Authors: Marie Rochelle
He hated when Caleb or Griffin teased him about his ‘hero complex’. Was it so wrong he liked helping the less fortunate? It was just a part of who he was and it didn’t bother him at all.
“Okay, enough with the jokes,” he admonished. “You should think about finding something worthwhile to do with your free time. It wouldn’t hurt you to leave the tattoo chair once in a while.”
“Old buddy, I do something for the people every time I make their tattoo dreams come alive beneath my fingers. Do you know how many girls have shown their appreciation with more than money?”
Rolling his eyes, Dante rested the cell phone in the nook on his shoulder and started drying off his body with the towel before reaching for his favorite pair of jeans. Why did he think Caleb would be able to have an adult conversation with him? He acted like a fraternity boy half the time. He hadn’t matured in all of the years he had known him.
“How about you keep your activities outside of the tattoo shop to yourself?” he suggested, pulling on his pants.
“All I want you to do is make sure none of your personal affairs comes back to hurt the shop. The customer getting a perfect tattoo is always the main agenda. I know if I asked Griffin he would agree with me.
Inked
is his baby now since I’m gone and any kind of bad press would kill the business and him in the process.”
“Dante, I swear the women I hook up with know the score and aren’t looking for anything more. Look, I need to go. The place is getting full, so I better get ready for them. Don’t forget my phone. I need it for my date tonight.”
Dante knew it...a woman was never far from Caleb’s wandering thoughts but his business partner was only being himself. How could he get upset with him? Caleb was going to be a bachelor forever; he proved it a while ago by giving up something very precious.
“All right,” Dante answered. “I need to finish getting ready and I’ll be at the bar before you leave.”
“All right, I’ll see you when you get here,” Caleb told him then hung up as someone yelled his name in the background.
Snapping his phone shut and tossing it on the bed, Dante reached for the black t-shirt on his bed and pulled it over his head. He had a lot to do and wanted to get started as soon as possible.
Picking up his cell phone, he slid it into the back pocket of his jeans then left his bedroom. He still had to feed Bear and then load a few more things into the truck before he left for the day.
Chapter Nineteen
Pulling up into the alleyway of the shelter’s parking lot, Dante got out of his truck smiling as one of his favorite people came out the backdoor to greet him. He had been helping out this particular outreach center for the past six months.
“Dante, it’s so good to see you again. It has been a while,” Pastor Allen said, smiling as they shook hands. “How are things going with you?”
“I’m doing well,” Dante answered, ending their handshake. “I apologize for not bringing by my usual donations sooner than this but I’ve been busy with work. I barely have any free time anymore.”
“Do you remember the talk when I warned you about working too much and not finding enough time for yourself?”
Dante nodded; but the bar had to be taken care of daily and every function rested on his shoulders. He was very aware of how he should relax more but he didn’t like putting his responsibilities on anyone else. “I do, but I run one business and am still partners in another one, so sometimes I end up burning the candle at both ends.”
“Is everything really going okay with you?” Pastor Allen inquired, touching him on the shoulder. “You seem a little lost.”
“No, I’m doing fine like I told you,” Dante answered. He wasn’t going to unload his problems on Pastor Allen. They usually worked themselves out in the end and this time wouldn’t be any different.
Pastor Allen watched him skeptically for a few minutes before removing his hand. “All right, if you needed my help I know you would tell me. So, how about you show me what supplies you’ve brought me.
“Honestly, the outreach part of the shelter is running low on everything. We almost didn’t have enough to fill the thirty baskets we usually do every month. The food truck did come a few hours ago, but they didn’t leave enough to completely fill a good ten baskets. However, we always do the best we can to help every person in need.”
Dante couldn’t help but think about Amara. If she had only stayed and listened to him, he could have sent her here. “Do you still take in homeless teenagers off the streets?” he asked.
“Not as much as we used to, but I did get a new one last night. She was running from some homeless men chasing her. I don’t want to think about what could have of happened if I hadn’t opened the door.
“She got recommended to me from someone I know, but she wasn’t a teenager. I believe she’s around twenty-four, so that makes her one of the oldest tenants to ever be here but she is a very sweet young woman. I’m hoping she’ll be willing to take my help. She has this hidden stubborn steak about her.”
Pastor Allen’s new boarder sounded a lot like Amara; he couldn’t imagine anyone else more difficult than her. She truly had this toughness, so if she wouldn’t take help from him, she wouldn’t have come to this shelter for help. “Since you have a new person living here, hopefully the extra pair of hands can help making the baskets easier on you and some of the other volunteers. Let me show you what I brought and please let me know if you need anything else.”
Walking over to his truck, Dante opened the back door revealing bags and bags of food along with non-perishable goods that filled the bed of the truck. He tried to get everything he had last time along with a few extra things in case some of the families had children.
“My God.” Pastor Allen gasped his eyes wide with shocked surprise. “How did you afford all of this?”
Seeing the blissfully happy look on his friend’s face, Dante felt an instant sense of satisfaction about buying the extra items. He was doing well enough to share his success with others who might need it.
“I can’t take all of the credit,” he answered. “Some of my friends donated a little extra money to get some of the toys for the children.”
He watched as wrinkled hands brushed tears way from kind eyes. “Please give them my thanks. All of this is going to go a very long way with the baskets and the dinners we serve twice a week. Let me help you get some of the bags inside.”
Pastor Allen’s hands reached for a bag, but Dante pushed them away. “No, I don’t want you carrying them in. Why don’t you get one of those grocery carts and send it out with the new girl you have here. I think we will make better time that way instead of going back and forth.”
“I feel bad not helping out.”
“Don’t feel bad at all. I know there has to be something else you can do while we unload the food and put it away,” Dante said knowing how busy his friend stayed most of the time.
“Yes, I could work on something else. Okay, I’ll send her out with two carts. Let me go and get her from her room.” Spinning away from him, Pastor Allen went back into the shelter.
Turning back around towards his vehicle, Dante started pulling the grocery bags closer to the edge, so when his helper came outside they wouldn’t have reach very far. He truly hoped all of this would be enough for the shelter. He hated the thought of any family not having enough food to eat. If it wasn’t enough, he could always make another trip to the grocery store and get some more items for the baskets.
“Excuse me, Pastor Allen sent me out here to help you.”
Dante jumped at the unexpected sound of the soft voice behind him. He hadn’t even heard anyone coming up behind him.
“Great, we can start with these bags in the front first—” he said, spinning around. He stopped speaking as his eyes landed on the person behind him. No, it couldn’t be. His eyes
must
be playing tricks on him or something.
Chapter Twenty
Dante still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It couldn’t be her, but it
was
Amara. Yet, she didn’t look like a homeless teenager anymore, but a gorgeous woman. He had no clue she looked like this underneath all of the dirt and crazy hair. Easing closer to her, he reached out and took a piece of her hair between his fingers.
Her thick dark hair hung in long, graceful curves over her shoulders. As he dropped his hand, Dante still couldn’t comprehend this was the girl he’d chased down the back alley of his business several weeks ago.
How in the hell did she end up here
?
What was going on
?
“Amara, what are you doing here?” he finally asked as the surprise started wearing off.
“Mr. Braden, I wasn’t expecting to see you,” she answered moving back as a wary look passed over her pretty face. “I need to—”
“No wait,” Dante said, grabbing her by the arm. “If you keep running away every time you see me, I might start to take it personally and most of my friends would tell you, I’m not lacking when it comes to the ego department. Besides, I can’t unload all of this food, supplies and toys by myself.” He slowly let go of her arm and eased back from her.
Don’t say anything else. Just wait and see what she does next. This might be the chance he had been waiting for. He couldn’t ruin it before he got the chance to make anything happen.
Amara rubbed her arm were his fingers had been but she didn’t make a move back towards him. “Are you going to tell Pastor Allen I’m a thief? I don’t have anywhere else to go if he kicks me out of here. After spending the night in a warm bed with a lock on the door, I couldn’t handle sleeping back on the cold concrete beneath garbage bags.”
His heart broke at hearing the uncertainty in Amara’s soft voice. He wanted her to trust him and not be afraid every time their paths might cross. He had to prove he wasn’t out to get her anymore.
“How about we forget our first encounter and start over fresh? We can let this be our first meeting. Hi, I’m Dante Braden. It’s very nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand and waited for Amara to take it.
Slowly, she moved her hand off her arm and placed it in his. The second her soft hand touched his, a tingle of excitement raced through his body making his cock twitch.
“Hi, I’m Amara Langston. It’s very nice to meet you Mr. Braden.”
“Dante,” he corrected, tightening his hold. He brought her hand to his mouth kissing the back of it while never breaking eye contact. He heard a small gasp come from between her lips before she jerked her hand away.
“Hmmm...shouldn’t we start loading up the food and getting everything inside?” she asked like she hadn’t felt the same shock from their touch as he had.
“You’re right,” he said then winked at her causing her eyes to widen before she quickly glanced away from him.
Dante watched as Amara grabbed the handle of her cart and pushed it closer to him. He liked how she was nervous of him, but he sensed a little attraction as well. He still couldn’t get over how different she looked from the last time he saw her. No wonder Ike wanted to get his hands on her so badly. He saw her real beauty beneath the layers of dirt.
From the corner of his eye, he studied Amara as she loaded the first cart next to him with groceries and toys. Any other woman would be talking his head off with nonsense, but she seemed quite content just working away without any conversation at all.
Yet, he wanted to know what was going on in that head of hers. He would have to begin slow and work his way past her barriers to gain her trust.
As he continued to watch her; Dante realized something about Amara intrigued him. She might not know it yet but she just gained another person on her side. If she was able to come here and seek help from Pastor Allen, it gave him hope that she would be more open to the idea of seeing him in a different light.
Feeling a sudden sense of excitement that he hadn’t felt in years, Dante finished putting the rest of the groceries and other items inside of his cart. His mind was already on several ideas at how he was going to get rid of Amara’s wariness she harbored towards him.
Dante wasn’t used to a woman running away from him. Honestly, he couldn’t ever recall it ever happening, so he had to show Amara he wasn’t the man he’d shown her during the night of the rainstorm.
Chapter Twenty-One
Stop staring at him.
Amara kept repeating those words over and over because she couldn’t stop staring at Dante. He was walking around the shelter’s kitchen putting away groceries like he owned the place. She wanted him to leave but anytime she brought it up, Dante would just give her that killer smile of his and politely tell her no.
He seemed determined to stay here and drive her racing hormones up the wall with the amazing scent of his cologne, masculinity and amazing body. It was a far cry from the smells she was used to being around when other men came around her on the streets.
“You don’t have to stay here and help me do this. I know I can figure out where everything goes,” she insisted again as Dante placed jars of peanut butter inside the cabinet.
Closing the cabinets, Dante turned around and looked directly at her. “I’ve some free time so I can stay a little longer unless you’re trying to get rid of me for some reason. I thought we were going to try to start over and see if we could become friends. Have you changed your mind already?”
His eyes clung to hers, analyzing her reaction, but Amara tried to keep her face calm and cool. She couldn’t let him see what was going on inside of her head since she wasn’t quite sure what it was herself.
However, Amara was enthralled by what she saw shining in Dante’s eyes. He was looking at her like her opinion really mattered to him; this man in front of her was a big change from the guy she’d run into weeks ago.
“No, I haven’t changed my mind,” she answered, quickly. “I’d like to see if we can become friends too. If you’re willing to forget the past; I can do it too.”