by Candace Shaw
His damn spot. She had told other guys about the hot spot, but none of them sent the same electrifying volts through her like he had. It was as if Cannon’s name was invisibly tattooed on the back of her neck, and the other guys knew it was there and could not perform under such high expectations. It would immediately turn her off, so after a while she stopped mentioning it. Instead, when men would ask where her spot was located, she would tell them to go find it. But they never did. Every inch of her body was programmed to Cannon’s touch.
“You know I can go on and on,” he said in her ear, his lips brushing over it as he spoke; his hands holding onto her hips with his chest meshed against her back. The familiar warmth and scent of him radiated onto her skin. For a moment, she wanted to be surrounded by his presence and comforted for having to be without him for so long. But then reality sunk in, and she remembered that this was the only man who had ever broken her heart and getting back into her life wasn’t going to be easy.
“I’d rather you not.” She moved down to the uneaten cupcakes before she did something she would regret, like turning around and kissing him. “This isn’t the time or place. Ms. Ollie will be back soon.”
“Let’s have dinner after we leave here. You said earlier you were hungry.”
“All of this sampling has made me full.” She picked up a plate, but he took it from her and slammed it on the table. She was surprised it didn’t break.
“Yasmine, I know you’re trying to avoid me, but that’s going to be impossible considering we’ve been commissioned to help plan a wedding for our best friends.”
“The next assignment on my list is the bridesmaid’s dresses, and I totally doubt you’ll be wearing a dress, unless there’s something you forgot to tell me.” She raised an eyebrow.
“The only thing I know about dresses is unzipping or raising them up to get under them, as you very well know.” His eyes were heated with a sexual stare that she knew all too well.
“Can we please get through the cake tasting without traveling down memory lane?”
“Yaz, I just thought we could—”
“We could what? Catch up? Shoot the breeze? Be friends?” She laughed sarcastically.
“Honestly, yes.” He stood in her personal space, and she stepped back finding herself against the wall next to the dessert table.
“Look, Dr. Arrington. Don’t think for a minute you can just waltz back into my life and think everything is cool between us because it’s not! You ...” She stopped as the tears stung her eyes. She wanted to flee as one tear glided down her cheek. Darn it!
Cannon stepped closer and wiped it with his finger, causing another one to take its place.
He placed his hands tenderly on either side of her face and locked his eyes with hers. “I’ve never missed anyone as much as I have missed you.”
Chapter Three
Cannon stared down at the hurt woman in front of him. He’d hated the way their relationship ended. She’d been fed up with his workaholic ways for too long. Yasmine’s father had been a workaholic who died when she was ten years old, and Cannon knew that had always bothered her. She always tried to get him to slow down and relax out of the fear he would face the same fate as her father. While she’d understood he was in medical school, she hated when he placed other projects before her. There were times when he’d been late or cancelled dates and trips because of his dedication to extracurricular activities and not knowing how to say no to people. His father had taught him at a young age to be chivalrous and an active member of the community. What Cannon hadn’t learned was how to pay attention to his woman. He’d taken her for granted and had a rude awakening when she was no longer in his life.
After Yasmine called off their engagement, he’d never heard from her again despite his attempts to call her before he left for Brazil. Unfortunately, all of his calls, doorbell ringing, emails and letters had gone unanswered. The only time he’d heard from her was when she’d mailed back an uncashed check he’d sent to cover the cost of cancellations for the places she had reserved for their wedding. It came back torn up with a note that read, “Please stop contacting me.” When he returned from Brazil a year later, he learned from Doug that she had moved to New York along with Sherika to teach at a private school.
Cannon wasn’t sure what to expect when they saw each other again. If they couldn’t be friends, he thought they could at least be cordial for the sake of planning their friend’s wedding. However, it had never dawned on him just how much he’d hurt her. Now, staring at her with silent tears staining her soft cheeks and her sexy quivering lips, he knew, and he hated that even more.
“I hurt you,” he said, sighing softly. “And I’ve felt guilty about that every single day we’ve been apart.”
She stared up at him with her heartbreaking eyes before looking away, shaking her head.
“I don’t want to discuss this. Besides, Ms. Ollie will be back soon.” She tried to move, but he encircled his arms around her waist, holding her firm against him.
“Yasmine … there is so much I need to say to you, which is one reason I would like to see you outside of the wedding planning so we can talk. We need to talk.”
“There really isn’t a need to. You’re my past, and I wish to keep you there.” She squirmed out of his embrace and placed a few feet of distance between them. “Besides, I don’t care about anything you have to say or how guilty you feel for hurting me. And I can’t believe you missed me. Puleeze. It’s obvious you didn’t want to marry me or you wouldn’t have …” Her voice trailed off. As she turned away from him, he grabbed her to him once more, this time holding her tighter against him.
“That’s not true, and you know it,” he stated through clenched teeth. “I never said I didn’t want to marry you. I just wasn’t ready at that particular time.”
“Exactly, because you had your once in a lifetime opportunity to pursue, which was more important than being with me.”
“I never said that.”
She managed to push him away, and he was quite surprised at her strength, but she was angry.
“I was young and naïve and thought my world revolved around you. Whatever you did, I supported you and placed my dreams on the backburner. When you were accepted to John Hopkins and asked me to marry you, I was in the process of applying to graduate schools. I received an acceptance letter to Vanderbilt a few weeks after we were engaged, but by then we were in the process of planning our wedding and making plans to move to Baltimore in the fall. So then I started researching grad schools in the Baltimore and Washington, DC area and that’s when you changed our plans.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about Vanderbilt or that you wanted to obtain your master’s degree?”
“Because during that time you were stressed with rounds at the hospital and waiting to hear back about the grant as well as the residency programs you applied for.”
“Yasmine, I—”
“Oh just shut up! I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. I didn’t want to hear it then, and I don’t want to hear it now. You’ve missed me? Well guess what? You had me. I was all yours.”
She turned away from him, grabbed the last cupcake to sample, and headed back to the bistro table fuming. “Ms. Ollie will be back soon, and we aren’t done.”
“This conversation isn’t over with yet,” he said, rejoining her at the table. “We still need to talk.”
“No we don’t. I just want to get through this process and go back to my life without you in it. However, I promised my best friend she would have the best wedding ever, so if that means having to be in contact with you during this planning process, I can agree to be cordial but nothing more.”
“I can respect that.”
He wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or not, for there was more he needed to get off his chest just as she had done, but this wasn’t the time or place. Seeing her again reminded him even more how much he’d missed her. How much he needed her back in his life. He knew in h
is heart he would always love her, but being in her presence confirmed he was still in love with her.
Ms. Ollie entered moments later and Cannon and Yasmine gave her their choices for the cakes. After saying their good-byes, they walked in silence to the parking lot. Cannon was trying to search for the right words to say without messing up their agreement on being cordial. Yasmine did seem to be in a pleasant mood while Ms. Ollie packed up the mini cupcakes. He knew it wouldn’t happen overnight, but Yasmine had always been the only one for him, and he planned on getting her back.
As they approached her car, he was hesitant in saying good-bye. She’d turned him down for dinner, and he didn’t want to push her away. She needed time to get used to him being in her life again. As she unlocked the door, her phone began to ring with Brandy’s song “Best Friend.”
“What’s up, girl?”
Cannon opened the door for her as she leaned over, tossing her purse and the bakery bag in the passenger seat. His eyes settled on her butt sitting tight and firm in her jeans. She was more curvy now, with hips that he wanted to grab and lift up on him or push her into the car and kiss her senseless as he had on their first date. He couldn’t get enough of her sexy lips that night as she sighed breathlessly in his arms, running her hands through his hair and down his face. His manhood stiffened at the memory.
“Really? Goodness, that’s a lot of money, girl.” She continued with “uh huh’s” as she listened to who he assumed was Sherika.
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Don’t worry about anything.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked when Yasmine pressed the end button on her smart phone.
“That was Sherika. The wedding coordinator sent her the estimate for the flower arrangements, and it was outrageous. She’s going to email a copy to me so I can figure out how to cut the cost before Sherika signs with this particular florist.”
“Would you mind forwarding the invoice to me? I know of some florists that may be less but still do beautiful work.”
She cocked her head to the side with a puzzled expression. “Sure. I’ll do it when I get home.”
“What?” He shrugged. “I like to help out, you know that. Trust me, I know nothing about floral arrangements.” And he didn’t, but anything to stay in contact with her, because at this point the rest of their assignments didn’t involve each other.
She slid into the car. “Okay. Will do.”
“Thank you,” he said as he closed her door with a smile.
*****
Yasmine sat on her bed with her laptop going over a presentation for next week, but her thoughts kept traveling to Cannon. She hated that she’d let him get so close to her, and now his scent was embedded on her skin, tormenting her sanity. She hated the way he’d held her in his arms as if she belonged there, and now she longed to feel them around her once more. She hated he saw the tears on her cheeks, but wanted so desperately to lay her head on his chest and cry her eyes out for being without him for so long.
She’d never stopped loving him. Instead, she learned how to live without him.
Yasmine fell for him when she was a geeky freshman in high school and he was a senior. Class president, president of the Academic and Science Clubs, as well as captain of the golf team, he was one of the most popular and handsome boys at their school. Besides nodding his head and saying hello in the hallway, he barely knew she was alive. The only reason he acknowledged her was because her mother was his mentor and favorite teacher. Eight years later, when Yasmine was reading to her first grade class waiting for the volunteer reader, she was pleasantly surprised to see Cannon Arrington standing in the doorway, staring at her as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world. That had been fourteen years ago, and he still stirred her heart as he had then.
The less she saw or spoke to him the better because she didn’t want to fall for him again. But she knew in her heart that would be impossible. Cannon had a charismatic air about him that drew her to him, and she didn’t know how much longer she could handle planning the wedding if it meant having to deal with him.
She closed her laptop, grabbed her cell phone, and went to the kitchen for a slice of leftover pizza. She was alone tonight in the house she grew up in. Her mother was spending the weekend out of town with her boyfriend. Yasmine was happy that her mother found love again after losing her husband. Frederick Dubose had been a workaholic, working around the clock as a financial analyst. He died from his second heart attack on Christmas Eve when Yasmine was only ten. She’d been devastated because she was a daddy’s girl. While dating Cannon, she realized how similar he was to her father, and she tried to make him stop and smell the roses every once and a while, but that didn’t last long. She wasn’t surprised when he wanted to postpone their wedding, considering he’d postponed or cancelled everything else, which was why she felt the best thing to do was to let him go. He’d hurt her too many times and that was the last straw.
The ringing of her cell phone startled her. Glancing at the clock on the stove, she saw it was almost midnight. It was a Memphis number she didn’t recognize but answered it anyway.
“Hello?” she asked in a cautious manner.
“Hey there,” the sexy, deep voice on the other end answered.
Her heart dropped. Why was Cannon calling her so late … or at all?
“I wanted to talk to you about the floral arrangements. I figured you’d still be awake.”
“I was just about to turn in so make it quick,” she said in a curt tone and immediately felt bad about it. This wasn’t about them. It was about making sure her best friend had the wedding of her dreams.
“I spoke to my brother-in-law’s cousin who is the event planner for his restaurant. She also does floral arrangements on the side. I sent her the invoice, and she can do the same arrangements for half or maybe even a third of the cost by ordering the flowers wholesale from a distributor she uses.”
“Really? That would be great, but have you seen her work?”
“Yes. She did the floral arrangements for Shelbi and Bria’s weddings. They were out of this world. Better than the ones that the wedding coordinator showed us.”
She placed the slice of pizza in the microwave and hit one minute. “Wait. I knew Bria was married because I saw her all over magazines and the Internet with ex basketball player Rasheed Vincent, but when did little Shelbi get married?” She’d also seen pictures of the wedding party, including one with Cannon looking suave and handsome in his tuxedo.
He laughed. “Little Shelbi is all grown up now. She got married a year ago to Justin Richardson. He’s the owner and chef of Lillian’s Dinner and Blues Club over on Beale. She’s also in her second year of her residency at Memphis Central.”
“That’s great. I thought she would be a chef at her own restaurant. Your baby sister can cook.”
“She still can, but she leaves it to her husband now. But she did have a short stint as a food critic, and she has a food blog called “Cooking up Love.” However, my parents were happy when she decided to continue her medical career instead.”
“I know your parents wanted you all to become doctors. How are they doing?”
“They’re quite well and semi-retired, working only three days a week even though my father is still a heart surgeon so he may work more days at the hospital. They travel a lot. Raven and I run the practice now.”
“How’s Raven? Is she married with children? That’s all she talked about.”
“Well, she did get married a few years ago, but her husband was a police officer and died in the line of duty three months after their wedding.”
“That’s horrible. I’m truly sorry to hear that. How is she coping?”
“Well, you know Raven. She knows how to be strong on the outside, but as her twin brother, I know it still hurts her. I think she needs a change of scenery.”
“Wow. A lot has changed in twelve years.”
“Yes it has, and I would love to continue to catch up with you, Yaz,” he said in
a sincere manner. “I meant what I said earlier. I’ve missed you.”
“Cannon—”
“I know. I won’t say anything else. However, Zaria, that’s Justin cousin, can meet with us tomorrow afternoon at the restaurant if you’re free to look at her portfolio.”
Yasmine was glad for the change of subject. She could feel herself wanting to tell him just how much she’d missed him, too.
“Yes. The sooner the better. Sherika called me earlier frustrated about something else. Luckily she and Doug will be here in a few weeks to meet with the coordinator and the caterer.”
“That’s good. There’s only so much we can do considering it’s not our wedding.”
She sighed. It was time to get off the phone before she said the wrong thing.
“What time?”
“Zaria said around four. Do you need me to pick you up?”
“No, I know where Beale Street is. I’m sure I can find the restaurant.”
“Just checking. I’ll be on your side of town tomorrow. I’m going to beat Sean in a round a golf since the weather is going to be nice.”
“How could I forget about Sean? How is he?”
“The same. Still a player. He says he’s a lifelong bachelor, but he just needs a good woman to make him fall.”
“I’m sure he’ll meet the right woman one day.” She let out a big yawn. “Sorry. It’s been a long day.” More like a long week.
“Well … I’ll let you get some rest.”
She could hear the reluctance in his voice, but she knew it was time to get off the phone. When they’d first started dating, they would talk on the phone all night, and she didn’t want this to be one of those sessions.
“All right, see you tomorrow.”
“Sweet dreams, Yasmine.”
Chapter Four
Yasmine sat in her car in the parking lot behind Lillian’s and took a deep breath. She was frustrated by the fact that she had to see Cannon again for the third time in a week. She almost ran her fingers through her hair, but stopped as she remembered she’d just left the salon and didn’t want to mess it up. Her hair was styled in the pixie cut that she normally wore, but since she’d been back in Memphis, she just washed her hair and wore her natural curls.