Page 11 of Our Promise
“You said you didn’t need any help! It’s cold out here and then you try to sneak off and leave me with all the work. You’re not getting me today.”
He laughed. “You ain’t shit. I give you a company and this is the thanks I get,” his father mumbled.
Benny used the garage door to enter the house. He moved through the mudroom into the kitchen, where he saw his mother stirring something in a pitcher.
“Hello, my son.” Jolen Collins was a ball of sunshine. She brightened up any room she was in.
“Hey, Ma.” He kissed her cheek. “Homemade lemonade! I’ll have some.”
She giggled. “Get you a cup.”
He returned shortly with a hard plastic green cup he had used since he was a child. He swore it was glass back then. No one could tell him he wasn’t drinking out of a grown up cup.
Jolen laughed when she saw the cup he brought over. She scooped a small amount of ice in his cup then filled it with the delicious liquid.
“Here, my big baby.” She handed him the cup before resting her hip on the counter. “What brings you by today?”
“Just coming to see my favorite girl,” he said as he claimed a seat at the kitchen table.
“I heard that title may be going to someone else.” She smirked.
“Who?” He acted clueless but knew what she was talking about.
“Elle.”
Even if he tried, he couldn’t stop a smile from forming on his face. “Who told you that?”
“Your sister.”
“Of course she did.”
It had been a few days since he had the pleasure of sleeping with Lorielle in his arms and he was still craving her in his arms again. Sadly, he hadn’t seen her since.
She could run, but she couldn’t hide.
Lorielle had made the ultimate slip-up and there was no going back. He was about to apply all the pressure to get what he wanted.
“Did we need to add another platform for you two to get married?” Jolen asked.
He shrugged. “I’m just getting to know her.”
He said that knowing he knew everything he needed to know about Lorielle. She was kind, confident, God-fearing, educated with a side of nerdy, but he could deal with that. He actually found it attractive. Other qualities like loyalty, a sense of humor, and romantic were a bonus. And even though she tried to hide it, she could sit back and let her man take the lead.
Lorielle was his and the sooner she stopped fighting it, the better off they would all be.
“Mm hmm.” His mother grabbed the pitcher of lemonade and put it in the fridge. “I would like to have my grandbaby named after me.”
He chuckled. “You already have Jo.”
“What did I say, Bernard Devin Collins?”
“We’re nowhere near babies yet, but I hear you.”
“As long as you hear me.”
“So, you’re cool with it?” Benny asked.
Not that he needed her approval. He wanted to see where her head was.
