“Why are you doing all this?”
He turned off the television and sat up. “Come here, baby.” He took my hand, pulling me down on the couch next to him.
Goodness, he looked so good. Be strong, J!
“I know there’s not much I can say in the way of an apology.” He shook his head. “I don’t think I will ever forget the look of pain in your eyes. It tore me up on the inside.” He placed his hand against his heart.
“I felt it like it was my own.”
His intense gaze was pulling me in, I felt myself drowning in it.
“Some pain can’t be spoken away. Some pain must be physically removed. And all that I ask is that you give me a chance to do that. I won’t try to tell you how sorry I am, because you deserve so much more than my words. I want to show you how sorry I am.” He reached out and gently took my hand in his.
“I want to show you how much you’re worth to me.” He gestured toward the bedroom. “That stuff is nothing. It doesn’t even begin to encompass your value. Just give me the six weeks it’s going to take my leg to heal to show you how much you mean to me. And if at the end of the six weeks, you still feel as if you’re not my whole entire world, my very reason for breathing, then I’ll let you go and I’ll never bother you that way again.”
“What about your fiancée?” My voice quivered.
“I called it off. My right hand to God! I called it off that same night. The only thing I could see was your tears. I—” I put my finger on his lips. I wasn’t ready to have this conversation with him. It was all too much.
He took my hand in his and kissed my palm. “Please baby, just give me the six weeks. I don’t deserve your kindness. It’s your mercy I’m begging for.”
Biting my lip, I looked away from his drugging gaze to think about his words, but then he kissed my palm again and I damn near moaned.
“Please, baby!”
Goodness! He begged so sweetly. I looked back at him. “You want me to stay here with you for the six weeks it’s going to take your leg to heal?” Sensing his victory, he tried his best to suppress his smile and nodded his head.
I looked at his leg in the cast skeptically. How many stories had Albert told me about the rascally side of Jo? They were all funny stories and I must admit that I was a little jealous that I hadn’t seen that side of him. I had only seen the serious Jo or the horny Jo. It appeared as if I was getting ready to get my chance to see Jo the trickster.
“And how is your leg doing?”
As if on cue, he lay back against the couch and groaned. “It’s killing me!” He lifted his head and looked at me.
“Did I tell you I damn near lost the whole leg?” I inhaled loudly.
“Nooo!” Two can play at this game; I had two older brothers. I wore a look of astonishment on my face. “You didn’t! Wow! That must have been horrible!” I got on my knees next to him and began to fluff the pillows behind his back.
Y’all should have seen the lecherous look that came into his eyes, his nearly amputated leg forgotten.
“Well I don’t want you to worry. I’m going to take really good care of you for the next six weeks.” Looking like a little boy he nodded.
“I sure do appreciate it.” I had to look away from him to keep from laughing. This man was a mess.
The phone rang. Albert answered it in the kitchen. A few seconds later he brought Ayana to us.
“Pizza’s here, I’ll get it.”
That night we ended up having a really good time. I was glad Albert stayed as long as he did, because I wasn’t going to lie and say I wasn’t nervous. And of course, Albert, being Albert made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants.
Needless to say, he helped me to forget all about my nervousness, especially when he told a story about the time he’d convinced Jo as a kid that he had VD. Of course, Jo didn’t want him to tell that story, which only made me want to hear it more.
“It was clear he was going to be something of a lady’s man very early. When he was in third grade his teacher caught him with a little girl in the coat closet.”
“Alright, old man, next story.” Jo interrupted.
I sat on the couch with him. Ayana had fallen asleep on the pillow between us. Reaching over I swatted at him to shoosh him so that Albert could finish the story. But as I did it, he reached up and caught my hand bringing it to his lips kissing my palm.
I inhaled as my heartrate increased. He didn’t let my hand go, he just lowered it in his lap and used his thumb to rub that spot just above my palm where my pulse beat was. I wondered if he could tell it was now beating faster?
“So, he gets in the car with a note from the teacher. Now this kind of stuff he never took home to his parents, he always brought it to me to sign.”
Bless Albert’s soul, he was a master at removing tension from the air.
“I read the note and I asked him what the hell he was doing with the little girl in the closet. Do you know this kid looked at me and said, I was handling my business, what you think I was doing?”
“What?!” I screeched. “In third grade?! Oh my goodness! How
