She pulled back and her lips opened, curved upward. “My mother loves this song. She’d sing it when she was working in the garden.”
“I should have guessed,” he grinned.
“Guessed what?”
“That you were an old school girl.”
“Not true. I’m a jazz girl first,” she proclaimed.
“Hmm, I’ll have to remember that.” He smiled. “I don’t know, I always thought of you as the play-it-straight type. You know those jazz lovers get a little wild sometimes,” he hinted.
“I’ve had my fair share of walking on the wild side,” she ruefully admitted. “I’ve got an arrest record in South Africa and a outstanding traffic violation in Sweden.”
“I’m shocked.” Trey’s eyes widened in mock surprise. “Could this be Sasha Clayton admitting to breaking the rules?”
“Only when absolutely necessary. Unlike you,” she responded.
“Me?” he echoed trying to pull off a wide-eyed look of innocence.
She pointed a finger at his chest and chuckled. “Yes, you. Mr. U-turn on a one-way street.”
“That was an accident.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows lifted.
“No,” he admitted sheepishly.
“Let’s not forget the time you…”
“Okay, woman.” Trey moved his lands down and pinched her lightly on the rear. “No need to recount all my sins.”
“Oh, I think there’s a need,” she said huskily. The wicked twinkle in her eyes sent another wave of lust through him. He imagined pulling off her panty hose and removing the sexy underwear he guessed she wore underneath the dress.
“We need to get out of here now,” he finished for her. With one hand in his pocket pulling out keys, and the other one in Sasha’s hands, Trey took his woman home.
Chapter 16
Saturday morning Trey stood alongside the golf cart with his hands in his coat pocket and watched as his father wiped off the golf club.
“So you drove all the way up here to hang out with your dad, huh?”
“Just thought we could get a little father and son time in before you left on vacation.” He reached over and patted his father’s shoulder. “Nothing wrong with that, is there?
“Nothing at all. Just surprised. Your mother tells me you’re living quite the life down there in Atlanta.”
He shrugged. “You know how women are. They get hold of something and blow it out of proportion.”
“Maybe some women. Definitely your aunt Mary and Nettie, but your mother has an uncanny habit of calling a spade a spade.”
Trey hated to admit it, but his father was right. Moreover, his mother had never been far off with her observations on life. She had one-hundred-percent accuracy when it came to the members of their family.
Not long ago, Trey remembered that he had had everything he’d ever wanted. Today, not much had changed in his life. Unless he factored in Sasha.
They’d only known each other for a few months, but he felt like she’d always been with him. Although she’d only left for New York the night before, he also missed her like crazy.
“You plan on sitting this one out, son?”
Trey pushed Sasha’s image from his mind and concentrated on their golf game. He stepped up to the tee and focused on the faraway white flag. He swung and watched helplessly as his ball landed in a side pocket of sand.
“Not bad.” His dad clapped a hand on his shoulder, and chuckled. “Not good, either.”
“Too windy,” Trey explained lamely.
“You mean too lazy. I bet you haven’t been on a course since we held that company event last year.”
“No time. I spend a lot of my Saturdays at the clinic.”
“You need to make time to relax, son. Look at me. It’s Saturday and you’re not in the office. I never thought I’d see the day.”
“I’m not needed. I’ll dress up and make a nice speech or two at the board meetings, but I have to hand it to Marius, he’s stepped up to the plate and knocked one out of the park.”
They put away their clubs and settled into the golf cart. Trey looked to the left and smiled. His father loved driving. Didn’t matter if the thing had two wheels or eighteen. Something about the road or the steering wheel had always drawn his father. Heck, it drove his whole family. His grandfather had started the trucking business because of his love of the road. Every one of his siblings and cousins had known the basics of driving a car before learning how to ride a bike.
“Yeah, thanks to Marcus’s success with the company, I can fund the clinic while barely putting a dent in my trust fund.”
“It’s going to be tax time soon and your mother and I will need all the deductions we can get. Why don’t you give a call to Tom and have him write out a check to that foundation of yours.”
“I’ve never been one to turn down a helping hand. I’ll give him a call on Monday.”
His father came to a stop behind another group of golfers and Trey leaned back, enjoying the warmth of the sun. A few moments passed in silence before his father spoke. “So are you going to come to Grandfather’s birthday party?”
“Of course,” Trey answered.
“You won’t be bringing one of those dime-a-dozen girls with air between their ears as your date, will you?” Trey should have known that was coming. Predicted it like traffic on a football Sunday when the Falcons played in the Georgia dome. Yet he’d still hoped to avoid talking with his father about women. Samuel Blackfox considered himself an expert on women because he’d grown up with two sisters, was still married to his high school sweetheart and raised a daughter.
Trying to evade the question, Trey said, “I’ll probably ride up in the new car, and I might bring some flowers for Grandmother. And I have a box of Havana’s best cigars for Grandfather.”
“Boy, don’t try to change the subject. Now just tell me the truth and let’s get this out of the way. If she’s pregnant you’ve got to marry the girl.”
“What!” Trey’s shout earned him a few nasty looks from the other golfers waiting to tee off. “Dad, what are you talking about?”
“Don’t fool with me. I heard about you running around with all those women. Your mother told me about her talk with that other veterinarian.”
“What is it with you and Mom? Do the two of you not have enough to do or something? I’m not even dating.” Technically, he was telling the truth. But at the moment, he was dancing on a thin line. He wasn’t dating Sasha. Dating was too casual a word for what was going on between them. For the first time in years, he could honestly say he was in a relationship and he wanted to keep that fact a secret for as long as possible.
“You don’t have to be dating. Women these days are different. They want what they want and they’re not going to wait until a ring to get it. You have to be careful. Getting a girl pregnant is the least of your worries. They’ve got stuff out there now that will kill you.”
Trey waved his hand and wanted to jump out the cart and head back to the clubhouse, but the half mile walk didn’t appeal to his already unsettled stomach. His job hadn’t given him a day of stress in his life. There was always the challenge of healing an animal who couldn’t exactly tell you what was wrong. But the job had never given him indigestion. The hearty breakfast he’d consumed an hour before didn’t feel as good as it had before his father started making comments and implying he was the whore of Babylon.
“You’ve got my word that there won’t be an illegitimate Blackfox kid coming from me.”
“I’ll still feel better if you settle down.”
“How much more settled could I be? I’m not ready to get married and even if I were there are a lot of beautiful, intelligent…” He paused, and then added, “Church-going women in Atlanta. It might take me a while and I’m pretty busy with work.”
“Well, seeing one woman at a time might help,” his father grumbled.
Trey swallowed a sigh of relief as the hole in front of them opened up and they cou
ld resume playing. One woman at a time, huh, he chuckled. Looks like I’m ahead of the game this time.
Chapter 17
Sasha was miserable. Even after spending the day shopping with her best friend and dining at some of New York’s trendiest restaurants, she couldn’t shake the sense of emptiness that had gripped her the moment Trey had dropped her off at the airport. Now, alone in her Brooklyn apartment, she sat back against the headboard and closed her eyes.
The radiator emitted a low hiss as the steam forced its way out of the small pipe. A light snow continued to fall outside and would coat the city with a layer of ice by the morning. Initially she’d made the impulsive decision to come to New York to see her best friend. After being named Atlanta’s newest heiress on the front page of the Metro section of the local newspaper and Trey’s erratic behavior, it had been essential that she get away for a little while.
Some days when she was with him, they would talk about the future and jokingly pick the names of their future children. Other days, the mere hint that she wanted to know his thoughts about where their relationship was headed would cause him to change the topic of their conversation.
Opening her eyes, she got out of bed and started toward the closet. She might have looked out the window and watched the snowfall or flipped on the ancient nineteen-inch television she’d purchased while in-between assignments. Instead, she decided to finish boxing her possessions and ship them down south. Regardless of how things turned out with Trey, her life was in Atlanta.
A part of her held on to the certainty that he was “the one.” The soul mate who’d been put on earth just for her. The other part waited for the other shoe to drop and refused to believe that something so good could be real. She’d sworn to herself that she would not think of him and that she would be open to meeting other people, but she ended up ignoring all of Lena’s male friends and constantly comparing all the guys she met to Trey.
Her cell phone rang just as she placed one of her many textbooks into a box. Her head came up and her heart jumped at the familiar ring. Sasha had owned the phone for weeks and had been unable to do more than turn it on and off. It had taken Trey mere minutes to program the ringer. She smiled at the classical tune. Dropping her books in to the box, she picked up the phone. “Hello.”
“Throw any snowballs?”
“Not yet.” Sasha pushed her clothing aside and sat down on the love seat. “Maybe in the morning. Did it snow there?”
“Not even a flurry. One of the assistants had to take the day off. Half of the Atlanta school systems decided to close the schools just in case of black ice.” His voice melted away her misgivings and warmed her heart.
“How are things at the clinic?”
“Insane. Ever since the zoo opening, it’s been non-stop appointments. We’re even thinking about hiring two more doctors so I can spend more time at the zoo.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. If you want to lay blame anywhere it should be at Arabella’s door.”
Sasha gripped the cell phone tighter and sat up at the mention of the woman’s name. “W-what does Arabella have to do with this?”
“She convinced a reporter to do a big spread on the exhibit.”
“That witch. I’m going to kill Kenneth when I get back.”
“No need. I’ve got everything taken care of.”
“What did you do?”
“All you need to know is that on Sunday morning there’s going to be a familiar couple in the engagement announcement section.”
“You got Kenneth to propose?” she shrieked. “How in the world did you do that?”
“I introduced him to my friends Grey Goose and Jim Bean.”
“Have I met them?”
He chuckled. “Not unless you’ve been experimenting behind the wet bar. Grey Goose is vodka and Jim Bean is whiskey.”
“You got him drunk,” she surmised.
“All I had to do was make a few carefully placed suggestions and then I called Arabella to pick him up.”
“That was devious and brilliant, Trey. They’ll make each other miserable.”
“Thank you.”
“Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
“With you, beautiful, that’s not possible. I just wish you were at my side now. The bed misses you.”
She shivered. “Only the bed?”
“No, the shower, too. Not to mention the chess set. I’m waiting for a repeat game.”
“Trey.”
“Yes?”
“I miss you.”
Her heart leaped in her throat at the silence. With all of the uncertainty, not knowing if he cared for her, Sasha needed to hear the words.
“I miss you, too.”
The tension drained out of her shoulders, leaving her almost boneless.
“Now get some sleep, beautiful, and enjoy the city.”
“Good night, Trey.”
“Sweet dreams.”
The line went dead. Sasha closed the cell phone and plopped back on the sofa. When did telling someone that she missed them get to be so complicated? When did the thought of not looking into Trey’s eyes, not feeling his fingertips run lightly over her skin, not hearing his voice husky in her ears, leave Sasha with a knot in her stomach? What had the woman who could go weeks without seeing another human being, turn into the scared girl who could not go a day without a man?
Feeling the beginnings of a headache behind her eyes, she sat up and grabbed a handful of unopened mail. I’m going to have to forward my mail, she thought to herself and flipped through envelope after envelope of credit card offers until she came to a postcard from Barbados. Sasha froze at the sight of her father’s nearly illegible writing.
She read the short missive quickly and the pain in her head exploded into pounding as she read the final sentence. Will return home on the 30th. Talk to you then. She closed her eyes. She had two weeks until her reprieve ended. A mere fourteen days to figure out a way to tell her father about the inheritance, about her deception and about Trey.
Dropping the mail back on the coffee table, Sasha stood and walked out of the room to pack.
“You’re unusually quiet.”
“Just a little worn out.”
“All that shopping and nightlife, huh?” Trey pulled away from the airport and headed toward the interstate. His fingers loosened on the steering wheel and even the stop-and-go traffic didn’t dampen his mood. Just the scent of Sasha’s perfume, the wide smile she’d aimed his way while walking out of the airport doors and the lingering heat of their kiss was enough to make his day.
“I wish you could have come. Lena would love you and her fiancé could have used the backup.”
He placed his hand on her thigh and gave a little squeeze. “Want me to take you home?”
She shook her head and turned those baby brown eyes on him. It was all Trey could do to maintain his focus on driving. All he wanted to do was look at her.
“We could go to your place, light a few candles and curl up in the middle of that king-size bed of yours and I could use your body as my pillow,” she said.
“Oh, yeah! Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Trey said with a grin. He hit the gas, his mind planning ahead. Twenty minutes to the building, three minutes from the garage to loft, two minutes to the bedroom, including stripping off her clothes.
“But I can’t.”
“What?” He swung his head to look at her face. “You’re joking.”
“Afraid not. I had a dozen messages from Jackson, the attorney, the foundation publicist and the zookeeper. I’m almost happy that the cell phone battery died so I don’t feel compelled to call them back,” she said and sighed.
“You can use my phone,” Trey said.
“Trey,” she said, her voice dropping. Whenever Sasha used that tone of voice, he felt like a teenage boy caught with a girlie magazine. “I need to see Darwin and Zaza.”
For the first time since he’d met Sasha, Trey felt he wa
s about to snap. Intense annoyance built in his gut and threatened to spill out his throat. He’d put in a ton of hours at the clinic, spent time at the gym and hung out with the fellas, but he’d still ended up taking cold showers almost every night.
He’d got out of the bed that morning with the thought of what he wanted to do with her when he got Sasha back to his place. Before heading to the office, he’d put together a nice little musical playlist with all of their favorite songs and he’d earmarked a nice bottle of red wine. In between seeing patients and going over paperwork, he’d arranged to have flowers delivered and a gourmet meal ready in the refrigerator. “I was just hoping that we could spend a little QT time together.”
“QT time?”
He gave her a long intense look before answering, “Quality time.”
Sasha’s chin rose and her lips curled upward. “Ahh. I like the sound of that. And what would we do during this quality time?”
“Well, I can’t explain it. I’d have to demonstrate.”
Her hand moved to his jean-clad thigh. “Can quality time be shared at my place or is it location specific?”
Trey switched lanes and sped up as traffic started to flow. The warmth of her hand and the massaging sensation of her fingertips blew away all of his previous feelings of annoyance. At that moment with the fire in his belly heating up, he didn’t care where they spent time together.
“All I need is for us to be alone,” he replied.
In response to Sasha’s throaty laughter and lingering kiss on his neck, Trey’s foot inched down on the accelerator.
It was close to eleven o’clock when Sasha and Trey entered her bedroom. Jackson had fixed a homecoming dinner for her. For Sasha the meal, complete with three courses, desert and coffee had felt like it would never end. Each time Jackson went to the kitchen Trey had leaned over and whispered in her ear. During the first course, his hand had inched up her thigh; the second course had brought the cool sensation of his fingertips lightly moving over the small of her back.
After dinner, she took Darwin for a walk and Jackson retired to his apartment in the back. Finally, they were alone.
A Love to Remember Page 17