Just Say The Word

by Tiffany Patterson

  “Put your phone away.”

  And just like that my little rant was cut short. My belly fluttered at the subtleness of his command. And despite the lightness of his voice it was a command.

  “I’ll take you. Your car is fine where it is.”

  I swallowed. I hadn’t even realized I’d voiced my concerns out loud. Unless this man was a mind reader? Then I was in serious trouble.

  Get real, Sandra, I admonished. People weren’t mind readers. I just wore my emotions on my sleeve. Always had.

  “Thank you,” I stated since it was the only thing that seemed to fit at that moment.

  “No problem,” he responded while moving to pull out a key fob from his dark jeans.

  A second later I heard the distinctive sound of car doors unlocking. Damon strolled—the man didn’t walk, he strolled—over to the BMW I’d originally thought belonged to Joshua and opened the passenger side door for me to get in.

  I swallowed and told my pacing heart to chill out.

  He’s safe, I reminded myself as I got in the car. According to Kayla, Damon and Joshua had been friends for years. She trusted him. I tried to let that knowledge guide my decision-making as I lowered myself into the vehicle. But trust was difficult to come by. I flinched a little when the car door closed and Damon’s long legs carried him around the front of the car to the driver’s side.

  “Where to?” he asked as he started the car.

  I turned, feeling captivated by this thick beard. I briefly wondered if he moisturized it like I’d seen some men do on Youtube videos. Coconut oil. He definitely used coconut oil, at least. The shimmer of the hairs in the beard told me so.

  “Sandra?”

  “Huh?”

  “Where are we going?”

  Anywhere you want.

  “Oh, uh, Mansfield, Duval, & Mason Attorneys at Law. The address is …” I paused as I dug through my tote bag for my wallet. I always forgot the actual address of my company.

  “Don’t bother. I know exactly where that is.”

  “Thank you,” I said, my gaze straight ahead as we pulled out of Joshua and Kayla’s driveway. My bag was clutched tightly to my lap.

  “You say that a lot, huh?”

  My eyes shifted to the left to peer over at him. I tried to stop it, but my head followed, obviously needing a better look at the specimen that sat next to me.

  “Say what?”

  “Thank you. That’s the second time you’ve thanked me in like five minutes. I also heard you thank Kayla and Joshua at least twice. And that was only what I heard before you sprinted out the door.”

  I could’ve sworn that last sentence held a tiny amount of accusation behind it. As if he was suggesting I was running from him.

  Well, he was right.

  But I would never admit it out loud.

  “I like to show my gratitude when people are kind to me or go out of their way on my behalf.” Lord knows there hadn’t been many throughout my life.

  “Mm,” was his response.

  I wrinkled my forehead, wanting to ask what that meant, but I kept my mouth shut. The less talking the better. The more we talked the bigger the possibility I might do something stupid like develop a crush on this man or something. I was certain he was just being kind to a friend of his friend. Same as for the wedding. For a brief moment, I suspected his asking me to dance, and what I thought was him watching me throughout the night, spoke to a deeper interest. But those suspicions were put to rest when I watched him leave with another woman who was the total opposite of myself.

  “So, you’re a lawyer?”

  His question pulled me from my thoughts which was good since they were starting to veer off into resentment territory. Which was silly since he wasn’t anything to me.

  “No. Paralegal.”

  “That’s cool. You like it?”

  “I do.”

  “What do you like about it?”

  “Researching. That’s one of my favorite aspects of the job.”

  “Working Saturdays doesn’t bother you?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t usually work weekends. We’ve got a big case and are possibly taking on another.”

  Damon nodded. “Which lawyer do you work for?”

  “I work for more than one, but Emma Leslie is who I’m working a couple of cases with.”

  “I’ve heard of her.”

  I wondered how but again, opted to mind my business. However, in the interest of not being rude I decided to say, “Kayla tells me you’re involved in real estate?”

  “That and more,” he responded.

  I wanted to ask what he meant by more but his cell phone beeped and soon was ringing through the speakers in the car. I glanced at the display and read the name “Scarlet.” I thought back, trying to remember the name of the woman he’d left with the night of Kayla and Josh’s wedding. Was it Scarlet? From what I recalled that woman had been as sultry as her name indicated.

  Like I said, nothing like me.

  I ran my hands down my thighs, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles of my dark denim. Weekends were the only time I wore jeans. But to keep it as professional as I could, I’d paired the jeans with my white, ribbed turtleneck and my Badgley Mischka crystal pointy toe flats, which I’d managed to score for less than half the retail price, at my favorite online thrift store that sold high end names. This morning I hadn’t had any problems with my outfit, but as I sat next to Damon, I started to regret not wearing my usual high heels to the office, giving my five-foot-one frame more height. At least when I stood.

  I was so caught up in my own head, I hadn’t even realized Damon had sent the caller to voicemail. Probably not wanting me to overhear a private conversation with his lover.

  “We’re almost there. Do you need a ride back?”

  “No. I’ll just catch an Uber or something. Hopefully by then I’ll have the name of a mechanic I can send it to get checked over.”

  “I can do that for you.”

  My eyelids raised. “Why?” I blurted out.

  Deep creases formed in Damon’s forehead as he looked at me questioningly. I realized how accusatory my question had been.

  “I mean, you don’t have to. Really. I can find someone—”

  “Who’ll probably try to rip you off.”

  My mouth snapped shut. He was right. I had enough experiences with mechanics to have been scammed a time or two … or five.

  “My friend owns an auto shop and a dealership. Worse comes to worst, he can help you out with a great deal on a new car.”

  Taking a deep breath in, I looked down at my hands in my lap. I should’ve been grateful for Damon’s help. I was. But I was also just a touch … embarrassed. I was sure the car we were driving in was a 2018 model, if not newer, and was much more advanced and in better shape than my run down eighteen-year-old vehicle. It made me suspect that maybe Damon thought I needed help, especially since I had a kid. In other words, he felt sorry for me. That stung.

  “We’re here. You sure you don’t need a ride back home?”

  “N-no,” I blurted out, fear rising up my throat. I blinked and shook my head.

  Calm down, Sandra.

  The man was just offering a ride.

  “I meant thank you but no. I’ll give my mother a call and she can come get me,” I lied.

  “Your mother?”

  “Yes,” I answered, nodding my head but avoiding eye contact as I reached for the door handle. I rushed to get out of the car that was pulled up in front of my office’s main entrance, so fast that I didn’t even realize Damon had gotten out as well. Just as I fixed myself to stand upright, he was there, holding the door open for me.

  I swallowed as my eyes made contact with his broad chest. Even through the dark sweater he wore, I could tell what lie beneath that cashmere material was solid enough to bounce a quarter off of.

  “Thank y—”

  “That’s the second time in the last sixty seconds. Don’t thank me again.”

 
I clenched my lips, feeling admonished.

  His body brushed past mine as he leaned down, shutting the car door. The whiff of cologne I got filled my nostrils with a smell of strength, cardamom, and spice. A smell I knew was only written into this man’s DNA, not whatever bottle he’d used. I remembered it from our one and only dance.

  “Well, you enjoy your day,” I stated, taking a couple of steps backwards. I bit my tongue to keep from thanking him yet again.

  “You also.” He nodded in my direction but thankfully didn’t move any closer.

  I stood there for a few seconds too long, making it awkward. At least, with another person it would’ve been awkward, but Damon simply stared at me, patiently waiting for me to turn and head inside. Those different colored eyes were hooded, unreadable, which made him especially intriguing. A second later he ran a strong hand down the right side of his face and through his beard.

  That was when I finally got my brain to communicate with the rest of my body. It was time to go into work.

  I gave a small smile through shaky lips and turned, nearly stumbling over my own two feet. I ambled toward the door, inhaling and feeling deeply grateful that my nose wasn’t filled with the smell of his any longer. Grateful yet yearning at the same time. He wasn’t good for me. There probably wasn’t a man alive who was, but Damon Richmond sure as hell wasn’t it.

  Chapter Two

  Sandra

  “Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up,” Kayla chimed as she opened the door.

  “Mommy!” Monique screeched as she ducked underneath Kayla’s arm to embrace me around the waist.

  Smiling, I lowered my face to kiss the top of her head. I’d been at work much longer than I had originally planned. An appointment with a relative of a former client had landed a new case in our laps. And the complaint of the new client was with a company I was very familiar with. But I didn’t want to think about any of that as I hugged Monique.

  “Hey, baby. I’m so sorry,” I began, looking up at Kayla. “The case we were working on—”

  She held up her hand. “Don’t even think of apologizing. You gave me more time to spend with my niece.”

  She tickled Monique under her chin, causing her to giggle.

  “Come in. I was thinking of ordering Thai so we could have an early dinner. I don’t much feel like cooking.”

  “You don’t have to. I’m sure Josh wants some alone time with you.”

  “Josh is out working. An issue came up at one of his developments. He went to check things out. He’s so hands-on. Anyway, I’m starving and don’t really want to eat alone so you’d be doing me a favor.”

  “Okay, but I’ll pay since—”

  “I’ll slap any money you try to give me out of your hand,” she stated firmly, hands moving to her hips.

  I laughed, knowing she’d definitely try to slap my hand.

  “Thanks, Kayla. I’m hungry, too. Monique wasn’t a problem, was she?”

  “Not at all. Diego came over and we took them both to the park. He had to go back home since he was going over his grandmother’s to celebrate her birthday. Then Nique-Nique and I did some decorating of the nursery, didn’t we?”

  “Yup. Mom, they’re doing an ‘Under the Sea’ theme for the baby’s room,” Monique informed me.

  I nodded even though I already knew that.

  “Oh, and your car was towed to the mechanic on 35th.”

  “Thank you so much for doing that, Kayla.”

  Kayla looked up from the Thai menu she’d just pulled from one of the cabinet drawers. “Me? I didn’t call.”

  “Oh. Well, Josh then.”

  Before the sentence was fully out of my mouth, Kayla was shaking her head. “That was all Damon. He insisted on covering the bill as well.”

  I frowned, having forgotten about our conversation just that morning. I’d gotten so wrapped up in work I’d actually started for the garage where I normally parked before remembering I hadn’t driven in. I lifted an eyebrow realizing that he’d been serious about helping me with my car. I knew the mechanic he’d sent my car to was one of the best in the city of Williamsport. Which also meant he was one of the most expensive.

  “You could call him and thank him.”

  I lifted my gaze to Kayla’s before shifting a glance over at Monique who was now looking down at the menu.

  “Monique, do you know what you want?” I questioned, ignoring Kayla’s last statement.

  “Yeah, I want a spring roll with the curry chicken and rice.”

  “Too many carbs,” Kayla and I stated at the same time.

  We looked at each other and laughed. As her doctor and mother, Kayla and I both knew keeping Monique’s carbohydrate intake at a certain level was important.

  “Then I’ll skip the rice,” Monique negotiated.

  “How about half of a spring roll and a small portion of the rice … brown rice, to go with the curry chicken?” Kayla quickly amended.

  “Deal!”

  After Kayla and I decided what we would have, she placed the order and we followed Monique up the hall to the great room, to talk for bit while we waited.

  Monique turned on the television and immediately found the weather channel.

  “She’s still on the meteorologist kick, huh?” Kayla asked as we sat down on the unbelievably comfortable black couch.

  I rolled my eyes. “Every morning before we leave the house she has to check the weather. If rain is in the forecast and I even thinking of not picking up my umbrella to take with me, she’s all over me like a dog with a bone.”

  Kayla laughed. “She’s so grown.”

  “Girl, I have a hard time remembering who’s the parent and who’s the child sometimes.”

  We talked some more about Monique and then I told Kayla a little bit about my cases at work.

  “Speaking of work, how was your ride in, this morning?”

  Pushing out a breath, I allowed my gaze to bounce around the room, avoiding Kayla’s eyes.

  “Sandra.”

  “It was fine. Damon was very friendly.”

  “Friendly?”

  “Yes. How else would he be?”

  “I don’t know, flirtatious, like he wants to jump your bones.”

  I looked heavenward. “He doesn’t see me that way.”

  I jumped when Kayla’s hand tightened around my arm.

  “Please tell me you’re joking.”

  I looked down and over at my friend. “I’m serious.”

  She shook her head. “After the way he was looking at you at the wedding?”

  “And then left with someone else.” I slapped my hand over my mouth. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. I didn’t want anyone to know I’d been watching Damon intently that night, least of all Kayla.

  “You did notice him. And I don’t know what happened after the wedding, but according to Joshua, Damon doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

  I thought about the woman he’d presumably taken home that night. She was tall and thin almost to the point of being modelesque. She walked with her shoulders back and head held high. Though her skin tone was shades darker than my own, she wore red lipstick like it’d been made with her in mind. If he was interested in her, then I surely was not his type.

  “Stop it. I can tell you’re in your head comparing yourself to her.”

  Squinting at Kayla, I sighed, hating that she was able to read me so well. Close friends had been far and few between in my lifetime. Kayla was the closest thing I had to a best friend, and I’d only known her for less than a year.

  “I wasn’t,” I lied.

  “You were. You’re a terrible liar.”

  I laughed at that. She was right.

  “Anyway, I don’t know what went on between him and that woman, but a man like Damon Richmond doesn’t look at you the way he looks at you, then offer you a ride to work and pay to have your car towed to one of the best mechanics in the city because he’s not interested.”

  “But intere
sted in what? I can’t be anything more than friends with someone,” I stated, feeling inadequate. I’m sure Scarlet could be more than friends with a man like Damon.

  “Sandra …” Kayla’s voice dropped to an empathetic note as her hand rested on my arm.

  I swallowed.

  “I know what you’ve been through—”

  I shook my head. Kayla knew a lot of my story, but I hadn’t shared everything with her. And I certainly wasn’t brave like she was.

  “Can we talk about something else?”

  At that moment, the doorbell rang.

  Kayla peered down into her phone at the app that let her see the front door through the camera that’d been installed there. Joshua didn’t play about the safety of his family. “Food’s here.”

  “I’ll get it,” I insisted so she wouldn’t have to get up. I knew how much of a pain in the butt it was to have to get up once comfortable while you were six months pregnant.

  I met the delivery man at the door, Monique on my heels. Apparently, she was hungry, too.

  “Smells good,” I chimed excitedly to my daughter as I shut the door.

  “Let’s eat in the great room!” Kayla called from her position still on the couch.

  I frowned, looking around at all of the expensive decor that accompanied the dark sofas and glass coffee table. “Are you sure?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t think you’d want to make a mess in here.”

  She waved me off. “No worries. If anything gets messed up we can have it cleaned. Besides, I don’t feel like getting up from this couch and slugging this belly all of the way down the hall to the dining table.”

  I giggled. “I understand that.”

  Although we ate in the great room, I had Monique bring us a few placemats and napkins just to keep things as neat as possible.

  “You should really switch to cloth napkins, Auntie Kayla.”