Just Say The Word Read online

  I had no idea what I was going to do as I slowly ambled down the stone steps of the brownstone.

  Chapter One

  Sandra

  “Monique! Let’s go. You’re going to make Mommy late!” I yelled down the hall to my nine-year-old daughter, who I was sure had her face glued to her tablet playing one of her video games. She loved those things. And though I tried to limit the amount of time she spent in front of a screen, she got plenty of time in when I wasn’t looking.

  “Coming, Mommy!” she called back in that saccharine sweet voice of hers that let me know she was definitely playing her game when I’d specifically told her to go to her room to finish getting dressed.

  “Monique, if you’re not up this hall in tw—” My rant was cut short by her stampeding foot stomps as she ran up the hall from her bedroom toward the kitchen, fully dressed, her Dora Milaje Black Panther book bag hanging off her right shoulder.

  “I’m here!” she sang with a grin spreading wide over her cinnamon-toned face.

  My own heart smiled back though I tried to keep my face neutral. To think I used to spend my nights while pregnant wondering if I could truly love this little being the way a parent was intended to love a child. All of those thoughts were eradicated the moment her squirming body was placed in my arms while my legs were still in the stirrups. They’d never returned. It truly was love at first sight.

  “Did you pack your insulin?”

  She nodded. “Yup.”

  “Let me see.”

  “Mom—”

  A lifted eyebrow and cocking my head to the side cut off her whining.

  Pushing out a frustrated breath, she shook her head—reminding me of a woman with decades more life behind her who was trying to summon her patience with an unruly youngster. I smirked but hid it behind my hand. My daughter truly cracked me up sometimes.

  “See. Plenty of insulin to last me all day. Just as I said.”

  I narrowed my gaze. “Watch your tone, little girl.” I swatted her with the dish towel I’d been holding after cleaning up our breakfast dishes before turning back into our small, albeit comfortable kitchen with the wooden cabinets and drawers.

  “Sorry, Mommy,” she mumbled before heading to the living room.

  Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw her reaching for the remote control.

  “Don’t you dare turn that television on.”

  “I just wanted to check the weather.”

  How could I forget? This month my daughter’s obsession had been watching the weather forecasts. She claimed she wanted to be a meteorologist when she grew up. Like I said, that was this month. The previous month she wanted to be a rocket scientist, and the month before that it was a veterinarian. Those changes came after I had to tell her that no, we couldn’t actually go to Wakanda so she could train to be one of the Dora Milaje. That was after I’d informed her that she couldn’t shave her head to look like them either.

  “All right, but just five minutes,” I insisted from the kitchen as I rooted around in the refrigerator, packing up her snacks for the day.

  “That’s all I need. Last night I read there was a cold front moving over the Rockies. I wanted to see how that turned out.”

  “Un huh,” I muttered while packing apple slices, a juice box, and the baked chicken and brown rice mixture we’d had the previous night into her lunch bag. I then moved on to packing my own lunch to take to work with me. It was a Saturday morning, but due to the high-profile case the attorney I worked for had taken on, a weekend day in the office a couple of times within the month had become the new norm. And I’d only been with this particular firm for about six months.

  “I hope you remembered to compost that apple core,” I heard behind me.

  I turned to look down over my shoulder to see Monique’s pensive brown eyes glancing between myself and the white bucket we kept in the corner of the kitchen for our food scraps.

  “Would I forget such an important task?”

  She smirked and shook her head.

  Monique was serious about saving the environment also. Hence, her interest in the weather. Two years prior she’d come home from school having learned about just some of the destruction faced by our planet and asked me to help her do some research. Since then, we made recycling a natural part of our routine and found a company that collects our food waste to sell to local farmers instead of sending them to the landfill.

  “Ready to go?” I questioned while zipping my lunch bag closed before handing Monique hers.

  She nodded. “I get to spend the day with Aunt Kayla and Uncle Joshua,” she sang excitedly. “You think Diego will be there, too?”

  I made a face, uncertain. “I’m not sure. He might be spending the day with his parents at his house, sweetie.” I turned to shut off the kitchen light.

  “Okay.” Her voice held a certain resignation.

  Diego was the nephew of my physician turned friend, Kayla Reyes, now Kayla Townsend. I’d met Kayla about nine months earlier when I went to the doctor’s office she worked at as an alternative doctor, seeking help on how to handle Monique’s type one diabetes. We quickly went from patient and doctor to friends. Now, Kayla was married and expecting her first child with her husband, and she’d graciously offered to babysit Monique while I spent the morning and most of the afternoon working. Monique had developed a friendship with Kayla’s nine-year-old nephew, Diego, as soon as they first met at the wedding rehearsal. Monique had been the flower girl and Diego had been the ring bearer.

  “It’s cold outside. Zip your coat up all the way,” I insisted, just before opening the door of our apartment and stepping aside to let Monique pass through.

  “Thank you, Mommy.” She smiled. She was so polite sometimes.

  “All right, let’s go,” I stated, reaching for her hand. Although she was nine, going on ten, I couldn’t help the protectiveness I still felt to hold her hand even as we walked the halls of our apartment building.

  We made it out to my building’s parking lot and into the car in record time. Despite my rushing Monique, the truth was we were early enough that I had plenty of time to drive across town to the Cedarwoods community where Kayla lived with her husband, and back downtown to get to my job by nine-thirty. I rushed simply because I was a worrier and hated being late for anything.

  Monique climbed in the back door of my old, white Cavalier before I shut it and opened my own door.

  “Play Yo-Yo Ma’s ‘Unaccompanied Cello Suite,’ Mommy,” Monique requested from the backseat as she buckled herself in.

  I smiled. “Coming up.” What nine-year-old requested classical music? Mine did. Not that that wasn’t my fault. I’d played it the entire time I was pregnant and around the house since Monique was born. I loved it and was grateful that she’d grown a love for it as well.

  When I turned the key to start the car up, I could hear the engine making a coughing sound. It didn’t alarm me at first, seeing as how it’d done the same thing for months now, but that day it lasted longer than previous days.

  “Please turnover,” I mumbled while releasing the key and turning it again.

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  I frowned but ignored smarty pants in the back. She was right, however. It didn’t sound good.

  “Ha!” I yelped as soon as the engine turned over and my car started. But in the back of my mind, I knew my car had seen better days. I was finally at the point in my career where I was making decent enough money that I didn’t need to drive around in a nearly twenty-year-old vehicle. Especially considering all of the maintenance I had to do just to keep it on the road. I really needed to start car shopping. Maybe after work.

  “What time do you get off today?”

  I peered up into the rearview mirror just after turning onto the main street leading to the highway that would get us to Cedarwoods. “No later than two, I think.”

  Lowering my gaze back to the road, I prayed inwardly that I wouldn’t be stuck at work all day.


  “I really wanted to go to the zoo.”

  I frowned. “I know, sweetie. We can go in a couple of weeks. The law firm Mommy works for is working a big case and they need me to help on weekends to get all of the work done.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of my own voice. I enjoyed my job, but I would’ve much rather preferred going to the zoo with my daughter or doing pretty much anything else with her than going into work on a Saturday.

  I pushed out a hefty breath.

  Oh well.

  These were the sacrifices parents made. I did my best not to complain. I had a good job that didn’t require extreme hours most of the time, and it allowed me to take care of myself and my daughter reasonably well. Add to that the health benefits were great, which took much of Monique’s extra medical costs off of me. Nope. I didn’t have the right to complain. We’d come a long way in the last ten years.

  “Tomorrow we’ll sleep in and make veggie omelets with the homemade granola bars,” Monique concluded.

  I nodded. “Sounds like a great idea to me.” Since Monique’s diagnosis, I’d worked hard to clean up our diets and follow the healthy meal plan Kayla had devised for her. I ate the same things she did, and have grown to enjoy most of it. Add to that, I’d lost the ten pounds I’d managed to hold onto since Monique’s birth, and in her early years when a meal was anything leftover from the diner I worked at. To top it off, I used my company’s in-house gym—often during my lunch break along with a twice a week Pilates class that was discounted through my work—and I was in better shape than I’d been in in years. But the most important thing was that Monique’s diabetes was managed and getting better.

  “We’re here,” I stated in a sing-song voice to rouse Monique who somehow had fallen asleep during the ride.

  Her eyes the color of maple syrup opened up, reminding me of my own.

  “I wasn’t asleep, Mommy,” she insisted.

  Lifting an eyebrow, I laughed. “Are you sure? You appeared to be sleeping to me,” I teased as I held the door open for her to get out.

  “I was just resting my eyes.”

  I tossed my head back and laughed because she’d gotten that lie from me. All of the nights she’d come to me to read her a story after I got off work, I’d be asleep on the couch but would tell her ‘Mommy was just resting her eyes.’

  “Hey!” Kayla greeted as she opened the huge glass door of her and Josh’s massive home.

  “Hey, Kayla. Thank you so much for this.” I rushed everything out in one breath.

  “I already told you about giving me thanks where none is needed. Hey, Monique.” Kayla’s cinnamon eyes sparkled as she looked down at Monique. She let out a giggle when Monique responded by wrapping her arms around Kayla’s mid-section and laying her head on Kayla’s protruding belly.

  “Hey, Aunt Kayla,” she greeted.

  When we first met Kayla she said it was all right to call her by her first name instead of Dr. Reyes. I wasn’t comfortable with Monique using just her first name, so I had her call her Dr. Kayla. Eventually, as Kayla and I became friends and Monique participated in Kayla’s wedding as the flower girl, she eventually took to calling her Aunt Kayla. That worked for me.

  “Come in.” Kayla stepped back, allowing us entry.

  “I packed Monique’s lunch. I know” I began, hand raised to stop whatever retort was on the tip of Kayla’s tongue, “I didn’t have to bring anything, but I didn’t feel right dropping her off without any food and snacks.”

  Kayla frowned. “I should fight you for thinking I wouldn’t feed my niece.”

  I giggled as she turned her back, starting toward the hall following behind Monique.

  “You and that six months pregnant belly?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at me, her auburn curls swaying with the movement. “I can still fight. My husband taught me everything he knows.”

  I smirked and looked around. “Was that one of his cars parked out front?” There was a dark blue BMW—at least I thought it was a BMW—parked out front. Joshua had an array of cars, according to Kayla.

  “No, that’s Damon’s. Those two are downstairs talking about God knows what. Hey, Monique, you want to help me …”

  Kayla’s words trailed off as my mind went racing. My heartbeat quickened at just the thought that I was in the same house as Damon Richmond.

  “Sandra? Did you hear me?”

  “Wh-what?” I questioned, turning back to Kayla, blinking.

  Her eyes narrowed on me.

  Uh oh.

  “I asked if it was okay to take Monique to the park later? It’s supposed to get a little warmer.”

  I swallowed. “Uh, yeah, of course.” I shrugged, trying to play off my initial absent-mindedness. It was mid-February but the forecast did call for temperatures getting as high as the fifties later on in the day.

  “You know you can go downstairs and say hello.”

  My eyes bulged. “No.” I shook my head adamantly. “I don’t want to disturb Josh. He’s busy. But please give him my thanks for helping to babysit Monique. I thought I might have to bring her to work with me when my sitter told me she was sick with the flu.”

  “I wasn’t talking about Joshua.”

  “I have to get going.” I looked around the kitchen for Monique.

  “She’s in the great room.”

  I nodded and passed by Kayla who I was sure was smirking.

  “Give me a hug, baby. I’m getting ready to go.”

  Smiling, Monique ran over from the coffee table where she’d already set up her tablet. “Bye, Mommy. Have a good day at work.”

  I kissed the top of her head before smoothing down the little flyaways that’d already escaped the fluffy ponytail I’d brushed her hair into that morning.

  “You enjoy Aunt Kayla and Uncle Joshua. Be good for them.”

  “She’s always good. Right, Mo?”

  I turned, startled by the deep male voice. I pushed out a breath, relieved to see Kayla’s husband instead of his friend.

  “Uncle Josh!” Monique squealed, excited. “Is Diego coming over today?”

  Joshua tossed his head back, laughing, his green eyes shimmering with delight at the apparent friendship developing between my daughter and his eldest nephew.

  “How’d I know you were going to ask? We might be able to arrange that. We’ll have to call his mother.”

  “Monique, I told you, Diego might have plans with his family today. I’m sorry, she’s been asking all morning.” I lifted my gaze to meet Joshua’s.

  “Diego’s been asking the same thing. They were over last night for dinner.”

  I dropped my gaze to Monique who was obviously excited about the news.

  “Well, I have to get going. Thanks again … I know, I know. Kayla already told me to quit with the thank yous, but I can’t help it.”

  Josh chuckled.

  I started past Josh and smiled at Kayla who was coming up the hall from the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow behind her and opted to pick up my pace toward the front door.

  “I got it.”

  “Thanks, Kayla.” I gave her a quick hug before practically sprinting out the door to the parking lot and back inside my car where I felt a little safer. I sighed in relief at not having come face-to-face with Damon. That man was … everything. Way too much for me. One dance was all I needed to tell me that.

  Pushing thoughts of six-foot-three, mahogany skin toned, solid framed men out of my head, I turned the key to start my car and … nothing. I tried again and that time a little noise sounded before it died.

  “No, no, no,” I whined, trying again.

  Nothing.

  She was dead.

  I started to lower my head to the steering wheel when a knock on the driver’s side window scared the living daylights out of me.

  I turned and my throat instantly went dry.

  With his large hand he pointed in a downward motion, indicating he wanted me to lower my window. My hand was shaky as I used the le
ver to lower the window.

  “Need some help?”

  Oh god. How could a man’s voice be smooth as silk but laced with steel at the same time?

  My gaze trailed from his full lips that were a shade darker than his mahogany skin, to the dark hairs of his beard, up to his, noticing—not for the first time—that while both were brown, they were different colors. The left eye was the color of coffee, and the right eye was the color of warm honey. Raw, unfiltered honey, not the fake stuff sold at most grocery chains.

  “Huh?” I asked dumbly.

  “Your car.” He motioned with his head to my vehicle. “Won’t start?”

  I turned my head as if taking notice of my vehicle, the one I was sitting in and had owned for the last ten years, for the first time.

  “N-no.”

  “You need a jump?”

  “Y-ye— No … Huh?” Where was all of my good sense?

  “For your car. Do you need a jump? Do you have jumper cables?”

  I blinked and came back to myself. “No. It’s not the battery.” I’d just gotten a new one a few months earlier.

  “Then it’s something else. I don’t know much about cars, but I know a couple of mechanics who could tow you out of here to their shop. Unless you have one of your own?”

  “Uh, no, I don’t. But I really need to get to work. I’ll just catch an Uber and find a tow truck once I get back.” That, of course, relied on whether or not Kayla and Joshua minded my car taking up space in their driveway.

  I sighed.

  This was a mess.

  Suddenly, I felt a whoosh of air. I turned and realized my car door had been opened.

  “Kayla and Joshua won’t mind your car hanging out here for a few hours. No need for an Uber. I’ll take you wherever you have to go.” And without another word, he was holding out his hand, nearly identical to the way he’d held it out to me when he’d asked me to dance at Kayla and Joshua’s wedding reception.

  Placing my much smaller hand in his for the second time felt just like it had the first time. Perfect.

  I stepped out. “You don’t have to. I’m sure you have other things to do. I can just get an Uber and then be on my way.” I started digging around my bag for my phone. Anything to avoid looking in his eyes. “I’ll just phone work and let them know I’ll be a few minutes later than I’d intended. I’m sure it will be okay. I might have to stay a little later than I expected. Monique might be a little miffed about that but—”