Breaking All The Rules (Book 1 - Second Chances Series)

by McKnight, Rhonda

  Ethan put his arms around my shoulder again. “Nectar and I hung out last night, but we have some more catching up to do.”

  I moved from under his suggestive arm.

  “More.” Terrance’s tone was grumpy. “She doesn’t like to be called Nectar anymore.”

  I rolled my eyes. He was clueless. “I asked you not to call me that.”

  Terrance’s face twisted in pain, but he nodded agreeably. “I’m not going to Bible study this evening, because I have to work late. I was hoping you and I could meet and talk.”

  I shook my head. “Anything you have to say to me you can say at the house when Janette’s there.”

  “I’d rather not,” he continued.

  I shook my head again. “Please, don’t try to…” I paused not sure even what I wanted to say. “You and I had our say years ago. There’s nothing else to be said and besides, I’m having dinner with Ethan. I’ve already accepted.”

  “Tomorrow then,” Terrance pleaded.

  “She’ll probably want to have dinner with me again,” Ethan winked at him. “I’m that dude.”

  Terrance was incensed.

  I cast a frustrated glance between the two of them. “I don’t have time for this. Ethan, six is good for me. Terrance, please don’t forget to go to the bakery and order your grooms cake. They’re expecting you.”

  “I’m on my way there now—,”

  His words were in the wind. I exited the shop without giving either one of them a goodbye and climbed in the car before they could stop me. I wasn’t about to be in the middle of their pissing contest. It had no basis, so I assumed it had to be all about their egos.

  I made a stop at the florist and picked up the wedding price list. I figured I could study it after lunch and then stop back by to place the order. Janette had already told me she trusted me to make that call. She’d seen enough pictures from my events to know that I had a knack for making the right selections.

  I had to wait a few minutes for Renea because she was late. I was trying to focus on the flowers, but couldn’t really get my mind off of what had happened back at the tuxedo shop. Terrance did not like that last comment Ethan had made and it troubled me as to why. I hadn’t planned on spending five minutes alone with him while I was in town. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of giving me his sorry excuse for why he’d wined, dined, bedded and knocked up my sister in the same night, but now seeing how crazy he’d looked when Ethan told him about our date, I thought I might have to give him that five minutes after all. I needed to know where his head was and more importantly if his heart was in the right place.

  A bell rang over the door. Every shop and restaurant in Garrison had one and I turned to see Renea hustling to the table.

  “Sorry I’m late. I had two heads with relaxer on them.” She slid onto the chair opposite me. “I had to get those ladies under the dryer before I left and I had to make up an excuse that didn’t make your sister suspicious.”

  “It’s okay. I had plenty to think about while I waited.” I picked up the menu.

  “Speaking of relaxers, were you going to need me to do your hair before the wedding?”

  I touched my freshly washed and styled twist-out. Was she kidding? “No, I do my own hair, thanks.”

  “It’s just that Janette said something about wanting all the girls to have the same hairstyle.”

  “I’ve been able to do a lot for my sister in the last month, but straightening my hair isn’t going to be one of them.”

  “You said a mouth full. You've been really good about this wedding.” Renea emphasized the word good.

  “That’s not a hard thing to do. My relationship with Terrance ended a long time ago.” I sounded convincing, even to myself.

  “Yeah, but still there's the ex-factor. You know sisters don't date each others exes,” Renea said, putting the undeniable truth on the table.

  “It's probably a really silly rule,” I continued to attempt to save face. “Especially since there's a shortage of good men. A woman could be missing out on a great guy.” I reached for my water glass and took a sip. I hid behind it, just like I was hiding behind the words I’d said, as if I actually believed the lies that were coming out of my own mouth.

  “Whatever, I would have an issue with it. Now he's dated you both. Is he comparing?”

  I coughed and returned my glass to the table. “I don't think men are that deep.”

  “It would still bother me. But it's obvious it doesn't bother you and that's great for everyone involved I suppose.” Renea yawned and stretched her hand over her head like my refusal to be messy about it was boring her.

  The waitress arrived at our table. We ordered sandwiches and iced tea and she sashayed away promising to be back in a jiffy. I decided to head Renea off. “No more talk about the ex-factor. Let’s get to this party.”

  “That’s fine by me,” Renea said. “I have a great idea for the party. I think we should have it at that new fancy place over on Pine Road. It’s called Palermo’s. It’s a restaurant that serves Toughen Italian food.”

  “Toughen,” I repeated and then realization dawned on me. “Tuscan.”

  “What?”

  “Tuscany is a part of Italy. That’s why they call it Tuscan food.”

  Renea nodded. “Oh. Okay. I get that. Anyway,” she continued, “people are talking about it like it’s the best thing since sweetwater cornbread. The décor is really nice and you need a reservation on weekends. People come all the way from Atlanta and Alabama to eat there.”

  Folks were traveling to this place. I heard a cash register cha-ching in my head. “I assumed we’d have the party at someone’s house.”

  “Well we could, but I ain’t got time to clean mine up and the other girls don’t think their houses are nice enough.”

  “Our house is fine.”

  “But how are we going to surprise her at her own house? I think Palermo’s should be good, if they have space. You’ll find that out won’t you?”

  What she meant was, I’d find out what the space cost. I merely nodded.

  “I don’t think we should have a stripper or anything.” Renea raised a hand to the side of her face and whispered. “First Lady Wright is probably going to come.”

  I propped my chin on my fist. “She’ll come if she’s invited. She doesn’t have to be you know and the party doesn’t really have to be surprise.”

  Renea twisted her lip like she’d never considered either possibility. “Well, we can’t have a stripper at the restaurant, so… let’s just stick to a nice dinner in a private room with gifts and games and pictures. That seems more appropriate for a pregnant bride don’t you think?”

  I relented. “I’ll check on Palermo’s.”

  Renea clapped her hands gleefully. “As soon as you let me know about it, I’ll call the girls. Can you see if they have this Sunday afternoon? I think a Sunday afternoon is best.”

  The waitress returned with our meals. Renea inhaled her sandwich and sucked down her tea in what seemed like one large slurp. She reached into her purse and exclaimed. “I forgot my wallet at the shop. I had to get change out for a customer.”

  “No problem. I have it.” It’s nothing compared to the meal you want me to pay for at Palermo’s, I thought.

  “Great. I need to get back to the shop. Text me and let me know the details.” She stood and gave me a hug. “Good luck with the rest of your planning stuff.”

  I sat back in my chair. Good luck was right. I had way too many things to do and had yet to decide what we would do for decorations and favors. I wished I’d had time to order those from my favorite little place in North Carolina, but I didn’t. They required too much notice and I hadn’t given any real thought to what I would do for Janette prior to getting on the plane. This was just not my favorite wedding to plan.

  The bell rang over the restaurant door and in sauntered Ethan. I was beginning to think he was following me and I intended to tell him so. He spotted me right away a
nd made his way to my table. “Fancy finding you here.”

  “I was wondering if I needed a restraining order.”

  Ethan laughed and dropped his body into the chair Renea had vacated. “No need for that, Luv. I only stay where I’m wanted.”

  I guffawed. “So I guess you’ll be rising up out of that seat soon.”

  He threw his hands up. “You’re snarky. What’s gotten into you?”

  I sighed and dropped my head in my hands for a moment. Then I raised my head and met his eyes. Ethan had the sexist eyes I had ever seen in my life. They were downright dreamy and always looked like he’d just woken up. That was the hotness.

  “You don’t want to know because you already think I’m being silly.”

  “You can’t get sillier.” He chuckled, but then raised his hands in surrender, “I digress. I won’t mention that again.”

  The waitress approached our table and hands on hips, breast “up and at’em” she stood right in front of Ethan. She was so close that he could have licked her if he stuck his tongue out. “You want the usual?” she asked twisting a lock of her needed to be tightened weave around her finger.

  “Yes, ma’am. Extra fries please. I’m hungry today.”

  She blushed and switched her big behind away from the table. Ethan spared me the agony of watching her move that thing by keeping his eyes on me.

  “See, I told you I wasn’t stalking. I’ve been eating here everyday since I came home.”

  I grunted. Surprised it bothered me so that someone was coming on to him.

  “And how long has that been?”

  “Nearly a month,” he replied. “But forget about me. I want to know what’s eating you.” He took my hand in his and played with my fingers. His touch burned…sizzled. I couldn’t remember the last time a man touched my hand so intimately.

  I cleared my throat. “It’s everything. The time, the cost…not that I don’t have the money, but I don’t know it just weird that everyone would presume that I should pay for everything. Where’s Terrance’s money?”

  Ethan let my hand go and threw his back against the chair. “Tied up right now. He’s in the middle of a business deal and trust me, he is capital strapped.”

  I remembered why Ethan said he was in town. “Is it the same business you’re here for?”

  He nodded. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, but you have to promise not to tell Janette.”

  I nodded agreement.

  “Terrance went on that reality T.V. show called Investment Bank a few months ago. He didn’t get a deal with one of the investors, but I and a few other folks I know thought it was a good idea, so we’ve put some money up.”

  “Seriously.”

  He nodded. “Janette doesn’t even know he did the show. It’s a surprise. It’ll air in a few weeks.”

  “Interesting,” I said, thinking about how much my sister loved reality television shows. “So, if it’s such a good idea why didn’t the investors on the show go for it?”

  “He said he didn’t do a good job with the numbers.”

  I raised a curious eyebrow. “The numbers aren’t good, but you’re helping him anyway?”

  “The numbers are great. He just flubbed the presentation, I think. You know how Terrance gets when he’s nervous.” Ethan frowned. “Anyway, I managed to get a few buddies to go in with me. We’re in for over a half a million dollars.”

  “Over half a mil? I knew you soccer players made good money, but that’s a lot to invest in a new business.”

  “It’s a good business and besides, it’s just sitting in the bank. He needed it. Why not?”

  “Because, as you said this morning you guys never seemed to like each other.”

  Ethan shrugged. “We’re family. We don’t have to like each other that much to go into business together. I can trust him.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. If Terrance found ten dollars on the street he’d take out a newspaper advertisement to find the owner.

  “And besides it’s not that we didn’t really like each other,” Ethan continued, “The real battle was over what it always is for men – a woman.”

  I was curious now. “What woman?”

  Ethan smiled like a Cheshire cat. “You of course.”

  “Me?” I laughed out loud. “Sure it was? You’re what seven years younger than us. When we were seniors you were in the sixth grade.”

  “Seventh grade. Old enough to recognize a hot chick.”

  Amused, I shook my head. “You’re so silly.”

  “And I wasn’t in seventh grade five years ago when you were taking care of your dad,” he said, his voice becoming less playful. “The season was over. I was in town then.”

  “I remember,” I confessed, pausing reflectively. I also remembered his attending the wake and funeral, the amazing flowers he sent to the house and the huge donation he made in my father’s name to the cancer center. “You were extremely generous.”

  Ethan smiled reminiscently. “That was just money.” He tilted his glass back and forth and I thought he had the strongest looking hands I’d ever seen. He cleared his throat and pulled me from the thoughts I was having about those hands. “I wanted to make you smile, but you’d been home for over a month and every time I saw you all I saw was your pain,” he paused as if reflecting. “Smiling after the death of a parent is a tall order, but it broke my heart to see you so heartbroken.” He took my hand in his and leaned closer. “I never had a chance to tell you this, but I really appreciated the fact that you attended my games at Southern.”

  My breath caught in my throat. I had no idea what he was wearing, but his cologne had been made for him, because the aroma coming from his pores was sensually perfect. He was making me nervous. I slid my hand from under his warm touch. “Everyone in Garrison was at your games.” I recalled how sick I’d been on the way home, so I hadn’t been back with the crowd that gathered once a month to travel by bus across the state of Georgia to Southern University for Ethan’s soccer game. “I only made it to one.”

  His lips curved into a lazy smile. “True, but I remember you being at both my games at Monmouth University during my senior year. I mean I know you were in New York, but central Jersey was a good haul for you. That was special.” He nodded like the memory made him proud. “I told my teammates you were my future wife.”

  “What?” Attempting to hide the fact that I was blushing, I raised my glass to my lips and held it there. “Why would you’ve said that?”

  “Because you looked good in those stands.” He laughed. “My teammates would ask me, ‘What’s up with that hot older chick coming to see you?’ I admit I stretched the truth a bit.”

  I slapped his arm. “No you didn’t. What did you say?”

  He smiled wide and attractive lines fanned out around his eyes. “Nothing too bad. Just that I’d had a crush on you in high school and now you were interested in me.”

  “You know you should be ashamed to admit this, don’t you?” I felt heat rise to my face. Embarrassed, I covered it. “You men talk worse than women.”

  Ethan pulled my hand away from my face. His expression became serious. “That was a little more than talk. It was wishful thinking.”

  The waitress interrupted and placed a glass of iced tea in front of him. She also refilled my glass, smiled at him again and moved to a neighboring table.

  “Anyway, you were in New York. I graduated and was off to Europe.” The look on his face revealed that had been a happy time for him. “I was hoping you’d come to my going away party, so I could tell you how much it meant for you to be in Jersey, but you were a no show.” He tapped his long fingers on the table a few times. They caught my eye. He had nice hands. I remembered how he’d stroked the piano last night. I raised my eyes to his and sensed my not attending his party had been a disappointment to him.

  I cleared my throat of the guilt I was suddenly feeling. “I had a big wedding that weekend. I wanted to celebrate with everyone. Garrison was so proud of y
ou. I was proud, but that wedding put my business on the map. It had been planned way too far in advance for me to hand it off.”

  He frowned. “No sweat. I was mature enough to understand that,” he said. “Plus, I knew Terrance was still sprung on you.” He chuckled. “Then when your dad got sick, my cousin worked his way back into your life.” He raised his glass and took a long sip. “And for what?” He shook his head. “So, he could tell you he was too country to ever leave Coweta County?”

  In an effort to keep the pain of that to myself, I lowered my eyes to my iPad again. “That was between us.”

  “I suppose it was, but I lost respect for him then. Here he had a chance to be with an amazing woman and he was going to throw it all away to stay up under his mama’s skirt.”

  I returned my eyes to his. “He had a good job.”

  “It was weak. He could have given you guys a chance. The plant wasn’t going anywhere. His father could always get him on there if he came back to Garrison. Besides, if he hadn’t been in the way I would have made my move.”

  I sat back and crossed my hands over my chest. “That would have been a waste, because I have rule about dating younger men.”

  “Yeah, what is it?”

  I shrugged. “Don’t do it.”

  Ethan raised his hand to his heart. “I’m so disappointed. What kind of a rule is that?”

  A humming sound came from inside his pocket.

  Glad for the interruption, I waited for him to answer his phone, but he didn’t seem to have any plans to. I asked, “Aren’t you going to get that? It might be your girlfriend.”

  “I don’t have a girlfriend, but I do have voicemail, so tell me why you don’t date younger men.”

  Suddenly feeling a little silly about my answer, I shied away from his gaze. “I never want to be called a cougar and I don’t ever want the man in my life looking younger than me.”

  Ethan chuckled and threw his head back. “Stop the madness woman. Black don’t crack, and for the record, you don’t look a single hour over twenty-eight.”

  I worked hard to be as diva divine as I was, so I was flattered, but I wasn’t going to let it show. I shook my head. “I live in New York. You live wherever you land, so we don’t need to have this ‘not happening dot com’ discussion.” I stood, looked at my watch and said, “I need to meet with the florist.”