Page 27 of Love Me Carefully
Chapter Six
Aweek later, Rosie’s invitations had been ordered and were scheduled to be delivered in the next three weeks. Rosie had come into Leah’s office the morning after Leah’s date with Leon, apologizing for cutting their other meeting short because of her son’s dinner invitation. Leah brushed it off, telling Rosie not to worry.
They discussed the menu for the reception, the florists and the photographer. Rosie was excited and Leah was happy for her. She liked Rosie, and had secretly harbored thoughts of what her life would have been like had she had a mother like her instead of Marsha. Rosie seemed so full of love, so understanding and accepting of people and their faults. Leah wondered whether, if she’d been Rosie’s daughter, she would have the capabilities to love and be loved in return. Maybe then she wouldn’t be so afraid of marriage for herself.
As Leah talked to the woman she’d known for so long, she couldn’t help noticing the similarities between mother and son. They had the same eyes, except Rosie’s were calm and caring all the time, while Terrell’s seemed to darken at moments, completely prohibiting anyone from seeing what he was feeling.
Rosie was quick to smile, but Terrell gave his mesmerizing grin infrequently. Not that it lessened the effect any, she remembered with dismay. She’d thought about him often over the last few days. Thought of the way he’d looked at her when he asked her to dinner, the way he’d sounded on the phone when he asked about the type of man she liked. Ultimately, though, her thoughts returned to his seeming surprise that she had a date, and, in the end, she settled on being angry with Terrell Pierce—because admitting she was attracted to him wasn’t possible.
* * *
Returning from a meeting a few days later, Leah found a message from Terrell taped to her computer. What did he want now? They’d said all they needed to say to each other. Crumpling the pink slip of paper, she tossed it in the trashcan and sat down at her desk.
“Why do I get the sneaky suspicion that the message you just threw away was from me?” Terrell leaned against the doorjamb of her office. One finger held his leather coat over his shoulder.
Startled, because she hadn’t heard him come in behind her, Leah looked toward the door. “What do you want?” Exasperated, she propped her elbows on her desk and prayed he’d make this quick.
“I wanted to speak with you. Isn’t that what the message said?” He took a seat across from her, noticing that he was apparently the last person she wanted to see at this moment.Patience,he reminded himself. All good things came in time. He’d practiced that motto during his years of schooling and building his reputation and had been well rewarded. Where Leah Graham was concerned, he hoped for the same outcome.
“Have a seat, why don’t you,” she said dryly. “And I don’t know what your message said, as you saw for yourself I didn’t read it.” She was purposely flippant, praying that her body didn’t betray her.
He gave a crooked grin. “You read it, you just chose to disregard it.” After carefully placing his jacket in the adjacent chair he turned again to look at her. She wore a long blue skirt with a split halfway up her leg. Had she not been so quick to sit down, he could have enjoyed the view a little longer. But the view he had now was pleasing enough. Her suit jacket was open and displayed the white button-down shirt she wore, a silver choker at her neck with a blue stone resting quietly at the hollow of her throat. Thoughts of how sweet that hollow would taste blurred his vision for a moment and he blinked furiously to clear his mind.
His visit here today was two-fold. Yes, he’d thought of her constantly since last seeing her over a week ago, but there was something he needed to talk to her about. It was best to get that out of the way first. “Luckily I decided to come and see you in person. I have something to tell you.”
“What could you possibly have to tell me?” Wearily, she sat back in her chair, trying to still the erratic beating of her heart. Oh Lord, her heart was thumping hard again. It hadn’t been a few moments ago. She was positive her heart had beat at its normal pace for the past several days, but as of about two minutes ago she felt as if she were running a marathon.
He wore dress slacks today, charcoal gray. A dress shirt just a shade lighter than his pants was buttoned neatly and accented with a silver tie splattered with what looked like ebony raindrops. His glasses were, of course, sliding down his nose again and those questioning eyes watched her every move. She clasped her hands in her lap to keep them still.
“It’s about Donald.” Pushing his glasses up on his nose he watched her closely.
A little hurt that he wasn’t here on a more personal level, she straightened in her chair and clasped her hands in her lap. “What about Donald?”
“He has some things in his past I think you should know about.”
His goatee looked smooth, like the kind that might tickle and arouse her if it brushed over the soft skin of her belly. “First of all, why should I know anything at all about Donald’s past? All I need to know is that his check cleared.” She shifted uncomfortably.
“So thisisjust about money to you?” Terrell asserted.
“What else would it be about? My job is to plan weddings, that’s what I do. Donald hired me to plan your mother’s wedding. Are you following me?”
“I’m following you.” And he didn’t like what she was revealing. “You don’t give a damn whether the people whose weddings you plan should be married or not. As long as they pay you, you plan the wedding.”
“It’s not up to me to judge who’s fit to be married. I don’t make those calls. If you ask me, everybody in their right mind should stay as far away from wedding bells as they possibly can. They’re just going to end up divorced anyway. But if they didn’t get married, I’d be out of a job.” Rolling her eyes, she unclasped her hands and swiped at a piece of lint on her jacket.
“So I guess you don’t plan on ever getting married?” Her statement had roused his growing curiosity where she was concerned.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t.” Watching him carefully, she waited a second for his response to that admission. He was probably thinking she’d never get an offer of marriage. When he didn’t respond she continued, “But my personal preference has nothing to do with my job, as I told you before. Nor does it have anything to do with you. So…”
“Just hear me out.” Holding up his hands in mock surrender, Terrell slid to the edge of his seat. “What if your mother were about to make the biggest mistake of her life? What if she were about to marry a man guilty of criminal acts?”
Her mother had made plenty of mistakes in her life and Leah was sure she’d continue to make them until her dying day. “Donald was cleared of all that drug suspicion a while ago. I thought I already told you that.”
He lifted a brow. So she had known. “No, you only mentioned an investigation. But this goes beyond the local police surveilling him for suspected drug activity.”
Now he had her attention. “How far beyond?”
“His drug activity isn’t just local, and his illegal activities have expanded over the years. His business was funded by some less than honest money.”
