Page 21 of Seeing Harper

“You know better than that. I would never. I meant I want one of my own. Cruz, huh? He’s not the guy that was a couple of years younger than us in school is he?”

“The same.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty. Damn. I’m jealous. Can I have two pieces of cake?”

Julia laughed as she handed over both pieces of cake.

Chapter 5

Kaiser lay in his bed, scrolling on his phone. When his phone rang it made him jump, and that wasn’t like him at all. Irritated that he was obviously on edge, he swiped the screen to answer the phone without even looking at who the caller was. “What?” he said gruffly.

“Yeah, sounds like getting away is doing you a lot of good,” Cristie said.

Kaiser started chuckling.

“How are you? You miss me yet?” she teased.

“Always. How are you, Mrs. Almost GreyStorm?”

“Almost GreyStorm?” she asked.

“Yep, almost, as in I’m mated but not married, so almost.”

“Mated is more than married, and I’ll do it when I’m ready, thank you very much.”

“I’m sure you will. But remember mating doesn’t carry over into the legality of things. Make that shit legal.”

“Yes, sir!” she said, then she grinned to herself. “You can’t see it, but I’m saluting you right now.”

“No, you’re not. You’re lying on your back, either in your bed or on your sofa with one leg up with the ankle crossed over the opposite knee as you stare at the ceiling.”

Cristie quickly dropped the leg that had been propped up at the ankle against the opposite knee. “No, I am not.”

“Yes, you were, too!” Remi said from right beside her.

“Is that Remi? Tell my friend I said hi,” Kaiser said.

“How about telling me you said hi. I’m supposed to be the bestie,” Cristie said.

“You are. The bestie girl. Remi’s the bestie guy.”

“Yeah, yeah. And here all this time I thought you cared.”

“I do. And by the way, sorry I missed your party. I just couldn’t stick around for it. Had to get back to Atlanta.”

“Yeah, about that. Why’d you sneak off in the middle of the night.”

“Just time to go.”

“Oh, okay. I don’t suppose it’d have anything to do with a certain female. Maybe one whose name starts with a K, and ends in an E E G A N?”

“What? Why would you think that? She’s just a kid!”

“Which is why you ran screaming for the hills.”

“I didn’t run screaming. I left in a well thought out plan. And it had nothing to do with anybody but me.”

“Hah! Yeah, nice try. I know exactly what she is to you, and what you are to her.”