Page 1 of To Love and Protect
CHAPTER ONE
Selling lemon pepper wings to pay rent was wild, and Remedie could only blame it on love. She used to be a full-time chef at an upscale restaurant. Now she was just a full-time goofball trying to make ends meet with a part-time hustle.
She sighed as her phone buzzed across the clean, white kitchen counter. It was no doubt another person there to pick up their plate. How she went from making braised oxtails with truffle butter grits to lemon pepper wings, fried hard, with fries and ranch was above her at that point.
Remedie rolled her eyes at Zayden, her so-called boyfriend, who she could see from her view from the kitchen. He sat on the couch with his legs cocked open and one hand tucked in the waistband of his joggers as he watched some game on the TV. Lately, he’d been feeling more like extra heavy ass baggage she would rather not lug around. Actually, she would rather toss that unnecessary baggage in the deepest sea, but her desires didn’t really seem to matter anymore.
“Hello?” She answered her phone with a phony voice, trying to keep her customers happy so they would come back. She desperately needed them to come back.
“Yo, I’m outside,” the voice on the other end said.
Her nose scrunched as she pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the screen. After confirming that she didn’t know who the hell it was calling, she asked, “Who is this?”
“This Rich. I had three plates with extra ranch.”
Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes, Remedie looked on the counter at the last of the plates that needed to be picked up and found the stack with Rich’s name.
“Got you. I’ll be right out.”
“Bet.”
The line disconnected, and she grabbed the bag with Rich’s food, noting that she only had one more customer to tend to before she shut down shop for the day.Thank God. She was tired as hell and ready to get in bed.
As she passed by the back of the couch, Zayden asked, “Aye, you got any wings left for me?”
Remedie stopped in her tracks. She pushed her short light brown and ash blond curls behind her ear, certain she hadn’t heard him correctly. “What you just ask me?”
Zayden turned his head lazily so she could see his handsome face. Her weakness for his handsome features got her into this situation in the first place.
When they first met three years ago, he wasn’t an asshole. He was charming, romantic, and an all-around catch. Zayden was everything Remedie wanted in a man . . . until he wasn’t. It all changed about a year ago. He allowed his no-good friend to talk him into quitting his job as a construction contractor to make some fast money in the streets.
Remedie knew right away that was the worst idea ever spoken into existence, but Zayden was convinced otherwise. He followed his friend’s advice, and Remedie had yet to see a single dollar from this get rich fast scheme. Suddenly, he had to move in with her and funk up her space with his laziness and lame ass excuses. How she allowed that to happen, she didn’t know. Sheknew better. She thrived on being alone. Since she grew up in foster care and never had a family of her own, loneliness never bothered her. Zayden moving in with her bothered the fuck out of her, though, and now that she’d lost her job because of him, she wasn’t sure what her next move would be.
“I asked if it’s any wings left,” he replied with a straight face.
Remedie stared at him. The man even had the audacity to smile at her. His dimples she used to love sank into his cheeks, and his straight white teeth gleamed, which further irritated her. What irritated her even more was the fact that he needed a damn haircut. She was sure he’d be sticking his hand out and asking her for fifty dollars to do that soon.
“You don’t remember me asking you if you wanted some food when I started cooking?”
“That was hours ago. I wasn’t hungry then. You ain’t save me none?”
“I didn’t make you none, goofy. The fuck would I make you some damn wings when you said you didn’t want any?”
His golden-brown eyes stared back at her. A year ago, that look would have made her melt, but she was too turned off by him lately to allow anything he did to make her cave in any form.
“You changed. You used to take care of a nigga.”
Remedie’s head reared back and she scoffed. She opened her mouth to say something, because best believe she had a whole lot to say, but she clamped it shut again and turned toward the front door instead. There was literally no use wasting breath on him. He was dumb as a bag of dildos, and he never understood where she came from anyway.
Once outside, she spotted a blue SUV in her short driveway and a black car right behind it. She realized that must have been her last order. After glancing down at her phone and noticing a text from an unknown number saying they were there, she held up her finger to indicate that she would be right back and rushedback inside. She grabbed the remaining plates and ambled out the door once again.
As she walked up to the blue SUV, the window rolled down. She recognized Rich because he’d ordered food from her before, but she was never one to save her customer’s numbers in her phone. She didn’t know him like that, or any of her customers, for that matter, so she didn’t see the need.
“What’s good, ma? How you?” Rich asked. She fought to keep her nose from scrunching and her lip from curling up. Instead, she pulled the phony shit up out of her again and smiled.
“Hey, Rich. I’m good. How you doin’?”
Rich surprised her by opening the door and stepping out of the car. He wasn’t an ugly man, but he also wasn’t her type. He was light-skinned and skinny with pretty eyes, a crisp cut, and plenty of tattoos. Remedie already knew he had to have a few women that didn’t play about him. She was already caught up in her own fucked-up situation. She didn’t need to join another one.
