Dante's Way (17 page)

Have I lost my mind?

The thought raced through Amara’s head as she watched Dante’s tight ass saunter away from her out the front door of the library. She had wanted him to show her some attention and the second he did, like a fool, she tossed it back into his face like she didn’t want to be around him.

Could she be any more stupid
?

Amara quickly gathered the last of her belongings, got up from her seat and rushed after Dante hoping she would catch him before he drove off. She hurried out the door and stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t believe it! Dante was leaning against the passenger side of his truck with the door open actually waiting for her.

“You didn’t leave,” she said, shocked yet pleased.

“I thought you might change your mind,” he said with a slight grin.

“What if I hadn’t come out here looking for you?” Amara asked, walking towards the vehicle.

“I don’t believe in thinking about what ifs. I was positive you would show up and you did,” he told her as he helped her inside the truck and closed the door behind her.

She fought the urge to pinch herself while Dante walked around the front of his vehicle. She couldn’t believe she was about to have breakfast with him. She honestly wasn’t expecting him to keep his word about checking in on her, but she was thrilled that he surprised her and came looking for her.

Maybe she wasn’t the only one feeling this invisible link in the air that seemed to be pulling them together like magnets. Amara turned her head watching how the muscles moved in Dante’s arm as he got inside with her. His body was a work of art; she couldn’t find one single flaw in it.

“Care to tell me what has captivated your attention?” Dante asked as he started the truck and it instantly roared to life.

“Nothing,” she quickly answered, glancing away to look out of the windshield.

“I’ve been called a lot of things in my forty-three years, but nothing is a first for me,” he admitted.

Slowly, Amara turned her head back around and gave Dante another once over. She thought he was older than her, but she never guessed there was that much age difference between them. She didn’t know what Dante had been doing to make himself look so
damn good,
but he should keep it up because it was hard for her to keep her eyes off of him.

“I wouldn’t have guessed you were that old.”

“Do you have a problem with me being so much older than you?” he asked, looking at her.

His eyes bored into her never leaving her face for an instant. She blinked, feeling lightheaded as the
air
felt like it grew heavier around them in the close quarters of the truck.

“No, I don’t have a problem with your age at all. I’m friends with Mr. Lee and he’s older than both of us.”

“Who is Mr. Lee?” Dante asked with a slight frown to his face. “Is there a reason you’re friends with a man older than me?”

Amara wondered why he would even care about Mr. Lee. He acted like something was off about their friendship, but it wasn’t. If anything he had constantly come off like a father figure to her and nothing else.

“He helped me out a lot while I was living on the streets. His kindness and generosity was a life saver for me more times than I could count,” she answered. “If he ever needed my help, I would be there for him in a hot second.”

“You think a lot of him,” Dante said, still watching her closely for some reason.

“Yes, I think he’s a wonderful person and even better friend.”

Dante visually relaxed in front of her as he spun away from her and pulled away from the curb. For the next few minutes, they drove in silence with Amara taking a peek at Dante from the corner of her eye every once in a while. She tried to keep her excitement of being with him like this down, but it was hard to do.

Every time his gaze met hers, her heart flip-flopped in her chest. It was almost shameful on her part how attracted her body was towards him. He was so disturbing in every way a man was supposed to be to a woman, but it didn’t scare her.

In fact, it made her want to push to see how far things could go between then. On more than one night she had dreamed of being crushed within his embrace. Glancing out of the window, Amara noticed that he was driving further away from the part of town she was familiar with into an area only people with huge bank accounts could afford to eat.

Where was he taking her for breakfast? There was no way she was dressed for any of these places.

“Dante, I can’t go into any of these restaurants. Look at how I’m dressed,” Amara complained, looking down at her jeans and almost new tennis shoes. They were a pair Pastor Allen had found in a clothing donation bin and given to her.

Dante stopped at a red light at the corner. For a moment, he studied her intently and she was enthralled by the smoldering look she saw before he quickly gave her a once over. “I think you look perfect and once we walk into the restaurant no one in there is going to be interested in your clothing once they get a glance at your beautiful face. Besides, I’m not dressed up either and no one is going to care about it.”

Before she could answer him, Dante spun back around and drove off the second the light turned green. Leaning back against the seat, Amara couldn’t keep the smile off her face after hearing Dante’s compliment.

A warm feeling passed through her knowing he found her attractive. She couldn’t help but wonder what other surprises were in store for her if she allowed things to move forward between the two of them. Only time would tell about that, so instead of worrying about it she would just sit back and enjoy the ride for however long it might last. What did she have to lose?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Staring at Amara sitting across from him at the table, Dante studied how she glanced at the menu in her hands with a perplexed look on her pretty face. The waitress had already taken their order and left less than five minutes ago. So, he could only guess what she was thinking about.

“Would you care to tell me what you’re thinking about so intensely?” he asked.

“Do you want an honest answer?” Amara asked.

His eyes widened in surprise at her question. “Of course, why do you think I would want you to lie to me?”

Amara shrugged. “Hey, you never know. Sometimes a person can’t handle the truth, but I’ll tell you what I was thinking. Why in the world would anyone in their right mind pay almost twenty-five dollars for pancakes, bacon and eggs? I could have cooked the same thing at your house for free.”

Dante perked up at Amara’s suggestion. He leaned across the table a little more staring into her eyes. “I don’t mind spending a little extra on something I like especially when I get to be in the company of someone like you, but I will put your offer to cook breakfast for me in the back of my mind for another time,” he said, giving her a wink.

Wide-eyed, Amara stared at him. “Uh...I wasn’t...I mean...”

He couldn’t help grinning at the look on her face. Dante swore he could see her smooth brown skin grow a shade darker, something he found extremely cute and sexy. He liked the innocence of her reaction; it wasn’t something he was used to seeing. Most of the women he had gone out with in the past had left innocence behind a very long time ago.

“I know what you mean, Amara,” he said, attempting to ease her discomfort.

“Oh, okay,” she answered, giving him a tiny smile.

Her slender hands unconsciously twisted together as she glanced around the restaurant away from him, and Dante took the opportunity to study her.

He couldn’t help but wonder how she’d kept herself safe on the streets for so long. How many times did she sleep in the back of some alley while starving for something to eat? Did her family even know where she was? Did they even care a woman as pretty as Amara didn’t have a roof over her head? So many questions were running through his head and there was only one way he would get any answers to them.

“Amara, will you tell me how you ended up living on the streets?”

****

“It’s not what you think,” Amara answered, swinging her eyes back over to him. She knew it would happen sooner or later. The question she was trying to avoid answering might come up out of the blue.

“I’m not thinking anything,” Dante denied, watching her closely.

“Of course, you are. You’re thinking there was abuse at home, maybe my mother’s boyfriend might have pressed against me too many times, or my favorite, since I’m black, I must have had a drug problem and it caused me to end up sleeping behind a cleaners’ because of it. Truthfully, it wasn’t any of them.”

She stopped talking and took a sip of her coffee, placed it back down on the table before continuing with her story. “I had a great family with two loving parents. I graduated high school with a 3.0 GPA. I never had any trials or tribulations growing up at all. I knew as soon as I got out of high school I wanted to move out here.”

“Why?” Dante asked as the waitress walked up with their food.

Amara waited while the waitress placed Dante’s bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns in front of him. Next her plate of blueberry pancakes with crispy bacon, orange juice and a container of syrup were given to her before the waitress walked away. She poured some of the delicious smelling syrup over her pancakes, cut into their sinful fluffiness and took a bite while she mulled over Dante’s question.

She noticed how he also dug into his food instead of continuing asking her more questions. They ate in silence for a few more minutes before she took a sip of orange juice then wiped her mouth and continued the conversation where she had left off.

“I think I wanted to move here because it was so different from my hometown, but my mother thought eighteen was way too young. So, instead, I went to college for two years at home and then transferred here for my last two. Everything was going better than I could have hoped for. I had a good apartment that was within walking distance of my job and I took the bus back and forth to college.”

Blinking back tears as her mind burned with memories, Amara reached for her fork and started eating again hoping Dante took the hint and left it alone but her wish didn’t come true.

“Amara, you have to talk about it or whatever it is will continue to haunt you. I should know,” he confessed.

She placed her fork back down on her plate. With a long, exhausted sigh she looked at Dante noticing a faraway glimmer in his eyes. She began to wonder what he had in his past to put that hint of sadness there.

“What happened to you?” Amara asked, hoping he would tell her something more about him.

Dante suddenly blinked and instantly the look disappeared. “I’ll tell you at another time. I want you to finish telling me about yourself. You were opening up and I was getting to know more about you.”

“Were you a therapist in another life or something?” she teased, trying to ease some of the tension talking about the last eighteen months of her life always seemed to bring up.

“No, why?” he asked, reaching for his coffee.

“I just usually don’t open up with people as fast as I have done with you today, but I feel like I can tell you everything.”

How could she feel so comfortable with Dante this fast
?

Placing his cup back on the table, Dante drummed his fingers on the surface. “I’m glad you feel so comfortable with me. Does that mean you’ll finish telling me more about you?”

Amara was surprised to hear his words echo her own thoughts. She tucked the thought away. She would be able to think about it more later on when she was alone in bed.

“My parents died within six months of each other and neither one had enough life insurance to cover their burials, so I had to pay for the remaining arrangements with the money I had saved up from my bank teller job. After that, I didn’t have much money left plus my boss was an asshole and fired me for missing too many days.

“I couldn’t find another job fast enough for my landlord. As a result, one day when I came back home from an interview, I was locked out of my apartment and all of my belongings were tossed outside on the sidewalk like I was garbage.”

Amara didn’t know she had even been crying until Dante handed her a napkin. She took it and brushed away her tears then folded it next to her plate. She was tired of shedding tears and feeling sorry for herself. It was time for her to do something about her situation.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized.

“There’s nothing wrong with tears; it’s a way of cleaning out the bad memories to make room for happier ones.”

“Do you know my mom used to tell me that all the time?” Amara said, surprised again by the unpredictable man seated in front of her.

“So did mine,” Dante replied, glancing down at his watch. “I hate to leave, but I’ve another appointment in about forty minutes. How about I make it up to you later if you aren’t going to be busy?”

Yes...she would love to see Dante later on today, but she had to keep her cool about it.

She couldn’t agree too fast or she would come off as too eager for his company. Anyways, she did have plans to go and look for Liam. She hadn’t seen him in almost two weeks. Something was wrong and she was starting to get a little scared.

“I can’t agree to anything right now because I did have some plans myself. How about you call me later and I’ll see if I’m available to see you again,” Amara said, trying to not grin at the stunned look on Dante’s face.

“Care to tell me who has you in such a hurry not to see me again?” he asked, a hint of surprise in his voice. “I wasn’t aware you had such a busy social calendar.”

“No one in particular,” she answered. “I just have something I need to take care of after we leave just like you do. I know you understand.”

Honestly, after Amara spent a few hours looking for Liam, she was only going back to the shelter to look for more jobs in the paper and work on her resume some more. However, Dante didn’t need to know all of that.

Dante studied her thoughtfully for a moment. “All right, I understand but don’t get too caught up in whatever you have planned because I
will
call you.” Raising his hand, he signaled the waitress back over to the table and requested their check.