Kaitlyn fought the urge to reach for him as he climbed from between her legs on the bed.
“Maybe we can do something with Lei later,” she suggested as she climbed from the bed as well.
He paused in pulling his pants up over his bare ass and limpâbut still thickâmember to eye her nudity.
“I have to run some errands this morning, but we can all do something when I get back?”
“That works for me because I have an important matter this morningâafter my nap,” Kaitlyn said as she grabbed her robe from the back of the bathroom door. It was her thick terry cloth she wore after showers to dry off. It was fuchsia and furry. She found Quint side-eyeing her comfort.
“What?” she asked, looking down at it.
Quint just shook his head and took her hand in his as they left her bedroom.
“That's a good idea about taking Lei somewhere, because she's gonna be mad I didn't wake her up from Mrs. Harper's houseâ”
“She can't be scared, because they have one helluva guard dog,” Kaitlyn joked.
“Kaitlyn,” he said, his voice chiding as he scooped up his boxers and shoved them into his pants pocket and grabbed his shirt and blazer to pull on.
“I'm just saying the dog freaks me out.”
Quint reached the door and pulled her body against his before he playfully swatted her behind and kissed her.
“Call me when you get back home. Okay?” he asked.
She answered by nodding. As he walked out the door, she watched him until his head disappeared as he descended the stairs. She stepped back inside her apartment and yawned.
“Y'all look good together.”
Kaitlyn poked her head back out the door to see Mrs. Hanson leaning against the wall by her door, smoking a cigarette in her nightclothes. She eyed the woman in open curiosity.
“The hubby hates for me to smoke inside,” she explained with a shrug.
Kaitlyn felt her ire rise at her neighbor's hubby. She had to bite her lips to school her that any man who didn't workâbecause he
chose
not to hit a lick at a stickâto help pay the bills didn't get to dictate a damn thing.
“You should be sleeping after working all night,” she said instead.
“Can't sleep,” the woman admitted. “Sometimes things sit heavy on your chest and your mind that you just can't shake 'em long enough to sleep.”
Kaitlyn placed the dead bolt on to keep her door from locking as she walked over to her neighbor. She didn't miss the way the woman turned her faceâbut not in time for Kaitlyn to see that her eyes were puffy from crying.
“Are you okay?” she asked, stopping in her tracks because she didn't want to intrude.
Mrs. Hanson smiled at her as she flicked away the ashes on the cigarette she had stopped smoking.
“Quint is a good man. You hold on to him,” she said. “They hard to come by sometimes.”
And Kaitlyn knew then that Mrs. Hanson's sadness was her husband. Maybe she suspected more than the rest of the residents thought she knew.
“Thank you,” Kaitlyn said, turning to head back to her apartment.
She heard the woman sniffle, and Kaitlyn's heart broke.
“Mrs. Hanson . . . sometimes you should come home early from that job of yours,” Kaitlyn said, not turning to face her, before she hurried into her apartment.
As soon as she undid the dead bolt and closed her door, she stood there with her head pressed against it, waiting for the woman or her husband to come and confront her for her meddling.
That knock never came.
Â
Â
Quint felt like he couldn't stop yawningâor smiling.
He was sex beaten and tired, but he had promised to deliver the custom frame to his widow client in Summerville. It had to be there in time for her to place the painting of her deceased husband in it for a memorial service she was having the next day.
That done, his check was in his pocket. It was a nice hefty fee for the custom work, and she had loved it. Definitely a win-win.
As he steered his truck back toward Holtsville, Quint turned his radio up loud and bobbed his head in beat to Jay-Z and Kanye's “Otis.” He even sang along with the Otis Redding chorus: “Please her, don't tease her.”
Quint was in a good mood.
For the first time in a long time, he was taking a chance on love, and he felt damn good about Kaitlyn. He thought about flipping her upside down to eat her and he sang the chorus a little bit louder, “âPlease her, don't tease her.'”
After making love to her, they had fallen asleep. He had awakened to find Kaitlyn straddling his body nude and massaging him to hardness. That led to round two, and he had to admit that time he did pull out a few tricks.
He stroked his dick inside her as she lay on the bed, with her legs held together over one shoulder. He held her luscious ass up high in the air as he pumped away until his body was dripping sweat down onto her. She was coating every one of his delicious inches with her cum.
Quint shook his head and released a heavy breath as he shifted in his seat to give his suddenly hard dick more room in his pants. The entire night had been epic. Kaitlyn and their crazy vibe had solidified her in his life. Not just for the amazing sex, but also for her concern for Lei, her ability to make him laugh and not take life so seriously, and the way he could talk to her and feel like she listened and gave a damn about what he was saying.
He was ready to see her and couldn't wait to find out what their plans were for the afternoon. As he made the left turn by the gas station, he fought the urge to call her. She had her own errands to run and he was patient.
Quint steered into the parking lot and parked. He felt like doing a dang-on New Edition dance moveâhe was in such a good mood.
“Hi, Mrs. Harper,” he said cheerfully as his neighbor exited her apartment with Fifi under her arm.
She winked at him. “Good date, huh? About damn time,” she said.
“Thank you, Mrs. Harper,” Quint said, his broad smile re-forming his face to a boylike quality as he unlocked his front door and breezed inside the apartment.
But he soon felt like he was kicked in the balls as he eyed his ex-wife, Vita, rise to her feet in his living room.
What the fuck?
“Daddy, Mommy's back. She moved back to South Carolina,” Lei said excitedly.
But his eyes never strayed from that of his ex-wife. Just a cloud over what he thought was going to be a good day. He had to fight the disappointment he felt, because his daughter was happy.
Vita walked over to him, looking like an older version of their daughter. Lei was her spitting image, even down to her thick and curvy frame. Nothing about her had changed: long, flowing hair, lots of flash, overdressed and in impossible heels, nails too long for any real job.
“Don't I get a âwelcome home,' Quint?” she asked, making a move as if to hug him.
“Welcome back,” Quint forced out as he eyed Lei looking at him expectantly. “When did you get back in town?”
Vita dropped her hands when he didn't open his arms for the hug. “This morning. I'm staying with a friend until I get my own place.”
Quint's gut clenched and he hated the fear that claimed him. “So Hawaii didn't work out?” he asked. Translation:
You got dumped?
Vita's eyes glittered as she looked up at him from her petite height. “No, it didn't, but I'm fine with it.” Translation:
Back up out my business.
He literally bit his bottom lip to keep from throwing her a verbal jab alluding to her propensity to cheat. He didn't doubt that Mr. NFL caught her doing dirt and sent her packing so fast that her head spun. She had to tuck her tail and return to South Carolina.
And now she was here in his home; when for over two years, she couldn't muster the strength or desire to come and visit her child.
Quint wondered what the sudden reappearance of Vita Wells meant for
his
life.
Â
Â
Kaitlyn parked her car, but she sat in it for a long time and looked out at the home she grew up in: this was the home where she had been blessed with lots of love and family; the home where she knew she could always come back.
Kaitlyn quite honestly was embarrassed and ashamed about how she had pulled away from them, how she hadn't spoken to her parents in weeks. How could she face them now?
But she missed them. She ached for them.
She massaged her eyes with her fingertips as she released a heavy breath filled with her nervousness.
“Auntie Kat!” Kadina screamed, sounding as if she had seen the teen group Mindless Behavior.
Kaitlyn looked up as her niece turned and ran back in the house so fast that her ponytail whipped across her face. She took one final breath and left her car as she heard Kadina's voice screaming like a fool through the house: “Auntie Kat!”
By the time she made it to the steps, the front door opened and her mother, Lisha, stepped out. She was holding baby Kasi on her hip and toddler Karlos by his hand as four-year-old KJ squeezed past her to stand in front of her.
“Come on and help with your nephews,” Lisha said, smiling at her daughter. “I'm trying to get myself ready for making Sunday dinner.”
Kaitlyn climbed the stairs and reached for Kasi. She blew air bubbles against his cheek as they all made their way inside. Kadina was so excited that she was snapping her fingers and dancing as she kept knocking Kaitlyn with her hip.
“I'm making lima beans and fried chicken,” Lisha said as she continued into the kitchen.
Kadina took Kasi from Kaitlyn. “Come on, y'all, let's go play Xbox 360,” she said, using her legs to guide her two rambunctious cousins into the den as she motioned for Kaitlyn to follow Lisha into the kitchen.
And Kaitlyn did, rubbing her fingers through her short hair and then down the length of her jean leggings as her heels clicked against the hardwood floors leading to the kitchen. She removed the studded leather jacket she wore as she eyed her mother at the kitchen island, cutting up pieces of chicken on a thick plastic cutting board.
“Don't just stand there. Rinse those beans for me,” Lisha said.
Kaitlyn felt relief and was able to relax her spine as she made her way to the sink to wash her hands. Lisha Strong was a no-nonsense woman, and Kaitlyn knew that this show of normalcy without all the dramatics was her mother's way of saying, “All is forgiven. Now let's move on.”
“You look happy,” her mother said from behind her.
Kaitlyn looked over her shoulder. “I am,” she admitted.
“What's his name?” Lisha asked knowingly.
Kaitlyn hung her head, surprised by the heat she felt rising to her neck and cheeks. “Quinton, but everyone calls him Quintâ”
“The sexy landlord guy . . . who, I thought, was reported to me as
married,
” Lisha said.
Kaitlyn chuckled. “I just told my sisters-in-law that because they wanted to play matchmaker.”
Lisha set down her knife and came over to the sink to stand beside her daughter as she washed her hands. “Did some matchmaking on your own, huh?”
Kaitlyn leaned her head against her mother's shoulder for a few seconds before she filled her in on
most
of her first date with Quint.
Â
Â
With her high heels left at the front door, and her feet snuggled into a pair of her mother's knee-high leather riding boots, Kaitlyn drove one of the four-wheelers from the main house to the barn.
Her eldest brother, Kade, looked up as she pulled to a stop. His surprise gave way to approval; she saw this in his handsome face as she climbed from the four-wheeler with a wave. It was Saturday and her brother was on the ranch working, and undoubtedly had been there since before sunup.
And maybe because he had always been a second father figure in her life, due to the age gap, and now that he ran the ranch after her father's retirement, his anger over her spoiled ways had been more palpable than the other brothers'.
“Hey, Bubba,” Kaitlyn said, walking up to him and hugging him close as he dwarfed her with his six-foot-five height.
“Whaddup, kiddo?”
Kade avoided touching her with his dirty hands; but in that moment Kaitlyn wouldn't have cared, because she could've used one of his strong bear hugs.
Her mouth opened in surprise as one of the ranch hands led Snowflake out of the barn toward her. The horse was already saddled and ready to ride. For a moment Kaitlyn was taken back to her birthday party and the joy she had felt as the beautiful white horse was led to her.