The Nicest Guy in America

by Angela Benson

  “Not now, Jim,” she said. “Did you get my article?” She’d FedEx’ed it to him two days ago.

  “That’s what I’m calling you about, Kimmy. I got the article yesterday. It was damn good.”

  “I think I hear a but coming, Jim. Come on, tell me.”

  “Well, Kimmy, it’s a good article, like I said, but it doesn’t have any punch to it. Have you and Reggie stirred up any news down there in Atlanta?”

  “Not really, Jim,” she hedged. “But we’ve got a couple of ideas for our column.” Kim knew she was lying but felt she needed to give Jim something to keep him off her back.

  “Well, ideas are good, Kimmy girl, but what we need is a publicity grabber. Have you come up with anything like that?”

  She hadn’t and she didn’t plan to, but she was wise enough not to give that bit of information to her boss. “What exactly are you looking for, Jim?”

  “Something like that article you did or the article Reggie did. Something controversial or outrageous. Something like that picture of you two kissing that showed up in the papers. Do you have anything like that?”

  “Not quite, Jim,” she said. “I was thinking of something a little bit more sophisticated.”

  “Sophisticated doesn’t sell magazines, Kimmy,” Jim growled. “I thought you’d learned that by now. Are you and Reggie still dating?”

  “Yes,” she answered, unwilling to tell Jim how far their relationship had come. Who knew what he’d do with that information?

  “How’s it going?” he asked. When she didn’t answer immediately, he said, “Come on, Kimmy girl, there could be something there that we could use.”

  “I don’t think so, Jim. We’re just dating, getting to know each other.”

  “But you do like him, don’t you, Kimmy? He seems a nice enough guy.”

  “Sure I like him, Jim, but what does that have to do with anything?” A strong feeling of apprehension built up in her belly. Jim was up to something.

  “Well, since the two of you haven’t been drumming up any publicity, I’ve been trying to come up with something and I think I’ve found just the right angle.”

  She didn’t want to ask, but she had to. “What kind of angle, Jim?”

  “Don’t go getting all nervous on me, Kimmy. It’s not a biggie. Just something to drum up a little interest.”

  “What kind of angle, Jim?” she repeated.

  “Well, I was thinking that if we’re going to really kick off the contest issue and your column, we’re going to need something really big to draw interest.”

  “Stop beating around the bush, Jim. Tell me what your idea is.”

  “Well, Kimmy, it would just be for show, you know, but I was thinking that you and Reggie could get engaged.”

  “Engaged?” she shouted. “Have you lost your mind?” Kim knew she could do a lot of things, but pretending to be engaged to Reggie wasn’t one of them. Her relationship with him was serious and engagement was serious. She wasn’t willing to jeopardize what they had by playing such a game.

  “Hear me out, Kimmy. You wouldn’t really be engaged, just engaged for the publicity. You wouldn’t have to get married.”

  “Why, thanks a lot, Jim,” she said sarcastically. “For a minute there, I thought you had my wedding gown already picked out.”

  “You’re getting mad, Kimmy. I can hear it in your voice. Now calm down and listen to me.”

  “Calm down?” she said. “You want me to pretend to be engaged so we can drum up some publicity for the magazine. Don’t you have any sense of integrity?”

  “Wait a minute, Kimmy,” Jim warned. “You’re coming pretty close to crossing the line there. Don’t forget that you’ve been down there in Atlanta on an expense account, my expense account, for weeks and you haven’t come up with diddley. Well, I don’t intend to lose money on this deal and if you want to keep your job, you’d better go in for a little attitude adjustment.”

  “Are you threatening me, Jim?” Kim asked.

  “I’m telling you like it is. This is a business, Kimmy, and businesses are about making money. If you don’t know that by now, you may be in the wrong business.”

  “Maybe you’re right, Jim,” she said. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “It’s up to you, Kimmy. I’ll give you one week to think over my offer. As I see it, you’ve got two options. Go along with this fake engagement idea or start looking for another job. I’ll give you one week.”

  “I don’t—”

  It was too late. Jim had hung up. She had half a mind to call him back and tell him off. But what good would that do? She’d only be lowering herself to his level.

  Surprisingly, the thought of losing her job didn’t upset her. There was no way she was going to fake an engagement with Reggie for the magazine’s sake. Their relationship was much too precious to subject to such a scam. She couldn’t wait to tell Reggie what Jim had said. She was sure he’d get a good laugh out of it after he got over being angry.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Nice cookout, Mr. Stevens,” Kim said to Reggie. She’d spent most of the afternoon seated on his shaded patio with his parents while he’d slaved over the hot grill. This was the first private moment she’d found to talk with him.

  “Nice outfit, Ms. Washington.” He gave her yellow denim-like short set a positive masculine appraisal. “Nice body, too.”

  “Oooh, you do know how to tease a girl.”

  “I’m not teasing, darling. Just wait until we get my parents on the road.”

  “What’ll we do with Nate and Luther over there?” She nodded in the direction of his two friends who were being taught the finer points of holding a golf club by Mr. Stevens.

  He flipped one of the burgers on the grill. “Don’t worry about them. I’ll throw them to the curb before they realize what’s happening.”

  She chuckled. “And here I was thinking you were such a wonderful host.”

  “I am,” he said. “I just like to choose my guests.”

  “Hey,” Luther interrupted. “What are you two talking about?”

  Kim turned to Reggie’s friend. “Nothing much. I was telling Mr. Stevens here that he throws a pretty good party.”

  “You call this a party?” Luther asked with wide eyes. “I’ve had more fun at funerals.”

  “You can always leave, man,” Reggie said with a wink to Kim.

  “And do what?” Luther complained with a shrug. “Unfortunately, yours was my most exciting offer for today.”

  “Now, I don’t believe that, Luther,” Kim said. “I thought you were a ladies’ man extraordinaire.”

  “So did I,” he mumbled. “Hey, why aren’t Leslie and Tam here?”

  She turned to Reggie. “You didn’t tell him.”

  “Tell me what?”

  Reggie shrugged. “It wasn’t my business.”

  “What wasn’t?” asked Luther.

  Kim sighed. “They went back home earlier in the week.”

  “So she’s gone,” Luther said absently.

  Kim thought Luther expressed a lot of concern for a woman he didn’t care about. Could it be that Tam had read him wrong? “Yes, she’s gone.” She took perverse pleasure in letting him think it was forever.

  “And she didn’t even have the decency to call and tell me she was leaving. Go figure.”

  Kim rolled her eyes. “The way I heard it is that you’re the one who didn’t make any phone calls. You left her high and dry, Luther. What did you expect her to do?”

  “You don’t understand, Kim,” Luther tried to explain. “Things were complicated with Tam and me from the beginning.”

  Kim waved away his excuse. “So she said. But whatever it was seemed to have gotten uncomplicated pretty suddenly. What was it? You decided a woman with a child wasn’t your style and you weren’t man enough to tell her.”

  Luther shook his head. “You don’t understand,” he said again. “You really don’t understand.” He looked at her and Reggie and then walked off, his head
down.

  “I almost feel sorry for him,” she said.

  “You were hard on him, Kim,” Reggie said. “Whether you believe it or not, he cared for Tam.”

  Kim snorted. “I thought so too, but his actions proved otherwise. A man who cares about a woman doesn’t treat her the way Luther treated Tam. Heck, a man who doesn’t care about a woman can treat her better than Luther treated Tam.”

  Reggie studied her face as if looking for something. Then he shook his head. “You’re so sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “What? Are you saying you think Luther was right?”

  “No, I’m not saying that. I think that we may not know all that went on between him and Tam.”

  “I know enough,” she said. “I know Luther was interested in her until she told him she had a child. Then he dumped her before the words could even sink in.”

  Reggie shook his head again. “Sometimes you scare me, Kim. You don’t cut a guy any slack. I wonder what I’ll do that’ll set you off on me. Again.”

  She knew from the look in his eyes that he was serious. “Why would you say something like that?”

  “Because you can be so rigid at times. You only see things your way. Don’t get me wrong. You’re a strong woman and that’s a very attractive trait. A very sexy trait. But it scares me.”

  “As long as you’re honest with me, you don’t have anything to worry about. I may be rigid, but I’m fair. You, of all people, should know that.”

  “I’m human. I worry sometimes.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t.” She walked to him and pressed a light kiss against his lips. “Now smile before your mother thinks I’ve done something awful to you.”

  She would have stepped away, but he kept her close. “Do you realize that’s the first time you’ve been openly affectionate with me with my parents around?”

  She did, but at the moment it was more important to ease the worry from his brow than to worry about his parents’ reaction to their sharing a kiss. “Maybe I’m getting used to them.”

  He kissed her. “Maybe you’re getting used to me.”

  “Could be,” she said. “Now let me go before your mother begins to think I’m a loose woman.”

  He loosened his hold and she stepped away, but not before he slapped her behind.

  “What was that for?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” he said with a wide grin. “I just wanted to do it. Do you have a problem with it, Ms. Washington?”

  She was about to rattle off a list of problems she had with it, but she saw the teasing in his eyes. “No problem at all, Mr. Stevens, but remember that turnabout is fair play.”

  “I’ll look forward to the payback. Now stop flirting with me and go talk to somebody else. I’d hate to embarrass myself in front of my parents.”

  She backed away from him with a smile on her face.”It’s nice to know I have that kind of effect on you.”

  He pointed the spatula at her. “Go. Now.”

  She chuckled and walked over to talk with Nate.

  ~ ~ ~

  Reggie hustled Nate and Luther out of the house as soon as his parents drove out of the driveway. “Whew,” he said to Kim when he returned to the patio on the back of the house. “I thought they’d never leave.”

  “You’re bad.”

  “Very had.” He opened his arms to her. “Come here. I’ve wanted to hold you all afternoon.” His heart expanded when she came willingly and eagerly into his arms. “This is more like it. Is it as good for you as it is for me?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “How good is it for you?”

  He slapped her bottom. “Smarty pants.”

  “Hey, you’d better watch it with the hands, buddy. I don’t like to be manhandled.”

  He leaned back and grinned down at her. “That’s not quite how I remember it.”

  “Maybe you have a bad memory.”

  “Maybe you’re the one with the bad memory. And I think I know just the thing to help you refresh it.” He stepped back from her and lifted her in his arms.

  She kept her hands around his neck as he carried her into the house and to the bedroom. After he’d dropped her unceremoniously on the bed, she said, “I think I liked it much better when you carried me over your shoulder.”

  “Variety is the spice of life, Ms. Washington, or haven’t you heard?” he said, grinning down at her. She was about to return his teasing with some of her own, but his face sobered. “What have you done to me, Kim?”

  She pressed her hand to his cheek. “No more than you’ve done to me.”

  What did this man do to her? she wondered. What was so special about him, about them together, that made her feel this way? As she looked into his passion-glazed eyes now, she knew she’d loved him from the first time she’d seen his face. Of course, it made no sense. But how many things in life that really mattered made sense?

  Reggie wondered at the feelings that encompassed him. What he shared with Kim was no simple coupling. This was a merging of two souls, two people who’d met out-of-time being given a second chance. There was no doubt in his mind that he and Kim were destined to be together. Everything else and everyone else in his life had prepared him for this moment, for her.

  More than anything, he wanted to be worthy of her. To be the kind of man she deserved. A man who would spend the rest of his life loving her and making her happy. A man who’d seek to pleasure her as much out of bed as in it. A man who’d cherish her independence, her willfulness. A man who’d rejoice in her just being her.

  This was a new feeling for him. Every other woman he’d cared for had been a woman whose life he wanted to change, to make better. He’d seen himself as being what they needed in their lives and he’d taken fulfillment in being needed. He’d substituted being needed for being loved. Not so with Ms Kimberla Washington. She was what he needed. His life was made better by her. She opened doors to new dreams and new possibilities for him. She presented him with an opportunity for a future of being loved rather than a future of being needed. He knew he would never let her go.

  Chapter 21

  Kim turned in the bed expecting to roll into Reggie’s arms and was surprised to find herself alone. She opened her eyes and scanned the room for him. Not finding him, she slid out of bed and slipped into the sleep shirt she used when staying over at his house.

  After making a stop in the bathroom, she headed for the kitchen where she found him at the stove preparing breakfast. She leaned against the doorway and watched him, thinking how much she’d come to care for him in such a short time and amazed that her feelings were returned. Or so it seemed.

  She walked over to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and said, “Morning, Mr. Stevens. What’s for breakfast?”

  He turned in her embrace, and smiled down at her. “It’s about time you got up. You must have been very tired.”

  She quirked an eyebrow at him. “I wonder who’s fault that is?”

  “I guess I’ll have to take the blame,” he said with a grin. “Sorry.”

  That was the most contrite-less sorry she’d ever heard. “I bet you are.”

  He spanked her backside, then turned back to the stove. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and get out a couple of plates.”

  “Slave driver,” she said, opening the overhead cabinet. “First you keep me up half the night. Then you put me to work as soon as I wake up.”

  He scooped up an omelet and placed it on one of the plates. “You’re the most contrary woman I’ve ever met. All I’m trying to do is satisfy your every physical need.”

  She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice. “And yours in the process,” she said, pouring them each a glass of juice.

  He picked up the plates and took them to the dinette table in the breakfast nook and she followed with the juice. “I’ve always felt that one should bask in the joy that comes from giving service,” he said.

  “You’re full of it,” she returned, taking her seat.
She cut her omelet with her fork and popped a piece in her mouth. “But you’re also a good cook, so I think I’ll keep you around.”

  He took a swallow of his juice. “Well,” he said dryly. “I’m glad I’m appreciated.”

  “Don’t pout.” She patted his hand. “It’s not becoming on such a fine masculine specimen as yourself.”

  He folded her hand in his and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “So what do you want to do today?”

  She sighed. “I might need to start packing.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Well, I talked to Jim yesterday morning and he doesn’t think we’re doing a good job of keeping a high profile.”

  “And?”

  “And he wants me to drum up some publicity or I’m fired.”

  Reggie chuckled. “I bet he threatens to fire you five or six times a year.”

  She nodded. “But I think he’s serious this time. He’s spent all this money for me to be here in Atlanta and he doesn’t think he’s getting the return he should be getting.”

  “But you’re doing a great job,” Reggie said, between bites of his food. “I could tell him that.”

  She grinned, pleased that he was ready to come to her rescue. “I’m sure you could, but unless you were willing to send the tabloids pictures of us in bed together, I don’t think he’d be too impressed.”

  Reggie chuckled. “You may be right. Jim does seem to lean toward the sensational. But he’ll change his tune once he reads your article.”

  She sipped from her juice. “He’s already read it.”

  “Why didn’t you let me read it?”

  She raised a brow at him. “What’s wrong? You don’t trust me?”

  “Of course, I trust you.” He grinned that grin that she’d come to love so. “I just wanted to read the article. It’s not everyday a man has his woman sing his praises for all the world to hear, or in our case, read.”

  She lifted a brow at cockiness. “You’ll read it, Mr. Modesty.”

  “Yeah, but when?”

  She shrugged. “You may have to wait until it hits the stands. If it hits the stands.”

  “What do you mean if? Surely, Jim’s not going to pull the article at this point. That would be crazy.”