No Other Lover Will Do

by Hodges, Cheris

  “You all right?” he asked.

  Kandace smiled. “I’m getting there.”

  Jade smiled at them. “The police finally cleared this place as a crime scene and Devon’s been working hard on the dinner. I stole some corn bread.” Jade lifted a small aluminum pan from underneath the bar.

  “He’s going to get you,” Kandace said as she took a square of bread from the pan. Solomon took a piece of bread as well and as much as he didn’t want to like it, it was delicious.

  “I was thinking,” Jade said after she polished off a second piece of corn bread. “After Thanksgiving, we should have Antonio redo this place.”

  Kandace nodded. “I like that idea.”

  “Good, then you can tell Serena,” Jade said, then took a long sip of coffee.

  “Tell me what?” Serena asked as she walked into the restaurant. “And I want you all to know that I got rid of those reporters.”

  “Good job,” Solomon said. “Somebody named Antonio is going to redecorate the restaurant.”

  Jade and Kandace looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. He shrugged, not knowing what the big deal was.

  “What?!” Serena shrieked. “Have you all lost your damned minds? There are more contractors in Charlotte than Antonio Billups.”

  Kandace crossed over to her friend and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. “Why don’t you just calm down. You can’t deny that Antonio did a great job with this place the first time,” she said.

  “Oh, shut up,” Serena said. “I know what you two are doing and I don’t like it. Antonio doesn’t want me and I’m sick of his mixed signals. Besides, who’s going to pay for this renovation?”

  “I will,” Solomon said.

  Everyone looked at him. “We can’t allow you to do that,” Serena said. “We’ve paid for everything in this restaurant and we’re not…”

  “Serena, I’m paying for it,” Solomon said with finality.

  “And what? You get a stake in our restaurant?” Serena asked.

  He furrowed his brows. “No, you just stay away from my chef in the mountains,” he said.

  “What?” Jade asked.

  “Nothing,” Kandace said. “Solomon, this is too much.”

  “Nothing is too much for you,” he said.

  “My God,” Serena groaned. “You two are getting just as sickening as Jade and James.”

  Kandace rolled her eyes at her friend and sauntered over to Solomon and planted a huge kiss on his lips. “Thank you,” she said.

  He winked at her and took another piece of corn bread. “You can really thank me later,” he said.

  “So,” Serena said, “are we opening today or what?”

  Jade looked at Kandace. “What do you think?” she asked.

  Kandace sighed and looked thoughtfully at Solomon. He stroked her cheek and smiled. “You can do this,” he whispered.

  “All right, let’s do this. Otherwise Solomon might change his mind about paying for the redesign,” she said jokingly.

  “I hope he does,” Serena muttered as she walked over to the bar and swiped Kandace’s coffee cup and a piece of corn bread.

  EPILOGUE

  THANKSGIVING DAY

  Solomon couldn’t remember the last time he shared such an enjoyable Thanksgiving meal, despite the fact that his blood relatives weren’t around the table and everyone sitting there was tired from serving over three hundred homeless families. Solomon was shocked that Maurice Goings and many of his Carolina Panthers teammates showed up and worked hard to feed the people. He’d kept looking for reporters to show up, but they hadn’t. Maurice had told Solomon that he knew things were still raw for Kandace and he hadn’t wanted to ruin her Thanksgiving plans by not showing up and helping out. Solomon knew he’d be cheering for the Panthers from now on as long as they weren’t playing his beloved Eagles. Solomon had even buried the hatchet with Devon Harris. He totally understood why the guy was hung up on Kandace. She was the most beautiful woman in the world and if he’d allowed her to slip through his fingers, Solomon knew he’d want her back too. It was too late though, because Kandace Davis had done the impossible—she’d opened his heart to love. She’d erased the memories of the wedding that had fallen apart years ago. She’d replaced the faceless and nameless women he’d wasted so much time with. Solomon glanced at Kandace as she poured ice tea for everybody.

  “I’m sorry,” Homer said. “Is this Long Island ice tea? After all that work we did, we need some alcohol up in here.”

  “That’s the last thing you need,” James Goings said as he rocked his sleeping son. “Besides, Kenya and Jade can’t drink.”

  “So,” Serena said as she stood up and headed for the bar, “what’s your pleasure, guys?”

  “Can you pour yourself into a glass?” cornerback Davis Simmons called out.

  Maurice kicked him under the table and shook his head at him, saying, “She will hurt you.”

  “I want her to,” Davis said.

  “No you don’t,” Jade said as she placed a basket of fresh corn bread in the center of the table. “Just let it go.”

  Davis stood up and followed Serena in to the bar area. Alicia shook her head. “He’ll be back in five.”

  “Four,” Jade said.

  “Three,” Kandace said with a laugh.

  “Damn,” the group heard Davis exclaim after hearing a loud smack.

  “I tried to warn him,” Jade said.

  “Defensive players don’t listen,” Maurice said. “Hell, he should’ve known if Homer wasn’t hitting on her that she wasn’t to be messed with.”

  “Why don’t you take your daughter and change her?” Kenya said as she placed two trays of clam dressing on the table.

  “Come on, Robi,” Maurice said as he lifted the little girl from her carrier seat and took her to the bathroom to change her.

  “It isn’t lost on any of us that we’re serving and you guys are just sitting here,” Alicia said, then she took her seat. “I’m done.”

  “Me too,” Kandace said as she sat down beside Solomon and pinched his thigh. “Get to work, baby.”

  Davis slunk back to the dining room holding his jaw as the guys stood up and headed for the kitchen. James handed Jaden to Jade after she sat down, then he kissed her cheek. “We’ll be back with the turkey,” he said.

  As Solomon walked in to the kitchen, James grabbed him by his good shoulder. “Welcome to this crazy family,” he said.

  “You know what,” Solomon said as he reached into his jeans pocket, “I’m ready to make it official.” He flashed James the four-and-a-half carat, emerald-cut diamond ring.

  “Damn, that’s blinding. You know, we’re really going to hate you,” James said as he held the ring up. “The rest of those women are going to expect us to step up now.”

  Solomon took his ring back and laughed. “Hey, my lady deserves the best. Besides, I’m going to have to knock her up to keep up with you and your brother.”

  “That’s the easy part,” James said as he took the turkey from the island and Solomon grabbed a pan of macaroni and cheese.

  The men headed back to the dining room with the final parts of dinner and placed them on the table. Solomon was happy to see that Serena had brought a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice and two bottles of ginger ale for the mothers.

  “Are we ready to eat now?” Jade asked as she slipped Jaden into his carrier seat.

  “Just a minute,” Solomon said, eliciting groans from Homer, Serena, and Davis. “I won’t take up a lot of time, I swear.” He took Kandace’s hand in his and kissed it. “I can’t remember the last time that I celebrated Thanksgiving like this. Most people would think that I have a lot to be thankful for because of my business success, money, and stunning good looks.”

  Maurice tossed a piece of corn bread at him. “Man, get to the damned point.”

  “The point is,” Solomon said as he swatted the flying bread, “Kandace, I love you. I never thought that I would meet someone like you who ch
allenged me, forced me to be real with her, and opened my world up to what a real love is, and I want to keep this feeling going for the rest of my life.”

  Tears welled up in Kandace’s eyes and she stood up to face Solomon. “Solomon,” she murmured, “I love you too.”

  Jade leaned her head on James’s shoulder and fought back her own tears. Kenya beamed and squeezed Maurice’s hand. Alicia watched Solomon and Kandace with her elbows perched on the table. Serena just looked disinterested as she sipped her vodka sour.

  “Kandace,” Solomon said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the engagement ring. “Will you marry me?”

  She looked down at the large stone and took in a sharp breath. “Solomon,” she said as tears poured down her cheeks.

  “I need an answer, babe,” he said as he took her left hand in his.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll marry you,” she said as he slipped the ring on her finger. Solomon hugged her tightly, then kissed her as if they were the only two in the room. Everyone at the table broke into applause, even Serena, who quickly wiped a stray tear from her eye.

  “I love you so much,” he said as he let her go.

  Kandace smiled brightly at her fiancé and stroked his cheek. “I hope you’re ready for all this,” she said. “We’re crazy all the time, not just during the holidays.”

  “It doesn’t matter, because I’m crazy in love with you,” he said.

  If you enjoyed No Other Lover Will Do, don’t miss

  Lessons from a Younger Lover

  by Zuri Day

  Coming in March 2010 from Dafina Books

  Here’s an excerpt from

  Lessons from a Younger Lover…

  CHAPTER 1

  There are two things Gwen Smith never thought she’d do. She never thought she’d move back to her rinky-dink hometown of Sienna, California, and she never thought she’d come back as a forty-year-old divorcee. Yet here she sat in the middle seat of a crowded plane, at the age where some said life began, trying to figure out how the boring and predictable one she’d known sixty short days ago had changed so quickly.

  The first hitch in the giddy up wasn’t a total surprise. Her mother’s dementia had become increasingly worse following the death of Gwen’s father, Harold, two years ago. Her parents had been married forty-four years. It was a tough adjustment. At the funeral, Gwen told her husband that she knew the time would come when her mother’s welfare would become her responsibility. That she thought Joe would be by her side at this crucial time, and wasn’t, was the fact she hadn’t seen coming.

  But it was true nonetheless. Joe had announced his desire to divorce and packed his bags the same evening. Two months later she was still reeling from that okey doke. But she couldn’t think about that now. Gwen had to focus on one crisis at a time and at the moment, her mother was the priority.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the seatbelt sign indicating our final descent into Los Angeles. Please make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened and your seats and tray tables are in their upright and locked…”

  Gwen stretched as well as she could between two stout men and tried to remove the crook from her neck. Still, she was grateful she’d fallen asleep. Shuteye had been all too elusive the past few weeks, when ongoing worries and raging thoughts had kept true rest at bay. Fragments of a dream flitted across her wakened mind as they landed and she reached into the overhead bin for her carryon luggage. Gwen didn’t know if she wanted to remember it or not. Lately, her dreams had been replaced by nightmares that happened when her eyes were wide open.

  “Gwen! Over here girl! Gwen!”

  Gwen smiled as a familiar voice pierced the crowd roaming the LAX Airport baggage claim area. She turned and waved so that the short, buxom woman wearing fuchsia cut-offs and a yellow halter top straining for control, would know that she, God and everyone within a five-mile radius had heard her.

  “Gwendolyn!” Chantay exclaimed, enunciating each syllable for full effect as she reached up and hugged her childhood friend. “Girl, let me look at you!”

  “You just saw me last year, Tay.”

  “That visit went by in a fog. You know the deal.”

  Gwen did, and wished she didn’t. Her last time home was not a fond memory.

  Chantay stepped back, put her hand on her hips and began shaking her head so hard her waist-length braids sprayed the waiting passengers surrounding them. “What are we going to do with your rail thin behind? You couldn’t find enough deep-dish pizzas to eat in Chicago? No barbeque or chicken and waffle joints to put some meat on your bones?”

  Gwen took the jab good-naturedly. Her five-foot seven, size six body had caused her heftier friend chagrin for years. No matter that Gwen had never mastered how to show off her physique, put on makeup, or fix her hair. The fact that she could eat everything, including the kitchen sink, and still not gain a pound, was a stick in Chantay’s craw.

  Chantay enveloped her friend in a big bear hug. “You look good, girl. A day late and a dollar short on style with that curly-q hair straight out of A Different World, but overall…you look good!”

  Gwen’s laugh was genuine for the first time in weeks. “You don’t look half bad yourself. And opinionated as always I see.”

  “Honey, if you want a feel good moment, watch Oprah. I’m going to tell you the truth even if it’s ugly, and speaking of the “u” word, those Leave-It-To-Beaver pedal pushers…”

  “Forget you, Tay! C’mon, that’s my luggage coming around.”

  A half hour later, Gwen settled back in Chantay’s Ford Explorer as they merged into highway traffic for the two hour drive to Sienna. The air conditioner was a welcomed change to the ninety degree July heat.

  “I still can’t believe you’re here.”

  “Me either.”

  “You know you’ve got to give me the full scoop. First, I never thought you’d ever get married and if you did, you’d never, ever get divorced!”

  “Obviously life wasn’t following your script,” Gwen muttered sarcastically.

  “Oh, don’t get your panties in a bunch, sista, you know what I’m saying and I’m not the only one. Who did everyone vote the least likely to, uh, get married?”

  “I believe the exact description in the high school yearbook read ‘would die an old maid’.”

  “Well, I was trying to save you the embarrassment of quoting it verbatim but…who was it?”

  They both knew the answer was Gwen. But rather than help make the point, Gwen answered the question with one of her own. “Who did they say would probably have ten kids?”

  “Humph. That’s because those nuckas didn’t know that fornicate does not equal procreate. After being stuck with raising one accident and another oops by myself, I had my tubes tied. I told the doctor who did the procedure that if a “baby I pulled out” number three showed up in my pee sample, his would be the name in the father line. So believe me, if there’s a sperm bad enough to get past the Boy Scout knot he tied, then that’s a baby that deserves to be born.”

  Gwen looked out the window, thought about Chantay’s two daughters and watched the world whirl by while Chantay pushed past seventy and flew down the surprisingly light 405 Freeway. While Chantay had often said she didn’t want kids, Gwen had always looked forward to motherhood. She was still looking, but couldn’t see any bassinet or baby bed because a divorce petition was blocking the view.

  Chantay scanned for various stations on the radio before turning it off altogether. “Why are you making me drag the details out of you?” she whined, exasperation evident in her voice. “What happened between you and Joe?”

  The name of Gwen’s soon-to-be former husband elicited a frown. “You mean Joey?”

  “Who the hell is that?”

  “That’s what he calls himself now.”

  “I call him bastard, but I digress. What happened?”

  Gwen sighed, sat up, and spoke the truth straight out. “He met somebody else.”

  “You
have got to be kidding. Corny-ass Joe Smith, the computer nerd who could barely pull the garter off at y’alls wedding?”

  “That would be him.”

  “What fool did he find to listen to his tired lines?”

  “You mean besides me?”

  “Girl, I didn’t mean that personally. Joe has some good points. He seems to know his way around a computer better than anybody.”

  “That’s one.”

  “We’ve got ninety minutes of driving left. I’ll think of something else.”

  Gwen laughed, appreciative of the levity Chantay brought to a sad situation.

  “So…who is she?”

  “Her name is Mitzi, she’s twenty-two and works in his office. They both like motorcycles, Miller Lite and poker. He tattooed her name on his arm and moved into her studio apartment last month. But I don’t want to talk about him right now.”

  “Whoa, chick! You’re sure going to have to talk about him later…and her. That was way too much information to leave me hanging. But I can wait a minute, and in the meantime change the subject to somebody you can talk about…Adam ‘oh, oh, oh, oh’ Johnson!”

  “Chantay, you are too silly! I haven’t thought about that line since we left high school.” Gwen, Chantay and a couple other misfits used to substitute his first name in Ready For The World’s hit, “Oh Sheila.” Chantay would hum it as he passed in the halls and the other girls would break into hysterical laughter, making them all look like fools.

  “That is the single welcomed surprise I’ve had these past few weeks. That Adam is the principal at Sienna. Can you believe it?”

  “No, because I never thought a brothah with that much weight in his lower head would have any brains in his upper one.”

  “Well there’s that, but even more is the fact that he’s back living in our home town. After being such a standout at Texas A&M and going on to play for the Cowboys? I guess a lot happened to him since the last news I heard, that he was sidelined with an injury and forced to retire early.”