The Nicest Guy in America

by Angela Benson

  “No, he’s not,” Kim rushed to say.

  Mrs. Stevens gave her a knowing smile. “I’ve loved the same man all my life,” she said. “So I know love when I see it. It’s in his eyes and in yours too. He’s in love with you and you’re in love with him. You’re both just too bullheaded to realize it, but you will. And soon.” Mrs. Stevens pushed her chair back from the table. “Enough of this. Let’s get back to the food. You can help me roll out the biscuits.”

  Kim got up and did as Mrs. Stevens instructed, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the things the older woman had said. About Reggie and his past relationships and about her and Reggie and their present relationship. Neither she nor Reggie had mentioned love and that was okay for right now. Leslie was right. Serious relationships took time to build and she wanted that time with Reggie.

  As she thought about their relationship, a feeling of discomfort settled around her. Reggie’s mother had said her relationship with Reggie was different. That his past relationships were based on his need to help. Could it be that their relationship was based on that same need? Could Reggie be responding to her because she needed him for her job? She shook her head to dislodge the crazy thoughts. Of course, that wasn’t the case. Reggie had wanted to spend time with her because he’d wanted to clear up his reputation and because he wanted to get to know her. Her relationship with him was different, wasn’t it?

  Chapter 19

  Reggie finally had a chance to be alone with Kim when his parents decided to go for a walk around the block. “I love my parents dearly,” he said, taking a seat next to her on his living room couch. “But their timing couldn’t be worse.”

  “Um, I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe their timing is exactly right. We were getting carried away.”

  He pulled her into his arms. “Speak for yourself, Ms. Washington. I was very much in control of my faculties and was doing exactly what I wanted to do.” He increased the pressure of his hold on her and pressed a kiss against her forehead. “I love having you in my arms like this.”

  She leaned her head back and pressed her palms flat on his chest. “I bet you say that to all the women in your life.”

  “You’re right about that,” he said with a grin. “I give every last one of them this same line. Seems to be working too.”

  She thumped his chest. “I bet you and your brothers drove your parents crazy.”

  “We did, but fortunately they loved it.” He released his hold on her, took her hand and led her to the couch. “What were you two talking about in the kitchen?”

  “I’m not telling you. It was girl talk anyway.”

  “Well,” he said, stroking her arms, “if you don’t want to talk, we can always go back to bed.”

  “And have your parents find us there? No way.”

  “Hey, it’s a pretty long block. We could be in and out before they get back.”

  She shook her head and chuckled. “Sometimes I don’t know about you, Reggie Stevens. Are you sure you’re thirty-eight and not eighteen?”

  “I know you aren’t criticizing my moves again after the way you were screaming last night.”

  She socked him in his arm.

  “Ouch,” he said. “I was only telling the truth. You were screaming.”

  “I was not and you know it.”

  “You just don’t remember it. I do.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “I was not screaming.”

  He pulled her to his side and chuckled. “Don’t be embarrassed. It was a sexy scream. Matter of fact I enjoyed hearing it and wouldn’t mind hearing it again.”

  She leaned away from him. “What you enjoy is teasing me.”

  “True. We have about twenty minutes before my folks get back. Are you sure you don’t want to give it another go?”

  “Look,” she said getting up from the couch. “Since you seem to be losing your mind, I think I should get ready to go home.”

  “Don’t go,” he pleaded. “I want you to stay for the rest of the day and I’m sure my parents do too.”

  “But you need some time alone with them and I need to go home and put on some fresh clothes.”

  He knew she was right, but he didn’t want her to go. “Will you stay until they get back so I can drive you to the hotel?”

  “I can call Tam,” she offered. “I don’t think she had plans for the day.”

  Reggie stood up and pulled her into his arms again. “Don’t call Tam. I want the time alone with you. Do I have to toss you over my shoulder to make you understand?”

  She leaned into his embrace. “No. Just hold me until your folks get back.”

  “That I can do. I wish I could hold you longer. My parents certainly picked the wrong time to visit.”

  “Don’t let them hear you say that, Reggie. You’ll hurt their feelings. Your parents are so proud of you and it’s obvious how much they love you.”

  “I think they like you a lot too.”

  “Well, I like them too. They’re a special couple. Married forty-one years and still happy. Maybe Uptown Style should do an article on them.”

  He leaned away from her so he could look down into her eyes. “One of these days I’m going to hold you in my arms and you aren’t going to mention that magazine.”

  “It’s my job, Reggie. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m in Atlanta on assignment. And I bet Jim is pretty upset that you and I aren’t drumming up publicity for him.”

  “Can we forget him and the magazine for a while?”

  “It’s my job.”

  “I know,” he said, frustrated with her fixation on her work. “You know what?”

  “What?”

  “If you ever bring up your job when we’re in bed, I’m going to dump you.”

  “No problem,” she said. “When I’m with you that way, I can’t think of anything else.”

  Reggie stared down into her eyes, thinking she couldn’t have given a better response. He could think of only one way to show her how much her words meant to him. He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded as he headed down the hallway toward his bedroom.

  “You’ll find out.”

  “But your parents?”

  “We’ve got at least fifteen minutes, plenty of time. Plus, I’ll lock the door so they can’t surprise us.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing.” He kicked open his bedroom door and prepared to give her the most thrilling fifteen minutes of her life.

  ~ ~ ~

  “What are you guys doing?” Kim asked when she walked into the suite a few hours later and saw suitcases arranged by the door.

  “Going home,” Tam said. “But don’t worry. I’ll be back. Melissa wants to see Atlanta.”

  “That’s right,” Leslie added. “Don’t forget we have this suite for nine more weeks. Right now, I need to get back and clear up some things in my old office. I should be back in a week or so.”

  “I’m going to miss you guys,” Kim said, feeling a bit betrayed. “Why didn’t you tell me you were planning to leave?”

  “We haven’t exactly seen you a lot the last couple of weeks, Kim,” Tam said. “You’ve been pretty busy with Reggie.”

  “You mean with my article,” she clarified, though she realized she and Reggie had been spending a lot of time together.

  “No,” Leslie said. “We mean with Reggie. You don’t expect us to believe that you’ve been out all night working on your article, do you?”

  “But—”

  “Don’t get us wrong, girlfriend,” Leslie interrupted. “We’re not complaining. As a matter of fact, just the opposite. We’re happy for you. At least one of us ended up with a keeper.”

  Kim turned to Tam, figuring she could make her change her mind. “Why are you leaving, Tam? Isn’t Melissa still with Marcus?”

  Tam nodded. “I know, but I need to get back home all the same. I can only stay in a hotel so long, even one as nice as this one.”
>
  Kim nodded as the real reason for her friends’ abrupt departure occurred to her. “This is about Nate and Luther, isn’t it?”

  “For me it isn’t,” Leslie said, a bit too quickly in Kim’s opinion. “I haven’t given old Nate a second thought.”

  Kim wasn’t sure she believed her friend, but what could she say? “What about you, Tam? Are you sure you aren’t running away from this situation between you and Luther?”

  Tam shook her head. “There is no situation between me and Luther so there isn’t anything to run away from. He hasn’t even bothered to call since the night I told him about Melissa.”

  Kim knew her friend referred to the night things had gone sour in her relationship with Luther. “Have you called him?”

  Tam shook her head. “And I won’t. If the man can’t deal with the fact that I have a child, we have nothing to talk about. I’ve never run behind a man and I’m not going to start now.”

  Kim couldn’t blame her friend. In Tam’s situation, she was sure she’d feel the same. “I wish you two weren’t leaving,” she said. “I’m going to miss you.”

  Leslie shook her head. “We’ll be back before you know it. Besides, Reggie will keep you occupied.”

  Kim guessed she and Reggie would be spending a lot of time together, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t miss her friends. “But I won’t have you two to talk to when I run into a problem.”

  “I have a feeling there aren’t going to be any problems with you and Reggie until it’s time for you to go back home. Have you two talked about what’s going to happen then?”

  Kim shook her head. Neither she nor Reggie had even brought the topic up. Their energies and thoughts were focused on the now.

  “But you aren’t going to be here forever, Kim, or has Jim told you something that you haven’t told us?”

  “I haven’t talked to Jim in a couple of days and I’m surprised. I was sure he’d be upset that Reggie and I haven’t been keeping the papers jumping.”

  “Knowing Jim,” Leslie said, “he probably has some scheme in the back of his mind. Who knows, he may even have you moving to Atlanta?”

  The idea of living in Atlanta appealed to Kim, though she knew that what really appealed to her was living close to Reggie. She was hooked on the guy. Why deny it? “Somehow I don’t think so. The Nicest Guy Contest issue runs in September and there’s no way Jim’s going to pay his share of my expenses for any longer than necessary.” Kim looked from Leslie to Tam. “When are you leaving?”

  “Tomorrow morning.”

  “You can’t leave that soon. We should at least spend one day together before you go back.”

  Tam waved her ticket. “We have to.”

  “You can change them,” Kim said. “Come on.”

  “Why don’t we spend today together?” Leslie suggested. “What do you want to do anyway?”

  “I can’t today,” Kim said.

  “Let me guess,” Tam said. “Plans with Reggie.” When Kim nodded, she said, “See? I knew you weren’t going to miss us.”

  “I’d change the plans if I could,” Kim insisted, “but his parents are in town and they want to take us to dinner.”

  “His parents?” both friends said at the same time.

  “You didn’t tell us his parents were here,” Leslie said. “This thing between you two must be serious.”

  “Not exactly.” Kim went on to explain the unexpected arrival of Reggie’s parents.

  Leslie chuckled. “At least they won’t forget meeting you. How did it go after that?”

  Kim thought it had gone well and told them so. “They’re going to be here for a week and Reggie had mentioned hosting a cook-out for them at his house and inviting a few friends over. I know he was thinking of Luther and Nate. And I was going to invite you two. Are you sure you can’t stay a week longer?”

  Her friends looked at each other, then at her. “No way,” they said.

  ~ ~ ~

  “I’m sorry your friends are leaving,” Reggie said after he and Kim had dinner with his parents later that night. They sat in the lobby of her hotel.

  Kim looked up at him. “No, you’re not. Your expression says you’re quite happy about it.”

  He rubbed his hand up and down her bare arm. “I’m not happy your friends are leaving because I know you’ll miss them, but I won’t say that I don’t see the benefits.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as having a place to be alone with you while my parents are in town. I don’t think I can go through an entire week without being with you again.”

  His sweet words soothed her ruffled feathers a little, but not much. “Is sex all you can think about?”

  “Not all, but it takes up a great deal of space in this old brain of mine. Don’t you think about it?”

  “Not much,” she lied. Her thoughts didn’t stray far from the memory of them together.

  He hugged her to him. “What am I going to do with you, Ms. Washington?”

  She relaxed in his embrace. “Pretty soon, you won’t have to ask yourself that question.”

  “What does that cryptic statement mean?”

  “I have to go home at some point myself. I don’t live here, remember?”

  Reggie’s hold on her tightened. “I remember, all right. I don’t like to think about it though. Has Jim said anything?”

  She shook her head. “But he will. I’ll be sending in the Contest article in a day or so and we aren’t exactly drumming up publicity with our relationship. There’s really no reason for me to be here.”

  He tilted her chin up and kissed her lips. “I could name a reason or two.”

  She knew she was being obvious, but she had to ask. “Okay, name them.”

  He kissed her lips. “First, there’s me.” He kissed her lips again. “Then there’s you. I’d say those are two very good reasons for you to be here.”

  That he wanted her to stay warmed her heart, but the reality that she couldn’t didn’t allow her to take much joy from his words. “We have to be realistic. I’m not going to be here much longer.”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Let’s not talk about that now. I don’t want to start thinking about your not being here. I want to enjoy you. By the time you have to leave, I’m sure we’ll have come up with a scheme that will convince Jim to extend your stay.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know about you. It scares me that you and Jim think so much alike.”

  He chuckled. “Then don’t think about Jim and me. Think about you and me.”

  “It’s too bad things didn’t work out between Leslie and Tam and Nate and Luther.”

  “There you go again,” he said.

  “What did I do now?”

  “Talking about other people. I’m talking about me and you. And you’re talking about our friends. I’m going to have to do something about that.”

  “Something like what?” she asked.

  He kissed her again. “So far I’ve only found one thing that works. I guess I’ll have to keep making love to you. Heck, I may even have to do it three, four, five times a day in order to keep your attention.”

  “You make it sound like a duty.”

  He nodded. “It’s a hard job but somebody has to do it.”

  She punched him in the side. “I can see this conversation is going downhill. I think it’s time to say goodnight.”

  She moved to get up from the lobby couch, but he pulled her back to him. “Not so quick. Let’s sit here a while longer.”

  “We’ve been sitting here for over an hour, Reggie. Your parents are going to think you got lost.”

  “They might be old, Kim, but they’re not dumb. Believe me, they won’t think I’m lost. Now, if I came home early they’d probably think I was losing my mind.”

  “Why?”

  “They like you and they like us. Can’t you tell?”

  She could. Mrs. Stevens had come right out and told her so and Mr. Stevens went out of his way to be frie
ndly. “You have nice parents.”

  “I think they’re looking at you as daughter-in-law material.”

  The word daughter-in-law made her heart flutter. She’d fought long and hard not to think too far in the future about her relationship with Reggie. The two of them were together now and things were good. She wasn’t going to complicate the relationship unnecessarily.

  “I told you I don’t often bring women home,” he continued.

  “You didn’t exactly bring me home, Reggie. It’s more like your parents came looking for me.”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Same difference. If I hadn’t wanted you to meet them, I would have gotten you out of the house pretty fast.”

  “Umm, sounds like you have experience with that.” He pulled back and looked down at her face. Then he opened his mouth to speak, but closed it.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I’m not going to get into it.”

  “Get into what?”

  “The way you bring up other people women, friends—when all I want to talk about is us.”

  “But—”

  He placed his finger across her lips. “I don’t want to get into it. Let’s talk about this cook-out we’re giving my parents.”

  “Well, my friends can’t make it so the guest list will be two shorter than we’d planned. Who are you going to invite instead?”

  “Nobody, I think. If you don’t mind being the only woman other than my mom, I’ll only invite Nate and Luther.”

  “Maybe they’ll bring dates?” she offered.

  “Maybe. Does it matter?”

  She shrugged. “Not really. It’s too bad they couldn’t work things out with Leslie and Tam.”

  “You’re doing it again,” he said.

  She squeezed him to her. “Sorry, you now have my undivided attention. I promise not to think about anyone or anything but you until you leave.”

  “That’s better,” he said. “But not good enough. I can’t wait until we have some more time alone.”

  Kim cuddled against him. She couldn’t wait either.

  Chapter 20

  When the ringing phone awoke Kim at five o’clock in the morning later that week, she wasn’t surprised to hear Jim’s voice. “You aren’t still sleeping, are you, Kimmy girl?” Jim’s thick voice asked.