Better to stay on his p’s and q’s and finally do something worth making Mama Joy proud and not wind up on the receiving end of disappointment in Kerry’s big brown gaze.
Suddenly the shop’s front doorbell rang, followed by three firm but—he could tell—feminine raps. Jesse frowned, looking up at the window. Though it wasn’t yet dark, it was well past seven, and the closed sign was still on the shop door anyway. He let out a groan. It was probably more food from some of the neighborhood women. How much did they think he could eat? But his lights were on upstairs, as well as the back light, so there was no way he could get out of not accepting it by pretending he wasn’t there. Besides, they were just being nice. Going in and acting rude would not fly. He would be haunted, if not by Mama Joy then by all the neighborhood talk, enough to make him feel as if she’d come from the grave. Jesse started back down the stairs, his mind fighting to get into business mode and focus on all he needed to attend to and discuss with Kerry come the morning.
He’d get right down to things, showing her and his brothers just how serious he really was. There were questions about timing, how long she thought inventorying and cataloging everything would take. Maybe they’d close the shop for three or four weeks while they got it all together and then have a grand reopening in Mama Joy’s honor, though it would be better if they could cut that time even more.
With these thoughts, for the first time, Jesse felt like a little bit of a weight was starting to be lifted from his chest and he could actually focus on something positive instead of the overwhelming abyss of dread that had consumed him since Mama Joy suddenly passed away. True to his form, he’d been filling his time and his mind with all the wrong things: sleeping late, picking up bartending jobs, then leaving with a bottle and drinking heavily on his way home, women, more drinking and, hey, more women. But with this go at the shop, maybe Mama Joy would be proud of him working to turn things around. Not running, but facing life head-on for once.
Jesse went to the door and looked out, focusing his gaze. Opening it, he tried to keep his mind on neutral as he took in Erika Taylor, his sometimes bedmate for the last couple of weeks and at most a convenient distraction. Still, he felt a familiar heat begin to rise as his eyes scanned her body. She was wearing black strappy high-heeled sandals and a barely there little black dress that just made it to the top of her mahogany-colored thighs and dipped low in the front, showing off her full breasts. It being early evening, he couldn’t tell if this was an outfit she’d worn all day or something she’d put on to come over to see him. Since he didn’t quite know what she did for a living, he couldn’t make an assumption either way. She flipped her head, and her wavy hair cascaded over one eye to perfectly highlight how expertly she’d worked her makeup. Her full red lips broke into a wide smile as she held up a large bottle of wine and waved it at him.
Erika looked past him and into the empty shop and then back at him, her smile brightening when she saw he was alone. “I was guessing that you probably had a long day and could use a little bit of company.” Her words came out as more of a statement than a question.
Jesse looked at her as his mind whirled over all the business he had just told himself he had to get done. There were notes he wanted to get to, plans to write. “Thanks, Erika, but it has been a long day; yesterday was long too. I’m kind of exhausted.”
Erika’s expression fell, and a bit of her bravado went with it. “Yeah, I’m really sorry I didn’t make it to your mom’s funeral. I figured I didn’t really know her like that, so it wasn’t quite my place.”
He looked at her, surprised that she would even consider it, since even though they had been sleeping together for a while, they hadn’t gotten as far as meeting people in their usual day-to-day. Their hookups thus far had been at her place and at motels up in the Bronx. She seemed fine with it. But now, with the look in her eyes and the way she’d looked around the shop, Jesse wondered just how fine she was. “It’s okay,” he said. “It was more of a family thing.”
Erika twisted her lips and tightened her grip around the bottle. Shit, even he could admit that was cold. He sighed. “Come on in. You know what, it’s been a long day but, um, you’re right, I could use some company.”
Erika looked up at him and smiled again, the brightness coming back into her eyes. She shimmied past him and he caught sight of what little there was to the back of her dress. Her behind was perfectly shaped, just like the bottle she was holding. Jesse looked around the shop once again and more than anything wanted to block it all from his mind.
He quickly closed the shop door behind Erika and made sure that the closed sign was still flipped. He put his hand on the small of her back and ushered her through. Past the cash register, the baskets of needles, and the displays of yarn. Past the farmhouse table and all the remnants of Mama Joy’s world. He led her up the stairs toward his own room, snagging a couple of glasses and a takeout menu along the way. “You hungry?” he asked close to her ear as she went up the stairs before him.
Erika turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck. Pulling him in close to her full lips, she gave him a sexy smile. “That all depends,” she said, her voice low and husky. “What are you offering?”
6
If Jesse wasn’t up yesterday, then he probably was still in bed this morning too. Kerry knew his patterns, but she guessed sometime today they would have to have a talk about store hours and whether it was fine for her to be opening the shop, but in the meanwhile, with time of the essence, she didn’t have any of it to waste. If they wanted the shop back up and running quickly, they needed to get a move on. There was no time to wait on a sleeping beauty like Jesse Strong to arise at ten-ish or whenever he felt like it. By this time Mama Joy was usually up and almost ready to greet customers, if not already chatting with a few passing neighbors.
Making her way into the shop, this time Kerry quickly disabled the alarm, not wanting a repeat of the scare she’d had the day before. But then she turned and ended up in shock anyway over the state that Jesse had left things in both the work area and the kitchen.
Kerry felt her jaw clench tight as she tried her best not to out-and-out howl over the mess. Dammit, couldn’t he at least take out the trash? she thought while heading toward the coffeepot. Today was recycling day, not Kerry clean up and put out the recycling day. Yep, she was going to have to have a serious sit-down with him about her job description, because rinsing his empty beer bottles was definitely not going to be a part of it. Hell, she was doing them a favor, and him most of all.
She found herself stewing over all of this and then some as she rinsed. Shaking a bottle over the sink, she looked up toward the stairs and expelled air in a hard blast out of her nostrils. What did he and his brothers get up to after she’d left anyway? She knew they were distraught, sure, but this was not the way to start things off.
But then the image of the four of them sitting around drinking, all wishing they were together under different circumstances, pulled her up short. She let out a sigh as guilt grabbed her. She could empty a few beer bottles without complaint just this once if it was what they needed. At least they were bonding, and that was something. She hated to think of Jesse staying alone in the house upstairs without Mama Joy’s laughter to fill the empty spaces.