Riiiing! Riiiing!
Taariq jumped at the sudden sound of the telephone ringing. The phone lines were working. He made one step toward the phone, but then Anna bolted back out of the door and raced to answer it.
“Hello.”
“Anna, thank God. We’ve been so worried about you. Management just called and said that they expected everything to be cleared out by late this evening. Charlie and I are dying to get out of here. I miss my baby.” She sounded tired. “How are things over there?”
“No murder scene, but I’m like you. I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.”
Taariq expelled a frustrated sigh behind her.
“So you think you could be ready to go…say, around seven?”
“Girl, I could be ready in five minutes.”
“So I assume that you and Taariq are still at each other’s throats?” She sounded disappointed.
“You assumed correct.”
“Oh, well. We’ll see you this evening.”
Anna quickly hung up the phone and then glared frostily over at Taariq. “Good news. We’ll be back home in Atlanta by tonight and we can go back to our separate lives.”
Chapter 22
One month later…
The alarm clock blared in Taariq’s ears, insisting that it was time for him to get out of bed. It really meant it this time because he’d hit the snooze button at least ten times already. Groaning, he lifted his head from underneath the bottom of a pile of pillows and swung his arm out to shut off the alarm. But still he flopped his head back down.
He didn’t want to get up so he lay there and tried to think of another plausible excuse that he could tell his secretary at the law firm. He would have to tell them something since he hadn’t been back to the office since his trip to Utah.
Utah. Anna.
Longing stirred within him along with a growing feeling of emptiness. Taariq pressed a hand against his chest and tried to rub away a maddening ache. Maybe he was coming down with something?
Riiiing! Riiiing!
“Go away,” Taariq groaned. He hadn’t come up with a good lie yet. The call was switched to the answering machine and suddenly Hylan’s voice rang out from the small speaker.
“Yo, T, man! Pick up!” Pause. “C’mon, dude. I know that you’re there. Don’t make me and the boys come and get you. You’re not going to like that, man.” During the next pause, Hylan huffed out a long, frustrated breath. “Look. I know that you’re hurting. I’m not saying that I know all the details. But, uh, the guys and I have pretty much put two and two together. Since Anna…”
Taariq’s head cocked to the speaker. Since Anna what?
“Look. I’m just saying that if you need someone to talk to, me and your boys are here for you, man.” Pause. “All right then. I guess I’ll see you on the flip side. It’s Saturday so you know where I’m headed. Peace.” Hylan disconnected the call.
Taariq frowned. “Saturday?” He plopped back against the pillows with a wave of relief. He didn’t have to go to work after all. Heaving a sigh, Taariq slowly turned his head toward the drawn window and just stared. It was time to be honest with himself. He missed Anna Jacobs. More than he’d missed anyone or anything in his entire life.
Ever since they’d returned to Atlanta she’d refused to take his calls, respond to text messages or even emails. He’d tried pumping Charlie, his so-called brother, for information about what was going on with her, but that was like getting water from a rock. His allegiance was clearly with Anna since she was part of his family now.
Why didn’t you tell her that you wanted to be monogamous? he asked himself for the billionth time. Why had he been so afraid to just lay it on the line and just go for it? It was what he felt. How he still felt.
He emitted another longwinded groan. How did he screw this up? And how much longer could this pain in his heart last?
An hour later, Taariq had managed to pull himself together enough to shower and head down to the place where he knew that he could get good advice: Herman’s Barbershop.
“Yo, T!” boys in the shop shouted when he strolled through the doors.
He tried to put on a half smile, but Herman’s face twisted into a frown. “Man, you look like hell,” he stated bluntly.
“Don’t you say the nicest things?”
Hylan and Derrick looked up from their chairs and their faces matched the old man’s.
“He ain’t lying,” Derrick said. “You’re not sick, are you?”
“I’m something.” He eased into a vacant chair and huffed out a long breath.
Hylan smiled. “Well, I’m just glad you finally got out of your house. Good seeing you among the living, man.”
“Thanks.”
Herman shook his head. “If you ask me, it looks like you have a lot on your mind. Is there something that you want to talk about?”
Taariq’s first instincts were to deny everything. “Nah, everything is cool.” But to his surprise, Herman just shrugged his shoulders.
“All right.” He went back to edging the brother’s hair in his chair.
Taariq didn’t think the old man would’ve given up so easily. Now he was stuck trying to ease into the topic he wanted to discuss, so of course, his transition was a bit awkward. “So, um, there’s this one girl.” He cleared his throat.
Herman smiled. “Yes? Someone you like?”
Taariq bobbed his head. “Yeah. I’m, um, really feeling her a lot—only, I think I may have really screwed things up.”
“Oh?”
So far, so good. He cleared his throat again. “Pretty much. I sort of told her that I didn’t do monogamous relationships. Well, I didn’t say it really. I sort of reacted pretty badly and…”
“You wish that you could do a do-over?” Herman filled in the blanks for him.
Taariq dropped his gaze. “Yeah.”
“Been there done that.” Herman chuckled.
A number of dudes started nodding.
“Let me ask you something. Do you love her?”
Taariq pulled in a deep breath while every eye in the place zoomed over to him. But there was no more denying the truth, not since he’d spent the last month in bed feeling miserable. “Yes. I do.”
“Aww. I told you, man!” J.T. threw up a hand and proceeded to collect a round of high fives.
Everyone’s face exploded with smiles and a few of the dudes shouted out congratulations or moaned in despair.
Bobby, who was working Hylan’s hair, started laughing. “Man, you Kappa boys are falling one by one—aren’t you? Derrick, Charlie, Hylan and now you. Next thing you’re going to tell me is that Stanley’s going to get hitched. Shoot, we can’t even call him Breadstick no more since he done pumped up.”
The bell above the door jingled and Charlie and Stanley strolled in.
“Speak of the devil,” Bobby said. “Looks like someone is out of their cast.”
Taariq and Stanley’s eyes crashed. There was an instant flash of anger in Stanley’s blue eyes as he sailed across the room. Taariq stood and put his hands up in the air. “Wait, Stanley. Let me explain.” That was all that he got out before Stanley sent his fist flying across his jaw. He head snapped to the side and stars exploded behind his eyes.
“Whoa!” Brothers jumped out of their seats, but it was Charlie and Derrick who grabbed hold of Stanley and pulled him back.
“Let’s get something straight,” Stanley roared. “We ain’t brothers and we ain’t friends—you got that?!”
Taariq reined in his initial instincts to fight back and just glared at Stanley.
Stanley fought for his release and snapped at the other Kappa brothers. “Get off me!”
They looked at each other and then slowly released him. Everyone watched to see what he would do next, but he just gave Taariq a parting glare and stormed out of the shop.
After a beat of silence, everyone started buzzing around the shop.
“Are you all right?” Charlie asked.
&nbs
p; Taariq tested his jaw and then nodded. “Yeah. I’m cool.”
Herman folded his arms and shook his head. “You really did screw up.”
Taariq huffed out a long breath. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“How about I just tell you how to get your woman back?”
“Uh-oh.” Bobby shook his head. “It looks like someone is about to turn in their player’s card.”
“So let me get this straight,” Emmadonna said, scratching the side of her head. “You dreamed that you slept with him in college and then slept with him while you thought you were dreaming? Did I get that right?”
“I’m afraid so,” Anna said, folding her arms. She had kept all of this inside for so long that it finally just exploded out of her. For the first time in a long while, she was the center of discussion at their Lonely Hearts book club.
“So you guys were just…screwing for about a week in the mountains?” Jade said in awe. “You and Taariq Bryson? That fine son of—”
“Jade,” Ivy snapped. “We get the picture.”
Anna sucked in a deep breath. “You know it was just a big mistake. I mean, I should’ve known better. He’s a Kappa.”
Jade shrugged. “Yeah, but they’re starting to marry off. That has to be a little encouraging. If they can start settling down then there’s still hope.”
Emmadonna frowned. “I don’t think that you’re helping.”
The doorbell rang and Anna started to get up.
“Don’t you move,” Em said. “I’ll get it. You sit right there. I’ll play hostess today.”
Anna smiled even though she just wanted them all to leave so that she could go back to bed.
Emmadonna swished her hips toward the door, thinking that she was just going to let Gisella in. After all, she’d been popping up at their meetings a lot lately. Never in her wildest imagination did she expect to see Taariq’s fine butt leaning against the door frame.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said frowning. “I thought that this was Anna Jacobs’s apartment.” He cocked his head. “Wait. Don’t I know you?”
Em just blinked up at him.
“Hello?” he asked.
“Emmadonna, who’s at the door?” Anna shouted.
Taariq perked up. “Excuse me.” He stepped around Emmadonna and strolled toward the living room. He stopped when he saw the room filled with women. “Good morning, ladies.”
Anna’s head jerked up and a second later, her mouth fell open. “Taariq?” She blinked. “What are you doing here?”
He smiled and then noticed that every eye was on him. “I came to talk to you.”
Anna slowly stood up from her chair while she shook her head. “I think that we said all that we needed to say at—”
“I love you,” he blurted out.
Anna blinked. “What?”
“I thought that would get your attention.” He smiled and moved toward her.
“You can’t just show up here and say something like that.” She started circling the other way. “What am I supposed to say to that?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “That you love me, too? And if you don’t…I can wait. I’ll wait a lifetime if you want. I just know that I can’t…” He huffed out a long breath and shook his head. “I just know that I can’t go back to living without you.”
The circle of women gasped and then swung their eyes back toward Anna whose eyes were as huge as boulders.
“What?” It was all that she could think to say. “You can’t… I can’t…”
“Yes, we can.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box.
Another gasp went up.
Anna’s knees wobbled. “I have to be dreaming again,” she whispered. “This can’t be happening.”
Taariq stopped before her and knelt down. “Anna Jacobs, I’ve known you a long time and I’ve thought…and dreamed about you a lot over the years. I didn’t know what it truly was that I felt for you until I saw you again all these years later. But even then I’ve struggled and fought to put a name for what I was feeling inside. The thought of really losing you or even seeing you with another man may have cost me a longtime friend.”
She frowned in confusion.
“I have to stop running and fighting,” he resumed saying. “That week in the cabin was the most beautiful experience I’ve ever known and I was a fool—a proud and scared fool. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you and I know as sure as I’m kneeling before you that I’ll always love you. Will you marry me?” He opened the box and revealed a beautiful two-carat, emerald-cut diamond.
Anna stared at him in shock while a heavy silence lapsed between them. Vaguely she was aware of her girls grabbing and holding on to one another. But all she could think and feel were these wonderful emotions churning inside of her.
“Yes,” she whispered a second before tears rushed to her eyes and blurred her vision. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
The women squealed, screamed and jumped around as if they were all the latest Mega Millions lottery winners.
A smile exploded across Taariq’s face as he removed the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger. A perfect fit. He stood up and then swept his newly bejeweled fiancée into his muscular arms. “I swear that you’ll never regret this.”
“I know,” she whispered and then leaned up against his tall frame to seal their promise with a kiss.
Thanks to all my friends and fans that encourage me every day to keep going. And a special thank you to Brenda Jackson, Tu-Shonda Whitaker and Evette Porter—you each inspire me to be a better writer.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8937-0
MY ONLY DESIRE
Copyright © 2011 by Adrianne Byrd
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