by Tina Martin
“And he managed to wrap you around his thumb so he can have an in when it comes to attempting to acquire Blackstone Financial, but it ain’t happening,” Barringer said.
“That’s not—” Candice sighed and collected herself. “Look, Barry, we’re adding new clients to Blackstone Financial, so there’s no use in worrying about The Champion Corporation trying to acquire us. And you know what—I want to keep business out of this conversation. Let me tell you who Kurt is as a person.”
“I don’t care who this buster is as a person,” Barringer blurted out.
“Barry, will you let her talk, please?” Calista stepped in to say.
Candice wiped her mouth and said, “It’s okay, Calista. I expected this much from him. I don’t know why you’re beside yourself, Barry, but you need to get a handle on your emotions. As I was saying—Kurt is one of the kindest, sweetest men you’ll ever meet. He’s an only child. He collects rocks. You should see his rock collection—looks like it belongs in a museum. He’s an outdoorsy person—loves hikes and connecting with nature.”
“He sounds like an all-around good guy,” Kalina said.
“He is.”
Everyone was quietly eating for a moment. All you could hear were forks and knives clanking against ceramic plates.
Everson spoke up and said, “Well, even though it seems like the marriage was done a little quick and backwards, I would still like to say congratulations, baby sis. As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“That’s right,” June said. “Congratulations, Candy.”
And then more congratulations followed except Barringer and their father.
By the time dessert was being served, Candice opted to take hers to-go. She survived enough tension throughout dinner and she couldn’t take any more indirect stares for one night while wondering what everyone was really thinking about her decision to marry Kurt, so she bolted, kissed her mother on the cheek, hugged her father and now she was sitting in the car, taking breaths of relief like she’d survived something. In a way she had.
She started the car and as she was preparing to back out a call came through from Kurt.
“Hey,” she answered.
“Hey. What you up to?”
“I’m just leaving dinner at my parents.”
“Oh. It was just you and them?”
“No. It was one of our family dinners—you know—the ones I told you about that we have once a month,” she said.
“Yes, only you neglected to tell me you had one coming up. One I could’ve very easily attended.”
“Um, do I detect some base in your voice?”
“Come on, Candy—I’ve been dying to get to know your family and here you are with them having a family dinner and look who’s not invited. Me.”
“I can’t invite you in the middle of a bunch of chaos, so don’t make it seem like I was trying to hide it from you.”
“That’s exactly what you did.”
“Oh, well, let’s talk about hiding stuff—like the fact that you neglected to tell me you and Desmond Champion are sneaking over here for a meeting at Blackstone on Tuesday. Why wouldn’t you tell me that, Kurt? I had to hear it from my crazy brother Barringer of all people! And he was seething with madness, like a volcano about to erupt. Said I didn’t know who I was marrying and for the first time, I had to question your motives. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to tell you—”
“But you didn’t. You may have wanted to, but the words never left your mouth. Do you know how that made me look in front of my brothers, especially Barringer who already thinks you’re the devil.”
Kurt chuckled.
“This is serious, Kurt.”
“I know, baby. I know. Okay, first, I apologize for not telling you. I wanted to, but I didn’t know how to tell you because of the nature of the meeting.”
“Meaning what?”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss that with you. Desmond will present the offer to you and your brothers in the meeting.”
“So you can’t tell me anything?”
“No, I’m sorry, Candy. I can’t. And you know what? We need to keep work out of our relationship. My love for you is personal. My job is business. I work for a company and I’m doing my job.”
“You’re right,” Candice thought. She had to do her job, too. She didn’t know what The Champion Corporation had up their sleeve and the man who could tell her couldn’t break his silence. She couldn’t control anything on their end, but she could make sure she covered all of her bases.
On Monday, she had a meeting with executives from CheckMate. She intended to make the most of it. Bringing on new clients was her job – not worrying about decisions that fell under Barringer’s umbrella of responsibilities.
“I have to get some sleep, Kurt,” she said, completely drained. “I have a long day ahead of me.”
“Work?”
“Yes. Work.”
“Alright. I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Chapter 12
“How much longer do we have to wait, Gary?” Candice asked her brother. She’d been excited, looking forward to this meeting with the CheckMate executives since this client would help stabilize Blackstone Financial. However, they were already fifteen minutes late.
“They’ll be here. They confirmed…probably just ran into some traffic. Why don’t you get a drink or something?”
“I’m too nervous to drink. We really need to lock down this client.”
Gary shrugged. “I’m not worried. Barringer pretty much told us we have the contract. All we have to do is play this right and show them who we are as a business. They’re ready to sign.”
“I know. I just really need this to work out so I can get Barringer off my back.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about Barringer, Candy.”
“But I am worried. I do actually want my family to like my husband.”
Garrison took a sip of water. He placed the glass on the table and said, “In that case, maybe you should’ve told us about your relationship with him upfront.”
“I wanted to, but something told me not to. I didn’t want to make a decision about Kurt based on all of y’all’s negative opinions.”
“Why would you assume our opinion of the man would’ve been negative?”
“Because of who he works for. I knew that once you knew that he’d be a target.”
“Let’s be clear—he’s not a target to me. I trust your judgment.”
“Whatever, Gary.”
“I do. However, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel leery about this guy. I mean, surely you’ve met other men who didn’t work for a rival company.”
“Yes, but what’s the fun in that?” Candice joked.
Gary shook his head. “You always know how to get yourself in some trouble, don’t you?”
“Hush.” She elbowed him. “Anyway, how have you been doing?”
“I’m doing fine.”
“Don’t give me the standard I’m doing fine. Tell me—how are you?”
He shrugged and said, “Okay. I’m doing terrible. I’m trying to learn how to be a single dad, have no clue what I’m doing and every day I miss my wife. Every day I miss her.”
Candice touched and squeezed his hand. “What can I do to help?”
“There’s nothing you can do, sis. It’s just something I have to work through.”
“How are you working through it?” she asked at the same time two gentlemen walked up to their table.
“Mr. Blackstone?” one of the men said.
Candice looked over at them. One was Hispanic. The other…
The pit of her stomach fell to her shoes. She knew the other man. Bernard Baptiste – her ex-boyfriend’s brother.
He was a spitting image of Quinton. Same chocolate skin. Same tall, athletic body. Same bald head and black eyes. What were the odds he would work for a company that Blackstone needed to stay afloat?
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“I’m Romero Cruz,” the Hispanic guy said to Garrison.
“Romero, I’m Garrison and this is my sister, Candice.”
Romero reached to shake Candice’s hand, then Bernard stepped forward and said, “I’m. Bernard Baptiste.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. And it’s good to see you again as well, Candice.”
“Oh. You two know each other?” Garrison asked.
“Yes,” Candice replied with an uneasy chuckle. “It’s a long story.”
Garrison glanced at Bernard then back at Candice trying to read the two.
“Theodore tells me we’ll be in good hands with BFSG,” Bernard said, looking directly at Candice. Then he smiled.
Candice narrowed her eyes slightly, probably reading too much into it, but why was he smiling at her almost like he’d somehow had the upper hand in this deal?
Garrison stood up and said, “Excuse us for a moment. I need to have a word with my sister.”
“Sure,” Bernard said.
“Take your time,” Romero told him.
Candice got up and followed Garrison to the front entrance of the restaurant.
“What’s going on with you and this Bernard guy?” he asked her.
“He’s Quinton’s brother.”
“Your ex Quinton?”
“Yes. I can’t believe it either.”
Garrison sighed deeply. This reeked of trouble, something he didn’t want any of. “So what are you going to do?”
Candice shrugged. “What do you think I should do?”
“I don’t know. I’m at a loss right now. On one end, you got Kurt causing problems and on the other, your ex’s brother pops up out of nowhere.”
“He didn’t pop up out of nowhere. He popped up from CheckMate.”
“You didn’t know he worked there?”
“No. I didn’t date Quinton long enough to know the intricate details of his family. But don’t worry—I don’t see this being a problem. What does Bernard have to do with my failed relationship with his brother? If this is truly business, that shouldn’t be a factor in any of their decision making.”
“Yeah, it shouldn’t but you know how these things work, Candy. Personal always finds a way to creep into business, and you already know if Barringer finds out about your connection to this guy, he’s going to spaz out. You know that.”
Candice rolled her eyes. “Barringer would spaz out if I looked at him wrong.”
Garrison chuckled.
“But, I’m a team player, so here’s what I suggest. You continue the meeting. I’ll take a step back from this. If Bernard and Romero ask you what happened, just tell them I had an emergency and had to leave. I don’t want to interfere in the family business with yet another conflict of interest.”
“Candy, you don’t have to—”
“It’s fine, Gary. You handle it. That way, I don’t have to worry about being in the way of anything. I’m so ready to move to Asheville. I can’t take any more of this.”
“Candy—” Garrison called out to her, but she kept on walking until she cleared the exit.
* * *
“I don’t know how much more I can take, Kalina,” Candice said, stretching out on the couch in Kalina’s office again like she was at a therapy session. “Family dinner was awful for me. Just plain awful. There’s no other way to describe it. I feel like everybody is against me. The tension in the air literally gave me a headache.”
“Well, everybody’s not against you. I’m not against you. The girls aren’t either. Elowyn even seems to be coming around. So do Everson, Bryson and Gary. This will take time for everyone to grasp.”
“It’s not just that, Kalina. It’s affecting my work, too. Me and Gary had a dinner meeting with a new client this evening. Guess who’s one of the representatives for this company?”
“Who?”
“Quinton’s brother.”
“Your ex Quinton?”
“Yes. And he had this smirk on his face like he had me where he wanted me.”
“But you were in a relationship with his brother. Not him.”
“Doesn’t matter, I guess, or maybe I read into it wrong, but that’s what it felt like. So, I thought it would be a good idea if I left the meeting due to yet another conflict of interest. I can’t win.”
“You can win,” Kalina said. She took a long look at Candice lying on her couch, staring up at the ceiling like she was in distress. “What happened to the fun, playful Candy who had a smart comeback for anything her brothers said? Where’s that Candy?”
“She’s tired of being that Candy and looking forward to being wife Candy. I’m actually at the stage in my life where I would be comfortable having a baby. I want a family life. I want my husband in bed beside me at night. Single, playful Candy no longer exists.”
“Then it sounds like it’s time for you to make your move. You’re stressing out because you’re still holding on to the past and haven’t grabbed on to the future. Kurt is your future. Asheville is your new home.”
“I know.”
“And trust me, I don’t want you to move. Nobody wants you to leave, but you have to do what you have to do for the sake of your marriage. Have you ever thought that maybe it’s the reason everything seems to be falling apart here? Because you’re supposed to be over there, but you’re still fighting battles you can’t win over here.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Candice said. “I hadn’t thought about it like that. It makes perfect sense.” She stood up, gave Kalina a side hug and said, “I know what I need to do now. Thanks so much, Kalina.”
“Yep. No problem.”
Candice drove to the nearest home improvement store to buy boxes. Thanks to her conversation with Kalina, she realized that was part of her problem – she didn’t have a timeline for anything. When Kurt asked if she was packing or when she expected to move, she’d put it off. For a woman who was excited about starting a new life in Asheville, she hadn’t packed a thing. She wanted to change that.
At home, she assembled a box and was already taking down pictures in the living room. Then she assembled another box in the kitchen and packed up some dinnerware and a few other kitchen utensils.
After eating a small salad for dinner, she called Kurt before she stepped in the shower. She didn’t get a response. When she was out of the shower, she was sure she’d have a return call from him, but there were no missed calls. Only a text from Garrison that said:
The meeting went okay. I’ll tell you more about it at the office tomorrow.
She placed her phone on the nightstand, turned off the lamp and closed her eyes. Sleep couldn’t come fast enough after the day she had, but at least the day provided her with clarity on what she needed to do. She needed to pack up. Her new life was waiting and she was tired of putting it off. It was time to make a move.
Chapter 13
Kurt let himself inside of Candice’s apartment eleven-thirty at night, surprised to see she’d already been packing. He smiled, appreciating the effort. The last time he was here, she’d made no changes – her life was carrying on as normal. This time, she had boxes and had already started packing, confirming in his mind she was ready to move. To start a life with him in Asheville. It gave him a sense of relief. He was beginning to think she didn’t want to move.
He took quiet steps to her bedroom to see her lying there beneath the covers, asleep. He walked closer, eased down on the bed next to her. The brown tone of her skin looked like milk chocolate in a sea of white sheets. She looked relaxed, peaceful an undisturbed. So beautiful. He didn’t want to wake her but knew he had to. He wanted her and his need couldn’t wait until the morning.
He pulled his shirt up over his head, took off his jeans and crept closer to her, his five o’clock shadow brushing against her soft skin. She smelled good – like that berry-scented lotion he’d come to love.
“Candy,” he whispered against her ear.
She stirred a little.
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nbsp; “Candy,” he said again and left kisses along her jaw. He basked in her warmness. In her scent. In being this close to the woman he loved again.
Her eyes opened slowly. She caught glimpses of him and they opened wider. “Kurt!” she said sitting up and wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’re here. I’ve missed you so much.” She pelted kisses all over his face – his nose, his lips, his jaw and then she came back and kissed those lips of his that she missed so much.
“I knew you would be happy to see me, but I didn’t think you would eat my face.”
Candice laughed. “Hush, and kiss me,” she told him.
And kiss her he did, wasting no time parting her lips with his tongue and delivering stroke after delicious stroke, causing her entire body to shudder just off the kiss alone.
Then she took a break only to look at his face, touching and familiarizing herself with it – enjoying the company of her king. She smiled and said softly, “You’re here.”
“I am, baby. I figured I’d come up early since I got that meeting tomorrow. I wanted to spend the night with my lady.”
He kissed her lips then covered her body with his like one of the sheets tousled on her, feeling her hardened buds through the thin material of her nightgown – a fabric so flimsy, she may as well had gone to bed naked. Then he sank his tongue inside her mouth reacquainting himself with her taste – one he was sure he could never get used to. Any amount of time they were apart made him want her much more and tonight wasn’t the exception as he savored the taste of her mouth while listening to her soft moans fill the air. Her warm body immediately took the slight chill of his skin away – made her shiver for a moment while their legs were intertwined. As he kissed her, he pulled up the thin fabric of her gown and took his lips away from her mouth for a moment to pull it completely over her head. Then she continued on kissing her with intention and passion on his mind, loving the woman he missed.
