Talk a Good Game (23 page)

He blew out a long breath. “So I
guess now you
’
re ready to break up with me?” He
looked frantic but I didn’t care or at least I pretended I didn’t
care.

Jeremy pulled into the gas station
and instead of answering him I got out the SUV and went inside the
store. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to hear his explanation. I
could deal with the teenagers, but a four-year-old... I just wasn’t
feeling that idea at all. I was already thirty. I wanted children
of our own. Hell, how in the world could we afford that with him
making child support for the next fifteen years? I know it sounded
crazy. It wasn’t like he had asked me to be his wife. At least not
yet, but I was expecting it soon. Well, a girl can only hope. But
he wasn’t going to play games with me. I needed a man to be on the
up and up. And what he had done was sneaky.

I grabbed a Pepsi and was reaching
for a bag of hot cheese puffs when Jeremy stepped inside the
convenience store. I rolled my eyes and pretend I didn’t see
him.

“
Hey,” he came up from behind and
wrapped his arms around me.

“
What?” I said but not with as
much attitude as before. It was something about the way his arms
felt wrapped around my body that always seemed to make it hard to
stay angry at him.

“
Baby,
I
’
m sorry I threw that at you like
that. On the ride home I’ll tell you about it.”

I pouted and decided to act
stubborn because that
’s
what a woman has to do
sometimes to make sure her man knows she wasn’t going to put up
with his shit.

“
Hey,” he swung me around and I
tilted my head and stared up into his eyes.

“
Angel,
I
’
m sorry.” He lowered his head and
pressed his lips to mine and it was a wrap. There was no way I was
leaving this wonderful man.

I took his hand and followed him up to the register
and waited while he paid for our things. We went back to the SUV
and headed for the highway before he began talking.

“
When I first started dating her
mother, I had no idea she had Jasmine.”

I glanced over at him. “What do
you mean?”

“
I mean… Mia and I had been dating
for two weeks and she had practically moved in. I came home from
work one day to see this baby in her arms.”

“
What
? Where was the
baby?”

He was shaking his head, like he
was embarrassed by the whole story. “Mia said her mother had been
keeping her. She was afraid if I had known she had a daughter, I
wouldn’t have dated her.”

Yeah, I know exactly how she felt.
But I
’
m sure he was already in love
with her and she could have said she had HIV, and it probably
wouldn’t have mattered at that point.

“
So what did you do?” I said,
giving him a little nudge.

“
They moved in, and we talked
about getting married. In the meantime I fell in love with Jasmine,
and I decided to adopt her.”

“
Where was her father?”

He hesitated. “He was standing
trial for sodomy and rape.”

I raised an eyebrow and muttered,
“Damn.”

“
Exactly.” He waited until he had
pulled onto Interstate 55 before he continued. “Mia had ended the
relationship with him long before she had Jasmine.”

“
So
ol
’
boy gave you permission to adopt his
daughter?”

He shook his head. “Nah, his name
was never on the birth certificate. So I signed it and she became
mine.”

Okay, so now my neck was rolling.
“So then call it what it is. You didn’t
adopt
Jazz
. By you
signing the document she became your daughter.”

“
Yeah, pretty much.” There were
those puppy dog eyes again.

“
Did you and her mother get
married?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Nah,
something just wasn’t ever right about our relationship and when I
found out she was messing around with a friend of mine I ended
it.”

Damn, he went through some shit.
“But by then you had already adopted her child.” I concluded. “I
guess you
’
re paying child support too,
right?”

He looked nervous by my question
before he finally answered. “Yep.”

I shook my head. I tried to keep
my anger to myself. Some men are so stupid when it comes to getting
with a woman. “Tell me, what was it about Mia that had you adopting
her child before you even married her?”

I could tell Jeremy didn’t even
want to answer my question. Well, too bad.

“
I don’t
know, she was on
the bowling team and one of my boys said she was interested in me.
I guess I was so flattered this young, beautiful woman wanted
me.”

“
How young?”

“
Fifteen years.”

What did I tell you? He met a
beautiful woman and lost his damn mind. Did anybody teach him that
what looks good isn’t always good for you? But instead of saying
it, I just kept my comments to myself and turned and looked out the
window.

“
So what? You mad at me
now?”

Goodness, he needed me to pat his head and tell him
it was okay. Not this time.

“
Well say
something.” He reached across the seat and squeezed my hand. “Just
tell me what you
’
re thinking or
feeling.”

I wanted to say I felt like I had
been played. Nowhere in that damn online profile of his did he say
anything about having a four-year-old daughter. She wasn’t adopted.
She was his, dammit.

I sat there staring out the window and pouting for
what felt like forever. The fantasy of this wonderful life with
just Jeremy and I was starting to have a few flaws.

Nobody
’s
perfect.

I released a long sigh and closed
my eyes and said a silent prayer.
Lord
please guide my actions and my heart.

With my eyes still closed, I
suddenly remembered
The Five Love
Languages
and the secrets to a love that
lasted. Christ, commitment and consistency were important. I had a
good man whose life had been filled with so many disappointments.
And I didn’t want to be one of them.

I reached over and laced my fingers with his.

“
You still mad?
”

I shook my head. “What can I say?
I
’
m in love with a man who has four
kids.”

There was that goofy smile. “Is
that a bad thing?”

I wanted to scream, hell yeah, but
in all honestly I couldn’t say that. I loved Jeremy. Despite all
the kids and the fact there was one he would be paying child
support to for the next fifteen years, for some reason, nothing
else seemed to matter except how crazy I was about this fool. He
was almost everything I wanted in a man and I learned years ago you
can’t get everything you want. You just have to figure out what you
can and can’t live without. Since the kids were only coming down
for brief visits I could deal with them, but Jeremy, his love,
faith, and magic tongue, I just couldn’t live without.

He squeezed my hand.
“
Nyree
… You know I love you,
right?”

Jeremy glanced at me with those
big eyes of his looking all serious. I hated when he did that. My
heart had a mind of its own when it came to him. I tried to shake
the feeling off and tossed Jeremy a look that said, “don’t try that
shit again”. I yanked my hand free and stared out the window
again.

“
I really am
sorry. I know what you
’
re thinking and
you
’
re right. I shoulda been honest
about Jasmine from the beginning. But I swear to you Angel, I
promise it won’t ever happen again.” He took my hand and brought it
to my lips.

As
crazy as it sounded, it didn’t
matter to me if that man had twelve kids and lived in a shoe. I
still would have loved him. Jeremy pulled off to the side of the
road.

“
Why are we stopping?”

He put his SUV in park then took
my hand again and closed his eyes. “Lord, please help me to shake
my insecurities so I can be everything I need to be for this woman.
I know I
’
m a work in
progress...”

By the time he had finished, there were tears in
both our eyes and I knew without a shadow of a doubt this was where
God wanted me to be.

JANELLE

You ever feel like throwing your phone across the
room?

Well, that
’s
exactly
how I felt when I heard Kaleb
’s
personal ringtone,
signaling that he was calling me once again. I was three seconds
away from turning the phone off all together, but I was expecting a
call from Mimi about a liquor order I needed for the restaurant
this weekend.

Asshole!

He could call all he wanted because after his latest
stunt I decided it was time for the two of us to slow it down a
bit.

Kaleb had taken me to St. Louis
for the weekend. As usual he spoiled me with an afternoon of
shopping at Nordstrom
’s
. At this point in our
relationship, he knew my weakness was purses and he bought me three
new designer bags in pink, red and blue then we had dinner at the
Cheesecake Factory. We finally made it back to our suite at the
Marriott Hotel and burned up the sheets.

That evening, Kaleb took me to this new thirty and
over club. I was having such a good time, laughing, holding hands,
and dancing that when Kaleb suddenly went off on me. I was caught
completely off guard.

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
You heard me. I see you staring
at the ugly mothafucka at the bar! You want him that bad, then take
your ass over there!” he screamed.

My mouth was wide open while he stormed away leaving
me standing there on the middle of the floor looking like a damn
fool. A couple of people were looking over at me with curious
looks. Apparently, they had overheard everything.

By the time I had made it back to
the table, Kaleb was asking for the bill. He gave me the evil eye.
“You always doing that secret squirrel shit? You must think
I
’
m fucking stupid!”

“
I don’t know
what the fuck you’re taking about!” I wasn’t about to waste my time
arguing when I had no idea what he was pissed off about, and I
stormed out of the club. It wasn’t until I was outside I remembered
we had driven down to St. Louis in his Jaguar. I paced across the
parking lot, and by the time Kaleb had come out the club, I was
calling my cousin Christina who had a loft downtown. As soon as she
confirmed she was coming to pick me up, I told Kaleb to “go fuck
himself” and then watched as he angrily peeled out the parking lot.
It took Christina
’s
slow ass thirty minutes to
arrive and not once did Kaleb call or come back to check on me. If
fact, I didn’t hear from him until the following morning. By then I
had already rented a car and rolled back to Columbia on my
own.

I loved a jealous man, but
Kaleb
’s
behavior was beyond ridiculous.
All the needy shit, checking my cellphone, and accusing me of
messing around on him was crazy as hell. He acted like a real life
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I would never tell Nyree this but
I was starting to feel smothered with all that “
we, we, we.
” Lord forbid, if I said anything about me doing something
that didn’t include him and his son. I know Kaleb was trying to get
me in the mindset of being a wife and a mother but damn did it have
to happen overnight?

My phone started ringing again and
I ignored it and moved into the bathroom to shower and get ready to
meet Frankie at Macy
’s
. It was his
mother
’s
birthday and he wanted some
help picking her out a nice dress. He appreciated my taste. Ever
since we ran into each other at Walmart, he
’s
been
coming by the restaurant hanging out in the kitchen. It was like
old times.

It was close to five by the time I
had pulled into the parking lot. I removed my designer glasses,
took one look in the rearview mirror and was pleased at what I saw.
A true diva. I was rocking red shorts, a white spaghetti strap
shirt and white sandals. I don’t know why, but I looked around to
make sure no one was looking, then I discreetly slipped off my
engagement ring and stuck it in the glove box.

I was climbing out the car as my phone was ringing.
This time I answered.

“
Yo, where you at?”