“Why?” she asked. “Let it end how it began, right?”
His face became incredulous. “Why are you doing this?” he asked. “You let that bullshit your husband pulled on you—which is more about his crap than yours—mess you up that bad?”
Zaria leaned back a bit, offended. “Leave my ex out of this.”
“Why don’t you leave your ex out of this—out of your life, out of your decisions,” he bit back, pointing his finger at her. “You actually believe everything you do is some show of liberation and claiming yourself and all that crap when all you’re trying to do is prove to him that you could have been what he wanted.”
Zaria glared at Kaleb before she flung back the covers and hopped out of the bed to stalk over to him. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Kaleb Strong, so keep your nickel-and-dime analysis to your damn self,” she snapped before she turned and strode across her bedroom.
He followed behind her and grabbed her arm to turn her around. “If it’s not, then why are you trying to be younger and sexier?”
“Go to hell,” she spat. “I don’t even know why we started this.”
“Me neither,” Kaleb shot back in anger.
Zaria stood up straight and eyed him. “Hey, it’s simple enough to end it. There’s no need for all this drama.”
“You’re all about drama,” he muttered, waving his hand at her in agitation as he jerked his black wife-beater tee over his head.
“What the hell does that mean?”
Kaleb let out a short sarcastic laugh as he eyed her and then grabbed his genitals. “This is all you ever wanted from me, even when I was willing to give you more, and now just the thought of me moving on to someone who wants more makes you start some stupid argument. For what? Drama, that’s what.”
Zaria outstretched her arms. “What do you want from me? To pretend I’m not forty-two?”
Kaleb looked incredulous. “You do that anyway, with your skintight clothes and high heels up in the club doing the gotdamned Dougie and partying with women young enough to be your daughter.”
That felt like an emotional gut punch. “Better than getting old before your time, Mr. Farmer in the Flipping Dell.”
“Go to hell, Zaria,” he said coldly before moving past her to leave the bedroom.
“Don’t you walk away from me, Kaleb Strong,” she said, coming around to step in his path to the front door, still just as naked as the day she was born.
Kaleb stepped back from her. “When are you going to grow up?” he asked, his annoyance clear.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
Kaleb sighed and wiped his face with his hand as he shook his head in disbelief. “Never mind, because I’m not even sure what this dumb-ass argument is really about—and neither are you.”
Zaria hated how helpless she felt. She hated that she wanted him to stay. She hated the jealousy she felt. She hated that the thought of never seeing him made her feel like she was drowning.
She closed her eyes as tears welled up. She pointed her finger at him as she struggled with the words. “I’m sorry, Kaleb. I am sorry, but if I could be what you wanted and what you needed, then I would.” She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
The tension left his body as he grabbed her waist and lifted her naked body to his. Her arms wound around his neck as she buried her face into his shoulder. She sighed as he placed kisses from her shoulder to the hollow of her neck and up to her cheek with ferocity. She turned her face to capture his mouth with her own, and they both moaned hungrily as the kiss deepened.
Roughly, Kaleb stepped forward to sandwich Zaria’s body between his body and the wall as she dug her fingernails into his shoulders. He pressed urgent kisses filled with his desire and the energy of their argument against the top of her breasts. Undoing his pants, he jerked his boxers down until they fell to his knees.
Zaria gasped and arched her back as he grabbed her hips and slid her down onto his hardness with a thrust of his hips. The tears she held back broke, and Kaleb kissed them away as he stroked deep within her with an intensity fueled by every aspect of their emotions. “Yes . . . yes . . . yes,” she cried out, gasping into his open mouth as she came with a power that shook her to her very core as she held on to him tightly, as if she would never feel him in her grasp again.
“I love you, Zaria,” Kaleb moaned against her collarbone as his body stiffened and his thrusts became jerky as his seed filled her in many tiny explosions that visibly shook him.
His admission pained her.
She closed her eyes as her tears continued to fall and wet her cheeks and his shoulders. She held him closely and inhaled deeply of his scent, remembering everything about him. Storing it away to be remembered fondly some time in the future.
Zaria knew what they shared was memorable. In a different place and time in their lives, it could have been a great love story. But reality was never as great as the fairy tales.
“Good-bye, Kaleb,” she whispered against his cheek before she moved to drop down to her feet.
He leaned back to look down at her. “Zaria—”
She shook her head and moved out of his grasp. “Good-bye,” she said again softly.
Kaleb’s eyes closed and his face hardened as he stepped back from her and jerked up his boxers and pants. “Humph. One last one for the road, huh?” he said sarcastically before he brushed past her and slammed out of the house.
Zaria winced and wrapped her arms around herself as the sound of that door slamming echoed around her.
Kaleb sat cloaked in total darkness is his living room, slumped in a club chair with his foot resting against the windowsill as he wished like hell that he’d never laid eyes on Zaria Ali. He stayed there in that chair long after the moon disappeared and the sun shone brightly. Even as he watched his ranch hands arriving through the gates of his ranch to begin a long day of work, he didn’t move.
Kaleb had never been a man to wear his heart on his sleeve, and he foolishly proclaimed his love to Zaria—only to have her end things. To say good-bye forever. She was done with him.
And he was left with nothing but memories, regrets, and a broken heart.
His cell phone vibrated on the arm of his chair, and he shifted eyes that were red from lack of sleep to look at it. Kahron’s number appeared. Kaleb shifted his eyes away and ignored the steady vibrating of the phone.
The only thing he could think of was wishing he could turn back time and never lay eyes on Zaria Ali.
Zaria clutched the pillow to her body and inhaled deeply of the scent of Kaleb that still clung to the cotton. It was damp with her tears from crying all night since he stormed out of her home. She missed him already. She ached for him. She had to fight not to call him.
It was time to let him go.
Zaria could never be the woman he wanted.
She just wished she had ended things sooner, before feelings were involved. His . . . and hers. She loved Kaleb Strong. She knew that now as the thought of living without him shook the very foundation she stood upon.
The days following the end of his relationship with Zaria, Kaleb was a hard taskmaster. He was relentless, pushing himself from the break of dawn to total darkness and expecting nothing less from his staff. It was the only way he knew to keep his mind off of Zaria.
He missed her. At times he hated her. He wanted to forget her.
Kaleb was sitting in his backyard in front of his lit fire pit when he heard the crunch of tires on the gravel of his front yard. He looked up as his brothers and father all climbed out of his father’s diesel pickup truck and walked around the sizeable house toward the smoke they saw from the road.
“Thank God it’s just a barrel,” Kael said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his black Dickie jacket as his son grabbed folding chairs from the stack Kaleb kept by the rear patio deck.
The men surrounded the can, and Kaleb eyed them all with a heavy breath.
“What you doing
, son?” Kael asked, unfolding his legs out before him to cross at the ankle.
Kaleb shrugged as he reached down into a cardboard box beside him and tossed something black and flimsy into the fire pit. “Just cleaning house,” he said calmly.
Kael leaned over a bit to look down in the box. He frowned in disapproval. “It would have been more honorable to send the young lady her things and not roast them, son.”
“Oh shit,” one of his brothers swore.
Kaleb tugged his baseball cap down over his head before reaching into his box again. This time it was some scandalous book Zaria had left at his house. He lobbed that in as well.
Kael sighed as he reached down and picked up a stick long enough to use to pull the box over to him. “If you’re done with her, be done with her stuff and send it to her.”
Kaleb remained silent.
“Kade, do you remember back when you were in the eighth grade and you were in hot behind Roxanne Gregory?” Kael asked, looking over at his eldest and tallest boy.
Kade flung his head back and his laughter soon echoed into the cool air of the late September evening. “It took me three months to work up the nerve to ask her to the spring dance.”
Kahron nodded and pointed at his oldest brother. “I remember that. Man, that was brutal when she turned you down in front of the whole cafeteria.”
Kade shifted in his chair to eye Kahron. “No worse than Jennifer Thorn standing you up for your junior prom when she took Luke Freeman instead.”
Kahron winced and did an exaggerated shiver. “Now that was cold. That was cold. Brrr.”
“That was a tough suit you had on, though,” Kaeden added, reaching over to give his brother some dap with a fist pound.
The men all laughed.
Kaleb eyed them with bored eyes. “Y’all were kids. I’m a grown-ass man and this ain’t the same.”
Kael eyed Kaleb as his laughter wound down. He leaned forward to press his elbows into his knees. “The point we’re making—the point I want you to get, son—is we all have had our heart broke. But we’re Strong men. We recover, we move on, and we use these good looks to find even better.”
“I know that’s right,” Kahron added, smoothing his hands over his five o’clock shadow as he posed.
Kaleb shook his head and eyed the box now sitting beside his father. “Every last one of y’all leave tonight and you have these incredible women waiting for you. Me? I got a big-ass empty house and memories of making a fool out of myself.”
Kael picked the box up and set it on the other side of him, closing it to hide the lacy lingerie he saw inside. “Boy, your mama broke my heart once and look where she at now,” he boasted.
Kaleb and his brothers all looked over at their father in surprise.
“Ma?” they all said in unison.
Kael nodded and chuckled. “To make a long story short—and less embarrassing—your mama broke it off with me over a misunderstanding, and I had to fight like I never fought before to win her back. She put me through all kinds of tests and things to prove to her that I loved her, but I did it. She was worth it. And here we are, over thirty years later with a beautiful family and more happiness than I ever dreamed of having when I was in my twenties and still wet behind the ears.”
“I never knew,” Kade said, the fire dancing in his eyes as he glanced back to the flames.
“It was just me and your mama together for a long time before you came along, Kade. We have a lot of secrets and memories.” Kael chuckled. “Lots of good times. Still have those good times.”
Kaleb and his brothers all groaned. “Man, come on, Dad. Keep that to yourself,” he said, making a face filled with distaste.
“You’re missing the point, boy,” Kael said, locking a hard glare on his son. “You either take your head out your ass and fight for this woman—”
“I don’t want her,” Kaleb insisted.
“Okay, fine, you don’t want her. Then chuck it up to a loss and a lesson learned and move on with life. No more moping around or tearing your employees a new asshole. That ain’t the way to run a business and you know it.”
Kaleb shifted in his seat. “Who threw up the SOS?” he asked with a slight lift of the corner of his mouth—the closest thing to a smile he’d produced in almost a week.
“Don’t worry about all that. Just remember what I taught all of you—”
“Treat your workers right and they’ll do right by you,” they all said in unison.
“Damn right.”
Kaleb knew his father was right. He had taken all of his anger and frustration with Zaria out on his workers, men who worked for nearly a month with no pay when he first started out years ago. He knew a round of bonuses was in order.
A cell phone sounded and everyone reached for their devices.
“Hello,” Kael eventually said, his deep and resonant voice even louder, as if he thought that whoever was on the other end of the phone couldn’t hear him.
Kaeden stood up to walk over and stand by Kaleb, looking completely out of place in his three-piece striped suit. “You a’ight, man?” he asked, his deep-set eyes serious.
Kaleb nodded.
Kaeden reached out to grab Kaleb’s strong shoulder to squeeze and then pat twice before he walked back to his seat. The show of support and concern made Kaleb smile. Of all the brothers, who would have thought that Kaeden, considered the weakest when they were growing up because of his allergies to everything under the sun, would feel the need to check on his older and supposedly stronger brother?
Zaria didn’t love him, but Kaleb knew that he was loved by his family and that was just as important.
Kael stood up and walked over to the truck, still talking loudly on his phone. The brothers all eyed each other when he began to swear, and they heard their sister’s name several times during the tirade.
“I wonder what stunt Kat pulled this time,” Kahron said, folding his hands in the air between his knees.
Kade shook his head and smiled, his deep dimples showing. “I think she’s responsible for some of these gray hairs we all have.”
Kaeden reached into the inside pocket of his blazer and took out his inhaler, shaking it vigorously. “We should own stock in Gucci. That’s for sure,” he said before taking a deep toke from his inhaler.
Kaleb laughed. “It’s going to take something drastic to get her to look at life a little different. We all spoiled her, even when Ma told us not to.”
“True, true,” Kahron agreed.
The men fell silent and Kaleb had to admit that he was glad for the presence of his family—the camaraderie of his father and his brothers. He was still aching for everything that would never be with Zaria—that hadn’t changed and wouldn’t for a minute—but he felt a little better. He was reminded that he was a Strong and the Strongs faced adversity head-on and came out even stronger on the other side.
“Zaria, I need two rum and Cokes, please.”
Zaria looked over at the waitress and nodded to let her know she got the order. She worked her ankles in her new sequined flats before finishing up a piña colada to set before her customer. She collected their money, made change, accepted their generous tip, and started on the two rum and Cokes.
She pushed her hair out of her face and focused on the task at hand. She was moving on autopilot. Her focus? To get through her shift and then she was determined to have a night out. She was determined to get back in her glory, remembering the days she would hit up different clubs every night from Wednesday to Sunday. There was always a club popping somewhere in or around Charleston.
Zaria turned to grab her cloth to wipe down the bar and a flash of silver caught her eye. It reminded her of the first night she’d laid eyes on Kaleb, especially when she looked up in the mirror and saw him standing there behind her in the reflection.
It felt like déjà vu.
She blinked and looked again. He wasn’t there. She turned and her eyes scanned the crowd for him, but she knew it was nothing mo
re than a vision of Kaleb mocking her and the decision she had to live with.
A wave of sadness washed over her, and she literally shook it off.
She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since that night. Even though she half expected him to come rushing back into the house to demand more from her, in time she realized that he was not coming back. It was over. Their time had finally run its course . . . or he had finally found the woman he wanted to try and build a future with. Either way, she knew his life didn’t include her anymore. It couldn’t.
Another woman would swell with his child and be blessed with his kisses. Another woman would share his life.
Zaria would become nothing more than a footnote in his young life.
She counted the minutes until her shift was over and then—
“Zaria?”
She froze at the sound of her ex-husband’s voice.
“Zaria,” he said again.
Giving herself a five count that wasn’t nearly enough before she turned to find not only her ex but also his new wife at his side. Great . . . just damn great.
“Ned,” she said shortly, not even acknowledging the woman who stole him from her, especially when the wench wrapped her arm around him in a decidedly possessive move.
Zaria eyed them, trying to decide if she should follow her gut and go to the left and pull on her big-girl panties and do what’s right. “You know, Barbie,” she said, “you don’t have to be worried that Ned will ever get to do the divorcée double back with me, because you see, little girl, tricks are for kids and that trick is all yours.” Zaria smiled at her, pointing to Ned.
“Oops,” said the man sitting at the bar next to where Ned stood.
Not done yet, Zaria pushed some napkins toward her ex. “You better mop up some of that dye juice turning your shirt collar black,” she said.
That brought out a full chuckle from the man and a few others within earshot.
“Why you have to be so immature and disrespectful?” Ned asked, his jaw clenching.
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