“Okay, but first, can you give me your brother’s—” I started but she interrupted.
“Y’all are pathetic. I just gave him your number. He’ll be calling soon.”
“Shut up,” I warned her. Yes, we were pathetic, but I didn’t want anyone else knowing just how much.
“Hey. I’m not saying nothing.”
“Which did you choose?”
“The lakefront location and here’s why…” She trailed off as my phone chimed.
The text was from an unsaved number, but I knew exactly who it was.
I’m coming to get you when I’m done moving around. Be ready in three hours, he texted, elevating my body temperature and making my mouth water at the thought of tasting him again.
FIFTEEN
Getting readjustedwith the ins and outs of my business had been more consuming than I’d expected. It wasn’t until I made it into my home that I realized just how much I’d been on the go and just how much I missed Ever. It had been three days since I’d seen her beautiful face, and I refused to go another.
“Hello?” Her sultry voice appeared on my line.
“What are you doing?” I wanted to know.
“Just finished eating dinner and got the girls in their pajamas.”
“It’s still early,” I told her as I checked the time. It was only seven-thirty.
“I know. I like to clean them up right after dinner so that we have the rest of the night to do nothing.”
“Or y’all could come over. I want to eat dinner, too.”
I knew we’d agreed to eat dinner together as much as possible, but the time for it hadn’t come. We were both extremely busy trying to figure out business.
“You sure?”
“If you’re asking me if I’m ready to meet the girls, I am. Everybody get ready. I’m about to come scoop y’all up.”
“No. You don’t have to come get us. I can drive to your place. I have to take them to school in the morning. Essence starts daycare with Emorey.”
“That’s cool, too, but I can drop them off in the morning if you’d like. I need to holler at my moms, anyway. I ain’t seen her in a week.”
“We can take them together. We’re about to head over.”
“Aight.”
I ended the call with Ever and cut the oven off. The chicken that I was planning to cook could wait. My dinner was on the way and it included Ever and whatever she’d cooked.
I ran upstairs for a quick, five-minute shower. It was all I’d have time for before Ever was at the door with her girls. The last thing I wanted was to smell like outdoors when they approached.
I adjusted the temperature of the water and stepped into the shower the second it was warm enough. The large beads of water massaged my shoulders as I allowed the deeds of the day to roll off my back while trying to figure out how to convince Ever that she belonged in my space more than anywhere else.
I knew she was on herindependent, don’t want to live with a man shit, but she didn’t have to. I understood what her healing process required, and I refused to interfere but coming home to an empty house every night when there could easily be two giggling girls waiting at the door for me was absurd.
It didn’t have to be every day or every night, but a few out of the week wouldn’t hurt. If she didn’t want it to be my home so soon, then I was definitely going to get her apartment situation squared away before the week was out. Shit, within the next forty-eight hours because I knew it was possible.
I’d gotten so comfortable sleeping next to her for four days straight that I wasn’t getting much shut eye now that she wasn’t around. I was exhausted, which is why I called them over. If they didn’t come to me, then I was taking my ass to Lyric’s.
When the doorbell sounded a few minutes after my shower, my stomach growled. It was as if my body understood who and what was at the door waiting for me. I turned on the lights that led to the door to lighten the place a bit. Aside from the small traces of light from the setting sun, the place was black.
