The Best Thing He Never Knew He Needed (14 page)

After confirming that this
was his house number on Walnut Grove Lane, she parked and stepped
out of the car. When her phone rang at about the same time, she
looked at the display and saw that the caller was Dante.

“
Hey, Dante,” she
answered.

“
Hi, Sherita. Have you
taken anything over to Desmond’s house yet?”

“
Funny you should ask…I
just got here…about to get out of the car and take some stuff
in.”

“
Don’t bother.”

“
Why?” she asked frowning.
“What’s wrong?”

“
I think I may have made a
mistake by asking Desmond to do this. I’ve never seen him so
livid.”

“
So the entire deal is
off, and I don’t have to move in?”

Dante sighed. Feeling like
he was being premature about this, he said, “Let me speak with
Desmond again. That way, I’ll be in a better position to tell you
how we’re going to move forward.”

“
Well, guess I’ll head
back on home then.”

“
I’m sorry about all of
this, Sherita. Hopefully, I’ll get it straightened out
soon.”

“
No problem. I’ll wait for
your phone call, then.”

* * *

Desmond showed up for pool
at Dante’s house. He wouldn’t allow his anger to keep him from the
tradition of shooting a few games of pool with his brothers. It was
a way for the brothers to talk openly in a non-professional setting
and without all the family around. It was only them.

“
Listen, Desmond…I wasn’t
trying to get under your skin today,” Dante said. “All I was trying
to say was that your inability to connect with a woman has to be
something deeper than this bachelor lifestyle you exude, and if it
has something to do with our parent’s death, which I suspect it
does, then I’m asking you to talk to me about it.”

Desmond held the cue stick
in his hand. He’d never been much for talking about his feelings,
but realizing he’d been holding on to this for far too long, he
said, “They’re supposed to be here with us.” Desmond inhaled a
breath, swallowed hard and said, “When Dad died, I watched Mom die
a little every day until she couldn’t live without him anymore. And
then there’s you, Dante…you married Anita, and
she
died. I watched you nearly break
down, completely lose yourself because you lost the woman you
loved. I can’t go through that. I can’t give someone my heart then
watch their life get snatched away.”

“
You can’t afford
not
to give someone your
heart, Desmond,” Dante told him. “Yes, Anita’s death was hard on
me, and it took me a while but, eventually, I started over. And now
I have Emily and a son.”

Desmond sighed heavily and
nodded.

Dimitrius took a long swig
of beer then set the bottle on the table next to him. “Dante’s
right, bro. You can’t put your life on hold for what you
think
may happen,”
Dimitrius added. “You have to live, Des. Trust me…I know what
you’re going through. I was trying my hardest to avoid Melanie
because of what my ex did to me. Now, I can’t imagine my life
without her and Grace. That’s why I do what I have to do to protect
them. You can do the same for someone, and I’m not saying
that
someone
is
Sherita. I don’t know who the woman is. I just know you’re missing
out if you let life pass you by without ever experiencing the true
love of a woman. You
can
be that man…a family man. I’m sure you didn’t buy
that five-bedroom house all for yourself.”

Desmond thought about it
for a moment. It would be something completely new for him to let
his guard down, and for a man who’d been anti-commitment all of his
life, something like settling down wouldn’t happen sporadically. It
would take some time. Even though he had a strong attraction to
Sherita, he didn’t know her. He knew he liked it when he kissed
her. That there was something explosive between them. He knew she
was beautiful, and he knew she was his soul mate. What he didn’t
know was if he could be the family type. One thing was for certain
– at thirty years of age, he wasn’t ready to settle down with
anyone.

Dante had just finished his
beer when he said, “Anyway, Des, I knew something was eating at
you, so I told Sherita not to move in.”

Desmond frowned, but why?
That’s what he wanted – his house all to himself and this sham of a
marriage to be called off, annulled, divorced or whatever married
people did to end their union. So why did he feel a sudden loss
when Dante told him that Sherita wouldn’t be moving in? “You told
her
not
to move
in?”

“
I did…caught her just in
time, too. She had just pulled up at your place. Glad I reached her
before she began taking things back and forth inside of the
house.”

“
Wait…why would you tell
her not to move in, Dante?” Desmond asked. “What about Victor and
this deal you’ve been after?”

“
Well, after I saw how
belligerent you were this morning, you didn’t seem like you were in
the right frame of mind to deal with all of this right now, Des,
and the last thing I want is for Sherita to be alone with you, and
you lose your temper.”

“
Wait…do you think I would
hurt her, or any woman for that matter?” Desmond asked, openly
staring at his brother in disbelief.

“
Don’t know,” Dante told
him. “I would like to think you wouldn’t, but, like I said, you
were angry.”

“
I can control my temper,
Dante. I wouldn’t hurt Sherita. And the only reason I snapped,
earlier, is because I don’t like being forced into anything,
especially a marriage. All I want to do is get my job done and go
home. That’s it. All this extra nonsense isn’t for me.”

“
After this is all over,
everything goes back to normal,” Dimitrius assured him.

“
Now, do you want Sherita
to move in or not?” Dante asked.

“
She may as well,” Desmond
said. “We’ve already gotten married, so…”

“
Good,” Dante said. “That
means you’ll have all day Saturday and part of the day on Sunday to
learn her. We’re meeting Victor at six.”

“
And where are we having
dinner?” Desmond inquired.

“
Connelley’s.”

“
Okay. Got it.”

“
Cool. I’ll be right
back,” Dante said. “I’m going to go tell Sherita she can proceed
with her move.”

With raised eyebrows,
Desmond asked, “She’s here?”

“
She is…in my office
working on her website while Emily is keeping her company.
Apparently, her laptop died and she won’t allow me or Sherita to
buy her another one. Be right back.”

While Dante was away,
Dimitrius looked at Desmond. “You’ll probably like her once you get
to know her. Keep an open mind.”

Desmond grinned. If his
brothers only knew how much he liked her…

After a few passing
moments, Dante stepped back in the room. “Okay, Des. She’s with it.
Said she’ll be at your place tomorrow morning at seven.”

“
Okay. I’ll be
ready.”

CHAPTER 17

In the morning, Desmond got
up early to work out as usual and, after taking a shower, he slid
into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. While waiting for Sherita to
arrive, he headed for the kitchen where he brewed some coffee and
reviewed Victor’s business plan. When he heard three beeps,
indicating a door had been opened, he stood up, sauntered to the
foyer and saw her standing there, looking around. She was in awe of
his house – the crystal and gold chandelier hanging from the high
ceiling, the glossy, wooden spiral staircase that led up to the
second floor and the teardrop, bronze wall lights mounted on the
wall alongside the staircase. He enjoyed watching her without her
knowledge – seeing her eyes light up, her body move in different
directions.

“
Ahem,” Desmond said
clearing his throat, stealing her attention.

“
Oh,” she said, scanning
the space to find him. When she did, her eyes traveled the length
of his stature, from his eyes to his bare feet. The man looked
stunning in a suit, but looking at him now, she thought he looked
ruggedly handsome in the jeans and red T-shirt he was wearing.
“Hi…didn’t see you there at first.”

He walked closer to her, so
close that it seemed as if he was going to give her a hug. Instead,
he picked up her suitcase. “Follow me.”

She did as he asked,
following him down a long hallway with floors just as clean and
shiny as the staircase. At the end of the hall, he opened a door to
reveal a set of stairs leading down to the basement. He waved her
by and, when she passed him, he followed her down the
steps.

“
Wow,” Sherita said when
she entered the basement. It had been fully converted to an
apartment as Desmond had mentioned. It was as neat and fancy as the
rest of the house, well, from the little she’d seen of his home so
far. The living room was painted a bright white, decorated with
modern, brown couches, a recliner and matching coffee and accent
tables. The bedroom was a completely different color scheme – the
walls were a pale lime green color, and the king-sized platform bed
was covered with a dark chocolate and white comforter. A cluster of
pillows, all with varying colors – from orange to neon blue –
decorated the bed. The nightstands were white with sleek, steel
handles, housing matching lamps. But what really caught her eye and
made this place tranquil and contemporary was the floor-to-ceiling,
water display in which the water appeared to be falling from the
ceiling to the floor over and over again.

“
I’ll let you get
settled,” he said. “Don’t worry about trying to organize everything
right now. We have a lot of work to do today.”

“
We do?” she
asked.

After a long, tense pause,
Desmond said, “Yes. We do. We have dinner with Victor tomorrow
evening. We have to get to know each other a little better and get
our stories straight.”

“
Oh. Right.” That would be
difficult, she knew, especially since it required a lot of
memorization in such a short period of time. And what if she messed
up? She was too nervous to think about it at the moment.

“
Do you have more things
in your car?”

“
I do, but I’ll get them.
I don’t want to disturb you.”

“
I would let you know if
you were disturbing me,” he told her.

I’m sure you would.
“Well, in that case, there are some things in the
back seat.”

He turned away, and Sherita
could hear his well-grounded steps on each stair until he was on
the main floor again. She used the time to marvel at how
beautifully decorated this apartment was, and she’d been dying to
see the bathroom.

“
Where’s the bathroom?”
she said softly. She stepped down a small hallway and found it, her
mouth dropping open yet again. The bathroom was a light-brown color
with a garden tub, a stand-up shower encased in glass and
his-and-her glass bowl sinks, exquisitely laid out like something
out of a magazine. Desmond went all-out to make sure his guests
were comfortable.

“
This is nice,” she said
in a monotone. This basement apartment was ten times better than
her apartment.

When she heard Desmond
descending the stairs again, she quickly walked towards the couch,
the same area where she’d been standing when he left a moment
ago.

“
Here’s the rest of your
stuff,” he said with an arm full of her things.

It would’ve taken her at
least three more trips to the car to get everything he’d
grabbed.

“
Where do you want it?” he
asked.

“
Just put it on the sofa,
or anywhere you can. I’ll put everything away.”

“
All right,” he said,
lowering her items to the couch, “But I need you in the kitchen,
Sherita.”

She looked up at him.
“Okay. Can you give me five minutes?”

No
. That’s what he wanted to say. Instead, he turned around and
quietly headed for the stairs.

“
O-kay...I’ll take that as
a yes,” she mumbled.

“
What was that?” he asked,
turning around to see her face.

“
Oh…nothing. I’ll be
down…I mean
up
in
a minute.”

She watched Desmond turn
around and head up the stairs. This time, she made certain he was
gone before she made another comment, or move. Walking back to the
bathroom, she took a few moments to dash cold water on her face.
She’d been busy all morning taking trips back and forth to the
storage facility she’d rented. Hopefully, the water would keep her
alert enough to deal with Desmond.

Dabbing her face with a
towel, she said, “Okay. Here goes. You can do this, Sherita.” After
taking a small notebook and pen from her purse, she headed
upstairs, finding Desmond sitting at a six-chair breakfast nook in
the kitchen. She watched him glance up at her, then back to his
tablet.