Keeping Jahleel (Loving All Wrong #1.5) (18 page)

Nice excuse
.

Marsha scoffed. “So you’re just telling me you’re crashing here instead of asking me? What if I have someone who wants to come see me?”

He looked over at her. “You got a man?”

She averted her eyes and gulped down more Pepsi. “You can stay.”

As if he’d asked
.

“You gotta do better than this, though, Marsh. We talked about this.” He waved a hand at the pizza box. “It’s Sunday and you’re feedin’ my daughter
pizza
for dinner.”

“What? She loves pizza!”

Claire chimed in, “I love pizza, Daddy.” She bounced up and down on his lap, chanting, “I love pizza. I love pizza.”

Ignoring her, because she was too young to know what the hell was good for her, he addressed Marsha. “What did she have for breakfast?”

“Cereal.”

“Lunch?”

Marsha winced. “Oreos.” Then she quickly added, “But that’s what she asked for.”

Jahleel shook his head, tired of having to go over the same thing with this woman. “She deserves a proper breakfast, a proper lunch, and a proper dinner. Stop feedin’ my daughter junk food or we’re gonna have it out. You understand?”

She kept quiet, but rolled her eyes.

“A matter of fact, screw this pizza. We’re going out for dinner.” He spun Claire around to face him, and brought his nose close to hers. “Where would you like to go for dinner, Claire?”

“Disney land!” she shouted excitedly, her golden eyes wide.

Jahleel laughed. “Disney Land is not a restaurant. But I tell you what, if you can pronounce the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious by the end of the week, we’re going to Disney Land. But for now, pick a
restaurant
.”

Raising one hand, she tapped her little fingers on her chin and clucked her tongue as she thought about it.

Marsha laughed.

He did, too.

Claire must’ve learned that move from some shit she watched on television.

Then her face brightened. “Apple Beeeeezzzee!” she exclaimed, dragging out the Bees. “Aunty Kwissy and uncle Trev took me there and it was so much fun! I wanna go again.”

“Apple Bees it is.”

Standing up with Claire, Jahleel reached into his pocket for his cell, punched in the unlock code, then tossed it to Marsha. “Here. Call my assistant and tell her to bring some stuff over. And yeah, we’re going to Disney Land next week. Have her set it up with a time friendly with both our schedules. Next week busy for you?”

Blinking at him with a weird expression on her face, she shook her head. “N-No. Not really…I can do Disney Land.”

“‘Kay. Sort it out. I’m gonna get Claire ready.” A few feet off, he stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. “Oh, and tell your man not to show up at Apple Bees.”

With another eye roll, she looked down at his phone in her hand. A smile tugged at her lips. “Whatever.”

She didn’t have a man
.

“W
hat the fuck is this?”

Jahleel barged into Lion’s office and slapped the entertainment magazine down onto his desk.

Lion glanced down at the magazine, then laughed. “You flew all the way to LA to ask me why Kia is photographed wearin’ a hat that, well, almost every single gal is wearin’ now?”

Frustration forced a growl out of him. “Hers is different. See, JK’s
Only
Babe. She did that. What the fuck is she tryna do, punk me out?”

Maybe he was overreacting, hopping on a flight to LA to curse Lion out, but he just about had enough of Saskia’s bullshit over the past two months.

Not only had she gone back to being blonde, but she straightened her hair and wore it down with a center part, all the time. Because she knew he liked her hair like that. She continued wearing his engagement ring, and continued using the mike he gave her in all her performances.

Every stake-claiming thing she did, he’d ignored it. But all she did each time she didn’t get a rise out of him, was turn it up a notch. Pissing on him like he was a fucking fire hydrant while he was fighting harder than a soldier in Iraq to get the fuck over her.

Now it was the JK’s Only Babe ball-cap. Every day, everywhere she went, for the past week, she was being photographed in the damn cap.

After the incident in Vegas, the media jumped on and trashed her to the ground, calling her the worst of names. It was hard for him to have to listen to people talk all kinds of shit about her, coming up with endless falsity.

When he thought Saskia would’ve curled up and gone into hiding, stepped off the scene for a while until things cooled off, she surprised the hell out of him by riding the bad publicity wave. She never backed off, never defended herself. She smiled wider. She laughed harder. She sang sweeter.

Proud to say, he admired her new found strength. Not that she wasn’t strong before. She was always strong, even when she thought she was weak. But now, she was stronger. And that just served to make him love her even more.

Saskia Day was a fucking phenomenal woman, and no one could ever take her place. Ever. She stole his breath every time on a dime. Blew him away like he was a fucking pussy willow. Reeled him in like a starving fish gagging on a bait. And cheated him of his heart like a sly fucking swindler.

Every time.

She still owned him. Always did and always would. She knew this. And she was letting him know that she knew this.

In interviews, whenever hosts tried broaching the subject of her and him and Tex, she’d wiggle her ring finger, smile broadly, look straight into the camera and say, “JK’s still my fiancé.”

One talk show host pulled up pics of him, Marsha, and Claire at various places, having fun like a family, from Disney Land to Paris. Saskia had merely looked at the pictures with a smile, commented on how cute Claire was, then emphasized, “JK’s still
my
fiancé.”

Some people accused her of being deluded. Some thought it was romantic.

Him? All he wanted to do was fucking strangle her.

Lion folded his arms, sat back in his chair, and grinned up at him. “Looks to me like she wants you back.”

“Not gonna happen,” he gritted out. “So tell her to quit fuckin’ staking claim on me. She doesn’t own me.”

“Well, she obviously believes otherwise,” Lion pointed out, still grinning.

“What’s so funny?”

“You. Her. This whole situation.” He waved his hand around. “You’re both so in love with each other, it’s fuckin’ ridiculous the things you do. I knew this was gonna happen. Saw it from a mile away. I warned you both. And I should be pissed right now. But instead, I’m amused. I’m actually sittin’ on the edge of my seat waitin’ to see how shit’s gonna play out this time.”

“Look, assfuck, me and Sassy? We’re
done
. You’re her manager,
tell
her to stop this shit. If she doesn’t, I’m gonna slap a ring on some random chick’s finger and start taking interviews to talk about my new engagement. And that’s only gonna leave Saskia Day,
your
product, looking like a sick, pathetic loony bird.”

Lion straightened up in his chair, realizing Jahleel’s seriousness. Lion knew he didn’t make idle threats. And if they kept poking the asshole in him with a hot rod, he would dish it out at the full one hundred percent.

So far, he’d been playing nice.

“Okay, okay,” Lion placated. “You don’t need to be an asshole, aight? I’ll talk to her ‘bout it.”

“Thank you,” Jahleel hissed out and turned to leave.

“Are you really back with Marsha?” Lion asked, stopping him.

“What’s it to you?”

“Just askin’,” Lion mumbled. “You’ve been completely closed off since this shit went down. We only talk ‘bout proposals and contracts. And I feel a lil hurt, to tell you the truth. ‘Cause we’ve had a close relationship long before I became your manager. I’m just Saskia’s manager, JK. I’m not her. So it ain’t fair that you’ve shut me out. I’d never betray your confidence and you know that.”

Scrubbing both hands down his face, Jahleel turned around and answered truthfully, “No.”

Lion was unconvinced. “You’ve been livin’ in her home for the past two months, and you’re tellin’ me you’re not tappin’ that?”

God he
hated
when people questioned his honesty. “You just asked me a question and I answered with the truth. I’m spending time with my
daughter
.”

“So why not take Claire to your place, then? Why stay at Marsha’s?”

When Jahleel plead the fifth, Lion figured it out.

“The house reminds you of her, doesn’t it? It’s too close to her home. Shit, you’re thinkin’ of sellin’ it, aren’t you?”

Lion could read him too well.

True, Jahleel had bought the house to be closer to Saskia. Now he wanted to sell the damn place
because
it was too close to her. He didn’t want to even go there because she had a lot of shit there he didn’t want to see. Not even to gather them to burn them. Then there was their entwined initials, big and bold, right in the foyer to remind him what a joke he was.

“Enough, Dr. Phil,” Jahleel said. “I’m out.”

“You still love her, JK. Don’t deny it, ‘cause it’s clear as fuckin’ day. You need to give her a chance.”

“Not a—”

“I spoke to Tex, JK. He admitted to druggin’ her. And he’s pretty beat up about it.”

Jahleel snorted. “Well, if she’d stayed in her fuckin’ booth that wouldn’t have happened, now would it? Why would she go in the first place if she didn’t still have feelings for him? Where’s the fuckin’ respect for
me
?”

Lion stood up and rounded his desk, propping himself on the edge. “Okay, be angry with her for
that
. But don’t punish her for what happened after. She trusted him, and he fucked her over out of revenge. You know, like I know, JK, that Kia has never and will never love anyone else but you.

“Tex has backed off ‘cause he’s come to realize this, too. Consciously, Saskia would never do shit like that. And I could swear for her in a fuckin’ court house. Just like I swore for you that you’d never hit a woman when Tex tried to start up that rumor ‘bout you bein’ a woman beater. She loves you, JK, and you love her. Stop fuckin’ torturin’ yourselves.”

Raking his teeth over his lower lip, Jahleel took a step toward Lion. “Lemme ask you this: if it was Twana, if you saw her on camera getting her brains fucked out over and over again by someone that wasn’t you, if you watched her polish another man’s cock and
enjoyed
doing it, while wearing
your
ring on her finger, how would you cope with all those images burned into your head if you
did
decide to forgive her and move on? How would you
move on
from that? Tell me how, Lion, and I’ll give Sassy a chance.”

Lion stared back at him, his expression horrified at the thought of that being his queen, Twana.

Jahleel waited for one, two, three…sixty seconds, and when Lion came up with nothing, he bit out, “That’s what I thought,” then turned and left his office.

“…
Three steps back. Oblique left twist, right twist. Knee slide forward. 360 knee spin. Turn. Back flip….one, two, three, air toss Trent!”

Jahleel crossed his arms, watching as his dancers tossed Trent up in the air. Trent air flipped, then came down landing on one hand. Perfect, except his shirt was still on.