She was looking good, so, so good, he burned to touch her just to assure himself she was real and not a figment of his imagination.

  The music stopped and he didn’t know if she turned off the radio or if it was a mere coincidence. He didn’t care which.

  “Aric?” she mouthed.

  “Candy,” he repeated.

  He knew his mouth was hanging low as he continued to stare. He watched her blink several times as if she struggled to grapple with the reality of their situation. She quickly recovered and he watched her put on a cheerful face. He was not surprised. Nine years ago, she had recovered from a much greater surprise and then disappeared like a puff of smoke. He wondered if she was planning on disappearing right now.

  “Good to see you, Aric! How have you been?” she said brightly. Damn, she was good; one would think it was just nine months ago they last saw each other instead of nine years. “You are here on business, I guess?” The words rushed out like a rehearsed script.

  He shook his head. He wasn’t like her; he wasn’t adept at putting on a game face when it came to matters of the heart. When it was business, however, doing so was a breeze. “No, I live here now. Just moved. You?”

  She seemed shocked, panicked even. The mask fell a little.

  Before she could reply – and he didn’t know if she would have – a car honked behind them and several cars echoed its noise. Someone cursed. “Hey! Get your lovey-dovey asses outta the road!”

  Aric had no idea when the traffic light permitted them to go through. Judging from her expression, Candace hadn’t any idea, too.

  “Candace,” he began. He didn’t have any idea of what he was been about to say, but she did not allow him to finish. Quickly, she revved her engine and drove off. She took the next intersection. He wasn’t going that way.

  He had a mind to go after her, chase her down… And then what?

  And besides, Lyon was waiting at the office. Now, he had less than five minutes to make it.

  Damn!

  As he drove on, he tried to tell himself that, indeed, for all of sixty seconds, he had seen and exchanged a few words with Candace Parker, the only woman he had ever loved.

  Chapter Two

  Of all the places in America that Aric could move to, why did it have to be Chicago? Why?

  Candace could not keep still – she hadn’t been able to do so, all day.

  What did he mean when he said he’d just moved here? Did it mean he was with his family, too?

  Of course, he was!

  It had been nine years, but she knew Aric was a dependable guy – the type who took responsibility for his own. Of course, he was in Chicago with his wife and child, or possibly children. She couldn’t bear the thought of him and his wife in the same town along with her. But she knew it was actually the least of her worries.

  What if he sees my daughter?

  The thought was too much for her. Oh lord! What was she going to do?

  She continued to pace the length of the office of her pastry shop. Her attendants were on break and she had put up the closed sign about five minutes ago, but she was too scared to even step a foot out of the door. For the first time, she dreaded going to the school to pick up her daughter.

  This morning, when she was driving out of the school compound, she had noticed the Jaguar parked behind her. And then, up at the traffic light, Aric had been driving the same Jag. She dreaded to think he was at the school to drop off his kid. That would mean his kid, or possibly kids, attended the same school as hers.

  My goodness, no!

  If he was at the school to drop off his kids, then, the odds were that he would be there to pick them up. Even if he didn’t, his wife might and Candace couldn’t decide which was worse – having to meet Aric or his wife. Even though it almost killed her, she had put him and every other memory that concerned him away the moment she left New Orleans. She had vowed never to reach out, to forget about everything they shared… well, except for one thing. And now, he was in the same city and it seemed like the cat wanted out of the bag real quick.

  Aric?

  Why Chicago?

  Realizing she was a good fifteen minutes late, Candace knew she couldn’t avoid it anymore. Lyric would be wondering where her mommy was…and her mommy was never late. She went about the business of informing her attendants that she was going to pick up Lyric from school and issued some instructions which they needed to deal with when their break was over.

  With a wave of her hand, she bid them farewell and got into her vehicle. The drive was uneventful. She didn’t even realize she’d gotten there until she got there. It was during times like these she understood that driving to and from the same place over and over again became automatic.

  Candace couldn’t stop herself from imagining running into Aric a second time, though. One thing was increasingly and abundantly clear: meeting Aric and his family was inevitable and it was best she prepared for it.

  But how can I prepare for a meeting with someone I’d spent nine years hiding away from?

  She still had no answer by the time she parked in front of the school. Praying that Aric or his wife would have come for their kids and gone, she switched off the engine, got out the vehicle and used the lock button on the key to secure the doors. She looked here and there and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t see a Jaguar anywhere around. Then, she marched bravely up to the front door. Her daughter was waiting for her with her class teacher, Mrs. Smith, and another girl.

  Lyric was everything a mommy could wish for and Candace tried her best to do right by her – not that her daughter really made it hard for her. She was super bright and level-headed. She was only eight and she could do a lot of things by herself; she even helped her to bake sometimes.

  “Mommy!” Lyric leapt happily into her arms even though she was late.

  Candace hugged her daughter tightly feeling a bit overprotective. After pinching her daughter affectionately on her chubby cheeks and then ruffling her curls she glanced at her teacher. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she said to Mrs. Smith as she clasped Lyric’s hand and they both walked up to the teacher and the other girl.

  “It’s no problem,” Miss Smith said, “I will just be right over there.” She gestured to her desk that had a pile of books and folders and an assortment of stationery on it.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Smith.”Candace turned to her daughter, as the teacher left. “I’m sorry, darling.”

  Lyric waved off her excuse and turned to her friend. “Mommy, remember the new girl in class I told you about? Her name is Kennedy.”

  Candace turned to the girl and did a double take. “Wow!” the word left her lungs in a rush of breath.

  “I told you,” her daughter said, giggling with the other girl.

  Her daughter had been telling her about a new girl in class who everyone said looked exactly like her. Just yesterday, she had even mentioned something about a sleepover this weekend and she had promised that as long as the parents of the girl were okay with it, she didn’t mind. She had no idea the resemblance was so uncanny. Trust Lyric to understate things when she could have given her poor mommy a more detailed heads-up. Then she wouldn’t be hanging her mouth open like a fish caught in a trap in front of two little girls.

  “I had no idea,” she said and smiled at the girl.

  “Hi, Miss Parker,” the girl said politely.

  If Candace didn’t know better, she would have sworn the two girls were twins. Their voice sounded alike, too. She shook her head as she bent down to the girls’ level, trying to discern a tiny difference between them and seeing none. Why, the girls had the same shade of forest green eyes! Any other color eyes wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow, but people with green eyes were not quite common. She could think of one person who had such color eyes, with the same flecks of brown in his irises, to boot!

  “Hi, Kennedy, how are you doing?” she said gently to the girl.

  “Very well, thank you, Miss Parker. And you can call me Kenny,” Kenny bobbed her head vigorously causing her curls to fly about. “You are surprised that we look so much alike, aren’t you? Everybody is.”

  “You bet I am.” She chuckled. Here was one difference – while her daughter would rarely speak out or warm up to strangers at their first meeting, Kennedy seemed to be the exact opposite. “Never seen such resemblance, except in twins.”

  The girls exchanged a look that said they must have been hearing that a lot this week.

  “So who is coming for you, Kenny?” she asked as she tried to shake off the initial surprise. She didn’t see any other parent around. No doubt, Mrs. Smith was waiting for the girl’s parent to come pick her up, too.

  “My dad – he will be here soon,” the girl said matter-of-factly and Candace realized that she trusted that her dad would come for her even if he was a bit late.

  “Would be nice to meet him, ask him how come he has a beautiful daughter just like mine,” Candace said, ruffling both girls’ tresses fondly. She was still thrown by the similarity, but she could see how chummy the girls were and she was happy for them both.

  “He wants to meet you too, mommy,” Lyric told her excitedly. “Kenny, tell her!”

  “My dad says he will only agree to allow me come for a sleepover if he meets you,” Kenny said and then in a theatrical whisper added, “I think he wants to be sure that you are nice. Of course, I already told him you are!”

  Candace laughed. The girl was going to grow up to become a drama queen! “Why, thank you! That was nice of you. Your dad seems like a decent man. He sure knows how to look out for his kid.”

  Kenny rolled her eyes. “He is too much… And there he is!” She fairly jumped out of her skin in excitement as she pointed a finger behind Candace. They all turned and Candace heart dropped to her toes as she saw the six-foot-three-inch giant of a man at the door. His blackberry colored hair, cut short on the sides and medium-length on top, coupled with his 5 o’clock shadow beard, gave him a dark, sexy appeal.

  Of course, she should have guessed it’d be him.

  The girls looking so much alike couldn’t be an ordinary coincidence. Kenny was a new girl in her daughter’s class. And Aric had said he just moved to Chicago. It should have added up the instant she saw the little girl.

  Sometimes, she could be so obtuse she deserved an award.

  Candace almost slapped herself in the head. She couldn’t very well grab her daughter and make a run for it, even though that was exactly what she felt like doing. Her heart raced against her chest but she fixed a smile on her face and schooled her expression before she met the man who’d broken her heart all those years ago. Now, she wished she had actually made some more effort at mentally preparing herself in the car instead of praying that she wouldn’t run into him. Her body stiffened and her legs shook a little. Her ever perceptive daughter must have felt something because she placed her little hand in hers as they both watched father and daughter hug.

  “You are late,” Kenny accused her father.

  “I am really sorry, honey bear. A meeting took too long.”

  Again, Candace couldn’t help but spot another difference between the girls. Kenny had accused her father of coming late even though she obviously didn’t bear a grudge. Lyric didn’t mind that she was tardy, at all.

  It was obvious that Aric had seen her before she saw him because his eyes were on her even as he spoke to his daughter.

  “Dad, there is Miss Parker and Lyric. I told you about them already.”

  With a smug look on her face, the girl waited for her daddy to react in much the same way as Candace did. Candace simply held her breath. The girls had no idea what was about to happen.

  Lyric was pulling on her mommy’s hand, asking her silently to remember her manners, but Candace knew she couldn’t get a word out, not now.

  Realizing her mother was not going to cooperate, Lyric took it upon herself to do the honors. “Good afternoon, Mr. Simmons.”

  Aric’s gaze finally left Candace for Lyric’s. The shock on his face could have made him win a gold medal. He actually staggered, went absolutely still and then, his jaw dropped open.

  “Christ!”

  Kenny laughed gleefully and Lyric chuckled.

  “Told you, daddy,” his daughter said.

  Candace closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, Aric was bending down in front of Lyric so he could be eye level with her.

  “Hi, Lyric! What a nice name! Kenny has told me a lot about you.”

  Candace closed her eyes again. That voice of his was washing over her like the warm waves of the sea, the kind she enjoyed whenever she vacationed in the Caribbean. She could smell his cologne. He hadn’t changed the fragrance he used. It was if he hadn’t changed at all.

  “Thank you, Mr. Simmons.”

  She watched as Aric compared both girls side by side. The girls giggled as they watched him.

  “You, girls, have to forgive me for staring, but you look alike and I can’t stop,” Aric said playfully. “I thought Kenny was exaggerating when she told me.”

  “Ha!” his daughter huffed.

  “Could you girls play a while over there while Ms. Parker and I get to know each other?” he asked in a kind voice.

  The girls readily obliged and Candace waited. It was show time.

  “We meet again,” he said in a soft voice.

  “Ye—yes,” she said a bit shakily.

  This morning, it was she with the bravado, but now, he seemed to be the one in control.

  “So how the hell did I not know about your daughter?” he asked.

  She called on every power she had as she shrugged carelessly. “We don’t live in the same world anymore.”

  “And whose fault is that? Who went away and never came back?” he whispered hotly.

  She looked in the girls’ direction and was relieved to see that they were paying them no mind. “That had nothing to do with you,” she whispered back the lie.

  Aric looked at the girls, too, and rubbed his jaw, looking like he still couldn’t believe his eyes.

  “Where is her father? Kenny said you aren’t married.”

  The words flew out of his mouth rapidly and Candace winced as each struck her like a blow. For the first time, she wished she had allowed a man into her life, gotten married just so she could tell Aric that Lyric’s father was waiting for her at home. But she couldn’t even say a word in response.

  Her silence seemed to be all the answer he needed.

  “Damn it, Candy. Damn you!” he whispered fiercely. His eyes were fixed on Lyric.

  “Aric,” she said at last.

  Her eyes found his and she noticed just how livid he was. He was, however, trying hard to stay calm and she knew it was not for her sake. The words she should have said were stuck in her mouth.

  “Kenny wanted to do a sleepover with…” he stumbled over his words. “She wanted a sleepover with your daughter,” he tried again. “I will be bringing her over on tomorrow night. We will talk then.”

  She had no choice but to give him her address and phone number.

  The girls whooped in sheer delight when he told them.

  “We are going to have such fun!” Kenny hugged Candace as they parted.

  Candace smiled and said all the right words but she couldn’t agree with Kenny on this one. She didn’t think anything was going to be fun. Not with Aric guessing at the truth already.

  Chapter Three

  Friday evening just couldn’t come fast enough.

  While Aric had imagined a re-union with Candace several times during the course of the years they’d been apart, he had never imagined a daughter would be in the mix. He had envisioned a lot of things—the things he liked about her—not that he’d forgotten anything.

  Impossible.

  He remembered every single physical feature of hers. Her smooth, silky skin. Those wicked curves. Her dimpled smile. He never forgot how she laughed, how she smiled, how she talked. But perhaps, he had forgotten that she was one determined woman. She was strong and did what she thought was right regardless of barriers that might exist and what others thought. It was why they started off as friends in middle school and remained friends up until that night.

  And most likely why she’d kept her distance from him for nine long years.

  All this time, he had wondered if Candace had deliberately kept away. Of course, her parents still lived in New Orleans and he knew they still heard from her though they wouldn’t tell him a thing. There was one time he ran into them at the shopping mall – it was the first time he would see them since his wedding had taken place. Just a few seconds before then, he had been arguing with a pregnant Shawna about not buying a bottle of whiskey since the doctor said it was bad for the baby’s health. She had been about to storm out of the mall in annoyance but on seeing Candace’s parents, they had held hands and smiled like love-struck idiots.

  “Hi, Nate! Hi, Ellen! Heard from Candace?” he had said to them with a forced smile, ignoring Shawna’s warning squeeze of his hand.

  But rather than answer, Ellen, Candace’s mother, looked at Shawna’s bulging stomach with the strangest look in her eyes.

  “She is doing well, Aric,” Nate had answered before dragging his wife away. It was the first time the man hadn’t called him ‘son’.

  For months, Aric had been unable to forget the look in Ellen’s eyes. He hadn’t been able to figure it out then. But he could now.

  Candace, too, must have been pregnant. Pregnant with his baby.

  Aric wondered how she had coped with working toward her Master’s degree and pregnancy. At least, Shawna had had him even though they fought every two seconds. Candace had nobody. He was now sure she had deliberately run from New Orleans, from him. And now, he knew why. Not that knowing why helped anything, at all. He was so furious with her, he couldn’t wait for an explanation.