“You’re Jeremy King?”
“You’re Leigh Matthews?”
DeShawn laughed. “It’s crazy I’m just now introducing you two. But as soon as I sign with the Razors by the trade deadline, L.A. will be my home and we’ll be spending a whole lot more time together.”
This isn’t happening. Leigh blinked one more time, but Jeremy King was still standing there.
“Well, damn, y’all. Say something.” DeShawn laughed, swinging his gaze between them.
At long last, Leigh forced a smile and extended her hand—hopefully no one would notice it was shaking. “How do you do? It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Jeremy glanced down, but then followed her lead. “I assure you the pleasure is all mine, Ms. Matthews.”
“Aw, man. There’s no need to be so formal. Just call her Leigh.”
Only one side of Jeremy’s mouth curled upward. “Certainly. Leigh.”
“I have to warn you, honey,” DeShawn said. “My boy here is quite the charmer. Half the state of California is in love with him.”
The other corner of Jeremy’s lips hitched upward. “That might be a slight exaggeration,” he said.
Somehow, I doubt that, she thought. Their hands remained locked, despite the scorching heat rushing up her arm. Not only that, she was having a hard time trying to pull her eyes away from his smoldering gaze.
“You know, I was beginning to think that you were just a figment of Roy’s imagination.” Jeremy made his first attempt at small talk.
“No. I assure you that I am real.”
His gaze finally dropped to roam over her figure. “That you certainly are.”
Surprisingly, it was his cousin who stepped in and rescued them from themselves.
“Quentin Hinton. I’m this knucklehead’s cousin.” He thrust out his hand and forced Jeremy to break contact smoothly.
Leigh accepted the handsome cousin’s hand. “A pleasure.” Their grip fell quickly away.
“And on that note—” Quentin turned, and continued “—I need a drink. Why don’t you join me, cuz?”
“Actually, you go ahead, Q. I think I’d like to get to know Leigh a little better.”
Quentin shook his head and mumbled something that sounded like “Fools rush in” before strolling off.
When it was just the three of them, Jeremy tossed back the rest of his champagne, and then started the interrogation. “So remind me again how you two met?”
“College,” DeShawn said, puffing out his chest. “My girl here put all the other chicks at Ohio State to shame and she had the whole hard-to-get thing on lock. It must’ve taken me most of my senior year to convince her to go out with me.” He hugged her hip. “Said that she didn’t want to date athletes.”
The storm roiling inside Leigh was quickly turning into a hurricane.
Ariel rushed to her side and hissed into her ear, “Leigh, you’re never going to guess who I just saw over at the bar. It’s that…” Her gaze crashed into the man standing in front of them. “Oh, my—”
“Hello,” Jeremy said, shifting his eyes toward Ariel. “I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure.” He extended his hand. “Jeremy King.”
“I, uh—”
DeShawn chuckled as he warned his friend, “Careful, my man. She’s one of those loan-shark lawyers.”
Ariel turned her confused look toward Leigh.
“Ariel, this is DeShawn’s best friend from Georgia that he’s always talked about and I’ve never met before today.” She felt Jeremy’s eyes zoom back toward her at the bald-faced lie. “Jeremy King. He’s also going to be DeShawn’s best man.”
Ariel’s eyes doubled in size. “You’re Jeremy King?”
“Have been since the day I was born.” Jeremy turned up the wattage on his smile.
Leigh leveled another quick glance at her girl. Please, please, don’t blow this, Leigh telegraphed through her eyes.
Ariel nodded as if she understood the message loud and clear. But it was clear from her face that she was also having a hard time processing the night’s latest development. She finally slid her hand into Jeremy’s. “Ariel Brooks. Pleasure to meet you—for the first time—Mr. King.”
Just shoot me now. Leigh glanced at DeShawn and noted that he frowned for a moment, but then shook off Ariel’s comment.
“You know what?” Ariel said. “I need another drink.”
Leigh seized the moment. “And I need to make a quick trip to the ladies’ room.” She smiled at DeShawn. “Excuse me, won’t you, sweetheart?” She also tilted her head at Jeremy, and then made her escape. Her feet moved so fast that it was amazing she didn’t leave skid marks on the hardwood floors. Even Ariel had a hard time keeping up with her.
When she bolted through the doors, she breathed a sigh of relief that the only person in the ladies’ room was just leaving. Wasting no time, Leigh raced to an open stall and doubled over to empty her belly of the champagne and hors d’oeuvres.
“Leigh, are you all right?” Ariel asked, catching up with her.
“How can I be all right?” she asked between heaves, and then dropped down to the floor.
“Hold on.” Ariel turned and rushed to one of the sinks and started wetting paper towels. When she returned to the stall, she placed them along Leigh’s fevered brow. “Okay. Deep breaths. It’s going to be all right.”
“No. No. You don’t understand,” Leigh moaned.
“It looks bad. I understand that, but…” Ariel said, determined to find a silver lining. However, when she couldn’t find one, she abandoned her sentence all together. “Well, at least he didn’t blurt out about your…” She glanced back out into the bathroom to make sure no one was around to hear their conversation. “Affair,” she said in a whisper in case double security was needed.
“It was just one time. One time I sleep with someone else in five years and look what happens. I’ve been cast in some horrible Greek tragedy.”
“Calm down. At least no one has died.”
“Yet,” Leigh corrected her. “When DeShawn finds out he’s going to kill both of us.”
“There’s no reason that he needs to find out. I seriously doubt that he’s going to tell him. And I know that you’re not crazy enough to. Besides, it happened when you and DeShawn had broken up. You two were technically on a relationship break.”
“Yeah—and I technically used that break to unknowingly screwing my now fiancé’s best friend. His best friend! Of all the men in the world, why did it have to be him?”
“Yeah…that is unfortunate.”
“And that’s not the worse part.”
“Oh, honey, I don’t think it could get any worse unless…” Their eyes locked and then shock slowly rolled across Ariel’s face. “No.” She shook her head. “Stop playing.”
Leigh struggled to swallow the lump bobbing in the center of her throat. “I took the test before I came here tonight. Actually I took several of them.”
“And they’re all—”
“Positive,” Leigh answered.
Ariel joined her on the stall’s floor. “Sweet Jesus. Well, maybe it’s not…”
“I haven’t slept with DeShawn since we got back together. I told him I wouldn’t until after the wedding. I was still punishing him for having caught him cheating on me in the first place.” She shook her head. “We should never have gotten back together. But then you reminded me of all the time I’ve invested in this relationship.”
“What? Wait. Please don’t drag me into this.”
“No. No. I’m just saying that I’m confused. I think I was forcing something that no longer even feels right to me.”
Ariel blinked. “Are you thinking about breaking the engagement?”
“I don’t see that I have a choice anymore. Eventually, I’m going to have to tell him about the pregnancy. I sure as hell am not going to try pass it off as his.”
“Yeah. I guess that would be wrong?” Ariel said.
“Of course it’s wrong!”<
br />
Ariel held up her hands in surrender. “All right. All right. I’m just saying that there are plenty of secrets out there that women have taken to their grave. Not everyone opts to ‘do the right thing’ and tell the truth.”
“Well, I’m not like that and I could never do something like that. I’m surprised that you would even think that I would.”
“Fine. Forget that I even said it.” Ariel lowered her hands, trying to process how fast things were changing. “But whatever you do, don’t tell DeShawn here—tonight. There are over two hundred people here. Have your Spike Lee moment when you get home. But not around any sharp objects.”
“Got it.” The tears that she’d managed to suppress for most of the night suddenly surged forward and blurred her vision.
“I think we both need a drink.” Ariel attempted to get up, but Leigh grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.
“Are you crazy?” She popped her on the back of the head. “I can’t drink. I’m pregnant!” Hearing her own declaration was like another punch in the stomach. “Oh God.” Her shoulders deflated as she repeated softly, “I’m pregnant.”
“Not only that, but you have to get through this night sober?” Ariel shook her head. “Well, I definitely need one.”
“Wait. Don’t leave. I’m not ready to go back out there and face those people just so I’ll have to send out regrets in the next few days that the wedding is off. My parents are out there, practically floating on air.”
“I know, sweetie. But you can’t hide and throw a pity party in here.”
“Why not?” she whined. “I need one.”
“Because I think that it’s considered bad manners,” Ariel joked and then swung her arm around her friend. “But I’ll tell you what. We’ll compromise. We’ll stay in here another ten minutes, have a mini pity party, and then paint on fake smiles and get through this night.”
Leigh poked out her bottom lip and laid her head on Ariel’s shoulder. “I like that plan.” She sighed and then allowed her tears to flow.
“Congratulations,” Quentin said, raising his glass in a toast.
Jeremy’s gaze remained locked on the women’s-bathroom door as he helped his cousin hold up the bar. “For what?”
“I think that your life is officially more screwed up than mine.”
That comment finally got Jeremy to pull his eyes from the door to stare at his cousin. “Nice try, but I don’t think that’s even possible.”
Quentin thought it over some more, and then acquiesced. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.” He drained the rest of his whiskey sour. “So when are you going to tell your boy?”
Jeremy pressed his lips together, and then turned his head back toward the closed ladies’-room door.
“You are going to tell him, right?” Q pressed.
“I need to talk to Leigh first.”
“Talk to her about what?” His cousin’s voice dipped into the serious territory. “What is there to talk to her about? She’s out here creeping on your boy—while he’s telling the whole world about how she’s such a good girl.”
“Q, man, I need you to back off. Right now, I’m trying to get to the bottom of this situation.”
“I’ll help you. The situation is that both of y’all’s baby girl has been running game on both of you. Not surprising, given what I know about women.”
Jeremy closed his eyes and shook his head.
“What? You’re saying I’m wrong?”
“Yes, I’m saying you’re wrong,” Jeremy snapped. “And right now I’m not in the mood for you to turn my situation into your situation. Believe it or not, everything is not about you. When the hell are you going to get your head out of your ass and just move on? Huh? Sterling and Alyssa have been married for three years. Aren’t you tired of singing this same pathetic song? I know I’m tired of hearing it.” He leaned into his cousin. “Your problem isn’t what Alyssa did or even what Sterling did. You can’t own up to what you did.”
Quentin leaned back in shock.
“What? You thought I didn’t know? You thought none of us knew?” From the corner of his eye, Jeremy saw the bathroom door swing open before Leigh and Ariel emerged.
“Do yourself a favor. No, do me a favor,” Jeremy said, standing up from his bar stool. “Stop tossing out your so-called wisdom to people who don’t ask for it. Fly your ass back home, get on your hands and knees and beg Sterling and Alyssa for forgiveness. After you do that, then maybe I’ll listen to what you have to say about my love life.” Jeremy slammed his glass down on the counter and made a beeline toward Leigh.
The fact that she was now smiling and laughing with guests only intensified his already hot temper to volcanic levels. When she turned and saw him fast approaching, her eyes widened and she started to make a retreating step. He latched on to her arm before she had a chance to bolt. “We need to talk.”
Chapter 15
“Oow! Let go of me,” Leigh hissed, struggling to snatch her arm out of Jeremy’s death grip as she tried to plant her feet in one place. But nothing stopped him from pulling her across the room at a dizzying clip. He did nothing to quell the renewed panic washing over her. The last thing she wanted was to be alone with this man. How in the hell did she know that he wasn’t taking her somewhere so that he could wring her neck?
“I’ll let go once I get some answers,” he growled. “And I warn you, they better be damn good, too.”
Leigh made another attempt to pull her arm free. But it felt like he would rather rip the sucker off than let her go. “Please,” she begged. “Let’s not do this here.”
“Oh, no. You’re not in charge of this show anymore, sweetheart. We’re done playing games.”
His stride quickened and Leigh feared that she would trip over her shoes. “Well, can you at least slow down? You’re going to draw attention.”
“Like I give a goddamn.” He jabbed at the swinging door to the kitchen, but it was more like he punched it. The door went flying backward with a whack. And the next thing Leigh knew, she was being jerked through the restaurant kitchen.
A few curious workers’ heads popped up.
“Everything’s all right. Nothing to see here,” Jeremy told the staff, and surprisingly they returned to their work.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Why? Are you scared?”
She swallowed, but he seemed to read the answer in her expression.
“Good,” he spat, and then punched open another door as he hollered over his shoulders, “We’ll be out in a moment, folks.”
Leigh’s fear skyrocketed at seeing that he had dragged her into a walk-in freezer. At least she didn’t see any meat hooks in there. Yet she might as well have been naked given the freezing-cold air circulating around them, slicing through the thin fabric of her dress.
“All right. Talk!” Jeremy whipped her around so fast she nearly lost her balance.
“I—I—I don’t know. What do you want me to say?” Or where to begin, for that matter.
“You don’t know what to say?” he growled murderously. “You can’t be serious!”
“Ow!” She reached over and tugged on his arm. “Let me go! I’m not your damn property!”
“No. What you are is a liar and a cheat,” he sneered.
Stunned, Leigh stopped pulling on his arm and instead backhanded him across his steely face. She didn’t even mind the stinging in her hand. “How dare you. You don’t know me!”
“I know that you haven’t been faithful to my best friend out there. A man who seems to think that the sun rises and sets on you.”
The bark of laughter was out of her throat before she had a chance to stop it, but she quickly sobered. “Look, I’m not discussing my relationship with DeShawn with you. It’s none of your business.”
Jeremy ground his teeth so hard that his veins popped out along his neck. “Well, I think what happened between you and me is very much Roy’s business. What do you think about that? At least, it would show him how muc
h of a fraud you really are.”
Narrowing her gaze, Leigh studied his hard features and tried to make a judgment call. “You wouldn’t.”
Unbelievably, his death grip tightened to the point that she gasped. “Don’t even think about calling my bluff, Baby Girl! Trust me. He’ll believe every word I have to say. So you might as well start getting your lies straight now because your dream of marrying an NBA baller is over.”
“What? I’m not some groupie and I haven’t lied to anyone.” Technically, at least that was true.
“Oh, really? So we can just march right out there and tell Roy exactly how we met? Is that what you’re telling me?”
She hesitated.
“Good. Let’s go.” Jeremy jerked her arm to head back out the door.
“Wait,” she cried, and then tried to pry her arm free.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, in a patronizing tone. “Did you suddenly remember that maybe a few things might have slipped your mind? Maybe, a few more one-night stands floating around?”
“Fuck you!”
“Fuck me?” he thundered incredulously. “Tell you what, I’ll go out there and let my boy know what time it is. Unlike you, I don’t have anything to hide.”
“But you do have something to lose,” she tossed back.
He cocked his head.
“What? You think that you can just walk out there and drop something like this on him and you two will remain boys?” When he hesitated, it was the opening that she needed. “You have no right to threaten and bully me. And more importantly I don’t owe you an explanation for anything.”
“I have the right to some answers,” he barked. “What was that night—just something you do on the weekends or when the rich, clueless boyfriend is out on the road?”
Leigh unleashed the second backhand. Her hand hurt worse the second time and she left a glowing handprint on the side of his face. “I don’t like what you’re implying.” She seethed.
Jeremy’s eyes narrowed as he leaned into her space. “The only thing that I’m implying is that you’re either a gold-digger or a ho—”
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