Curves in the Road (The Southern Devotion Series Book 2) (15 page)

“Everything alright?” 

He ran his fingers through his hair as he scrolled through his contacts. “No. That was the investor I’m supposed to meet with. He can’t meet until after seven tonight. I need to see if Ashton or my Mom can take Katie for the night in case it runs late.
This club is a dream come true for me, but I hardly get to see my girl these days.” 

I snatched the phone from him, “Do you have any
more meetings before that?”

He shook his head, “No but I have to find…”

I covered his mouth, “Let’s go have a meal, then you can drop us off here and I’ll stay with her until you get home.” 

“Are you sure? I mean do you not have plans tonight?”

I pulled him in for a quick kiss, “I’m free tonight and I want more Katie-cat time. We’ve had a blast today. Tonight we can curl up on the couch, watch movies, eat popcorn and relax. If you’d rather have some time alone with her before then, I can go home for a bit.” 

He tugged her closer, “Nothing I’d rather do more than spend time with my two favorite girls for the next few hours.”

Derrick went to wake up Katelyn. As I was walking towards her room I heard her say, “Dad?” in confusion then cry out, “Oh no! I slept too long and missed my whole day with MJ! I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

She sounded so disappointed I couldn’t let her go on thinking that. “I’m still here, Katie-cat.” She saw me and ran straight into my arms almost knocking me over.

Derrick teasingly said, “What am I chopped liver?” Katelyn grinned at him when he winked.

“Your dad has a few hours free and was going to have a late lunch with us. Then he has a meeting tonight so I was going to see if you’d mind me hanging around for a
girl's night.” Katelyn’s face resembled a child seeing her toys on Christmas morning she was so excited.

Derrick swiped at her butt playfully, “Go get a bath kiddo, You smell like the Zoo.”
  Pinching his nose with one hand, he used the other to wave in front of it as though trying to push away the stench.

Katelyn stuck her tongue out at him, “What about MJ?”

Derrick stuck his nose against my cheek for a moment and breathed in. “She smells like honeysuckles.”

Katelyn pouted, “No fair, she took a shower already.” She stomped off to get ready while Derrick pulled me into the hallway.

He shut the door, pressed me against the wall, then with his lips lightly touching mine he whispered, “Before I forget to say it, I loved the thought of her calling you Mom.”  He kissed me then left me standing there in the hallway completely in awe of him as he went downstairs.

Chapter Seventeen

**Derrick**

While Katelyn was getting ready I had to take a moment to myself downstairs. Hearing Mary Jane talk about being Katelyn's mom made me want to scream from the rooftops. Walking over to a drawer in the living room I pulled out a small velvet box. The ring I bought for her, back when we dated before, still sparkled untouched. It was a princess cut diamond set in a white gold band. I had bought it the night before she called to end our relationship. I never returned it because I kept hope alive that she'd be back. Now she wants to take things slow and I'm just waiting for the right time.

She called my name and I shoved the ring back in to the drawer before she came back in the room. "You ready for dinner? I'm starving," she said. Katelyn came bounding down the stairs next.

Our early dinner was nice. Originally we planned on dinner and then a little shopping, however we were only able to eat before I dropped them back off to get to my meeting. I hated to leave them. They stood on the front porch waving at me and blowing kisses. A guy could really get used to this kind of home life.

The meeting seemed to drag on forever. The guy wanted every detail of the club down to the brand of toilet paper we planned on buying. When I glanced at my watch it was after eleven. "Oh my gosh. I had no clue how late it is. I need to get home and relieve the babysitter." 
Referring to Mary Jane as the babysitter is much easier than referring to her as the woman I'm secretly dating…again.

The man snubbed his nose at me, "You want to cut an important meeting short for a child?"

"
My
child. And yes, nothing is more important than she is. In fact, I'm not sure we want to go the route you do and this wouldn’t be a good investment for you. I'll show you out." I didn’t stop pushing him until he was out the door. He stomped away to his car and I muttered under my breath, "Yeah it was a waste of time for me too buddy. I have a daughter and a beautiful woman waiting for me."

Once I stepped inside the house I found Mary Jane asleep on the couch. I went to wake her when her phone beeped and flashed. I picked it up and it was a calendar reminder that read,
Two weeks to make decision about Disney job
. Disney job? Surely she wasn’t planning on moving back.

Chapter
Eighteen

**Mary Jane**

A noise woke me from my slumber. I sat up and yawned realizing it was Derrick.
"Hey, you're home. How did your meeting go?"

"I'm sorry
it's so late, sweetheart. The guy was a jerk and it was a complete waste of time. It's after midnight."

Slipping my shoes on I was dreading the drive home at this time of night. Hoping he'd ask me to stay I said
, "I'll get out of your way."

He grabbed my shoe and held it hostage.
"No way. You can spend the night. We need to talk anyway."

My
face paled at the sound of those words. "That's never a good way to start a talk. You're the one that told me that before. Is something wrong?"

He held up my phone and my breath caught in my throat as he said,
"This flashed on when I came in. What does it mean?"

The message was
clear; he wanted to know if I've made a decision. "It means that I was offered a full time job and two weeks from today is the deadline to give them my decision."

"Which is a no, right? You
only forgot to remove the reminder?" he said with hope.

"I don’t know yet."
It was impossible to look him in the eyes right now.

"Why didn’t you tell me about this?"
Hi tone oozed with disappointment.

Keeping my composure, I reply,
"Because it's
my
decision to make. I haven’t been able to get a job, Derrick. I can't stay here and mooch off Angel and Tristan, they can't afford it. I feel terrible already that I asked Tristan to move here when I can't keep up with my portion of the rent. He can barely afford to take care of himself and Macy on the job he found here. He's still looking for something better but that could take months."

"Then live with me…with us."
he begged. The thought of moving in with Katelyn and Derrick was a dream come true to me. It didn’t feel right though to push him into this decision.

"That isn’t fair to you. I need to decide this on my terms. I'm not going to force you into a deeper relationship with me because you're afraid of me moving away again."

"I want you with me, MJ. Stay with me, please."

"Derrick, I don’t know.
I really have to make this decision myself. Either choice I make is life altering. I either give you up, my Prince Charming, to pursue a dream career or I give up a dream career to pursue my Prince Charming."

My back was against the arm of the couch, he climbed above me hovering dangerously close to my lips
. His mouth brushed against mine causing a moan to slip from my lips. Opening my legs I allowed him to relax against my body. My hands moved up inside his shirt as he pressed harder against me. "There's no pursuing me, I'm all yours," He growled low against my lips.

I had to push him away.
"We can't…Katelyn's upstairs."  When he lifted me off the couch I squealed as he proceeded to carry me upstairs. He went to lock the door and I saved him time by dropping my shorts and panties. When he turned I was standing in only a t-shirt.

That night
he made love to me as though every kiss, every touch was the last. It was exquisite torture, the pleasure he instilled that night. Nothing would make me forget this moment. I memorized every touch, the feel of his skin touching mine, his moist lips dotting my skin with each delicate taste, the roughness of his voice when he whispered in my ear. His hair tickled my inner thighs while he ventured below to send me into the throws of passion. Our bodies connected with each thrust, then came together with a groan of release in splendid unity

When
he rolled onto his back, I rolled over with my leg thrown over his. He kissed my forehead. "I love you, Mary Jane." When I smiled up at him he added in a broken whisper, "Please don’t leave."

Holding back tears was difficult in this moment
. We didn’t say another word after his desperate plea. We stayed wrapped in each other's arms until we drifted off to sleep. In the morning, he slipped out of bed. It was still early so I jumped up to put on clothes and follow him.

Derrick answered a question I missed,
"It was after midnight punkin, that's why I didn’t see you before you went to bed."

"
I feel bad for MJ having to drive home so late." Katelyn said.

At that moment,
they noticed me standing there.

Katelyn grinned widely and ran to
over to me in a fit of giggles. "You
are
going to be my mommy!"

Speechless was putting it mildly. All I could stutter was,
"What?"

"You came out of my daddy's bedroom. Mommy's and daddy's sleep in bedrooms together because they love each other
, that's what my Uncle Ashton told me. You love my Daddy. People that love each other get married, right?"

"I…um…I need to go home."
I stuttered more than ran back into the bedroom to change.

"What did I say, daddy?"

"I think you caught her off guard sweetie. Go get your bath and I'll talk to her."

In the bedroom,
I was frantically putting clothes on. The moment Derrick walked in I defended myself. "I had no idea she was awake. I was going to move to the couch and fix it up like a bed so that it would look like I slept there. I'm so sorry Derrick."

"It's fine, MJ."

"No it's not," I said calmly, firmly. "This is what I didn’t want, to get her excited about us being together only to leave again."

Stepping forward
he placed his hands on my shoulders to stop me from moving to put on my shoes. "Then stay. She's right; people that love each other get married. Marry me, MJ."

My eyes were
misty with tears and I was prepped to say yes but my voice betrayed me. "No, not like this. I'm sorry."  Slipping my sandals on, I scurried out of my room and out of the house before he could stop me.

Chapter
Nineteen

**Derrick**

Texting Mary Jane was futile. She would send back short answers then finally asked for a few days to think about everything. It had been three days since she'd been at my house, since I'd seen her, and I missed her immensely.

Today I had another meeting about the club. Ashton would be at this one because it was for promoters. We'd made a new decision to have live music nights where we'd have some big names play special sessions. Ashton had been a promoter for years and had a lot of contacts to help us out with this. He was bringing in another promoter friend to extend those contacts even more.

When I walked into the club they were there chatting. He had Autumn in a carrier strapped to his chest. She was kicking her feet excitedly as they spoke to each other. Ashton waved me over, "Derrick, this is Grayson." We shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Leaning down I gave Autumn a kiss on the head and gave her a few tickles eliciting adorable baby giggles from her and more feet kicking.

"Where's Gracie this morning?" I asked, wondering why Ashton had their daughter.

"She had classes and then she's meeting Mary Jane for lunch. Apparently MJ has some important news to tell her. She was kind of vague about it, any idea what that means?" Ashton asked.

"No clue." If she hasn’t told anyone about the job offer then telling Gracie that she is staying wouldn’t be important news since Gracie wouldn’t know she was leaving. There was only one thing that could mean, she'd decided to leave. "Let's get this meeting started. I have to pick up Katelyn in a couple of hours."

If I was to be quizzed on the meeting today, I'd never pass. All I could think about was the fact that MJ would be moving to Florida and we were over for good this time. She said it herself; if she chose the career she'd be giving up her Prince Charming. She had no intention of coming back again. Plus she knows I couldn't move now and take Katelyn away from her family, especially her grandmother who needed her the most.

On the way to pick up Katelyn, a text message came through. Once I pulled over at the school I checked it.
I need to see you. Will you be home tonight?~Mary Jane
. This is it, her time to tell me. It's best to get it over with so I replied
Yes, I'll drop Katie off at Mom's for a while and I'll be home by 7?~Derrick.
She sent one more reply,
I still have your key, I'll let myself in at 6 and make dinner. If that's ok?~MJ.
I replied,
Sounds good. ~Derrick.

Damnit. So at seven o'clock I get to pretend to be hungry up until she breaks my heart by telling me she's leaving. Then I get the incredible joy of breaking my
daughter's heart.

When I picked Katelyn up, she was in one of her happy talk-y moods. I tried to pay attention to everything she said but my mind was focused on driving and on MJ and there wasn’t room for much else. "Dad!" she exclaimed exasperated.

"Yeah, Boo?" I asked, with no clue as to what had been saying.

"I asked you if we co
uld invite Mary Jane to my play at school." Still sounding exasperated that I’d been ignoring her.

"Um…we'll see. Let's go in and see grandma and talk about that later."

My mom was acting strangely anxious to get me to leave. It was weird but I was used to her being weird these days.
She probably assumed that Mary Jane and I were going to have a romantic night which means I'd have to disappoint her later. When I pulled into the driveway, Mary Jane's car was out front. She was in the kitchen waiting for me. The table was set with candles lit, soft music played in the background. Mary Jane was dressed in a black wraparound dress that was tied behind her; her face was illuminated by the glow of the candles. She peered up at me, smiling. "Welcome home."

This was pure torture.