Page 28 of Mafia Kings & Wedding Rings

Coach chuckled and looked my way as he maneuvered the car into traffic.

“I won’t do all that today.” I threw up my hands in surrender.

“Amen to that,” Sapphire jested, which we all laughed at.

Arriving at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Coach Reeves parked in the lot on the side of the large building.

I was nervous. When we were young, we went to church all the time, but Sapphire was right to mention that we hadn’t stepped foot inside one since our father died almost a year ago.

Sighing, I lifted my eyes to the brick structure with the white wooden cross on top.

There were people pulling up, gathering at the double front doors and catching up.

Pastor Evans stood out front, shaking hands and smiling too.

I didn’t have any expectations for this day.

For all I knew, God was going to strike me down for having sex with a married man.

“Good morning, Blaine. Welcome to Sunday service,” he greeted us, holding his hand out for him to take.

“Good morning, Pastor Evans. This is one of my hoopers, Sapphire Crane, and his sister, Emerald,” Coach Reeves introduced us.

“Crane?” The Pastor frowned and canvassed me and my brother. “Are you David Crane’s children?”

“We are,” I replied.

“Very sorry to hear about your father. We went to school together, and he often sent donations to the church. I’m glad that you could make it. Why don’t you all have a seat up front? We’ll be starting soon.”

“Thank you.” A warm smile captured my lips.

“Come on.” Coach Reeves rested a hand on the small of my back and led me inside with Sapphire behind us.

The service was somehow exactly what I needed.

My faith had been shaken far too long, but listening to Pastor Evans speak was reassuring.

I even found myself tearing up at some of the Bible verses he selected.

I guess everyone sometimes feels like God is talking right to them through the preacher.

The choir sang, but it wasn’t too much. I appreciated hearing the word more than all that singing, but the numbers they chose were beautiful.

By the time the service let out, I had a renewed sense of hope. My smile was uncontainable too.

“Seems like you had a good time,” Blaine declared once we were in the car.

“It was nice. I didn’t expect to feel like this after leaving, but it was kind of cleansing.”

“Yeah. Pastor Evans was on point,” he agreed, nodding.

The familiar buzz of my cell in my purse alerted me. Digging around the side pocket, I whipped it out and saw that Jordan was texting. It was already fifteen after twelve. I hadn’t gone home to change or anything and it was going to take longer to do that then catch the bus to her.

“Everything okay?” Blaine checked with me.

“Yeah. My friend I’m meeting for lunch just let me know she’s there and I don’t have time to go home and change then meet her.”

“I can drop you off if you want. Where you heading?” he asked, his big hand gripping the steering wheel.

“You don’t have to do that,” I objected.

“Emerald, I offered. It’s cool. I can take Sap and go have a bite and shoot some hoops too. I’ll make sure he gets to his homework.”

Hesitant to accept his help, I checked on my brother behind him, ear buds in while bobbing his head to music on his phone. We just got out of church and he couldn’t wait to bump some trap music.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I don’t have anything else to do today. So where to?” he asked.

“The Hazelnut Café.”

“That’s not far at all.”

“Thank you.” I blushed and bowed my head.

“When can I take you out though?”

“Um, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” I fidgeted with my hands, not wanting to turn because I felt those dark, oval-shaped eyes all over me.

“Why not? You seeing someone?”

“No. Not necessarily. I just got a lot going on. Between work and dealing with him and his schedule, I barely have time for anything else.”

“So is that code for you don’t want to date right now or you just don’t want to date me?” he questioned.

“I don’t want to make anything awkward or uncomfortable.

You’re my brother’s basketball coach. If something were to happen and it didn’t work out, that puts Sapphire right in the middle, and that’s not right.

He admires you and looks up to you. He hasn’t had a male figure like that in his life in a while. I can’t be selfish and mess that up.”

“So you at least kind of like me then, right?” he jested.

Simpering, I swung my attention his way and bat my eyes.

“Maybe a little bit. Your parents really named you Blaine though?”

“You name is Emerald and his is Sapphire,” he shot back.

“You’re right. I guess I’m one to talk.” I giggled as we neared the café.

I could see the sign from a couple of blocks away. We had entered the busy downtown district. This was where you shopped if you had money. All the high-end stores and restaurants were spread across these blocks.

“Nah, but for real. Let me take you out. We can go as friends. We won’t even call it a date. If you have a good time, maybe we can do it more often.” He stopped in front of the café, and I let go of a sharp breath.

He damn sure wasn’t making it easy, looking all fine with those bedroom eyes. Glancing at the building to the café, I swung my head toward him.

“How about a movie next weekend?” I suggested.

“I’m with that. Saturday night?”

“Sure.” I smiled, reaching for the door handle.

“Aye, don’t touch that while you with me.” Blaine climbed out on his side and walked around to open my door for me.

“Thank you.”

He reached up to stroke my cheek before leaning in for a kiss.

His lips were soft and not too wet. When he pulled back, our eyes locked, and a spark of something passed between us.

It was different, leaving me unnerved. I spun to give Sapphire my attention, and he removed one of his ear buds so he could hear me.

“I’ll see you later tonight,” I told him.

“Okay.”

“And I guess we will see each other soon,” I addressed Blaine.

“Since I already have your phone number, is it okay to call or text you between now and then?” he prompted me.

“That would be fine.”

“Well, have a good day, gorgeous.” The thousand-watt smile he flashed me left my heart stuttering, surprising me.

Sapphire hopped up front with Blaine just as I was making my way to the door. I spotted Jordan in a window seat waving to me.

“Well, well, and I thought you said it wasn’t like that,” Jordan teased.

“It wasn’t.” I sighed and draped my purse over the back of the chair before taking my seat across from her. “But it might be. He’s cool.”

“And fine!” Jordan grinned. “From the way he’s looking at you, looks like he’s trying to lock you down.”

“I don’t know about all that.” I picked up one of the laminated menus and studied it.

“You look good together.”

“Like I told him, I’ve already got a lot going on in my life. I did agree to go to the movies with him next weekend though. He’s Sap’s coach, and I don’t want to jeopardize that.”

“Well, it can’t hurt. When’s the last time you went on a date or had fun?”

“Hmm,” I muttered, trying to block the image of her husband folding me up like a pretzel and being balls deep inside me. “Been kind of hard to think about that. Feels like I’ve been spiraling since we lost everything.”

“That must have been really hard.” Jordan rested her chin in her hand and propped herself up on the table. “Your daddy used to be so intimidating. I swear I thought that man would live forever.”

“When the company went under, I didn’t even recognize him. It was like he became human suddenly. Like you, I always looked at him like he was this giant. It was hard seeing him allow life to defeat him. Him and my mother argued all the time, he was drinking heavily, popping pills.”

Reaching across the table, Jordan took my hand and empathy poured out of her big mud-brown eyes. I sniffled, not expecting to become emotional after all this time. I’d been holding in a lot since moving back home.

“You remember that time we had that sleep over and we were up all night doing prank calls and playing truth or dare?” she cackled. “He came in there yelling and going off, telling us to go to bed.”

“And my mama yelling ‘leave them alone! If you were sleep you wouldn’t be worried about what they were up doing.’” I mocked my mother, and Jordan’s head fell back in laughter.

“And we snuck his car keys and drove around the block when he finally did go to sleep.”

I couldn’t believe she remembered that, but the memory had me nostalgic, thinking about how we grew up.

It wasn’t perfect, but Jordan was my girl.

We’d shared a lot of good times between us over the years.

Her family was split since her parents divorced.

Years later, her mother died, and months after that, her father.

She moved in with her mean ass auntie, but all she ever talked about was getting the hell away from her the minute she was of age.

My parents didn’t mind if she slept over regularly.

Since Emerald attended the same school as me, they assumed her parents had money.

In reality she just lied about where she lived so that she could attend.

Daddy was always working though and my mama pretty much let us do what we wanted.

She was always entertaining her friends, having different social gatherings where they got lit and talked shit about each other.

Fundraisers and charity events were what she lived for organizing.

Any chance to get her name in the paper, she took it.

When those headlines broke about my father losing everything, she hid in the house for a month.

It was the only time she didn’t want people in our business.

“That seems like another lifetime.” I gently pulled away from Jordan.

“It does, but… I still hold those times close to the heart. You were my bestie, Em. It really hurt when you left and decided not to keep in touch,” Jordan admitted.