by Reana Malori
At the touch of his lips on hers, a kaleidoscope of colors exploded behind her closed lids. Heaven. His firm lips captured hers in a soft kiss, his tongue rubbed along the seam of her lips, requesting entrance. She felt his hands grab around her waist, pulling her body closer to his. The ridge she felt pressing into her body almost made her weep with joy. Was that because of her? Pressing closer to him, she tried to show that she wanted this just as much as he did.
One hand rose to grip the back of his head, while the other held onto one of his strong biceps. This wasn’t a simple thank-you-for-dinner-I’m-still-interested type of kiss.
No, this was a warning.
Gavin was putting her on notice just how far he wanted this to go between them. There was no way in hell she wasn’t answering that challenge. She gave as good as she got. Gavin would be smart to recognize that she was staking her claim on him as well.
Finally breaking the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers. They were both breathing heavily and clinging to one another. She felt him lift her chin so that she was looking into his eyes.
“I’m glad you said yes,” he murmured with a smile.
“So am I.”
“Go on inside. I’ll wait here until you lock the door.” He released her with a soft kiss on the temple.
“You don’t want—”
“Not tonight,” he interrupted. “I have a feeling about you, Ms. Regina Perkins. I’m not messing this up. You took a chance on me tonight, so I’m going to do this the right way.”
“What’s the right way?” She couldn’t help but ask.
“This,” he said, while taking two steps back from her. “Go on inside. Lock the door once you close it.”
Regina was floored, but she did as he requested.
“Goodnight, Gavin.” Opening her door and stepping inside, she turned to look at him.
“Goodnight, Regina.”
His face disappeared from view as she closed the door. Engaging the locks, she peeked out the side window as she watched him walk away and climb into his vehicle.
“Oh wow…I’m in trouble.”
CHAPTER FIVE
A week later, Gavin looked at his son and smiled at the ice cream that covered his face. Saturdays were the one day they tried to spend together. Even if he had to go into work, he made sure the morning and afternoon were for his son.
They’d gone to a local park to play catch and hit some balls. Riley was getting ready to play T-ball on a local team within the next month, so Gavin wanted to make sure he knew the basics. Without bias, he could say that his son was pretty damn good. The kid had an arm on him and his hand-eye coordination was spot-on for a kid his age.
“Dad, I was thinking…” his son began.
Gavin laughed. “Uh oh. That’s always a pretty scary thing.”
“I’m serious, Dad. So, I’ve been thinking. You should get a girlfriend,” his son pronounced.
Gavin sputtered and coughed as his son casually made his statement. “Why do you think that?” he asked, once he was able to speak again.
“Well, I’m getting older now. It’s only been us all this time.”
His son’s logic was sound, but why would an eight-year-old be thinking about this?
“Yes, I’ll admit that you’re getting older. But you have a long way to go before you leave the house and your old man is left alone. There’s no rush for me to get a girlfriend.” Gavin stared at his son with surprise. When did this kid get so smart?
“Well, I was talking to Misty in class the other day.”
“You were? And what did Misty have to say?” he asked. Now this should be interesting, especially considering Riley had told him Misty never stopped talking.
“She told me her mom said that you were probably lonely and needed a woman,” he began.
Gavin sat there stunned. Why the hell was this little girl’s mother discussing him—and whether or not he was lonely—with her daughter? “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, and then she said if she wasn’t married to Misty’s dad, then you could have her goodies. But Misty didn’t know what those were and neither do I.”
Gavin had no idea how to respond. He sat there stumped, unable to speak.
“Dad, do you want Misty’s mom’s goodies?” His son seemed determined to get an answer to his question.
What the hell? He needed to talk to Misty’s mother as soon as possible. She sure as hell shouldn’t be telling her daughter these things. “Um, no, son, I don’t. How about let’s change the subject. Did you know Uncle Doug is in town today? He brought a gift for you from his trip to Mexico. I think he may be over at the bar now, so we should get going.”
Doug wasn’t his brother, but he was the closest thing to one Gavin had.
“Yeah, let’s go. Maybe Doug knows what goodies Misty’s mom wants to give you. Misty said her aunt said she had some goodies, too. So that means you’d get two types of goodies.”
“Son, I don’t want anyone’s goodies.” He tried not to laugh, but it was getting harder to hold it inside the longer this conversation went on.
“Dad, I think they’re right.”
Gavin couldn’t pack up fast enough. Riley’s voice had started to travel around the ice cream shop, and other parents were starting to give him looks of shock and pity. Shrugging his shoulders as he tried to shoo his son out of the place as fast as he could, he hoped the parents understood the universal sign of parental embarrassment.
“Dad, did you hear me? I think they’re right,” his son said again.
Taking the bait, he knew he’d come to regret the next words from his son’s mouth, “Right about what?”
“I think you need a girlfriend. That way she can give you her goodies and you don’t have to go to Misty’s mom or her aunt.”
He gave a bark of laughter. “Son, I’m working on it.”
Thinking of Regina and her special brand of goodies, he was starting to agree with Misty’s mom. He did need a girlfriend.
“How about we keep this conversation, and what Misty told you, to ourselves.” Shaking his head at the crazy turn of their conversation, he slowly began to laugh at the situation.
“Come on, kid, let’s go get your gift from your good ol’ Uncle Doug and see what’s going on at The Long Shot.” Gavin climbed in his vehicle and set off down the road, his thoughts again turning to Regina. It was only just after one o’clock, but he wanted to call her and see how her day was going.
The kiss last week had him taking a cold shower when he got home. The feel of her lips against his had almost been his undoing. She was so responsive to him. He knew once she was in his bed, he’d never let her out of it.
They’d talked almost every day since that first night and he was itching to hear her voice again. He’d call her at night, once Riley was down for bed, and they’d talk for hours about anything and everything. His life in the Marines. Her love of music and dancing of any kind. His fear of spiders, which he managed to swear her to secrecy about, and her desire to be unique, even when the world tried to force her in a box.
The woman was beautiful, inside and out, and he wanted to know her so much better. He scoffed at his thoughts. Him? Thinking about a woman and getting to know her better? She must have done a number on him, because he was thinking about how he enjoyed watching her smile. Her laughter when he told a corny joke. And most importantly, the way her body had looked on their date. One of the hardest things he’d done had been to walk away from her the other night. He’d wanted nothing more than to walk inside her home, rip her clothes off, and sink inside of her.
It had only been one date—and many, many hours on the phone—but he knew Regina was someone he wanted in his life for the long haul. She’d told him last night on the phone that she’d never dated a white man before. He’d been surprised at that confession. Not because he’d expected anything specific, but he knew men. And men loved women with curves, no matter what bullshit the magazines tried to sell.
Hearing her say those
words had also made him smile. Now he knew that he had a mission. If he wanted this thing with Regina to last, then he had to make sure that she had no reason to doubt just how committed he was to making this work with her. He’d dated women of all races and had no qualms about dating a woman simply because she was beautiful to him, skin color be damned. Over the years, he’d found that good and bad women came in all races, shapes, and skin tones. All he wanted at this stage in life was a good woman for him and his son.
Something in him knew that Regina was that woman. That she happened to come in such a beautiful and enticing package was just a bonus.
Pulling up to his place a few minutes later, he and Riley walked in to see that a few of his employees were huddled around a table talking.
“Hey, boss. Hey, Riley,” a few of them called out at the same time.
“What’s up, guys? Everything all right?” he responded as he and Riley walked over to join them.
“Yeah, we’re just working out the schedule for the weekend. This past week had us hopping so much, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to cover everything. Just trying to get ahead of it so we don’t have that same issue tonight,” Jimmy answered. As the bartender, he was the de facto manager when Gavin or Angel, his full-time manager, weren’t around.
“Good idea. Keep up the good work,” he said to his employees. “Hey, kiddo, let’s go find Doug.” Gavin steered Riley away from the team of workers.
“Oh, he’s in the back office. I told him it was okay to go back there, since he needed to make some calls,” one of the waitresses called out.
“Thanks, Carrie. Y’all let me know if you need anything,” he said before making his way to the back room.
Approaching the door, he heard Doug speaking on the phone. “Why are you calling me, Lou? You know I don’t get involved in this family drama. If he said he’d let you know, then you need to wait for him. How about I tell him you called? Yeah, bye.”
Gavin opened the door wider just as Doug was swiping his phone to end the call.
“Was that who I think it was?” he asked his old friend. Doug had been one of his Marine buddies from back in the day, and was also one of his oldest friends. He’d been there the day Gavin had met Tina, and had been on a plane to see him a week after he’d found out Riley wasn’t his. That Lou Ellen was calling Doug to try and get to Gavin wasn’t a surprise, but it still pissed him off.
“Yeah, it was. Man, I don’t know why she thought it was a good idea to call me, considering how I feel about the whole lot of them. I’ll chalk it up to delusion. We’ll talk about it later, though, and I’ll tell you what she said.” Turning to Riley, he smiled big and put on the charm. “Hey buddy, I come bearing gifts.”
Riley’s face lit up with happiness. “Show me! Show me!”
Doug always got him the best stuff from his travels. He was a sales engineer for some big company, and he got to travel all over the world. Whenever he had a break from his many sales trips, he made a special point to bring Riley something back as a souvenir. The kid’s room was filled with items from the most interesting places in the world. Gavin smiled, watching his son jump up and down in excitement as the man he considered an uncle started pulling stuff from his backpack.
Walking over to his desk, he allowed the two of them time to oooh and aaah over all the new trinkets. Settling in his chair, he turned on his laptop to review the previous night’s intake.
One again, his thoughts turned to Regina. He wondered what she was doing. Was she thinking about him? If he called her, what would she say?
Shaking his head to clear away the thoughts, he knew he was already addicted to the taste of her. The feel of her lips against his had sparked a fire in him that had been dormant for much too long. Just one kiss would never be enough and he knew he’d be going back for more.
“Dad, wait until you see all the stuff Uncle Doug brought back for me. You won’t believe it,” his son called out.
“I’m sure it’s great stuff, buddy,” Gavin answered just as his phone buzzed on top of the desk. Picking it up, he saw that it was a message from Lou Ellen. What the fuck did she want now? Maybe she figured out trying to get to him through his friend wasn’t going to work.
Can we talk about Riley?
He was tempted to delete the text and ignore her. Deciding to not go down that path, he sent her a quick note in return.
When I’m ready to decide, I’ll let you know.
He wasn’t done thinking about this situation and needed more time. It had been years since Riley had seen Bertha Ann, and he wasn’t too keen on having his son around her again. They were up to something, but he just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
Turning back to the computer, he began reviewing the sales information from the previous night and approving employee timecards. Taking a deep breath, he couldn’t help but be pleased with how his life was going. Business continued to improve and the bar was bringing in solid funds each night. This was exactly what he wanted to see when he’d decided to open his bar. What he’d hoped this place would become.
His life had grown into something he’d never imagined it would be. Raising his son on his own kept him on his toes. Becoming a business owner. Meeting a woman who made him feel alive again. Things were definitely looking up, and he was ready for whatever came his way.
*****
The shit had just hit the fan and heads were about to roll. Gavin stormed out of his office and into the front of the bar. His anger was palpable to all who saw him. The crowd was starting to thicken as the afternoon waned on, but he wasn’t focused on that. No, his attention was on the unexpected visitor who’d just walked through the door.
Moving rapidly to the front of the large room, he walked up to the woman standing near the bar, alongside her daughter. His eyes blazed fire; he couldn’t believe the gall of this woman to show up at his establishment.
“What are you doing here, Bertha Ann?” his deep voice called out in the semi-silence of the room.
“You’re not returning my calls. This was the only way I could get to you,” the old woman said, her voice weak and frail.
Looking at her in the flesh, Gavin could see that Lou Ellen had been telling the truth. Bertha Ann was sick.
Fuck. Now what did he do?
“Showing up at my place of business wasn’t the answer. I said I’d contact you when I’d made my decision,” he said through gritted teeth. His employees were starting to look over at them, and that made him even more pissed. Gavin hated making a scene, especially since the person standing in front of him was a woman.
“You weren’t deciding soon enough. I needed to come and see you. To talk to you.”
“Bertha, I’m not sure why you’re here, but you have to know this is not okay. I’m not going to have this conversation with you today. I said I’d call you when I’m ready to decide. No sooner. You coming here is not going to force my hand.” He was trying to calm down, especially now that he’d seen her.
Good thing Riley was still in the back with Doug, and didn’t know Bertha Ann had shown up. All he needed was for his son to see her standing here. Their life had finally settled into a good place and he didn’t want the unwelcome intrusion to upset things.
“But Riley—” she began.
“Is fine without you in his life,” he yelled. Regretting the words as soon as they came out, he inhaled deeply and counted to ten.
“Gavin, I know you’re upset at what Tina did, but he’s all I have left of her. He’s more my blood than he is yours. You can’t keep my blood away from me. You’re not even his father.” The old woman’s bitter words sounded in the room like a gunshot. Her eyes widened as she realized her words had hit the mark.
“Get out,” he said in a hard voice.
“He’s my family, Gavin,” she implored. “I’ll fight you in court if I have to.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Hey, Gavin.” His manager Angel interrupted the conversation. “Anything
I can do here?”
Bertha Ann had a look of hurt in her eyes, and for a moment, Gavin regretted his harsh words. It wasn’t her fault that her daughter had duped him. Then again, maybe she’d known all along what Tina was doing. Still, it wasn’t like him to take his anger out on a woman.
“No, Angel. Ms. Peters was just leaving,” he responded to his employee.
“Gavin, this isn’t over. I want to see Riley. I deserve to see him,” she interjected again.
“Then you’ll have to see me in court. Goodbye, Bertha Ann. Don’t come to my place of business again.” Harsh? Yes. But honestly, he was at his wits end with Tina’s family. Right when his life was where he wanted it to be, they had to reappear in his life.
Turning his back to the old woman, he began making his way to his office again. As he turned the corner, he noticed Angel escorting Bertha Ann out of the front door. She wasn’t giving him a hard time, but Angel was also making it clear that it was time for her to leave.
Thank goodness Riley hadn’t come out front. All he’d needed was for his son to see his grandmother standing there. That would have been a clusterfuck of the highest magnitude. He entered the office to the sound of his son’s laughter. Doug was getting his butt kicked as they played the game system.
“Come on, kid. Give me a break. How do you keep getting the drop on me?” Doug laughed as Riley’s point total climbed higher
“No breaks. You challenged me, Uncle Doug, and now I have to beat you. Don’t be mad that a kid is winning.” His son belly-laughed as the word WINNER came across the screen again.
“When will you learn, man?” Gavin chuckled.
“I know, I know. But the kid’s like a game shark. Every time I think I have him beat, he pulls out a surprise move on me.”
Riley sat there beaming, “Had enough yet?”
“Yeah, I think I need a break,” Doug said. Looking over at Gavin, “Everything all good out front?”
“It is now. Surprise visitors are never welcome,” he answered in code. “Hey Riley, go ahead and grab your stuff, kiddo. I have to take you over to Katie’s for the night, then get back here for work.”
