and little ass black shorts.
“That’s not an explanation. You’ll have to do better than that.”
I tossed back what was in my glass, leaning to the side to place it on the small round table that sat next to me. “You look like you belong but stand out at the same time. All the other people just faded into the background like the grass and trees but you didn’t. It’s like looking at a picture and you focus on one thing that makes everything else blend together but it also makes you realize that the picture wouldn’t be worth looking at without that one thing which drew you in, in the first place.”
“A man who knows the right lines for the right moment.”
“No lines, just how I feel.”
She stared at me, blinking a few times before she snapped out of it. “I know you don’t want to talk about your life but can you at least tell me why you’re here, in Coleman?”
“You don’t already know?”
She shook her head softly. “I don’t. I mean I read the headlines, but not any of the articles. What are the assault charges about?”
I tensed before my eyes found hers. “My brother.”
While she narrowed her eyes in confusion, I swallowed the knot that formed in my throat. The same one that appeared each time I had to remember.
“He’s not in a good place. Hasn’t been for a while. A lot of that is my fault. Regardless of what people think or how it looks to the outside world, there’s more bad than good that comes with that life.Mylife. You get stuck, surrounded by things that aren’t good for you. I’ve done a lot of shit I’m not proud of. Drugs, women, bad decisions that could have ended even worse and because he was with me, those things touched him too. I did my best to shield him from it but touring, long hours in the studio, commitments that my label forced on me, meant times that he was unprotected. He was places he shouldn’t have been with people he had no business being around. A couple months ago, one of the executives that works for the label asked Kaliq to do him a favor. Told him I would be cool with it. There was no reason why he wouldn’t believe him. My past wasn’t the best. I was into some shit before I got signed and sank even deeper once I did because I had money and access. My brother knew about it, so he didn’t think twice. Turns out that favor almost got him killed. When I found out, I lost it, tried to kill the muthafucker that brought that shit to him and I would have if my manager hadn’t stopped me. Now he’s pressing charges.”
“You can do time?”
“Yeah.” I hated admitting that out loud. I already didn’t deserve her grace and this wasn’t helping.
“But that doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“Shit got crazy at home. Media kept hounding me and I couldn’t fucking breathe. Couldn’t think, couldn’t write, couldn’t really do shit. Drew, that’s my manager, he owns the house where I’m staying and told me to come here. Get away for a little while, so I packed a few things and have been here ever since.”
She cracked a smile. “Why not go to an island or beach somewhere out of the country? Coleman is not really the kind of place you go to escape.”
I laughed under my breath. “Same shit I said, but Drew’s grandmother was from here. The house we’re staying in used to be hers. He said I could hide in plain sight. Didn’t want to be cooped up in some hotel room or a resort, no matter how expensive it was. I guess it made sense at the time.”
“And now?” It was a loaded question, one that had that voice in my head screaming at me again. Telling me that being with her was wrong.
Impulsive.
Selfish.
But again, I ignored it. Instead, I leaned in closer, hooking her chin between my fingers enough to guide her lips to mine. She moaned in my mouth, one hand landed hard on my thigh in an effort to keep balanced, but all that did was bring her in closer.
The second we separated, she gasped for air and I kissed a path across the outline of her jaw, returning to the corner of her mouth. I took the glass from her hand and placed it on the floor before I lifted, forcing her back, wedging my thigh between hers while I leaned into her body, causing it to sink deeper into the cushions beneath us.
