Three hours later she was on a plane listening to the music of Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo through her earbuds, trying to suspend time.
* * *
As soon as Jon and Chance finished discussing the terms of their new partnership, Chance went in search of Petra. Susie, looking flustered, told him that Petra had been in a hurry and had rushed out soon after they’d left him and Jon in the conference room. So Chance asked her for Petra’s cell phone number.
Susie appeared indecisive about giving it to him. He guessed it was because she didn’t want to give him Petra’s number without her express permission. But he told her he wanted to try to reassure Petra about her misgivings pertaining to reality shows, so Susie gave him the number. He’d gambled that Susie would want to help the conservancy, and Petra’s agreeing to do the show would benefit the conservancy.
Armed with the number, he punched in the digits on the way out of the conservancy’s offices. On the street, he listened to Petra’s voice when her phone went into message mode.
He put his phone in his inside coat pocket without leaving a message, and hailed a cab. Why would she run out on him for the second time in one day? Especially when fate had so generously thrown them together again. He’d taken it as a good sign.
As he got into the cab and gave the cabbie his office address, his phone beeped in his pocket.
It was a text message from Petra. Please give me a couple of days to put in perspective what’s happening between us. Don’t you think it’s weird?
He texted back, No, I think it’s wonderful.
She sent a frowning emoji. Susie texted me to expect this.
Yes, she gave me your number. Only because I told her I was going to try to convince you that a reality show can be a good thing, he countered. Don’t hold it against her.
You’re very sneaky, she texted.
I’ll go to any lengths to see you again.
I’m packing to go home. I managed to get a seat on a plane leaving soon.
He noted she didn’t tell him how soon. Was she afraid he’d rush to the airport to prevent her leaving?
He sat back on the seat in the cab with a resigned sigh. How long will you be gone?
I don’t know.
Can’t we talk about this? Texting is so impersonal.
Your voice does things to me a text doesn’t.
Fair enough. Then, I’ll be silent for two days. After that, all bets are off.
Okay, she agreed. Bye for now.
Bye. He reluctantly put away his phone.
* * *
Two days later, his plane was landing in Raleigh, North Carolina. He rented a car and checked into a hotel, then sat down on the bed in the hotel room and calmly texted Petra. Where R U?
A few seconds later, she texted, Y do U want 2 know?
Must talk 2 U face 2 face.
I’ll be back in NY in 2 weeks.
I can’t wait that long.
U have 2.
Y did U run away?
Because I didn’t want 2 face U, isn’t that obvious?
Just tell me where U R.
She took longer to respond this time, but she finally named the luxury hotel in downtown Raleigh where she was. Then added, sarcastically he imagined, R U satisfied?
He smiled, imagining how annoyed she was with his persistency. Not yet, but soon.
Chapter 5
Across town, Petra was sitting in an alcove in the lobby of the hotel where her parents’ thirty-fifth anniversary party was being held, waiting for her cue to put in an appearance. For the last couple of days she’d caught up with her sisters’ lives while hiding from her parents. Although now she’d been informed that the surprise party the girls had planned was no longer a surprise. Their mother, the nosiest woman in the South, had gotten the secret out of someone. Once again, the sisters’ plan to surprise their mother had been foiled.
It irked Petra because Virginia was going to brag about her detecting prowess for yet another year. However, the girls had one more card up their collective sleeves: Their parents didn’t know Petra was home. She was their secret weapon.
She was wearing a beautiful African-print caftan in gold and black, with a matching head wrap and sexy golden-hued strappy sandals. Her only jewelry was a pair of gold hoop earrings that she’d bought from a talented artisan in Ghana on her first trip to Africa. She didn’t own much jewelry, and these were special to her.
About half an hour later, after she’d joined the party, and she and her sisters finally succeeded in pulling one over on their mother, she discovered she’d somehow lost one of her earrings somewhere in the hotel. So she was forced to retrace her steps in hopes of locating the missing earring.
She was in the lobby once again, in the alcove where she’d been sitting earlier, when she found the piece of jewelry between the cushion and the back of the chair she’d sat in. Earring in hand, she turned to follow the corridor to the bank of elevators and return to the party when a familiar voice from behind her said, “There you are.”
She momentarily closed her eyes and uttered a prayer that Chance Youngblood wasn’t standing behind her. But when she opened her eyes, there he was, with an irritated expression on his handsome face. In spite of his being the last person on earth she wanted to see at that moment, she wound up thinking how fine he looked in those jeans, light blue pullover shirt and black motorcycle boots. The man exuded masculinity.
She must have stood there a little too long, with how sexy she found him written all over her face, because he suddenly laughed.
“We have unfinished business, Dr. Gaines,” he said in his deep baritone.
“What? How?” she sputtered and backed up, nearly tripping over a big square coffee table.
He quickly moved forward and prevented her from falling. “I was already in Raleigh when I phoned you,” he explained. “But I didn’t know where you were staying. In New York, you only told me you were going to see relatives in Raleigh.”
“I can’t believe you’re here!”
He removed his hand from her shoulder and calmly walked around the coffee table and sat down on the white leather couch, making himself comfortable. He looked up at her. “I’m not a man to be trifled with. You owe me an explanation.”
Now he’d pissed her off. She sat down across from him, and being careful to keep her voice low, said, “I don’t owe you anything. We didn’t make any promises to each other. It was just sex.”
“Oh, I see, you make it a habit of having sex with any convenient male you run into?”
“No, of course not!” Petra hissed. “I’ve never done anything like that in my entire life!”
His eyebrows rose. “Then I guess that makes me special,” he said sarcastically.
“You know,” Petra said with equal sarcasm, “most guys would be happy to be let off the hook. Instead you travel all the way here to get into an argument with me in the lobby of a Raleigh hotel.”
“I’m not most men,” Chance said. He got to his feet, his gaze on hers. “Look, can we go somewhere and talk about this? I have a car waiting.”
“I can’t go anywhere right now,” Petra said irritably as she rose, too. Sitting while he towered over her made her feel like a child who was being reprimanded by a parent. “I’m attending a family gathering. I’d have to go back into the ballroom and let one of my sisters know I’m leaving.”
“No problem,” the stubborn man said. “I’ll stay right here until you get back.”
Petra was so angry at his putting her on the spot like this, she wanted to slug him. Looking at him, so strong, so solid, he was clearly determined to be an immovable force tonight.
She was momentarily stumped as to what to do next. Finally, she blew an exasperated breath between her full lips and exclaimed, “All right! You might as well come with me. My sisters would never forgive
me if they found out you were here and they didn’t get a chance to meet you.”
He gave her a smug smile. “You told them about me, huh?”
“Don’t look so pleased,” Petra said as they began walking toward the elevators. “I told them you were a one-night stand.”
“But a memorable one-night stand,” he wagered.
“Don’t make me change my mind,” Petra warned.
* * *
Chance knew he would never be able to remember all of the names of the people Petra introduced him to that night. When he and Petra got to the ballroom, the crowd was doing a line dance, which they joined. The music was loud and the dancers were hilariously bad, just like the dancers at his family’s gatherings. Petra and her sisters were lined up next to each other, and he could see they were in sync and had probably practiced dancing together a lot over the years. They were talented and beautiful and fun loving, and he was grateful to see that side of Petra. She was the tiniest of the sisters and, if he were reading them well, the bossiest. They followed her lead. As for the guys the sisters were matched up with, they were all tall, good-looking men who were clearly in love with the Gaines sisters.
After the upbeat line dance, a slow song started playing and Chance got to hold Petra in his arms. Their first dance as a couple was wonderful. She was gazing into his eyes as though their altercation was forgotten and she’d forgiven him for following her to Raleigh, which he instinctually felt wasn’t the case. He knew she was still unsure of what to make of his behavior because she was stiff when she went into his arms. A minute or so later, though, she seemed more relaxed and gazed up at him. And he finally got to talk with her in private, the music providing a good buffer.
“Have you and Jon come to a decision about the conservancy?” she asked.
“We have,” he acknowledged. “You will, no doubt, be apprised of the details soon, but I can tell you that I’ve signed on to support the conservancy’s projects worldwide until its financial problems are solved. In the meantime, Jon is incorporating safeguards to ensure the problem doesn’t raise its troublesome head again.”
“So, it was the accountant?” Petra asked.
Chance grinned. “He was found in Switzerland and was persuaded to return to the US and face the music.”
“Persuaded or forced?”
“There might have been a few strong-arm tactics used,” he said as he bent his head and inhaled her heady fragrance. “You know, when I woke up and found you gone, I was very disappointed.”
She smiled. “Disappointed and angry? Or disappointed and resigned to it?”
He gave her a deadpan look. “What do you think? You left me that heartbreaking note...”
“Heartbreaking?” she cried in hushed tones. “Is that what you think of me? That I’m a sad, lonely woman who finds comfort in the arms of unsuspecting men and leaves heartbreaking notes on their pillows?”
Chance laughed. “Did I say that? I didn’t say that. I don’t think you’re sad. I think you’ve been hurt and you’re afraid I’ll turn out to be like your last boy...um, fiancé.”
She cocked her head and eyed him suspiciously. “You know who he is, don’t you?”
Chance paused before answering because he was taken aback by her intuitiveness. They’d known each other for only three days, and she was already reading him like a book. Yes, the truth was, once he’d learned her identity, he had done some digging. Earlier, when she’d told him about her former fiancé, he’d thought her description sounded like someone he knew.
A Google search turned up British millionaire and adventurer Gareth Graham, who was host of a popular British reality show about his travels to exotic locales. He’d found a few photos of Gareth Graham with Petra on his arm at social events, but for the most part, she seemed to avoid the spotlight. Later photos of Gareth showed him with a well-known American actress on his arm. There were plenty of those online. The actress and Gareth both seemed to enjoy the attention.
“I don’t know where his brain was, letting you go,” he told Petra.
Tears sat in her beautiful eyes, and he cursed himself for having caused them. Why couldn’t he keep his big mouth shut?
He pulled her to his chest, and she didn’t resist when he hugged her tightly. “Oh, Pet, I’m sorry. I just thought you’d prefer me to be honest with you. Yes, I looked him up because, God help me, I wanted to know everything about you, and you were running away from me.”
“I was not running away from you,” she denied, looking up at him again. “I was trying to get my head on straight. The emotions I felt for you the morning after we’d been together were overwhelming. Believing I’d never see you again, I wrote exactly how I felt.”
“I felt the same way,” he said softly. “That’s what I was going to tell you the next morning—that I didn’t consider what we had a one-night stand. What does it matter how we met and how soon we made love? What matters is where this goes. And that depends on you and me. We can make it whatever we want. I swear to you, if you’re having misgivings about how quickly we went to bed together, it’ll be our secret. Well, you told your sisters, but that doesn’t count. And I told my brother and sister.”
“You what?” she nearly shouted.
He smiled warmly. “So we’re equal now. Your sisters know, and my siblings know. They’re named Brock and Alia, by the way. You’re going to love them. Alia’s the oldest and then Brock. I came last.”
Her eyes were filled with wonder. “A, B and C?”
He chuckled. “You got that far faster than most people. My parents are weird that way.”
“Did they get your sister’s name from a character in Dune, the novel by Frank Herbert?”
“How’d you guess?”
She laughed. “I’m a fan of his—of science fiction, in general.”
“Mom’s going to get a kick out of you,” he told her. “That’s one of her favorite books. She loves Octavia E. Butler, too.”
“What are your parents’ names?”
“James and Debra,” he answered. “Mom said she and Dad have such common names that she wanted to make sure their children had more unique monikers.”
Petra nodded as though that made perfect sense. “Okay, you know about my heartbreak. Who broke your heart?”
“The first time was when I was in college,” he began. “I fell in love with a girl who was in my economics class.”
“Two nerds in love?” she asked with a playful expression in her eyes.
“Yes, it’s one of the sweetest kinds,” he said. “The two of you have so much in common, plus there’s the fact that neither of you have had much experience in love and you learn everything together.”
Petra smiled wistfully. “I understand all too well.”
Chance wondered if she had thought, while she and Gareth were together, that because they were both zoologists their bond would last forever. And then he’d left her.
“But when we graduated and I went to work for my family’s company and started at the bottom, she told me she couldn’t live on my salary. She’d met someone whose rich parents weren’t of the mind that their sons had to earn a living, but were rewarded with millions of dollars upon graduation. Did it break my heart? Yes, but not for long. I was too busy working. My dad was a hard taskmaster. He didn’t believe in coddling his children. He didn’t think he was doing us any favors by handing us everything. He figured we’d be more grateful if we earned everything we got. And he was right. But turns out, I didn’t learn from my first serious relationship because I later fell in love with another woman who pretended to love me for me and not what I could give her, but she couldn’t keep up the act well enough.
“I found out she only wanted me for the money when she was caught cheating on me and tried to convince me that it was partly my fault because I was working too much. I’d driven her into another man’s arms.”
<
br /> “She sounds like a talented manipulator and a narcissist,” Petra said sympathetically.
“Yes, she was,” Chance said.
“You haven’t been in a serious relationship since?” Petra asked, her eyes on his.
“I’ve become kind of wary since then,” he admitted. “And am I the only man you’ve been involved with since Gareth?”
She nodded with a smile on her lips and with a happier expression in her lovely eyes than a few minutes ago when he’d made her cry.
“I think I like you, Chance Youngblood.” She looked so delectable he wanted to kiss her, but restrained himself.
He grinned. “That’s good, because I like you a lot, Pet.”
* * *
Petra was jittery inside as Chance held her. What was happening here? She wanted so much to simply let go and enjoy the moment, but deep down she didn’t believe in fairytales, and this felt like a fantasy. One of those wonderfully vivid dreams that you woke up from and wished it had lasted longer.
She’d done some digging, too. Her sisters knew who he was as soon as she mentioned his name. They kept up with social media and pop culture and watched television, unlike Petra who wasn’t on Facebook and rarely turned on a TV. She was aware, now, that his family had been in publishing first. His grandfather published a newspaper for many years in Harlem. They had then branched out to magazines and books. They still published magazines and books, but were no longer in the newspaper business since newspapers were struggling to survive in the twenty-first century. They had grown in the seventies and started an African American television network. Today, Youngblood Media’s empire included publishing, broadcasting and the internet.
Love in New York ; Cherish My Heart Page 20