He’d heard enough. “Look, Vonetta. I really don’t have time to sit here and listen to your issues. Call somebody else.”
“But I don’t have somebody else. If Omar doesn’t come back, I won’t have anyone.”
“Your choice.”
“I want Kia.”
His heartbeat kicked up a notch, and he then remembered Tonya’s prediction in his office earlier that day. “No, you don’t. You signed her over to me to get your freedom. You didn’t want her then, and you don’t want her now. Goodnight, Vonetta.”
His hand shook as he clicked off the phone. But what if she’d changed her mind? What if she decided she did want Kia back? If Omar was really out of the picture, she would need an income, and getting Kia back and hitting Jamison up for sizeable amounts of child support payments was one way to get it. And if she decided to take him back to court in California, he would have to fight to retain custody of their daughter. The courts there tended to be more liberal and leaned in favor of the mother in most custody situations.
The only good thing was that he and Kia would have lived in Virginia for a year in a few months. That was long enough to establish residency in the state if a custody battle did ensue. They would have to use the Virginia courts, which leaned more to the conservative side.
Now he wished he had recorded the conversation. Letting a judge hear her call him while intoxicated would be one in his favor if it ever came to that. Lord knows he hoped not, but …
Now more than anything, he hoped Kendal called tomorrow. The last thing he intended to happen was for Vonetta to try to weasel her way back into their lives. And to stop her from doing so, he needed to cover all bases…including his marital status.
Four
“Mr. Savoy, you have a Kendal Fischer on the line,” Jamison’s administrative assistant said through the intercom.
He placed down his ink pen. “Thanks.”
He’d been waiting for this call and had hoped it would come. Vonetta’s late night call still had him on edge. Hopefully, this morning when she sobered up, she would have forgotten her crazy notion of wanting Kia, but with Vonetta, anything was possible, and he refused to take any chances. Yesterday, Kendal seemed to have some misgivings about placing the ad. He needed to convince her that the ad might be a blessing for both of them.
Butterflies lifted off in his stomach when he heard her click on the line. “Jamison?”
“Yes, Kendal. I’m glad you called.”
“Do you still want to meet with me?”
“Yes, did you check your schedule?”
“Yes, and I’m available tomorrow at lunch. I can get Mom to watch Carr for a couple of hours.”
“Carr?”
“Yes, that’s my niece’s name.”
Jamison couldn’t help but smile. “Now, isn’t that a coincidence. My daughter’s name is Kia. Umm, sounds like we have a connection already.”
Kendal breathed in deeply, surprised he was looking for one. “Glad you think so,” she said, not knowing what else to say. She placed her hand to her stomach to steady her nerves as well as the stirrings she felt there. If she thought he sounded good yesterday, he did doubly so today.
“I do. So, what about lunch at Parker’s? If I recall, you used to love that place,” Jamison suggested.
“Yes, but only because of the ‘all you can eat’ portions.” Kendal’s parents hadn’t helped by taking the family there every Wednesday night before prayer meeting at church. Going back for seconds and thirds didn’t hurt Conley since he played in a lot of sports. But she was never a sports kind of chick, and all of the extra helpings had gone straight to her hips, thighs, butt, and breasts.
She was about to tell him that she preferred eating someplace else when she decided maybe going to Parker’s would be her first test. They made great salads, and that would be all that she would eat.
“Parker’s is fine,” she heard herself saying. “What time do you want me to meet you there?”
“What about noon?” he asked her.
“No problem. I’ll see you then.”
“Okay. And I forgot to ask how your parents are doing.”
She drew in another deep breath. “Better. Losing Conley was hard on everyone, but having Carr has been such a blessing to all of us. You look at her, and you see Con.” She chuckled and added, “And on the days she wants to be an angel, you see Cynthia, since we all know what a devil Conley could be.”
“Well, I think it’s wonderful you have his daughter.”
Kendal thought it was wonderful as well and could only hope she could keep Carr. “Thanks. I think it’s wonderful that I have her as well. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodbye, Jamison.”
“Goodbye, Kendal.”
Jamison hung up the phone, then glanced up at the knock on his door. “Come in.”
He smiled when his cousin Nash came strutting in with a huge grin on his face. “I won that case!”
Jamison stood to give his cousin a high-five. He’d known about the late hours Nash had kept while working on the case. “So they found your client innocent?”
“Of all charges. I put enough doubt in those jurors’ minds to down an elephant. Now the good sheriff and his team need to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out who really did kill Ray Sanders.”
Jamison wasn’t surprised that Juanita Sanders had been acquitted. Nash was a top-notch defense attorney. His other cousins in the firm, Ben and Ruark, were great attorneys as well and gave the Savoy Law Firm a stellar reputation. Everyone had their specialty. With Nash it was criminal; Ben was the family attorney; Ruark was corporate; and Jamison was entertainment.
“So what’s going on with you?” Nash asked, dropping into the chair across from Jamison’s desk.
Over the next twenty minutes, Jamison told his cousin everything, from Vonetta’s phone call the night before to the ad Kendal had placed in the newspaper.
Nash shook his head. “I don’t know, man. I agree it sounds like your ex might be up to something, but a marriage of convenience with Kendal? Or any woman for that matter.” Since the family all knew Conley, they knew his sister Kendal. Besides, Kendal and Tonya, along with Justice, their cousin Blake’s wife, had been best buddies while growing up.
“Right now, I think it would be a safe-guard in case Vonetta has something sinister up her sleeve,” Jamison said.
“True, but I would still run it by Ben to cover all bases.”
Jamison agreed.
***
The next day, Kendal arrived at Parker’s a few minutes early to be greeted by Frederick Parker himself. “Why, Miss Fischer, it’s been a while, and you look beautiful.”
Kendal couldn’t help but beam since she’d given special attention to her appearance today. “Thanks, Mr. Parker. And how have things been going?”
“Considering the economy, pretty good. But then I have my regulars, like your parents, to thank.”
Kendal nodded. She knew that her parents, as well as other members of their church congregation, still dropped by on Wednesday nights. “I’m meeting someone here today. Jamison Savoy.”
Mr. Parker’s smile widened. “Jamison is already here and has been seated. Come and I’ll escort you over to him.”
“All right.” With Mr. Parker’s words telling her that Jamison had already arrived, Kendal felt intense flutters in her stomach.
Mr. Parker led and she followed, noticing the size of the lunch crowd and trying not to concentrate on all the food piled up on everyone’s plates. She decided to look straight ahead at Mr. Parker’s back but shifted her gaze ahead and wished she hadn’t when she saw him. Jamison. He stood when he saw them headed his way.
When his eyes met hers, she all but stopped breathing. It might have been a while since she’d seen him last, but he was the kind of eye candy that would pop right out at you. Tall, like most Savoy men, he stood well over six feet with that Savoy trademark—a pair of hazel eyes. And he was staring her down. Was that male interest she saw i
n the depths of his gaze?
She could only account for what she knew was in hers—female interest—which couldn’t be helped. He stood there dressed in a designer suit with broad shoulders, firm abs, a solid chest—the perfect male physique. His hair was like he’d always worn it—cut low on his head. And she’d always thought his full lips were made for kissing. Her stomach clenched at the thought as she continued walking toward him. Like all the Savoys, his skin tone was nut-brown, smooth as velvet. His features were sharp, way too handsome.
She felt her heart increase its flutters and knew she had to stay in control. This was a business meeting. If they decided to marry, it would be a business agreement and nothing more. Too bad another part of her brain was having a hard time comprehending that. It was the part that couldn’t do anything but zero in on Jamison as a man. Point blank, the only man she’d ever loved, even if it had been with a teenage-sized heart.
***
Jamison held his gaze steady on the woman being escorted to his table. He fought back the frown that tried to appear on his face. Damn. The girl he’d viewed as a kid was now a full-grown woman with a heart-stopping voluptuous shape and curves that nearly knocked the breath out of his lungs. He couldn’t contain the prickling of full sexual awareness that danced across his skin as his gaze continued to assess each and every part of her, from the top of her head to those high heels on her feet. He hadn’t expected her to dress up for the meeting, but the male part of him appreciated that she had. She looked good in that dress and was definitely a nice work of art. Beautiful in every way, an Amazon goddess, and he couldn’t help standing there staring.
He figured her height to be five feet ten or eleven without the shoes, which meant she was shorter than his six foot four height, even with heels on. And she was wearing her shoulder-length hair luxuriously fluffed out around her face. And her chocolate-colored eyes were perfect for her caramel complexion. He wondered if she was aware that other men had stopped to stare, probably wondering who this gorgeous Cleopatra Jones—minus the ‘fro—was. Tamara Dodson, who had brought the role to life for movies, had been beautiful, and Jamison thought the woman moving toward him was even more so.
Kendal was tempted to look behind her to see what woman he was staring through her to see, because there was no way he was looking at her like that. She’d seen that look in other men’s eyes when they looked at other women but not at her. One man had even told her she had a cute face but he couldn’t get past her body. Now she was glad to say not only had she lost those fifty pounds, but thanks to her regular visits to the gym, her body was toned. She felt great, and she knew she looked great, but not great enough for any man to stare the way Jamison was.
All too soon, she reached the table and Jamison was taking her hand, leaning forward to place a kiss on her cheek as a huge smile curved his lips. “Kendal, it’s been years. It’s hard to believe you’re not that little kid anymore who used to—”
“Irritate the hell out of you by doing really stupid stuff like letting the air out of your bicycle tires,” she said grinning, while thinking of some of the adolescent things she used to do, always to annoy him and Conley, but mainly Jamison.
He threw his head back and laughed. “I didn’t mind, because I got to ride on Conley’s motorcycle whenever he had to take me home,” he said, pulling the chair out for her.
When she sat down, he took his chair as well and just gazed over at her. “I’m going to have to get used to this new grown-up version of you,” he said softly. “You were always a cute kid, but now you’ve grown into a beautiful woman.”
She appreciated the compliment and thought it was kind of him to make it. “Thanks, and you look good yourself.” Now that was an understatement. The man didn’t just look good, he looked yummy. He definitely had her juices flowing, she thought, tightening her legs together to stop the tingling sensation between them.
He cocked his head to the side. “I never noticed until now how much you and Conley favored.”
She placed the napkin in her lap. “Just wait until you see Carr. She’s the spitting image of her daddy.”
He leaned back in his chair. “I can’t wait. How is she? I bet it’s been hard on her. I can’t imagine if anything happened to me what Kia would go through.”
“Carr’s fine, but she still misses her parents.” She paused and then asked, “You and your daughter are close?”
“Yes. Very.”
“What about your ex? Is Kia close to her as well?”
He shook his head. “It’s embarrassing to say, but no. When I told Kia that her mother and I would be living apart, she nodded and then went into her room, pulled her little carry-on from underneath her bed, and said, ‘I’m going with you, Daddy.’”
He smiled at the memory. “She wanted to make sure I knew that, just in case I hadn’t made plans to take her with me.” The smile then left his face when he said, “I wonder what she would have thought if she had known the only thing her mother wanted out of the divorce was the dog.”
“The dog?”
“Yes. I found out later why the dog meant so much to her.”
“Why?”
“It had been a gift from her lover.”
Kendal didn’t say anything; she dared not. Mainly because there was nothing she could say that would be nice about his ex. Thanks to Tonya, she probably knew more about the details of his divorce than he was aware. Not that Tonya had felt the need to gossip, because that wasn’t the case, nor was it Tonya’s style, especially when it involved a family member. But Tonya had been so upset about how shabbily Jamison’s ex-wife had treated him that she and a few of her girl cousins had even tossed around the idea of flying to L.A. and giving Vonetta Savoy the beat down she deserved. Of course they wouldn’t have, but for a few hours, the thought had sounded good to them. They said Jamison had been a good husband, and all he’d gotten in return was a wife who’d cheated on him. The woman had even brought her lover into his home while he was at work and then had the nerve to throw it into his face when she’d asked for a divorce.
“I don’t want to ruin our meal talking about my ex,” Jamison said after taking a sip of his iced tea. “So tell me, how have things been with you over the years? I haven’t seen or talked to you since leaving Alexandria for college close to fifteen years ago.”
It hadn’t been that long, Kendal thought, remembering she’d seen him at Blake’s and Tonya’s double wedding a couple of years ago, and then again at his cousin Tyler’s wedding last year. Somehow she had managed to stay out of Jamison’s sight both times. Not that it would have mattered, since his wife had made sure he hadn’t gotten out of her sight. The gorgeous woman had hung on him the entire time and given any woman who came close the evil eye.
“I wasn’t ready to move too far from home, so I attended Howard University,” she said. “And I got a degree in business administration. After college, I landed a job with Premium Mutual Insurance Company and worked there for almost ten years. Unfortunately, last year, the company went belly-up, and I found myself unemployed. I did a variety of things until I got custody of Carr. Then I decided to go into business for myself as a virtual assistant. That way, I could work from home and be there for Carr.”
“What exactly is a virtual assistant?” Jamison asked, thinking he’d never noticed before just how dark brown her eyes were. Nor had he ever noticed that dimple in her cheek. But then, he’d never had a reason to pay close attention before. And why was he doing so now?
“I assist a number of small businesses with such tasks as reports, spreadsheets, power-point presentations, scheduling appointments, graphic design, taking care of their traveling scheduling, and all those sorts of miscellaneous tasks. All of my business is handled online, and I set my hours to suit my needs as long as I’m meeting my clients’ deadlines. It’s usually more cost-effective to hire me than to bring another body into the company. I’m not using their supplies, utilities, or break times. So far, I’ve taken on twenty-five clients
and enjoy what I do.”
“I’m glad. Sounds like that insurance company going bankrupt was a blessing in disguise for you.”
“It was, but some of my co-workers weren’t so lucky. There are many still unemployed and not able to find a job.”
The waiter came back with their menus. Kendal didn’t even open the menu. At Jamison’s raised brow, she said, “I already know what I’m having. A salad. If I open that menu, I might be tempted to get something else.”
Jamison chuckled. “All right. I’m not a man who believes in tempting a woman.”
Kendal smiled, thinking that whether Jamison knew it or not, he was temptation, and he could tempt a woman without much effort. She listened while he placed his order, and she saw he still had a hefty appetite.
“So,” he said, after their waiter had walked off. “I think we need to start talking about the reason we’re meeting today and why I fully endorse the idea of a marriage between us.”
Five
Kendal told Jamison everything, because it was important that he knew why desperation had pushed her to place that ad in the paper. “Ben is my attorney, and he’s been pretty upfront with me about everything, especially my chances of keeping Carr.”
Jamison had wanted to talk to Ben before his meeting today, but because of Ben’s court schedule, he hadn’t been able to do so. “But I don’t understand. If Conley and his wife named you as guardian for their child, how can the parents intervene and contest it?”
“I didn’t think they could, and they waited until now to do so. They based the petition on the premise that they could provide better, more stable care for Carr as a two-adult family than I could as a single woman. They pretty much boxed themselves in a corner using that as the sole basis for wanting custody of Carr. Now all I have to do is get married, and they won’t have any other choice but to drop the petition.”
ALL HE DESIRES (Voluptuous Woman Series) Page 27
