Page 36 of Heightened Assurance
“Nope. I don’t.” I shook my head.
“Good.”
I didn’t respond, just looked in the rear view mirror and caught her smiling, which warmed my heart. Not only that, I read between the lines. Aja was looking to be the only kid somewhere, to go back to how I assumed things were when it was just her and her parents.
When we returned to the condo, she told me all about school and the little boy she liked that her uncle didn’t like. I must admit that part was funny since Oden had told me some of it. She admitted to me that she liked him, and I, of course, had to be an adult and let her know there would be plenty of boys in life that she’d like, but she was too young for a boyfriend or anything like that. Then she got me into a new show on Netflix. We watched that and ate popcorn until her father interrupted us on episode four of season one. I was grateful that he’d come in with food because popcorn wasn’t filling up my stomach.
“Damn, y’all just in here cooling, huh?” he asked, eyes moving from the TV to his daughter.
“Yeah Dad, me and Jade had a girl’s day. Do you like my toes?” She then hopped off the couch and showed him her feet.
“I do. I’m glad you enjoyed your day off from school. You know you gotta go tomorrow, but I’ma pick you up and we’re going to the lake house for the weekend. You cool with that?” he asked, while my hungry ass started going through the cartons he brought in.
“Are you coming too, Jade?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there.” I didn’t look in either of their directions. I was too busy salivating over the lamb chops he brought in that I found in carton number one.
“Okay.”
“Okay? No teeth pulling or begging on my end? Yo, who are you and what have you done with my daughter?” Oden asked with amusement in his tone.
When I turned around, he was laughing and so was she. “I’m right here, Daddy. I’m gonna go call Tete. I wanna see the baby.”
“Aight. I’ll call you when your plate is ready,” he assured her before I felt his attention on me.
“Okay.” She ran off, feet pattering down the hall until she reached her bedroom.
“I take it y’all enjoyed yourselves.” He moved toward me, a handsome grin on his lips, heat in his eyes. Oden was so handsome I often had to do double takes, because no man looked as good as he did all the time. Shit wasn’t possible. Even now, after working all day, this man looked good. His black jeans and white T-shirt had me wanting to see and feel everything underneath.
“Did you think we wouldn’t? Um hello, I’m cool, like, the kids dig me.”
He chuckled, hands finding my hips as soon as he was close enough. “They do? Well, I kinda dig you too.” He placed my body on the counter like I was featherweight. Then he stepped between my legs. Apparently, that was his favorite place…between my legs.
“That’s good to know. Do you dig me enough to feed me, Chef?”
He chuckled before a kiss landed on my forehead, then my lips. “That and more. Stay right there.”
I did just as he said, watching his every move. He removed his hoodie and began taking out cookware to reheat the foodin the cartons because this man really didn’t own a damn microwave. First, he put the lamb chops in a pan then the mashed potatoes into a glass bowl. I guess it withstood heat well because he put both into the oven. About ten minutes later he was back between my legs.
“Did you get any of those calls today?”
“Probably, but Caya taught me how to block unknown calls from getting through. The only problem is if I forget I might mess around and forget a delivery or something. The setting stops almost all calls coming from numbers that aren’t saved in my phone.”
“That’s good shit. How was work today? I hope she wasn’t too much of a distraction.”
“No, she wasn’t. Once we got her an iPad charger, lil mama sat there and spent time with Chauncy. Speaking of, can we pick him up from Ava before we go to your house this weekend? I miss my dog and I hate that I’ve been away from him so much.”
He nodded. “I told you to bring him here with you. You didn’t have to leave him, love.”
I nodded. “Well, now I need my baby with me.”
Oden laughed. Then he moved to grab the food from the oven. I never understood how he never needed mitts or a towel to get things out of the oven, but my grandmother never had either. According to her, when you cooked for as long as she did, you didn’t burn yourself. Yet every time I called myself getting in the kitchen, I burned myself… every time!
A few seconds later he was holding a lamb chop out in front of me, his eyes going from me to the piece of meat. He then extended it to my lips, eyes locking on mine, and I gladly accepted, taking a bite and finding myself in pure ecstasy from the taste. Food didn’t just feel this good, not just any food. From his hands to my lips, food always tasted like sin.
“You gonna open your eyes and tell me how it tastes or no?”
When I finally opened my eyes, I was done chewing and food wasn’t what was on my mind. “It tasted delightful, but you knew that already.” A heavy smirk overtook my features. “Now are you gonna plate this food and feed Aja, so you can fully feed me?” I knew exactly what I was saying, and so did he, because the next words from his lips had me cracking up.
