ALittleTasteofHome

by AliyahBurke

  “Thank you. For delivering the food.”

  “You’re welcome. Enjoy.” She turned and began to walk to the front of the truck, but he blocked her way. Her eyebrow shot up again. “What? You’re blocking my way.”

  Translation: Get your ass out of my way, no matter how fine you are and it is.

  “What is your real name?”

  What is it with this man and his fascination with my name? She tamped down her attitude and fixed him with a look that made most people back away.

  The glint in his eyes made it clear to her he would have been more than happy to take up her silent challenge, but a call from inside made him nod a silent acquiesce to her and step aside, allowing her pass. Gavin moved only a little so her body had to brush against his; the mere touch sent her insides to trembling.

  Damn, he smelled good. All man and a hint of alcohol. Nice combo. Without looking back she got into the truck and they drove off.

  “Go ahead. Say it. I can see you’re chomping at the bit,” Sanura told Allison as she drove.

  Allison burst out laughing at her comment. “You. How do you do it? That man didn’t even know I was alive. His eyes and all his attention was on you the second he walked in the room. Are you going to tell me you weren’t flirting with him? Maybe a little bit?” There was no anger in her question, just pure astonishment and wonder with a healthy dose of teasing.

  “No. Not at all.”

  “Green. Like a pair of emeralds,” Allison mimicked in a deep voice, before another burst of laughter erupted out of her.

  “Shut up. Just shut up.” But by now, Sanura laughed right along with her.

  “Exactly like in school. They all fell for you. You and your mysterious ways.”

  “Mysterious ways? What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You are so aloof they are dying to crack that calm composure of yours.”

  “Whatever. You must be having delusions. I am not aloof, nor am I mysterious. I’m one of the guys, that’s all.”

  “Right.”

  * * * *

  Allison glanced over at her friend and smiled to herself. She had known they would make a wonderful match; she had known since the first time she ever laid eyes upon the fine Gavin Rawlins. He was silent and brooding but she knew a bit of it was a farce. He needed something in his life and, as far as Allison was concerned, that something was her best friend.

  The firm he worked for was horrible and it had been a cause of concern, but the way he looked at Sanura tonight, Allison no longer held concern. The firm might prefer to only have white employees and work for white clients, but the main man, Gavin Rawlins, was more than attracted to the black—biracial, to be politically correct—co-owner of the diner across the street from his office. All they needed was some help from her, Allison Drover, best friend extraordinaire and sometimes matchmaker.

  Allison kept it to herself. No sense in letting Mac know her plans. Sanura was the sister she never had and always wanted. They met one night on the high school campus when Sanura had come across her as she was trying to get away from some drunken men.

  Sanura and her brother, Bryce, had thrashed the men and took her to the hospital to get checked out. From that moment, she and Sanura had formed a bond that would never be broken. That was also the day she fell in love with Sanura’s friend Bryce, who was ten years older than they were and in the military. She never told anyone, not even Sanura, about her feelings for Bryce.

  Eventually Allison got married to Pete her freshman year in college. But through all those years she still fantasized about Bryce. She saw him occasionally when he would come visit Sanura but she kept it all to herself.

  * * * *

  “Ali? Ali? What’s the matter, girl? Are you even listening to me?”

  “Huh? Sorry, Mac. I think I dozed off for a moment. What did you say?”

  “I asked where you wanted to eat and said we were back at the diner. So can you get out of the truck now.”

  They were and, as she slid out of the truck, she put her hands protectively around her stomach. “How about here? Let’s eat here.”

  “Alright. You go grab a table and I will unload this stuff. Be right with you.”

  They headed home after dinner and spent the evening trying to figure out baby names, looking at baby items and searching for a small home for Allison and her child.

  On Sunday, Sanura was back in her Yukon delivering meals to the elderly. It was her turn to do Meals on Wheels. She had delivered food to the shelters very early on to make sure she would have time for this after she went to church.

  As she arrived at an apartment complex she pulled into her usual parking place. Sliding out of the seat, she went to the back. She got out two trays and put them in her arms before heading for the door. Once there she pressed the buzzer and the doorman buzzed her in as he waved with recognition.

  “Good morning, darling. I was wondering if we would see you this month.”

  She smiled at the elderly doorman. “I wouldn’t miss this unless it was absolutely unavoidable.”

  “Well, the Johnsons sure appreciate it. They love it when you come, since you stay and talk to them for a while.”

  “I always make sure I have time for them. Can you get the elevator for me?”

  “Of course. By the way, you look stunning today, as usual.”

  Sanura smiled and looked down. She didn’t handle compliments well. She wore a calf-length skirt with a slit on the side, sapphire blue in color. Her shirt was a short sleeve fitted top silver in color. Simple silver shoes completed the outfit, with two inch heels emphasizing her lean legs. “Thank you. I had church this morning.”

  He waved goodbye as she climbed into the elevator and headed up to the fifth floor. She got off and went to her normal door and knocked.

  * * * *

  While she was in visiting the couple, a sleek black sedan pulled up to the building. As the driver was walking in he noticed a familiar looking black SUV. He hurried inside, trying to ignore the rapid increase in his pulse and spoke with the doorman. “Who owns that black SUV?”

  “Good morning Mr. Rawlins. That belongs to Miss McKie. She is part of Meals-on-Wheels and she comes to see the Johnsons once a month. They rotate who comes. Really sweet of her, if you ask me. She should be coming down soon; she only can stay for a little while.”

  McKie, her last name is McKie. “Thanks.” He went up in the elevator to the top floor, which had been converted to his condo. He liked living here. It was quiet, no kids; mostly elderly lived in the apartments below. Gavin kept the elevator up on his floor and when it dinged to go back down he made sure he was still in it.

  It stopped on the fifth floor. Standing to the side of the opening doors, Gavin waited for whoever was getting in to do so.

  What entered his line of sight was nothing less than a vision. It was Mac. Her hair was pulled away from her face and left to cascade down her back, where it fell like silk fluttering in the breeze. Her face was clear of any sort of makeup.

  She wore silver and blue, which made her skin color all the more dramatic. Around her neck was a chain upon which a silver Celtic cross and an emerald club lay against her smooth brown skin.

  As his eyes traveled down he noticed the slit in the skirt and the shoes with the heels. Nice legs, he thought. He imagined them wrapped around his lean waist as he pumped in and out of her wetness. His body leapt to respond to his wayward thoughts.

  * * * *

  Sanura had dry mouth. This wasn’t what she’d been expecting to see today. Or rather who. “What are you doing here?”

  “Nice to see you again also, Mac.” He pushed the door close button as she warily stepped to the other side of the elevator. His eyes roamed hungrily over her body, making it jump up and take notice. Hell, it was waving its arms trying to get him to notice more.

  “Why do you feel the need to call me Mac?” Her own gaze roved over his figure. He wore khakis and a plain blue tee shirt.

  They showe
d off his body; she could see the six-pack resting under the cotton of the shirt and felt called to run her hands over it. The pants fit him wonderfully, letting her see his nice butt, strong legs, and they left not much to the imagination of what was at the juncture of his thighs. Not that she was looking, but if she had been, that would have been what she would have seen.

  “That is your name, isn’t it?”

  “What’s it to you?” By now she realized the elevator was going up instead of down.

  “I want to get to know you. Is that so wrong?”

  “Why are you here?”

  “I live here. Why are you here?”

  He lived here? “Meals on Wheels.” Another push, Lord?

  “I don’t like the name Mac. What is your real name, Miss McKie?”

  Instant caution sprang into her eyes. “Seems to me you have already found it out.” The elevator stopped on the tenth floor. The doors opened to a hallway and he stepped out and kept his hand on the doors, preventing them from closing.

  He held out his other hand to her. She arched that infamous eyebrow of hers again. “Come with me. I want to get to know you; I am not some kind of nut job that is going to hurt you.”

  Chapter Three

  Against her common sense, which was being drowned out by her unreasonable desire for this man, she placed her soft hand into his callused one. Funny, I didn’t think an architect would have callused hands. She allowed him to pull her out of the elevator and lead her down the hallway to the door of his place.

  As he opened the door he glanced down at the woman beside him. “Sorry about the mess, I don’t spend much time here.”

  Mess? That was the understatement of the year. It was a compliment to call it a pigsty. He led her to a couch, tossed everything off it and gestured for her to sit down.

  With a cautious look she did. Ankles crossed and muscles tense in case something crawled on her, she waited for him to speak.

  Gavin sat down at the other end of the couch. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her. “Tell me your name.” He had a voice that would make an angel curse, it was so seductive.

  “Tell me yours,” she countered.

  “My name is Gavin.” He bowed his head and added, “Gavin Montgomery Rawlins, if you want to get technical. And you?”

  With a deep breath she answered his inquiry. “My name is Sanura Eryn McKie. Mac to most.”

  “Sanura. What a beautiful name. What does it mean? Sanura?”

  Hell’s bells! The way her name rolled off his tongue, made her want to squirm on the couch, rip her clothes open and yell TAKE ME! at the top of her lungs. “Kitten. It means kitten. My name basically means Irish kitten.”

  “I think it fits you, much better than Mac does. Mac is a man’s name. I will call you Sanura.”

  “What makes you think you will have a need to call me any name at all?” Perhaps she was warming up to this flirting thing after all.

  “Why, don’t you think I would want to call you?”

  “I don’t know anything about you so I don’t have any opinion about what you may or may not want to do.”

  “Would you like to learn enough to form one?” His voice dropped an octave with blatant invitation.

  Sanura swallowed hard. It was so difficult not to respond as her body was crying out for her to do, “No thanks.” She flicked her gaze around the room. “You should clean this place up; your girlfriend or girlfriends,” she placed an emphasis on the plural, “might not want to come in here.”

  “You think?” He emitted a soft throaty chuckle and his disarming smile caused her heart to skip a beat, or two. “Doesn’t matter, I don’t have one,” he paused for a mere second before he finished the sentence, “yet.” There was no way she could misunderstand that either.

  “Keep living like this and you probably won’t ever get one. Unless you are not into women.” It was not really a question, more of a statement tossed out.

  “I am categorically, unequivocally and positively straight.” The words came with a viscous punctuation as if she’d struck a nerve.

  “Whatever. Makes no never mind to me,” she said as she carelessly shrugged her shoulders as she rose from the couch and walked over to the big windows.

  “Doesn’t it?” Gavin’s deep timbre shifted back to the purring that made her toes want to curl up inside her shoes.

  “No. Should it?” Sanura tossed over her shoulder without turning from her view. She knew if she did turn around all hope of behaving would be lost. He had followed her and was taking up more than his rightful share of her air.

  “What about you? Your boyfriend lets you go out alone dressed like this?”

  Attitude sprang up as her eyes glinted dangerously; that question got her to turn around all right. “What’s wrong with the way I look? If it was any of your business, which it ain’t, I was at church.”

  “Nothing is wrong with the way you look. You look radiant, beautiful, stunning…”

  She waved him quiet with one hand as she looked back out the window. “What is it you want to know about me? Not that I see us conversing much in the future, but ask your questions, I have to go. Ali will start to wonder where I have gotten to.”

  He remained silent.

  “Well?”

  “I wanted to get to know you.”

  “You already said as much. Look, I gave you my name, like you wanted. That is really all I feel comfortable giving you, I know nothing about you and I really need to go. On another subject, you should really clean this place. I bet it would look wonderful if it was cleaned up a bit, wash the windows. You have a beautiful view from here.”

  “I sure do.” Somehow it didn’t sound like he was talking about the view out the window as it felt to her like his eyes were roaming over her body. More like he was eagerly soaking up what she showed him and hungrily envisioned what she kept hidden.

  Gavin’s doorbell chimed before she could say anything else. She heard his muttered curse as he walked towards the door before opening it. Sanura stayed by the window, not wanting to interrupt his conversation, but she really did need to get going. She heard two women’s voices intermingled with his and then all of a sudden they had maneuvered themselves into the room and silence fell, faster than Sanura would ever have believed possible, as they spotted her.

  “Who is that?” The younger one asked.

  “I remember you. You delivered the food to my party,” the older one said.

  Great, his mother and his supposedly non-existent girlfriend? Sanura recognized the younger woman from the party, and as for Mrs. Rawlins anyone who could see would recognize her face. Not what she wished to deal with on a Sunday, not something she ever preferred to deal with, but she enjoyed her calm and laid back Sundays.

  “A delivery girl? Who are you and what are you doing here?” The younger one grilled her after giving Gavin a quizzical look.

  Gavin interrupted, “Mother. Cathy.” He moved back over by Sanura before he continued, “I would like you to meet Miss Sanura McKie.”

  The elder woman’s eyes were shrewd as she evaluated the situation. The younger woman, whom Gavin had identified as Cathy, was flat out rude. “Sanura, what kind of name is that? It sounds like one of those ethnic names,” she said it like it was a disease.

  This was not something Sanura was going to take quietly and so her attitude scaled to new heights and took her eyebrow with. “And? What about it? I am ethnic, why wouldn’t I have a name to reflect that?”

  “Why not have a normal name?” Cathy Tremane shrugged before she continued. “I never understood why you people get upset over the mispronunciation of your names when y’all are the ones who chose them.”

  “So what, we should all hope for our mothers to name us something boring like Cathy?” The heels she wore put her almost six inches over the small woman and Sanura didn’t hesitate to use her height to intimidate.

  The woman blanched and backed up away from her. “I like my name.”

  “Good,” came
the warning rumble, “And I like my name.”

  A cane rapped on the wood floor. “What are you doing in my son’s condo?”

  Her eyes flicked to the mother. “Just leaving.” With that dismissal Sanura walked past them all and opened the door and walked to the elevator.

  “What was she doing in this building? I was told they didn’t deliver on Sundays.”

  “Mother, she is part of Meals on Wheels. She was here delivering food, to the Johnsons on the fifth floor.” Gavin’s voice carried down to Sanura as she waited to get on the elevator.

  As the doors opened she heard footsteps behind her and when she turned he was there.

  “Goodbye for now, Sanura.”

  “Goodbye, Gavin Montgomery Rawlins.” She pushed the door close button and pressed ‘L’ for lobby, grinning as it shut in his face. As soon as she was headed down she leaned back and took a deep breath. Now there was a man she could easily lose herself in. Oh hell, maybe she needed a man. Or needed to go out on the town.

  Once back in her vehicle she called Ali. “Let’s go out tonight. To that new jazz club. What do you say? Great, I am just now finishing up my last Meals on Wheels and am headed for the restaurant. Be there in a few. Bye.” Dropping her phone, she drove on.

  * * * *

  Gavin was being grilled in his own home.

  “What was she doing here? You don’t get Meals on Wheels. Is she after your money?”

  “Mother. Calm down. I told you she was here for the Johnsons. I invited her in. In fact, I had to insist she come in. I see her at work every day; she is the one we get our break room morning snacks from. Since I see her all the time I thought it would be a nice thing if I knew her name. Since she finished her deliveries I was going to offer her something to drink and catch a minute’s rest. What are you two doing here?”

  “We came so you could take us out for lunch. Then we want to shop and later you can take us out for dinner. You really need to clean this place up, son. Either that or hire a housekeeper.”

  Spend the day with his mother. Not what he wanted to do. But she was a force to be reckoned with, so he knew he had been beat.