Loving the Best Man (Friends & Lovers Book 2)

by Jaye Diane

  The house was decked out for Christmas. There had to be thousands of lights shining brightly on every side of it. In the yard, there was a happy snowman with a red scarf that waved in the wind and tall, plastic candy canes. She smiled at the decorated porch swing on her way to the door. A giant Christmas wreath hung on the door.

  She rang the bell and it was quickly opened by Angelica Jamison, who gave Emerald a hug and kissed both her cheeks.

  “I’m glad you made it!” Angelica said with a delicate Spanish accent as Emerald took off her coat. Angelica looked beautiful, dressed in an emerald green dress. Her long brown hair had been wound into a bun on top of her head and she didn’t look remotely old enough to have four grown children.

  “Of course I did,” Emerald said, smiling. “How are you?”

  “I’m wonderful!” Angelica replied. She took Emerald’s coat and hung it in a closet near the front door.

  Emerald followed Angelica into the living room. Jared Jamison sat in a rocking chair, holding a beautiful golden-skinned baby with hazel eyes and a headful of curly hair. She we wriggled, her tiny body clad in a bright pink sleeper.

  “Hi, Mr. Jamison,” Emerald said. “Hi, Olivia!”

  “Hi, Emerald.” He stood up and quickly put the baby in her arms. “How are you?”

  “I’m good,” Emerald said, nuzzling the baby, who pulled at her hair.

  “Wasn’t that wedding just beautiful?” Angelica murmured. “I wish we could have another one!”

  “We will,” Jared said, grinning at his wife with warm hazel eyes. “We have to wait for Grace to settle down.”

  “That is my dream,” Angelica said, winking at Emerald.

  Emerald laughed. She really enjoyed her friends’ parents. She loved her father but they’d never been close and her mother had died when she was just a baby.

  “Where is Grace?” Emerald asked. Since Grace was staying in town until after the holidays, she’d expected her to be home.

  “She ran out to the store,” Jared replied. He picked up a tumbler that sat on the glass coffee table and sipped before putting it down and sitting on the plush black sofa with Angelica.

  “How are you, Olivia?” Emerald asked the baby.

  The baby gurgled, a bright smile on her face. She looked so much like Devin and had those Jamison hazel eyes that he, his father and siblings all had. Emerald happily bounced the baby on her knee.

  “I hope you’re staying for dinner,” Angelica said. “I’m making steak.”

  “Uh, sure,” Emerald said, though that meant she’d be getting home later than she wanted. Her paranoia was slowly growing. When she’d walked to the car that morning, her heart had pounded and she’d gripped her pepper spray in her hand in her coat pocket.

  Angelica went to the kitchen to check on dinner and Emerald gave Jared her phone and asked him to take a couple of pictures of her and the baby. She tagged Robyn and Devin in the pictures and posted them.

  She sung a couple of songs to Olivia, which made the baby smile and gurgle. Jared smiled adoringly at his granddaughter.

  “Hey!” Grace walked in, looking gorgeous as always. “Give me my baby!”

  “No way,” Emerald said, hugging Olivia closer to her. “I just got her.”

  Olivia cooed and grabbed at Emerald’s shirt.

  Jared excused himself, saying that he was going to the kitchen to help Angelica.

  “How have you been?” Emerald asked, laughing as the baby held onto one of her buttons.

  “I’m okay,” Grace said, shaking her head. “Ryan’s been messaging me on Facebook. He wants to see me.”

  “You requested him?” Emerald asked, surprised.

  “No, he requested me.” Grace shook her head. “I never should have accepted his request.”

  “So why did you?”

  Grace shrugged.

  “You like him, don’t you?” Emerald asked, looking closely at her friend.

  “I don’t know,” Grace said. “I definitely had a great time with him. But I love my life right now. I love traveling and having fun and coming and going as I please.”

  “I know,” Emerald said quietly. That was one of the many things that she and Grace had in common. “So are you going to see him?”

  “No,” Grace muttered. “That’s a bad idea.”

  “If you say so,” Emerald said. She was the last person in the world to be giving relationship advice.

  She felt a draft and realized that Olivia had succeeded in yanking open a couple of buttons.

  “You silly baby,” She gave the baby a kiss and passed her to Grace so she could fix her shirt.

  Grace gasped.

  “What’s the matter?” Emerald frowned and buttoned the shirt again.

  “You have a hickey!” Grace said loudly.

  “Shut up!” Emerald whispered fiercely. She turned to see if either Jared or Angelica had heard but neither of them appeared so she supposed they hadn’t. She’d completely forgotten about the hickey. She’d noticed it in the shower that morning. Fortunately it was low on her neck so it was easy to hide.

  “You hooked up with Linc again didn’t you?” Grace whispered.

  “Yeah. And?” Emerald tried to sound nonchalant.

  “And? This is incredible!” Grace raised her voice again.

  “Shut up!” Emerald repeated.

  “You have a hickey. How did he get away with that? Tell me he didn’t seduce you!” Grace teased.

  “Cut it out, Grace,” Emerald warned.

  “I must know!” Grace said with an exaggerated yowl. Olivia eyed her aunt with wide eyes, a big grin on her face.

  “Girls,” Angelica called, making them jump. “Dinner’s ready!”

  “I want details!” Grace said, wagging her finger at Emerald.

  “Let’s go eat!” Emerald said, rushing from the room.

  “This isn’t over, Emmy!” Grace playfully warned.

  Emerald laughed but gratefully escaped to the dining room with Grace walking behind her.

  Chapter Three

  Hearing her phone ring with a specific ringtone, Emerald pulled over and looked at the screen.

  “Robyn!”

  “Hi, Emmy,” Robyn said warmly.

  “How are you?”

  “I’m wonderful!” Robyn gushed. “I feel like I’m dreaming.”

  “I’m so happy for you,” Emerald said honestly. She and Robyn had been friends since the eighth grade and they were like sisters. They’d been through so much together and Emerald felt so grateful to have Robyn as her best friend.

  “Thank you!”

  “Where’s Dev?”

  “He’s in the shower. What have you been up to?”

  “I’m looking for parking,” Emerald said, more than a little annoyed.

  “But it’s already after ten!”

  The truth was there was a spot right around the corner from her house, but she didn’t want to park that close. Who knew when Marley would show up again?

  “I know,” Emerald sighed. “After work I went to see your baby and I had dinner over there.”

  “Oh, I miss her!” Robyn responded with a small groan.

  “I know you do.” Emerald smiled. “The rest of the week is going to fly by and you’ll be home before you know it.”

  They were scheduled to come back at the end of the week.

  “Enjoy Jamaica while you can,” Emerald said. “After the holidays it’s going to be the same old grind: go to work then work at home then go to sleep and do it again.”

  “You need a social life,” Robyn replied.

  Emerald’s heart seemed to skip a beat as Lincoln came to mind. She and Robyn didn’t have any secrets between them. And yet she didn’t want to tell her friend about Lincoln.

  Over the years, Lincoln had come around from time to time. He’d always been a huge flirt. Robyn had often jokingly warned him to leave Emerald alone but Emerald had never taken him seriously anyway. She guessed she just didn’t want to have Robyn give her
a lecture about fooling around with Lincoln. Or worse, act like Grace who already had her hopes up thinking that it was so romantic.

  When they said their goodbyes, Emerald put the phone into her purse and went back to driving. Her eyes were stinging from sleepiness. Lincoln hadn’t left until nearly four in the morning and she’d hadn’t gotten much sleep. All she wanted was her bed and here she was, driving around at ten thirty at night looking for a safe place to park her car.

  She’d surprisingly had a lot of energy at work that day. But after the busy workday and long -if fun- dinner, she was exhausted.

  After driving around a few more times, she finally found a spot several blocks away. There were a few closer ones but they were too close for comfort. She parked and got out of the car. It was freezing cold and she walked as fast as she could with her tall heels on. The closer she got to her apartment building, the greater the feeling of urgency seemed to become.

  The streets, which had never bothered her before, now felt incredibly dangerous and she couldn’t wait to get into her apartment. She entered the building, breathing rapidly, and rushed up the stairs. She half expected Marley to jump out from around a corner. She was truly on edge. When she entered her apartment, she locked the door and collapsed onto the couch in relief.

  She lay there for several seconds waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal. How had the asshole started to get into her mind like this? She had to find a way to get some control back. She refused to be anyone’s victim and it was time to make sure that he knew it.

  The next morning, Linc bought a large coffee on his way to the office. Two nights in a row of no sleep had made him feel like a zombie. He’d lost a lot of sleep a couple of nights ago because he’d been with Emerald. And he’d lost a lot of sleep the night before because he’d been thinking about Emerald. Since he’d left her house he hadn’t called her or texted her and she hadn’t gotten in touch with him either.

  He was used to women chasing him, even when he went to the trouble to explain to them that he wouldn’t be settling down any time soon. Emerald was the complete opposite of many of the women that he’d met or hooked up with. Distance between them didn’t seem to faze her.

  He’d picked up the phone several times and come very close to calling her but had always put the phone down without dialing. He didn’t want to come on too strong. She was very independent and he knew it would be easy to scare her off. In time, he’d get under her skin.

  He missed talking to her. But he told himself that whenever he got home from work, he’d call her. Unfortunately, that made it all but impossible for him to focus at work, which led to him staying late to get some actual work done.

  He didn’t leave the offices of Cramden & Associates until almost eight at night. He took the elevator down to the basement garage and walked to his car, yanking off his tie as he went. By the time he got into the car and started it up, he was muttering curses under his breath.

  Speeding out of the garage, he drove home, his mind plagued by thoughts of Emerald and how she was ignoring him. He wished he didn’t feel such a strong need to call her. He wondered if she even cared if he got in touch with her or not.

  As soon as he entered his apartment, he changed into a sweat suit and decided to go running. He wasn’t going to call her. He’d give it another day. He’d never been whipped in his life and he damn sure wasn’t going to start at the age of twenty-seven.

  After he tied his sneakers, he grabbed his keys and started for the door. The house phone rang and he walked over to answer it.

  “Hello?”

  “Mr. Thayer,” It was William, the doorman. “You have a guest. Miss Emerald Felton. Should I let her up?”

  “Yes,” Linc replied, a grin spreading across his face. “Add her to my guest list, William.”

  “Will do, sir. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight.” Linc hung up the phone and resisted the urge to do a victory dance. He trained his face so that he looked cool and calm, then went to the elevators to wait for her.

  She looked beautiful but tired. Her hair was in several braids pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing black slacks and very high heels. She sashayed off the elevator with a warm smile on her face and it felt perfectly natural for him to pull her close for a kiss.

  Through her thick coat she was pliant already and he wanted to drag her into the apartment and take her there and then. Having an incredible feeling of butterflies in his stomach, he was speechless for a moment once they pulled apart.

  She cleared her throat and held up a plastic bag.

  “I brought us some dinner,” She murmured, not meeting his eyes. She looked a little nervous. “It’s okay if you already ate,” She added in a rush. “But I didn’t have dinner yet and I didn’t want to be rude by not-”

  “I didn’t eat yet,” He said, smiling at her. Her heels were so high that they were nearly at eye level with each other.

  He took her hand and they walked into his apartment.

  “I was about to go for a run but this is much better.”

  She hung her coat on a coat rack near the door and followed him into the living room. The place was pretty Spartan and for the first time, he felt awkward about not decorating. In his living room he only had a sectional sofa, a stereo and a flat screen TV on a TV stand. There wasn’t a single decoration or family photo. He hadn’t felt the need since he was barely there.

  Linc couldn’t help but notice how good she looked in a shiny pink satin blouse and black slacks. She’d kicked off her shoes and her small stockinged feet look petite. He wondered if she’d get mad if he made a move now. Their relationship was based on sex, after all. Deciding against it, he still had a fleeting thought about what color panties she had on.

  He picked up the rectangular table that was in his large, empty dining room and brought it to the living room. After he grabbed two of the chairs they sat down to eat. She’d brought Chinese, which was his favorite, and he wondered if she remembered how much he loved it or if it was just a coincidence.

  “How was your day?” He asked.

  “It was fine. Busy.”

  “And yesterday?” He hadn’t intended to mention the day before but it had popped out of his mouth before he could help himself. He’d wanted to act like he wasn’t bothered one way or the other by the fact that they hadn’t spoken at all the day before.

  “Pretty much the same. You know office jobs. The same routine each day, usually.” She gave him a half smile. “How was your day?”

  “It was good.” A bold faced lie. She’d been on his mind nonstop and it had wrecked his day. All he wanted was to tell her how much he missed her and it was frustrating that he couldn’t.

  They made small talk and she told him about how she’d gone to see Olivia the day before and a little about her conversation with Robyn. He hadn’t spoken to Devin since the wedding but they didn’t really talk on the phone that much.

  After they finished eating and cleaning up the leftovers, he grabbed a bottle of wine and led her to the bedroom. Even with women he was casually seeing he was one for romantic gestures. But he worried about what Emerald would think if he did something like that. She wanted distance between them and he didn’t want to alert her by doing something too sentimental.

  She sat on the edge of his bed and took the glass of wine that he held out to her. He placed the wine bottle on the nightstand and sat with her. He felt better about her being in his bedroom, and not just because he knew what the night was leading up to. When they made love he could show her, without words, exactly how he felt, even though he wasn’t totally sure of all his feelings. But at least he didn’t have to hold back.

  They quietly sipped from their glasses before he took the glass from her hand and placed it, and his, next to the wine bottle on the nightstand. She stood up, biting her lip, and began unbuttoning her blouse. He was instantly hard as a rock and he pulled her down to the bed with him, glad that he was finally free to have his way with her after wan
ting her for so many years.

  Much later, Emerald rolled from her back to her side, watching Lincoln as he slept. He was so handsome. She could probably lay there watching him for a long while. She knew she had to get home. But she felt so comfortable that she didn’t want to move. And it was the first time that week that she truly felt safe and at peace.

  After making love again and again, her bones now felt weak. He had a hundred box of condoms and they’d used a few. It would be so nice to pull the covers up over her head and just sleep.

  “Are you okay?” He asked, his voice low and gruff.

  “Yeah,” She replied and forced herself to sit up. “I need to get going. I’m going to call a cab.”

  “Where’s your car?”

  “I left it home. I knew I’d be here late. I didn’t want to have to look for parking.”

  “I’ll drive you home.”

  “It’s okay,” She hurried to say. “I’ll be fine taking a cab. I don’t mind.”

  He turned to face her and stared at her for several seconds, his brown eyes very serious. Finally he said, “I’m driving you.”

  She nodded and didn’t bother to protest again. Truthfully, she didn’t want to take a cab, though she’d fully expected to. She’d stopped at an ATM to make sure she’d have cab fare. They dressed in silence and left his apartment.

  The doorman eyed them with a curiously bland expression as he held the door open for them.

  When they got into the car, it was nearly four in the morning. That was around the time that he’d left from her place a couple of nights ago. But he’d called for a cab ahead of time. She felt a little guilty to have him out this late. The good thing was, he had a reserved place in a private parking lot. He didn’t have to worry about searching for a spot or about a nutty stalker.

  They were quiet for most of the ride and she thought about how unsure she’d been about just showing up at his house. She shouldn’t have doubted herself and she was glad she hadn’t given those doubts too much attention. She’d thought he might be annoyed about her just dropping in.

  Their relationship, such as it was, was very new. They were not even a week into their liaison so she’d hesitated. But considering how long they’d known each other, and the fact that he’d made her feel more than welcome in his life, she’d rushed to his place. His warm greeting had soothed her nerves and made her feel good about herself.