Talk a Good Game

by Angie Daniels

  “Uhhhh-huh.” Her eyes traveled over to my ring finger again. “He works for the federal government and that’s the best he could do?”

  “Whatever,” I said but couldn’t resist a laugh because I had been thinking the same thing. “That man is paying child support for three kids. He doesn’t have it like Kaleb.”

  I noticed the way she rolled her eyes at the mention of her man, but I decided to leave it alone, and focus on my own issues.

  “I haven’t even told my mother I was engaged.”

  “Hell naw!” Janelle fell back against the bench. “Why not?”

  Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on the table. “I can’t help wondering if I’m moving too fast.”

  She gave a rude snort. “You always do, so what’s the difference?”

  “See,” I pointed to her. “That’s what I’m talking about. I’ve been married and engaged more times than I care to admit and you see where that has gotten me.”

  Janelle looked at me then nodded. “True.”

  I shrugged. “For once I want to get it right.”

  “Now you know I’m the last person you should be talking to about getting all serious and shit,” she pointed out impatiently. “What does your heart say?”

  I grinned. “It says, marry my man.”

  “Well? Then I guess you need to marry him.” Janelle said it like the decision was that easy. And maybe it was.

  “Jeremy wants to get married next month.”

  She choked on her water. “Next month? Don’t you think that’s a little soon?”

  I took a deep breath. “Yes and no. Like you said, follow my heart. For the first time in my life I know what love is.”

  She snorted. “You said the same thing about Rock.”

  I shook my head. “That wasn’t love. That was lust and a bit of a challenge. But what I feel for Jeremy, I have never felt before in my life. All I care about is hearing his scratchy voice and feeling his arms wrapped around me. He has this way of making me feel like nothing else matters. I thank God every night for bringing him in my life and I pray the same thing in the morning.”

  Janelle’s mouth fell open. “Damn, you got it bad.”

  “I know, right?” I replied, and started playing with the condensation running off the glass. “That’s why I can’t imagine spending my life without him.”

  “Yeah, but what’s the rush? I’m engaged, but I plan on milking this shit for as long as I can.”

  I rolled my eyes. She’s a mess! “Jeremy accepted a job in Hawaii and is supposed to report by the end of October. He wants me to go with him.”

  Her large, brown eyes widened. “Damn! Hawaii? Okay, now I understand. I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity like that either.”

  Shaking my head, I replied, “It wouldn’t matter to me if we were moving to Alaska. All that really matters is that I get to be with him.”

  Janell leaned across the table and gave me this weird look. “You really are in love this time.”

  “What did you think I was doing…, lying like you?”

  “Lying? I’m not lying. I do love Kaleb, but his money does help.” She took a sip from her straw and I noticed she was staring at me.

  “What?” I don’t know why I felt so self-conscious.

  “You do seem different.” I didn’t like the way she was looking at me.

  “What do you mean?”

  Janelle looked a moment longer then gazed up toward the ceiling, like she was careful choosing her words. “I mean there’s a sort of calm about you that I’ve never seen in you.”

  I shrugged. “Is that a bad thing?”

  She hesitated, searching my eyes then shook her head, sending her curls swinging around her shoulders. “No, it’s great. You just seem… I wanna say happy but it’s more than that.”

  I swallowed dry at the truth of her words. “That’s because it is. I can’t even begin to describe it. It’s like I’m walking on a cloud. It’s a wonderful feeling I can’t even begin to bring to words. But I love it.”

  “Oh my God! You’re shaking. I can hear it in your voice. Damn girl… you are in love!”

  “I know, right.” I nodded and couldn’t stop the tears gathering at the corners. “I’ve always read those romance novels wondering about that amazing feeling the heroine was experiencing and now I know.” Tears started running down my cheeks.

  “Dammit Nyree! You’re gonna ruin your make up,” Janelle scolded and leaned over with her napkin and dabbed at my eyes.

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  “You don’t have to apologize but you do have to keep it cute, girl. I can’t send you back to work looking a hot mess.” She did this crazy eye-roll thing that caused me to start laughing. “I am so happy for you. Really I am. If you love ‘em, then I like ‘em. Y’all know how I do.”

  “Thank you, Jae,” I said between sniffles. “I was starting to think maybe I was crazy for feeling this way.”

  “Only you know what you feel. Hell, I’m going through the same damn thing with that crazy mothafucka I’m with.” She shook her head with this far-off look. “I can’t believe I’ve changed for him.”

  “I can’t believe it either. You sure you’re being faithful?”

  While laughing Janelle waved a hand in the air. “Girl as God is my witness, I ain’t thought about another man since I’ve been with Kaleb. I’m dick-notized.”

  “Dick-notized!” I roared with laughter.

  Giggling, she replied, “I’m serious. I told all my exes to stop calling and I meant it. I don’t even look at another man because I know that crazy mothafucka will clown if he caught me.”

  “He ain’t no punk.” Just the way Jae liked them.

  “No, but he’s crazy.”

  My brow rose. “Sounds like that’s what you need.”

  I noticed she frowned, but our waitress returned with our food before I could ask her about it. By the time I said grace, Janelle was already digging into her salad.

  “So seriously, when is the big day?” she asked.

  Wiping my mouth with a napkin, I replied, “I told you. In the next three to four weeks.”

  She shook her head. “How can we plan a wedding that quickly?”

  I shrugged because now that Janelle had given me her stamp of approval, time was the last thing on my mind. All I cared about was being with Jeremy. “We’re just doing something small at church.”

  “Small?” Janelle turned up her nose. “You’re supposed to do it up right this time, remember?”

  “I want to be married in a church. That’s more than I can say for the last relationship.”

  She blew out a long breath like I was being ridiculous.

  “At least my parents will be happy.”

  “This isn’t about your parents,” she snapped and stabbed a tomato with her fork. “You gotta live with the man, not them.” Leave it to her to correct me.

  “I know but the good thing is my parents already like him,” I pointed out with a grin.

  Janelle rolled her eyes. “If I did everything to try and please everyone else I would lose my mind.”

  Maybe that’s what my problem is.

  “Are you going to at least have a maid of honor?”

  I nodded. “Yes, Jeremy’s planning on having a best man. But other than that we are keeping it small and simple. I was thinking of buying this white dress I saw at Dillard’s that would be cute as hell. I could wear it again.”

  “A Dillard’s wedding dress?” Janelle scrunched up her nose at that idea. “Are you having food and cake?”

  I bit into the dinner roll and chewed before replying, “Yep, but like I said it’s gonna be small, no more than a hundred people.”

  Silence fell over the table. While I dug into my chef salad, Janelle searched through her emails on her phone. “Is his family coming?” she asked, out of the blue.

  I didn’t even want to tell her I hadn’t met anyone, but his children. “He invited his sister and his parents. But he doesn’t t
hink they will come.”

  “Why?” Damn, she was all up in my business.

  I shrugged because I didn’t know the answer to that. I was still trying to figure out his relationship with his family, but it didn’t seem like they were close at all.

  “What about his kids?” she asked between chews.

  “It’s too much trouble to get them here then we want to honeymoon right after. How can we do that if we have four kids on our hip?”

  Her eyes snapped to mine. “Four? Whoa, wait a minute! I thought he had three?”

  Damn, me and my big mouth. “Well he did, but then I realized when he said an adopted daughter, he didn’t mean like a play-daughter he meant a little girl he adopted.”

  “How little?”

  I was almost embarrassed to say. “Four.”

  Janelle fell back against her chair. “Damn, that’s little! You gonna have to deal with baby-mama drama!”

  “They’ll be none of that.” I shrugged. “At least they’re all in Chicago.”

  “And at least you like kids,” Janelle mentioned with an exaggerated eye-roll.

  “I do, but I couldn’t deal with someone being dropped off at the house every weekend. The middle child is already talking about moving in with us after graduation.”

  Janelle was shaking her head with disbelief. “Nyree, you better think about it. What if something happened to their Mama then you’d be stuck raising them.”

  “Are you tryna make me choke on my food!” I rolled my eyes. “Girl, don’t even play like that.”

  She pointed her fork at me. “Hey, it’s something you need to think about.”

  I gave a rude snort. “The only thing I want to think about is spending the rest of my life with Jeremy.”

  Janelle shook her head again. “Sounds like your man has a lotta baggage.”

  Yep, but I had no idea just how much.

  26

  JANELLE

  I had just come upstairs holding my morning coffee when Kaleb said, “Babe, can you take CJ to the dentist for me?”

  It took everything I had not to cringe. Me? Alone in the car with his son all the way to the dentist office? Hell no! Now that I was officially living with them it was hard enough just being across the hall.

  Lord forgive me, but there’s something about that kid irritates me.

  I had to think fast. “Uh, I’ve got a meeting at ten-thirty.”

  Kaleb was buttoning a white dress shirt as he said, “That’s cool. His appointment is at eight-thirty. I would do it but I got a conference call at nine that I can’t miss.”

  I was ready to say no when I made myself take a deep breath. Janelle you gotta be willing to change. That man is a package deal just like you and that damn dog.

  I stifled a groan and replied, “Sure babe. I’ll be glad to.”

  “Thanks.” He kissed my lips then stepped out the bedroom and down the hall to knock on CJ’s door. “Son, get dressed! Ms. Jae is gonna take you to your appointment.”

  “Yes, sir.” He called from the other side of the door.

  While Kaleb finished getting ready for work, I jumped into the large walk-in shower and took a deep breath. Damn. I hated being alone with his son. I know that may sound crazy but the kid was weird and so fucking needy. I feel sorry he didn’t have a mother and maybe that’s why he was growing attached to me. I don’t know. All I know is I didn’t have kids for a reason—I don’t want any. Yet, somehow I had fooled myself into thinking being a stepmother of a teenage boy would be easy, but it wasn’t. It was nerve-racking. That kid was like a pesky fly.

  I had to keep reminding myself we were a family and this was my home. My townhouse had been rented so there was no turning back. I still had a hard time believing I was doing this “we” shit. But I was. All because I had fallen in love.

  Even now my feelings for Kaleb took me by surprise. I always knew he would be different and there had to be some reason why I was drawn to him. I tried to fight it, I even tried to deny it and convinced myself it was all about the money, but I was just fooling myself. What I felt was much deeper than that. I was in love with that complex man of mine. And it scared the hell outta me. Although lately things have been good between us. He started taking me on business trips with him to Kansas City, where we stayed at five-star hotels and ate in only the best restaurants. Last weekend we had even gone down to the Lake of the Ozarks and spent the day shopping at the outlets. I had everything I could possible want, so why was I complaining about having to spend a few hours with his wimpy kid?

  I pushed the thought aside, got ready and took one final look in the mirror. I made sure my hair and makeup was looking fabulous then I grabbed my purse and headed toward the stairs. “CJ, I’ll meet you in the car!”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He called from inside his room. I don’t understand why the only person who smells that stench seeping from beneath his door was me.

  The minute I hit the bottom step CJ’s big-ass dog came racing down the stairs. I had to grab onto the handrail to keep from falling. Damn, I hated that big horse. Honey was at the bottom of the wooden stairs and had quickly moved out the way. I guess he was tired of getting his little ass ran over.

  I climbed into my car and waited in the driveway. By the time I got done checking my emails CJ was climbing in. Just like his daddy he looked at me crazy for being on my phone. I sighed and put it away.

  “You lock the front door?”

  He nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

  “Well, then let’s get this journey underway.” The sooner I took him to the dentist, the sooner I could drop him back off at home. Like most teenagers, he was spending his summer eating up all the food and playing his video games. When I was growing up, as soon as our chores were done, we had to take our asses outside. Swimming at the community center, hanging with my girls, fucking some little boy in his mama’s house while she was at work, you name it, Janelle Fox was doing it, but I definitely didn’t spend my summer vacation sitting in the house.

  As I backed out the driveway, I reached down and turned on the Tom Joyner Show.

  “Can we ride in silence?”

  I swung around and stared at CJ like he was crazy. “Why?”

  There was that far off look in his eyes like his father. “Because I like it quiet.”

  Hell no, then I would have to strike up a conversation with him.

  I pointed a finger in his direction. “You just sit over there and relax. I’m running this.” Gotta let him know who’s in control.

  I pulled off and after minutes had passed, I felt compelled to say something. He was sitting over there quiet and looking so out of place.

  Damn you Kaleb Kerrington!

  “How’s summer break going?” I asked.

  “Good.”

  Okay, so much for that conversation.

  I went back to listening to the talk show but then CJ started rocking. The way nervous people do, back and forth, banging the back of his big round head against the headrest. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen him rocking. I’d seen him doing it on the living room couch. I never said anything before but enough was enough.

  “CJ, quit rocking.”

  “I can’t help it,” he said defensively.

  “Yes, you can, now stop it.” He better realize I’m not to be messed with. Of course he obeyed but now he looked like he wanted to cry.

  See, this is why Janelle doesn’t do kids.

  “See, I told ya, you’d stop.”

  “But I’ll just start again!” He wailed.

  I looked at him cockeyed. “Then you need to start training yourself. I promise you, people are gonna pick on you in high school if you don’t stop.”

  “I can’t help it!” CJ whined.

  Oh my goodness, he was a big-ass baby! In my honest opinion this boy needed some professional help. “CJ, you can’t go through life like that. If you’re rocking at home and in the car then I bet you’re rocking at school.”

  His silence was all the confirm
ation I needed.

  “And while we’re at it how long have you had those little men?”

  He cringed and I could tell the question made him uncomfortable. “Since I was a little kid,” he said in that babyfied voice.

  The last thing I wanted to do was make him feel self-conscious. “You like those men?”

  He nodded. “My mom gave them to me.”

  I was speechless but quickly found my voice. “You remember your mom?”

  He gave me a weird look and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I think about her all the time.”

  “What do you remember about her?” I didn’t mean to ask but CJ had this sad look in his eyes and I felt this need to comfort him. Ugh, what the hell was wrong with me?

  CJ sneaked a peek in my direction. “I remember her singing to me and reading me bedtime stories.”

  “Really? You remember all that?” Wasn’t he three at the time?

  “Yes ma’am.” He nodded then looked sad. “Did you know she died?”

  I nodded. “Yes, your dad told me.”

  “I miss her.” His lower lip quivered and this time when he started rocking I didn’t even bother telling him to stop. That kid needed some help that he wasn’t going to get from his father. Hell, Kaleb had enough problems of his own.

  I put my foot on the brake at the next light then reached over and turned down the radio. “My father died when I was young.” Where the hell did that come from?

  CJ turned on the seat. “He did? What happened?”

  I kept my gaze on the traffic light as I said, “My father was a cop. One night he was called to check out a burglary and was shot. He died on the way to the hospital.”

  “Do you miss him?”

  Every damn day. “Sometimes, but I don’t know why,” I replied and felt the need to explain as I put my foot on the gas again. “My dad was mean. He used to beat my brother and I all the time.”

  He gave me a knowing look. “Like my dad.”

  I slammed on the brake and swung around on the seat. “Your dad doesn’t hit you!” I didn’t mean to snap but I wasn’t about to have him telling lies about Kaleb. What if someone found out the way someone did with my dad?