Solid Soul (Kimani Romance)

by Jackson, Brenda

  Tiffany shook her head. “Who knows? Adults can be weird that way. Did your dad say that he would be available to go to the movies with us on Saturday?” Tiffany asked.

  “I haven’t asked him yet. He hasn’t been in the best of moods since I got back.”

  “Neither has my mom. If after this weekend at the movies they’re still not getting along, then we have to do something. I know they really like each other, but now I’m worried because your dad hasn’t been calling at night like he used to do. I’ve been checking the caller ID every morning but your phone number isn’t showing up.”

  “So what do you think we should do?”

  Tiffany scrunched her forehead and then moments later a smile touched her features. “I have an idea but we may have to get an adult to help us pull it off.”

  Marcus glanced around again for Mrs. Kennard, and then turned back to Tiffany. “An adult like who?”

  Tiffany thought about her godmother and decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to solicit her help. “How about one of your uncles? The one you said who likes to have fun.”

  Marcus sighed. “That’s Uncle Donovan, and this sounds serious.”

  “It is. We’ll see how things go with them this weekend, but if they still aren’t on the best of terms, we go to Plan B.”

  “What’s Plan B?” Marcus asked.

  Tiffany leaned in closer. “Here it is, so listen up.”

  Kylie chewed the corner of her lip as she watched Chance and Marcus get out of the SUV and begin walking toward her front door. That deep fluttering in her heart and the sensations that rolled around in her stomach whenever she saw Chance made her release the breath she’d been holding. She could only stand at the window and stare out at him, providing irrefutable proof of just how much she had missed seeing him these past few days, missed talking with him…making love with him.

  A part of her questioned the sanity in not giving in to the love she felt for him. Even Lena had raked her over the coals during their lunch meeting that week when she’d told her best friend that Chance had admitted his love and she had admitted hers. Lena staunchly refused to agree with Kylie that this was one of those no-win situations where love wasn’t enough.

  “Mom, are Marcus and Mr. Steele here?”

  Kylie turned away from the window upon hearing the excitement in her daughter’s voice. “Yes, they just arrived.”

  “Good. I’ll go open the door for them.” And then Tiffany raced off.

  A few moments later Kylie could hear the deep sexiness of Chance’s voice all the way from the foyer, and the sound sent sizzling heat all through her body. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her coat off the back of the sofa and left the living room to join everyone in the foyer.

  The moment she rounded the corner she felt Chance’s gaze on her. And the moment her eyes locked with his dark brown ones, she almost forgot to breathe. For some reason she couldn’t look away.

  “Hi, Kylie.”

  “Chance.”

  “You look nice.”

  “Thanks.” Kylie inwardly sighed. Holding a conversation with him used to be so easy and now she was finding it too hard.

  “Hi, Ms. Hagan.”

  Her gaze moved from Chance to Marcus and for a second she thought she saw a worried glint in his eyes. She smiled affectionately. “Hello, Marcus. How was your trip to Busch Gardens?”

  “It was fun. I was telling Tiffany about it. Maybe the four of us could go there this summer.”

  Kylie nodded, although she doubted it.

  “Is everyone ready to go?” Chance asked. “We don’t want to be late for the movie.”

  Marcus and Tiffany rushed out the door leaving their parents alone in the foyer. Chance turned to her. “I meant what I said earlier, Kylie. You look nice in that pantsuit. That color looks good on you. But I think any color looks good on you.”

  “Thanks.” She had decided to wear a lime-green linen pantsuit and instead of pinning her braids up she let them tumble about her shoulders.

  She stared at the floor for a second and then glanced back up at him. “You look nice, too.” She decided not to tell him that she’d always thought he looked suave in a suit, but sexy as hell in a pair of jeans.

  “Thanks. Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes.”

  “And, Kylie, no matter what’s going on with us, let’s make sure the kids have a good time tonight, all right?”

  “All right.”

  They then walked out the door to join their kids in the SUV.

  They saw the new Harry Potter movie.

  Kylie was certain it had been a good movie but she hadn’t fully concentrated on what was happening on the big screen. Instead her concentration had been on the man who had sat next to her. They had barely exchanged a single word but all during the movie she could feel the weight of his heavy stare. More than once she had glanced his way in the semi-darkened theater to find him watching her.

  Too often she had been tempted to reach out and slip her hand in his, filled with an intense desire to touch him, to feel his heat. It didn’t take much for her to remember that heat, how he had consumed her with it whenever he touched her, kissed her or made love to her.

  “Wasn’t the movie awesome, Mom?” Tiffany said with enthusiasm in her voice as they left the theater and walked through the parking lot back to Chance’s truck.

  “Yes, it was nice.”

  Then Marcus and Tiffany got into conversations about all their favorite scenes and left Kylie and Chance to do nothing but remain silent. He didn’t seem inclined to make idle chatter and neither did she. He opened the truck door for her and when their hands brushed she felt him tense the exact moment she did.

  “Can we stop for ice cream?” Tiffany asked when everyone was inside the truck and buckled up.

  “No,” Kylie and Chance called out simultaneously, and then glanced over at each other. Chance cleared his throat and said in a more subdued voice. “I’m going out of town on Monday and there’s a lot I need to do to get prepared for the trip.”

  “And I need to look over my accounting books tonight,” Kylie added.

  Both Chance and Kylie heard the disappointment in Tiffany’s and Marcus’s voices but decided that a movie had been enough. There was no way they could sit across from each other and eat ice cream without remembering what had happened the last time they’d done so. It had been the cause of their “lick me all over” party.

  All it took was a memory—of Chance stripping her naked in her kitchen, licking sticky caramel sauce off her body—and Kylie’s palms started to tingle. Her breasts suddenly felt heavy, her nipples tight, and erotic sensations built up inside of her, settling right smack between her legs. She forced a deep breath of air into her lungs thinking that this was definitely not the time nor the place for arousal.

  She glanced over at Chance, and as if he felt her gaze on him, he turned to her. From the heated look in his eyes she could tell he too was remembering what they’d done that Sunday afternoon in her kitchen.

  Kylie settled back in her seat. This was going to be one long and extremely hot ride home.

  It was time for Plan B.

  Marcus and Tiffany wasted no time putting it into action. On Tuesday they had Donovan Steele’s full attention as they filled him in on the failure of Plan A. “So as you can see, Uncle Donovan, we need your help.”

  Donovan leaned back and looked at the both of them. Marcus had contacted him on his cell phone asking that he meet them after school on the football bleachers.

  Donovan shook his head. “Let me get this straight. The two of you aren’t girlfriend and boyfriend? You aren’t madly in love? And you only pretended you were to get your parents together?” he asked incredulously.

  Both Tiffany and Marcus nodded. “That’s right,” Marcus said. “Tiffany and I are best friends and we thought it was a good plan. Things were going along smoothly but something happened that weekend the two of us left town.”

  Donovan lifted a brow.
“And what do you think happened?”

  “We don’t know but before we left they were beginning to like each other a lot, but now we’re not sure how they feel.”

  Donovan had heard the story from Bas and Morgan but he wasn’t about to share the information with these two. “So what do you need for me to do?”

  “Help us,” Tiffany said.

  Donovan was confused. “Help you do what?”

  It was Marcus who answered. “Carry out our plan to get our parents together.”

  Donovan crossed his arms over his chest, not believing what they were asking of him. He loved his nephew but was he willing to incur his oldest brother’s wrath? “I think you had better tell me about this plan first.”

  Marcus nodded. “I’ll let Tiffany explain things since it’s her idea. But I think it’s a good one.”

  Donovan doubted it was all that good but decided to listen anyway. Twenty minutes later a smile touched his lips. He hated to admit it but he liked their idea, although it could use a little tweaking here and there to make sure neither Chance nor Kylie panicked and got the police involved. There was no doubt that Chance would be mad in the beginning, but in the end odds were he would be a very happy man. “Okay, count me in. I’ll help but only on one condition.”

  “What?” Marcus asked.

  “That you modify your plan somewhat.”

  Marcus and Tiffany quickly agreed.

  Donovan then smiled and said, “Now, I think that this is the way we should handle things….”

  Chapter 15

  Late Friday night Kylie glanced over at the clock on her nightstand the moment the telephone rang. It was almost midnight. She suddenly got a funny feeling in her stomach. Was it Chance? The last time she had seen him was Sunday night when they had all gone to the movies.

  Deciding that answering was the only way to determine who her caller was, she reached out and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

  “Mom?”

  Kylie shot straight up in bed. The voice sounded like Tiffany’s, but there was no way her daughter could be calling her when she was down the hall in her bed sleeping.

  “Mom? Are you there? It’s me.”

  Kylie jumped out of bed to her feet. “Tiffany! Where are you?”

  “Mom, I’m fine.”

  Kylie angrily began pacing her bedroom. “Fine, nothing! Where are you, young lady? No one gave you permission to leave this house. How dare you pull something like that!”

  “Mom, please calm down. I’m fine. Marcus and I are together.”

  “What?” Kylie screamed at the top of her lungs, before collapsing in the wingback chair in her room. “What do you mean you and Marcus are together? It’s after midnight. No one gave you permission to—”

  “Mom, Marcus and I have been thinking.”

  Kylie gripped the phone tightly in her hand. “Thinking? The two of you have been thinking? Fine, then think at your own houses. I want you home immediately!”

  “Not until you and Mr. Steele promise to become friends again.”

  Kylie frowned. What was Tiffany talking about? “Listen, honey, Chance and I are friends. You need to come home.”

  “The two of you didn’t act like it Sunday night. You barely said two words to each other. If Mr. Steele is going to be our in-law one day, then the two of you are going to have to get along.”

  Kylie threw her head back and began silently counting to ten, not believing the conversation she and her daughter were having. “Look, Tiffany, I don’t know where you are but I want you to end this call right now and come home. Better yet, tell me where you are and I’ll come and get you.”

  “No, Mom, I can’t do that. Marcus and I aren’t going to do anything we shouldn’t, so don’t worry about that.”

  “But I am worried about that! You’re only fifteen, it’s after midnight and you’re out somewhere with a boy when you should be home sleeping in your bed. How dare you tell me not to worry!”

  “Then maybe I should ask you to trust me, and to also trust Marcus. We’re in a safe location and we won’t do anything that you and Mr. Steele will be ashamed of.”

  “That’s not the point!”

  “It is the point, Mom. You and Mr. Steele are going to have to trust us. Marcus and I figured the reason the two of you can’t get along is because you don’t trust each other and you don’t trust us.”

  Kylie struggled to keep her voice calm. “I do trust Chance and I’ve tried to stop being so uptight and to start trusting you more, but I see doing so was a mistake. You either come home within the next thirty minutes or I’m calling the police.”

  “Mom, please don’t. All it will do is cause unnecessary embarrassment for me and Marcus.”

  “Tough! The two of you should have thought of that sooner.”

  “Mom, I’m serious. If you call the police then we won’t come back. All we need is time to talk.”

  “And just what do the two of you have to talk about that you had to sneak out in the middle of the night to do it?”

  “We need to talk about you and Mr. Steele and your inability to get along.”

  “We can get along!”

  “Then you sure fooled us. You were getting along, then something happened. We don’t know what but the two of you sure acted like you were avoiding each other on Sunday.”

  “Tiffany, I—”

  “Good night, Mom. We’ll call you in the morning and tell you our decision.”

  Kylie’s stomach dropped to the floor. “Your decision about what?”

  “About whatever we decide. Marcus has to call his father now. Goodbye, Mom. I’ll talk to you in the morning, and I promise Marcus and I won’t do anything.”

  Before Kylie could open her mouth to say another word, there was a resounding click in her ear.

  Kylie quickly snatched up the phone the moment it rang again five minutes later knowing it was Chance.

  “Kylie, you okay?”

  His deep, husky voice had a comforting effect on her. “Oh, Chance, what are we going to do?”

  “You didn’t call the police, did you?”

  “No.”

  “Good. I got a chance to talk to the both of them and—”

  “Can you believe what they’ve done? Just wait until I see them. I’m going to—”

  “Calm down, Kylie.”

  “Calm down? My child is out somewhere after midnight and you want me to calm down?”

  “Yes. My child is out there, too. One good thing is that they’re together.”

  “You think that’s a good thing?”

  “I trust Marcus, Kylie. He won’t let anything happen to Tiffany. And he gave me his word that they won’t do anything they aren’t supposed to do.”

  Kylie glanced out her bedroom window. A fist tightened around her heart knowing her little girl was out there somewhere. “Yes, that’s the same thing Tiffany said,” she murmured quietly. “And you’re right, we’re going to have to trust them.”

  Kylie was quiet for a long while, then she said, “Did Marcus tell you why they did it?”

  “Yes, he told me.”

  “I thought we acted pretty normal on Sunday night,” she said.

  “Yeah, but I guess they still picked up on something.”

  “Well, even if they thought we weren’t on the best of terms, it wasn’t any of their business!”

  “Oh? You finally agree with me about that?”

  Kylie frowned. “I’m serious, Chance.”

  “I’ve always been serious about that.” He then asked, “Where are you now?”

  “In my bedroom.”

  “How about going downstairs and putting some coffee on. I doubt if either of us will get much sleep tonight and if we’re going to worry, we might as well do it together. I’m on my way over.”

  “All right. I’ll have the coffee ready when you get here.”

  Chance made it to Kylie’s house in less than ten minutes. She met him at the door with a cup of steaming hot coffee.


  As if it was the most natural thing to do, he leaned over and kissed her lips. “You okay?” he asked quietly, after taking the cup from her hand and following her into her living room, where he sat down on the leather sofa beside her.

  “Yes, I’m okay. But I’m still worried about them, Chance. I didn’t think to ask how they were getting around. I assumed Marcus took his car.”

  Chance nodded after taking a sip of his coffee. “Yes, he has it. Boy, he’s going to be grounded for life.”

  “So is Tiffany and she hasn’t started driving yet. And just to think I had considered surprising her with a car for her sixteenth birthday. She might as well kiss that surprise goodbye.”

  “And they pulled this just to make a statement that they didn’t like the way we acted on Sunday. If that doesn’t beat all,” Chance said.

  “Yeah, I guess it means a lot to them for us to get along.”

  “But it’s not like we argued or anything, Kylie.”

  She inhaled deeply. “I know but I guess they were watching us more closely then we thought. You have to admit we were rather distant to each other.”

  “Yes, we were,” he readily admitted it. “And I didn’t like it.”

  She met his gaze and said, “Neither did I.”

  After a few moments of silence she added, “Do you think we’re doing the right thing by not calling the police?”

  “Yes. But I did contact my brothers. There was no way I could not let them know. At least I was able to reach Bas and Morgan. Evidently Donovan is still somewhere out on the town and he isn’t answering his cell. But I’ll talk to him tomorrow. And I notified my cousins, as well, in case Marcus contacts them.”

  Kylie’s nodded. “I forgot about your basketball game in the morning.”

  Chance shook his head. “Yeah, but there’s no way I’m going to go anyplace until the kids come home.”

  “They will come home, won’t they, Chance?”

  When he heard the trembling in her voice, he set his cup on the table and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. It felt good to hold her again. “Yes, they’ll come home. When they get hungry, they’ll be back.”