“Sorry I’m late,” Danni said as she rushed into Bare Sophistication Boutique and Studio minutes before close. “I ran into some traffic on my drive from Tampa to Miami.”
“No worries. How is your mom?” Summer asked as she finished ringing up the last customer.
“She’s doing well! She’s looking forward to the day when she’ll have all three of her children in the same place at the same time.”
“Does that mean your brothers haven’t visited in a while?”
“They’ve visited, but I’ve told you stories about how random their visits are. Dominic is still overseas, but we’re hoping he’ll get a leave soon. And Aaron is off chasing whatever his next adventure is. I swear, between the two of them, I can barely keep track of their schedules.”
“I can’t wait to meet your mom,” Summer said as she locked the front door of the shop and flipped over the open sign. “She seems like the type of mom I always wanted to have.”
Danni didn’t miss the sadness in her voice. It was no secret that Summer’s mom, Sonia Dupree, was as far from a motherly figure as you could get. Danni could still recall the horrible stories she’d heard from Summer and her older sisters, Winter and Autumn, about their mother.
Sometimes, Danni still worried that Sonia Dupree had affected her daughters in irreversible ways. However, all three Dupree sisters were married to wonderful men. Winter was married to Taheim Reed. Autumn was married to Taheim’s brother, Ajay Reed. And Summer and Aiden had been doing wonderfully ever since they tied the knot. All three couples were proving that true love existed and could happen when you least expected it.
“She’s looking forward to meeting you, too,” Danni said. “I told her I’d bring you down for a mini vacation one day.”
“Speaking of vacations, have you talked to Jaleen lately?”
“Um, no. Why do you ask?”
Summer straightened a few lingerie pieces on the rack. “No reason. Just wondering if you finally returned his calls.”
Ever since they’d almost kissed in the hotel room before Summer and Aiden’s wedding, Danni had been making a conscious effort to avoid Jaleen at any mutual parties they attended. Avoiding him had been easy since he lived in Chicago and she now lived in Miami. However, for the past four months Jaleen had been handling some work in Europe for his family’s real-estate business overseas and, for some reason, he’d been hell-bent on emailing, texting or calling her any chance he got.
At first she’d enjoyed communicating with Jaleen since they had, indeed, been friends for years. Yet the closer it got for him to return to the States, the less she returned his calls, texts or emails. He probably assumed that he’d done something wrong, when, in actuality, she was the person pushing him away. She had a good reason, but she doubted he would understand. Honestly, she doubted any of her friends would understand.
“Okay, I’m all set,” Summer said as she turned off the lights. “Are you ready to head to dinner?”
Danni froze. “You mean we’re still on for dinner?”
“Of course we are! Tonight we’re celebrating the fact that you are almost done with your master’s in fashion merchandising. Going back to school and working full-time is a huge deal. Especially since our Bare Sophistication store in Miami has only been open a little over a year. So we definitely have to celebrate. Nicole, Aaliyah and Aiden should already be at the restaurant.”
At least she didn’t mention what I thought she would.
In two months she’d be finished with her degree, which meant she would have to officially accept the partnership Summer and her sisters had offered her during the grand opening of the Miami store.
When they’d initially asked her to be a partner of the Bare Sophistication chain, Danni had been overcome with emotion considering the Dupree sisters had always dreamed of being in business together and Danni had just joined the team as store manager for both the Chicago and Miami locations. She’d never dreamed they’d give her such a huge opportunity. Her celebration was short-lived when she’d realized that despite how wonderful the opportunity was, she still had a major dilemma standing in her way of officially accepting the offer.
“Yeah, I’ll trail you in my car since I don’t want to leave it here overnight,” Danni said. Her iPhone rang just as Summer was locking up the store. She shuffled through her purse to try to catch the call.
Definitely not answering that.
“Who was it?”
“No one,” she said as she stuffed the phone back in her purse.
“Hmm, are you sure it wasn’t a certain friend of ours who’s been contacting you for months?”
“I’m not sure who you mean.” She took out her car keys as they made their way to the parking lot.
“You know exactly who I’m talking about, even if you don’t want to tell me what happened during my wedding—”
“Nothing happened,” she interrupted.
“Well, regardless of what did or didn’t happen, I think you should call him back. I just spoke with him a couple of days ago and he said you’re avoiding him. I’ve never known Jaleen to even care if a woman avoids him.”
Danni hated to admit that she was equally curious as to why he’d been reaching out to her these past few months. Yeah, they’d had a special moment in her hotel suite the day before Summer and Aiden’s wedding, but she didn’t see how that equated to him contacting her so much.
“Okay, fine. I’ll call him back after dinner.”
“Or maybe you should call him before dinner,” Summer suggested before getting into her car.
“Or maybe I’ll just keep avoiding him unless I head to Chicago for the semiannual sale Winter and Autumn are having at the Bare Sophistication Chicago location,” Danni said under her breath as she got into her car, as well.
Danni had enough on her plate and that didn’t include worrying about a certain handsome friend who just so happened to be the only guy she’d been thinking about for the past six months. Or try the past few years. It didn’t matter if she thought about him a lot or a little. She shouldn’t be thinking about him at all.
Maybe I should call him since I’ll have an excuse to get off the phone once I arrive at the restaurant for dinner. That way, he couldn’t convince her to stay on the phone any longer than five minutes since the restaurant was so close to the shop. She clicked the audio recognition feature of her car and called Jaleen.
He answered on the third ring. “Hey, beautiful.”
She momentarily soaked in the warmth in his voice. He’d always called her beautiful, but lately she was starting to believe he really meant it.
“Hey, Jaleen. Just a heads up, I have to meet the gang for dinner so I only have five minutes.”
“Duly
