Page 52 of Certified To Handle You 2

I ain’t answer her ‘cause I ain’t need to. I leaned closer and let my face move beside hers, close enough for my beard to brush against her cheek. I could smell whatever she had put on before leavin’ the house, and between that and the scent of her hair, I had to remind myself that we was standin’ in the middle of a damn parkin’ lot.

Then she turned her face away from mine. “Why you all on me?”

“Why you keep actin’ like you don’t want me on you?” I asked against the side of her face.

Her lips pressed together, but she still wouldn’t look at me.

I let my face move down toward her neck without kissin’ her, and I felt the way her body shifted against mine. That was what I knew better than all that attitude she kept givin’ me.

Sha’Nelle could say whatever she wanted, but I knew when she was really uncomfortable with me and when she was just fightin’ herself.

Right now, she was fightin’ herself, and I could feel that shit every time she tried to act like havin’ me this close wasn’t doin’ nothin’ to her.

I lifted my head and looked down at her. “You gon’ look at me today?”

“I been lookin’ at you,” she answered.

“Nah, you been lookin’ everywhere but at me,” I told her.

She finally turned those big ass eyes up toward mine, and I smiled a lil’ ‘cause that was all I wanted.

“There,” I told her. “That wasn’t hard.”

Sha’Nelle looked like she wanted to say somethin’, but I pushed away from the car before she got the chance. I closed her door, reached for her hand and started toward the restaurant with her beside me. I could feel her lookin’ at me now, and that was cool with me too.

When we got inside, the hostess greeted us and led us toward a booth near the back. I let Sha’Nelle slide in first before takin’ the seat across from her, and after the hostess handed us our menus and walked away, I leaned back and looked at the woman I had been chasin’ around Greystone for the last four days.

She opened her menu and acted like it was the most interestin’ shit she had ever read. I smiled and opened mine.

I wasn’t about to pressure ‘Nelle into talkin’ to me every five seconds. I already had her out the house, and for right now, that was enough. I wanted her to get comfortable around me again without every conversation turnin’ into some argument about what happened between us.

A server came over a few minutes later and introduced herself before askin’ what we wanted to drink.

“Bring us two mimosas,” I told the server before looking at Sha’Nelle. “I’ll take cranberry juice and then orange for my woman.”

Sha’Nelle lifted her eyes from the menu and looked at me.

“What?” I asked her.

“I can order for myself,” she reminded me.

“I know you can,” I replied. “You like orange.”

She stared at me another second before lookin’ back at the menu, and I had to stop myself from laughin’ ‘cause that attitude was gon’ be the death of her.

When the server returned with our drinks, I had already decided what I wanted. I ordered steak and eggs with breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit and French toast on the side ‘cause I was hungry as hell. Then I looked across the table at Sha’Nelle, who was still pretendin’ to study her menu.

“And for her, she want the French toast with strawberries, eggs scrambled soft with cheese and turkey sausage,” I told the server. “Potatoes on the side, but she don’t want all that onion shit mixed in ‘em.”

Sha’Nelle lowered her menu, but I kept goin’.

“And bring her some extra syrup on the side,” I added before handin’ my menu to the server.

The server looked toward Sha’Nelle. “Anything else for you?”

Sha’Nelle looked at me before turnin’ back toward the woman. “No, that’s fine. Thank you.”

When the server walked away, she pushed her hair away from her shoulders and gave me a look.