Page 43 of Night and Day
Her heart stilled as pressure built in her chest. “You don’t have to do this, Anton.”
“I do. I need to. I need you. Marry me.” His eyes were intent and serious, his voice solemn.
Tamika became teary-eyed. “Okay.”
“Okay?” He lifted an eyebrow and his head.
“Yes.”
“I was hoping for a more enthusiastic response.”
She turned to face him and flung her arms around his neck. “Yes! Yes!”
He grinned. “That’s more like it.”
Tamika laughed and lifted onto her toes, but she quickly sobered, looking him squarely in the eyes. “If you’re sure. There’s no rush, and I don’t want you asking me to marry you because you think I need to be married. We can wait.”
His arms tightened around her, and he brought his lips close to hers. “No, I don’t want to wait. This is right, and I want to get married as soon as we can arrange it.”
“Okay.”
They kissed, the warm pressure of his mouth making her heart sing.
Anton withdrew, but the tip of their noses almost touched. “I guess we need to start looking for rings.”
“I guess so.” Tamika bit her bottom lip, smiling hard.
Pulling her with him, Anton backed her toward the bathtub. “Ready for your shower? I’ll help you.”
“Oh, I need help now?”
“Yes, lots of help. That’s what fiancés do. They help.”
“You’re gonna be late,” she pointed out.
“I can be late one time,” he said.
Minutes later, they were kissing and soaping each other in the shower. When they both left for work later, Tamika grinned all the way to the commercial kitchen.
She couldn’t imagine life getting any better.
19
Tamika’s phone rang, breaking her concentration. She lifted her gaze from the twenty-quart double boiler on the stove where she was stirring melting shea butter and beeswax with a spatula.
“Has anyone seen my phone?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at the two workers.
After the initial spike in sales a couple of weeks ago, orders had settled into a steady stream, and she’d dropped down to two temps. Having them on board gave her more time to experiment with new product ideas, the part of work she enjoyed the most.
“Here you go,” Kirk said. He worked at a stainless-steel table assembling makeup kits for the USPS pickup at the end of the day. The other temp was dropping cooled lip balm mixture into tubes with a pipette.
Kirk tossed her the phone, and she caught it.
“Thanks.” Tamika didn’t recognize the number, but since they were calling on her business cell, she assumed the call was about business. She answered quickly before the call went to voicemail.
“Hello, may I speak to Miss Tamika Jones, please,” a woman’s crisp voice said. “This is Inez Fernsby calling from the office of Sylvie Johnson of SJ Brands.”
Shocked, Tamika stopped stirring. “I’m sorry, who is this?”
