“Great,” Aric said. “Let’s do a family dinner, then.”

  His choice of words brought a kick to her heart. A family dinner. She didn’t know how to respond to that. Apparently, he had meant the words in all its casual sense and she was stupidly reading meaning into it. As far as blood ties go, they were a family but was that really all it took?

  “Candace?” he prompted when she remained silent.

  “Sure, we could,” she answered.

  They said their goodbyes and made arrangements to meet at a kid friendly restaurant in town at 6:30.

  “Wow!” Kyra said.

  Yes, wow. Her imagination was running away with her, as she envisioned living under the same roof with Aric and the girls.

  Every. Single. Day.

  It’s too early for this, Candace.

  “Who is he?” Her friend’s eyes sparkled.

  “Not now, Ky,” Candace shook her head.

  “A man’s calling you for dinner, you’re talking about some other kid, which I assume is his, and you’re looking like Alice in Wonderland. Okay, you have to spill it out now.” Kyra glared at her.

  “I have to go pick up Lyric and Kenny from school,” she said as she began to walk towards the door.

  “And who says you can’t talk while driving?” Kyra said as she hurried after her.

  ****

  The girls liked the same stuff. They chose the same color and style shirts, pants and shoes. They both begged Kyra to buy them the same hair bows. At a point, as she trailed along while the girls tripped all over Kyra who had won Kenny’s heart simply because she had Lyric’s, Candace wondered if the girls were being too chummy. If she hadn’t known her daughter’s choices, she would have believed she was imitating Kenny. She figured it must be the Simmons’ blood, she admitted to herself drily.

  Kyra, the benevolent aunt, was still unable to get over the shock of seeing a look-alike of her god-daughter and was dancing to their every whim, spoiling them rotten in a single shopping spree. The girls must think Christmas came several months early.

  “One look at them and my ovaries are acting weird,” Kyra said to Candace as they watched the girls skip, hand in hand, up to the vending machine for a diet coke that she’d requested they get for her.

  “Hmm,” Candace grinned. “Thought you said you never want kids.”

  “I still don’t.” Kyra chuckled. “I’m only blown away by the picturesque scene before me. I’ll get back to normal once I have that diet coke.”

  Candace laughed. “What you need is a man who is bold enough to knock you up and stay the long haul.”

  Kyra’s face scrunched up. “Like you got knocked up? I thought that was a bad idea.”

  Candace shook her head. “I regret sleeping with Aric, especially as it was on the night before his wedding, but I would never regret the result of that. I would never regret having Lyric.”

  “Good thing he is back in your life then; you can get together again already,” Kyra winked.

  Without having another choice, Candace had told her friend about Aric on the drive to Lyric’s school. Hearing he had moved to town had made Kyra ecstatic and just like she expected, Kyra was already thinking of hot steamy sheets with Aric and Candace in it.

  “We’ve never been together, Ky.” Candace rolled her eyes.

  “And that makes the deal even sweeter,” Ky said. “You have to dress to kill tonight. I’ll let you have the new dress Dick bought for me in Nice. It’s way too small anyway.”

  Candace cocked her head to the side. “Wear a dress for a dinner with the kids around?”

  “Shoot!” Kyra said. “I can take the girls for the night,” she offered.

  Candace laughed again. “No, but thanks. We are eating with the girls – they are excited about it already.”

  “Next time then,” Kyra insisted. “This is a second chance you’ve got and I don’t want to hear anything about blowing it up because you didn’t get a good shot.”

  Later that night, Candace remembered Kyra’s words as she looked around the table as Aric held a conversation with the girls.

  It was true his wife died a little over a month ago but that was really all she knew. What if he had someone else? What if he had no intention to let any other woman in? Somehow, Kyra’s words had gotten to her and she found herself watching Aric way too much over dinner.

  “And Aunt Kyra said we could stay over at her place next week if we want, didn’t she, Miss Parker?”

  The question jarred her out of her thoughts. “Yes, she did, Kenny.”

  Since they sat down to their plates of burger and fries, the girls had taken turns to narrate the entire afternoon to Aric. Candace was surprised by how much they seemed to have stored up information just to regurgitate it all to him. Most of all, she was surprised her usually cool daughter could be so much of a chatterbox – of course, Kenny was still the firecracker of the two, but Lyric was catching up fast.

  “That is very nice of her,” Aric murmured, looking at Candace. “We will have to seize that opportunity now, don’t we?”

  Because the kids had school tomorrow, their dinner was short. With their day filled with so many activities, Lyric was dozing off before they finished their meal. After settling the bill, Aric carried Lyric in his arms, leaving Candace to come along with Kenny, whose eyes were also heavy with sleep.

  “Thank you, Mr. Simmons.”

  Candace got to the car in time to hear Lyric murmur to Aric sleepily as he strapped her to the back seat. “I wish you were my daddy,” she added just before she slept off.

  Quickly, avoiding Aric’s eyes, she strapped in Kenny who also promptly fell asleep.

  As he sat in the driver’s seat, Aric turned back to look at the girls as they slept peacefully. Somehow, their hands had found each other even as they slept. Again, Candace wondered about the bond they shared in such a small amount of time.

  Aric turned back around and switched on the ignition. “We didn’t get to the part about our businesses,” he said a few minutes into the drive.

  They had all come in his car and he was going to drop her and Lyric home before heading home himself. He said nothing about Lyric’s sleepy comment and she was grateful. She didn’t think she had the energy to summon an excuse for her daughter.

  “Yeah! Your daughters commanded your attention for the whole night,” she said, smiling at him.

  He glanced at her before quickly directing his attention back on the road.

  It was the look on his face that made her aware of what she had said.

  His daughters.

  He cruised to a stop at the red traffic light, and this time his gaze on her face was steady. His eyes seemed to shine under the glare of the street lights that cast a glow in the interior of his car. In them, she saw so much hope and fear that she looked away.

  She gathered her wits about her and then turned to look his way again. “They are both your daughters,” she repeated, loving the sound of it.

  It felt good to be able to call her daughter someone else’s other than hers. She had thought she wouldn’t be able to share Lyric with any man – and up until the moment Aric walked into their lives she hadn’t. It was the main reason why she never let any man too close. But with Aric, it felt wonderfully right.

  It would, you idiot; he’s her father?

  “Thank you,” he said softly and reached out to take her hand in his briefly. Again, he focused on the road ahead, and when the light turned green, he drove off.

  They were silent for a while.

  “Tell me about your stores,” she said to break the ice.

  She chose the right topic. With lots of enthusiasm, Aric told her about how he had been promoted from the position of sales manager for a small sports shop to become the owner shortly after he married Shawna. The owner of the shop, an old man in his late sixties, had gotten an attack of wanderlust and put up the shop for sale. For him, the store was not making enough profit anyway. That didn’t deter Aric who’d seen the potential, so he’d pooled his life savings together and though he still fell short, the old man agreed to sell to him based on his dedication to the shop. Taking evening master degree classes in management and working his ass off day and night had helped him to turn the little shop around.

  “You’ve overcome so much,” she said. “How did you do it?” She was compelled to know more about those things that’d shaped him to be the man he’d become.

  He seemed to mull over her question very seriously before he answered. “You know of some of the things I went through as I was growing up. Being tossed from foster care to foster care, not having the finer things in life, being exposed to bad influences. It was tough, I’m not going to deny it; but most of the time I lived in my mind, even though I existed in this world.” He sighed. “I never wanted to be a product of my environment, so I shut myself from it. I always dreamed further than what was immediately beyond me.”

  She reached over and tapped his shoulder lightly, before quickly lowering her hand. His words had moved her to the point that tears threatened to spill from her eyes. “You did good, Aric.”

  He looked over her way with a grin. “Yeah?”

  “Oh yes, you did!”

  Again he focused on the road ahead. “I opened the second store by the second year and bought my own brand by the fourth,” he said proudly.

  Candace knew he had every right to be proud. The success had been entirely his.

  “I always knew you would become as successful as you ever wanted,” she said, remembering the earlier memory she’d had of them. “You can buy an entire chocolate factory now.”

  His lips curled up into a smile, causing a dimple to appear right where his mole was. “But someone ran off before I could buy her one bowl of chocolate.”

  She smiled. “You just bought us dinner.”

  He continued to tell her all about his work and she listened raptly. Even when they got to her house, he switched off the engine and continued talking. She interrupted him only a few times to ask a question or two about his operations in other states. When he began to talk about his recent activities and deals underway, she realized just how busy he was. She wondered how he ever had time for his daughter.

  “I try my best by her,” he said making her realize that she had actually wondered aloud.

  “I know you do,” she said soothingly. She didn’t want him to feel she was judging him, or doing so too harshly. It was obvious he was a good father, better than many. “You know, I have been thinking about something lately. I was going to sign up Lyric for a dance class. She’s been asking me for ages. I could sign up Kenny, too, if you want. That way, the girls get to spend more time together after school and you get to finish up at work before coming for her.”

  His smile reached all the way into his eyes. “That’s brilliant!” he said.

  When it was time for them to go, Aric got to the back passenger side and tried to lift Lyric’s sleeping form, but the girls’ hands remained linked. Kenny murmured something inaudible in protest as Candace physically pried her fingers away from Lyric. Candace and Aric stared at each other, their silence pregnant with words.

  Quickly, she hurried to the front door so she could unlock and open it. She watched him go inside the house with Lyric safely tucked in his arms and something tugged on her heart and soul. She hurried back to the car, while Aric went upstairs to put Lyric to bed, and waited with Kenny. She gazed down at the beautiful girl, who was still asleep, and imagining how Aric had been the amazing father of such a spirited young child.

  He got back shortly after to find her staring at his daughter. He took the driver’s seat, but she made no attempt to get up from where she was sitting besides the sleeping child. They stayed that way for what seemed to Candace like the longest time.

  Aric whipped his head around to look at her, his expression solemn. “We could get married and then the girls would always have each other,” he murmured.

  If she wasn’t so attuned to the very air he breathed, she wouldn’t have made out his words because his voice was so low. However, she heard him and her heart skipped a beat. He wasn’t looking at her right now; this time his attention was on Kenny. His expression was soft under the glare of the inner car lights.

  Why must you say something like that? Don’t you know what it does to me?

  Her eyes wandered away from him to look through the structure of her home with blank, unseeing eyes, saying absolutely nothing. All the while, her head was whirling with all kinds of possibilities, each with Aric and his daughter in it.

  “Candace…” he began.

  “Goodnight, Aric,” she said quickly and all but leapt out of the car.

  Her eyes were filled with tears as she dashed to the front door of her house. Her thoughts were so vivid she could almost believe everything she wanted was happening right now.

  But it wasn’t.

  It simply wasn’t.

  They had only just met again and despite the feelings, despite the girls loving each other the way they do, she was afraid to hope. A lot of water had passed under the bridge since she and Aric were best friends. They had both experienced their highs and lows and she had no idea if they could put it all behind them. She didn’t know if he was willing to do so.

  She didn’t want to have to lose him a second time.

  Chapter Five

  He was a coward.

  Ever since they were teenagers, he’d always been afraid to tell and, much worse, show Candace how he felt. He knew it was all tied up to his messed up childhood, bounced around from home to home, fighting tooth and nail to be accepted. Having a brother who did everything to be exactly the opposite of all Aric strove to be didn’t help matters either. Throughout his childhood, he had been struggling to measure up to the expectations he had for himself and then Candace had come into his life.

  He remembered the first time he met her vividly like it was only yesterday.

  He was in a new foster home and a new school as was usual for him and his brother. He was thirteen back then and had tried to cover up his fear with a sneer for everyone to see as soon as he stepped foot into the class. The students took one look at his scruffy jeans, battered army bag and worn sneakers and burst out in laughter. He had acted like he didn’t care and strutted to the first empty seat he saw. Evidently, their math teacher hadn’t arrived as yet.

  Sitting in the seat next to the one he’d recently occupied was a girl, whom he’d barely looked at when he’d dashed across the room amidst the laughter of the kids. It was years after, when their camaraderie was firmly entrenched, he learned from her that she berated the two girls who were sitting immediately in front of them for joining in the laughter. But how could he have noticed this back then anyway? He was too busy trying to pretend as if he didn’t give two cents about what his new classmates thought of him. He hadn’t even noticed that there was a pretty black girl sitting next to him until she turn to him and said, “Hi! I’m Candace Parker. What’s your name?”

  Her voice had come clearly over the laughter, effectively silencing everyone.

  Of course, he’d rebuffed her outstretched hand even though the smile on her face was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his miserable life. With a sneer on his face, he ignored her completely, making her seem like a fool. But Candace was not deterred; she continued to introduce herself every single day, volunteered to be his partner on school projects, and boldly confronted her friends whenever they taunted him. She was everywhere around him, battering against his façade until he let his guard down and simply let her in.

  Years later, Candace told him that first day, she saw passed his mask, saw the hurting boy beneath and wanted to be his friend. With her, he became a better person. He knew that his friendship with the most brilliant girl in class helped his current foster parents to keep him because he wasn’t doing too shabby in class. Earning grade B’s and C’s were fine by them. For Candace’s tutelage, he was grateful; for her friendship, even more so. And although he never gained complete acceptance from his peers, he wasn’t the class pariah either.

  He knew he owed her everything. It was why he could never just bring himself to tell her how much he grew to love her and only her.

  Since their dinner with the girls, when he intentionally let slip what had been on his mind, he had been in hiding. Dropping the ‘M’ word so fast hadn’t been too wise of him, he realized now. They needed time; they had only just reunited after nine long years.

  But damn it, I want her.

  He couldn’t spend two minutes in her company and not want to pull her to him, hold her tight. He wanted to place his hands on her waist when they walked together, wanted to take a sip off her lips as they dined together. Wanted to neck in the car, do all those things he never got to do with her while they were best friends in school.

  The only problem was he was damned scared. Every time he wanted to yield to the temptation that was her, he lost his nerves. Why? He feared losing her again – which was why after that night, he had immersed himself into solidifying plans with Lyon who surprisingly had wanted him in on the recruiting of staff for his outlet. This was far from being his first foray into doing something like this, but for some unknown reason, it took more planning and time than he’d envisaged. One thing he made sure of, though - to sleep in his own house with Kenny. He had no plans of putting his business first. Candace, being the kindhearted woman that she was, made sure to help make things smoother for him by picking up the girls from their dance class and taking care of Kenny until he came for her after dinner.

  Not that the girl minded – in fact, Kenny had never looked happier having to be with Lyric. This past month, Candace had been a wonderful help and he wondered how he’d survived without her before now. Conversations between them never exceeded a few sentences when he asked about how the girls were doing and thanked her for taking care of Kenny.

  He was a blistering coward and the biggest fool.

  And he was tired of being both.

  Today, things had slowed down at the office and he could get off earlier. His assistant, Jessica, had left early too, saying she had a date. He’d observed her carefully, noticing the glow around her as well as the bounce in her steps as she waved him good night. He was envious; he wanted the smile for himself.