The Second Time Around

by Angie Daniels

  As he moved across the grass, Jabarie glanced over at the small ranch-style house hoping that by the time he reached his SUV, Brenna would have come out on the porch to at least say goodbye. Reaching into his pocket, Jabarie removed his keys and moved across the sidewalk out to the curb. But by the time he climbed behind the wheel, the porch was still empty. Growing increasingly agitated by the second, he started his Navigator, and with a frown gave the front door one final look before putting the SUV in Drive and heading to his parents’ for dinner.

  Jabarie’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. He was furious because after all these years Brenna still managed to get to him. Kissing her again, it took everything he had not to scoop her into his arms and take her home with him. As he turned the corner, he silently told himself he was going to have to get it together. Even if it meant finding a way to get her out of his head once and for all.

  Ten minutes later, Jabarie pulled in the drive of a stone and stucco house hidden from the main road by mature pear trees. As he drew near he took in the three acres of well-tended lawn and the overabundance of flowers that lined both sides of the house. Beaumont Manor was massive. Some would call it a mansion. He always thought of it as being more like a museum. Filled with expensive things that one could look at but never touch. Jabarie frowned. What was the point? That was one thing he had loved about Ms. Nellie’s house. It was simply decorated with things that had been made with tender loving care. Walls with framed photographs of Brenna and drawings she had done all the way back in grammar school.

  With a quick shake of his head, he erased the thought of Brenna from his mind. He rose from the vehicle then moved over to the porch and climbed the stairs. Before he could knock an elderly black man opened the door.

  “Good evening, Jabarie, sir,” said the butler in greeting. He then moved aside while Jabarie stepped into the soaring, two-story foyer. Wayne had been working for his family forever and no matter how often he asked him to drop the formal greeting, he had not.

  “The rest of your family is already in the formal dining room.”

  “Thanks, Wayne.”

  He strolled across a gleaming oak hardwood floor past the gallery of photographs that adorned the walls. Beaumonts, several generations. When Jabarie reached a sweeping turned staircase his younger sister Bianca appeared at the second-floor landing. He paused to wait for her and admired how elegant she looked in a green linen pants suit.

  “There you are!” The nutmeg beauty raced down the stairs and launched herself at him. Her luminous eyes crinkled in a radiant smile. You would think they hadn’t seen each other in the office earlier. Pulling back slightly, she gave him a long scolding look. “For a moment there I thought you weren’t coming. Mother was having a hissy fit.”

  Leaning closer, Jabarie kissed his sister’s silken cheek, her soft amber perfume lingering in his nostrils. At twenty-two, Bianca could be overly dramatic at times. She had inherited that trait from their mother. He glanced down at her short brown hair, styled and cut into layers, and then to her wide walnut eyes that sparkled with excitement. She looped her arm through his and steered him toward the dining room.

  “I heard Brenna’s back in town.”

  Jabarie silently cursed. No wonder his sister was waiting for his arrival. “Word travels fast around here,” he mumbled, while thinking about the busybodies who were watching them earlier.

  “Have you spoken to her?”

  “Yes,” he replied as calmly as he could manage.

  Bianca stopped walking and turned to meet his expression. “And?” she asked inquisitively. Jabarie had to resist a grin. Despite everything, his sister had always liked Brenna, and even though she was barely seventeen at the time, she had been one of the ones who had tried to convince him to go after her.

  “We spoke. No big deal.” He tried to keep his tone as nonchalant as possible but he should have known Bianca wasn’t buying it.

  She wrinkled her nose. “Who do you think you’re fooling? Regardless of how hard you try to hide it I was here and I saw the way you fell apart when Brenna left. And you expect me to believe it’s no big deal. I’m not buying it. You loved her since you were ten years old.”

  “And look what good it did me,” he replied with a scowl.

  “How long is she staying?”

  “Until her aunt’s ankle is better.” Ready to change the subject, Jabarie glanced down at the Rolex on his wrist. “Enough about my personal life, we better get in to dinner before Mother has a stroke.” He slipped his arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the dining area, but Bianca dug her heels into the long Persian wool runner that ran the length of the hallway.

  “Wait!” she cried, stopping him in his tracks. “Are you going to at least talk to her?”

  “Why?” Jabarie asked.

  She slugged him in the arm and her frown intensified. “You know why. The two of you need to discuss what happened.”

  He raked a frustrated hand across his face. “I already know what happened.”

  Bianca narrowed her eyes at Jabarie. “Well at least try to find some kind of closure. You can’t keep going on like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “Non-existing. You need to love again.”

  Jabarie laughed bitterly. “Love is the last thing I need.”

  “Surely you’re not totally against love and marriage?” she asked, apparently appalled by his answer.

  “Love is a dangerous thing. And no one knows that better than me. You see what good it did me.” With a wink he grabbed her hand and squeezed it as they moved past an old grandfather clock toward the dining room.

  “But it’s been five years.”

  His shoulders tensed and his jaw knotted. “And there’ll be many more to follow. Marriage is not part of my future.”

  “Really?”

  “Really,” he replied then gave her a quizzical look. “Wasn’t it a couple of months ago that you were preaching that love is a recipe for disaster?”

  Bianca shrugged. “Actually I’ve had a lot of time to think and I now understand that college romances don’t work. This time when the right man comes along, I’ll be ready.”

  He gave her a skeptical look. “Does that mean you’re seeing someone?”

  “No-o-o,” she said musically.

  His lips curled in a slow smile. “Good, because I’d hate to have to break someone’s legs.”

  Laughing, she slugged him playfully in the arm. “Oh, please. When I finally meet the right one there is nothing you or Jace can do about it.” She gave him a dreamy-eyed smile. Jabarie shook his head. After a heartbreak, he didn’t think she’d ever bounce back, but she had. If Bianca could, then what was stopping him from getting on with his life as well? The answer was simple.

  Brenna Gathers.

  Brenna lay across her bed, trying to read a mystery she’d been looking forward to for months. It was one of the pleasures she tried to indulge in on the weekends. However, tonight she was having a difficult time concentrating. Whenever her mind wandered, memories of Jabarie’s kiss filled her thoughts. He was a man who knew exactly what to do with a woman. That hadn’t changed. He knew how to kiss, how to touch, how to be gentle. Raising a hand to her mouth, she lightly traced her lips. The kiss had been far better than she had remembered it to be. It not only had shaken her, but it scared the hell out of her because it made her feel so much. It was also a mistake. One that couldn’t happen again because she wouldn’t allow it. But even as she finished that thought, she shuddered as the memory. That kiss had been fueled with five years of pent-up frustrations. Her lips still tingled and her hands shook. After all this time her mouth still knew his. She was amazed at how naturally her lips molded to his and the way her tongue remembered his slow determined strokes. The kiss had been so pleasurable she’d had no choice but to respond with a moan and a throbbing ache down below.

  Running her fingers through her loose hair, she took a shaky breath and tried to forget how good it had
felt being pressed against his body.

  Damn him! How dare he kiss her after everything that had happened between them. Did he really think they could just continue on as if nothing had ever happened? What was even worse was that he thought that while she was in town they would spend time together, then as soon as her aunt’s ankle was better, life would return to the way it was again. Taking a deep breath, she realized she was furious at her vulnerability to him. No way should she have allowed him to kiss her, yet she had and enjoyed every second of it. Somehow, she was going to have to find a way to stay strong around him.

  Pushing the thought aside, she turned the page and started the next chapter. Brenna had read the same paragraph three times when the phone rang. Quickly, not to disturb her aunt, who was sleeping in her room, Brenna reached over to the nightstand and brought the cordless phone to her ear.

  “Hello.”

  “Bren.”

  It was Jabarie. She knew that deep baritone voice anywhere. It tickled her ear and reminded her of all of the years she spent with that same receiver to her ear talking to him as they drifted off to sleep. A whisper of a sigh escaped her lips. “What do you want, Jabarie?”

  “I wanted to find out if you were still mad at me.”

  “Mad?” she repeated in a huff. “I’m not mad, just pissed that you think just because I’m back I’m ready to jump back into your bed for a fling.”

  “No, that’s not what I was thinking.”

  “Then what?” she barked impatiently.

  He sighed heavily into the mouthpiece before finally saying. “I don’t know what I was thinking. And that’s the problem. When I’m around you I can’t think.”

  Neither could she but she’d be damned before she admitted that to him. “Then maybe if you’d stay away from me you won’t have that problem.”

  “Sorry, but I can’t do that.”

  His words startled her. “Why not?”

  “Because I’ve never gotten over you, Bren. I don’t know what it is, but there is something about you I just can’t seem to let go of.”

  Neither could she. Her thoughts and dreams were still about him, holding her, kissing her. Loving her. That last thought caused her to frown. If he loved her the way he had claimed then there was no way she would have caught him in the arms of another woman. Just thinking about it caused her temper to flare. “We can’t go back in the past. The best thing we can both do is find some way to get along until it’s time for me to leave. Maybe it would be best if you stayed away from the store.”

  “I can’t promise you that. I like being around you. Always have. Always will.”

  Brenna closed her eyes, fighting the emotions stirring inside her, and took a deep breath. “Listen, I’m not in the mood to talk about this.”

  “I didn’t call to upset you.”

  She sighed. “Then why did you call?”

  There was a noticeable pause. “I called because I needed to hear your voice.”

  His confession made her feel all queasy inside and immediately, she shook off the feeling. She thought about pretending there was static on the line the way she did whenever Aunt Nellie called and mentioned Jabarie by name. She tried to think of a snappy comeback but the only answer she could come up with was, “Oh.”

  Silence hummed on the line. Brenna heard a door shut and a jingling of keys. She blinked then focused on the clock by her bedside and noticed it was almost ten o’clock. “Did you have dinner with your parents this evening?”

  He chuckled lightly. “You remembered.”

  “Yeah.” Oh, how could she forget? She remembered when Jabarie had invited her to start joining his family on Fridays. She would be sitting across the table as his mother snubbed her nose down at her and said or did whatever it took to make her feel uncomfortable.

  Moving over to the window, Brenna gazed out across the water to the grand house at the top of the hill. Every detail of the manor was burned into her memory. She knew exactly how many windows were at the front of the structure; how far the driveway was from the main road. She knew the habits and routines of the staff and the layout of the entire interior of the house. She knew everything there was to know about Beaumont Manor, except one thing—how to feel welcomed.

  “We had our usual dysfunctional dinner.”

  Hearing the despair in his voice, she couldn’t help but sympathize. “Sorry, I see not much has changed. How are Jace, Jaden, and Bianca?”

  “Jace is still trying to run a tight ship with the employees. Jaden is still living on the West Coast fixing cars, and Bianca is still a customer relations genius.”

  “Did she attend Morgan State like she had wanted?”

  “Yep, and graduated with honors.”

  “That’s fabulous.” He went on to talk about his brothers and sister while she listened attentively and jumped in when appropriate. She’d always liked his siblings. Jace was three years older than Jabarie and reminded her so much of their father, Roger Beaumont. He was so consumed with work he rarely found time for relationships or fun. But underneath his tough demeanor was a puppy dog. Jaden, the black sheep of the family, and the younger brother, had taken off shortly after graduation to find his own way. He was the only one who’d ever stood up to their parents and she admired him for that. It had been at one of their family dinners with her in attendance, that Jaden rose from the table and told his father where he could shove his money. The look on his face was priceless. Bianca was more like Jabarie than the rest of the family. Warm, with a wonderful sense of humor and a creativity about her that made her the perfect director of guest relations.

  There was another long pause and Brenna moved over to a small white vanity and took a seat. “Well, I guess I better get ready for bed.”

  “Don’t hang up…not yet. The night is still young.”

  She lowered her eyelids while the soft murmur of his voice vibrated through her. “Jabarie, what do you want?”

  “What I’ve always wanted, Bren. You.”

  Then why didn’t you come after me? Brushing the thought aside, she blew out an impatient breath.

  “I want to apologize for kissing you.”

  Oh, great. Even though the kiss had been a mistake the last thing she wanted was for him to regret kissing her.

  “I apologize for kissing you when I know that is not at all what you wanted to happen. However, I don’t regret it,” he added as if he could read her mind.

  Brenna didn’t say anything because she didn’t trust herself. The best thing for both of them was to pretend it never happened and that was exactly what she had planned to do. “Look, I gotta go. I’m running bath water. When you see Jace and Bianca, tell them I said hello.”

  “Bren, wait a minute.”

  She didn’t hang up although her instincts told her it would be the smartest move she would have made all day.

  “Are you angry at me?”

  “No. Should I be?” she asked softly.

  “No.”

  “Then I’m not,” she said trying not to sound as frustrated and she felt.

  He chuckled lightly. “Okay. Then we’re cool, right?”

  “Yes, Jabarie,” she said impatiently.

  “Good, then how about dinner tomorrow?”

  “You are so hardheaded.”

  “Yes. I am,” he agreed with a hearty chuckle.

  It was a trait she knew all too well, but not one she had ever held against him. “I already told you before, no.”

  “What’s wrong with two friends sharing a meal?” he whispered, and the rumble of his voice warmed her blood.

  “Nothing, but too much has happened for us to just pretend we’re simply friends. Look, I’ve really got to go.” With that, she ended the call and returned the phone to the cradle. An overwhelming level of emotion surged through her reminding her that she still cared way too much about Jabarie. Brenna released a heavy breath. She could see already that being around each other was not going to be easy.

  She sat there for the long
est time and realized that being in the same proximity would be a problem unless she got her head on straight.

  Brenna pushed him from her mind and allowed her eyes to travel around her private domain. She smiled. Her room had remained unchanged from its state five years ago when she left home. It was decorated in two shades of yellow with angels stenciled on the walls. Moving over to the small vanity, she reached for a comb and ran the teeth through the thick mass. Within seconds she had wrapped her hair and secured it with a scarf.

  She rose and didn’t bother trying to read again. After hearing Jabarie’s voice there was no way she would be able to think about anything but him. Too wired to go to bed, she rose and suddenly felt desperate to be outside so she could breath. She didn’t bother putting on any shoes. She wanted to feel the earth beneath her feet.

  She moved out the sliding glass door and stepped onto the deck across the yard and out onto the beach. She breathed in the cool air that raised goose bumps on her bare arms. Instead of being cold, the wind calmed her nerves. She didn’t stop walking until she was at the water’s edge. She then lowered onto the wet sand and drew her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around her. Closing her eyes, Jabarie’s face pushed to the front. They had spent so many nights lying out on the beach with her head on his chest and her fingers beneath his shirt, stroking the soft hairs that lightly covered his chest. Back then she loved everything about him. Now he was back stirring up emotions and feelings she hadn’t felt in years.

  A sob caught in her throat. She wished things could be the way it used to be, but it couldn’t be and no matter how much she still cared about him there was no way she was going to fall victim to him again.