Forget Me Not (30 page)

“What’s so funny?” She strolled to him as she carried the card he’d given her.

“Wonder Woman?” He pointed to it and brought down two plates.

“What can I say? She was an inspiration to me as a kid. A woman who can protect men and women. What little girl doesn’t want that for herself?” She took the plates from him and placed them on the counter. “But those two weren’t my favorite.” She opened a cabinet above it. She picked up a pastel-colored metal lunch
box and handed it to him like a mother handing over her baby. “Holly Hobbie. I loved this one.” She pointed to various pictures on the small, metal case. “If you notice, almost every picture has little Holly with flowers or a plant or trees.”

Gideon stared at the little lunch
box. He looked at the image of the small girl in profile holding flowers she’d plucked from a meadow. He ran his hand over the top and felt the raised image under his fingertips.

“I remember having this same lunch box as a kid.” Janelle didn’t remove her stare from it as she spoke. “After my grandmother died and I moved in with my mother, it got
lost in one of the moves. It was like losing my best friend. I remember crying so hard, which is crazy.” She looked up at him. “It’s a stupid lunch box, right? I wasn’t a little kid anymore. I was sixteen at the time. My mom said that I needed to grow up. Stop holding on to things.”

“So if you lost it, how is it that you have it here?” He held up the box and shook it, letting the plastic and metal handle jiggle.

“A lovely little place called eBay. The first bit of money I earned, I bid on it. I couldn’t believe I won it.” She smiled at her gain. “I remember camping out by our mailbox every day until it came, because I knew if my mother saw it, she would laugh at me or try to throw it away again. In my mind, I imagine that this is the box I had as a kid. Someone found it in the trash or at one of the places we lived, saved it, and put it up for sale.” She brushed her hand over the metal. “I saved it.”

“Gives you hope that your childhood wasn’t lost or a mistake.” He understood her need to mine something good out of something so horrific.

He also now understood her need to hold on to things. Although she’d claimed when he’d asked her for some of her inventory the first time they met that her refusal had to do with losing an employee that day, he now knew the truth. Janelle couldn’t take any kind of loss…period. When you had nothing, you learned to hold on to everything. Knowing her struggle made her even more endearing.

She wiped her face and took a couple of steps back from him. “I bet you looked up to Superman, right?”

Gideon shook his head and handed her back her precious find.

“Batman? Regular guy with a great utility belt.” Janelle returned the lunch
box to its resting place and closed the door on her past.

“Nope.” He reached in to the bag and pulled out each container.

“Who?”

“Underdog.”

She shook her head. “Should have figured. That or Mighty Mouse.” She strolled to a doorway in between the living room and kitchen area. “Would you mind if I took a quick shower? I feel like I have fertilizer and dirt all over me.”

He fought the urge to invite himself into the shower with her. “Of course not. I know you just got home from work. And you had to carry all of these plants up to your place.”

“That’s right. You owe me big for that.” She peeled off her sweater.

He came around the counter toward her. “I’ll definitely pay you back.”

She continued backing into her bedroom. “Make yourself comfortable. I won’t be long.”

“So no help getting to those hard-to-reach places?” He removed his jacket and put it on the back of one of the barstools.

“Cute. I think I’ll be fine.” She stopped moving and put her hand to his chest. “Trust me. I’ll be much more responsive on a full stomach. Then we can talk.”

Gideon regarded her for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, talk.”

Janelle disappeared through a door on the side of the living room. She didn’t close the main door, but she did close the bathroom door, evident from the telltale clicking sound. Did she lock the door?

Probably best she did that. After seeing her, Gideon wanted to strip down and hop into the shower with her.

Down, boy. Easy.

He returned to the kitchen and placed all the containers on the counter in front of the plates. He caught the smell of fresh coffee before he noticed that she’d made herself a cup. He placed the mug on the counter by a plate and poured himself a cup. He also grabbed a couple of glasses and filled them with ice and water. With what he’d brought for dinner, he didn’t know if she would be able to handle the heat.

By the time he finished dressing the area with folded napkins and utensils, he heard the shower stop. He allowed his imagination to wander. Janelle would be drying off her delicious body, moving the towel down over her curves.

“How are you doing in there?” He needed to fill the space with some chatter to keep his thoughts off Janelle and her body.

“Getting dressed,” she said from her room. “Be there in a minute.”

Gideon took the opportunity to take in his surroundings. The modest apartment had hardwood floors throughout except in the kitchen. Tan tile covered that floor. One dark brown couch sat against the wall. Besides her newly acquired plants, she’d decorated the home with paintings and photographs of flowers.

“I know it’s not like your place.”

He turned around when he heard her voice. Now dressed in black leggings and a formfitting T-shirt, she still looked good enough to eat. She took her hair down from its bun and allowed her wild curls to dance over her head. She’d covered her lips with a pink lipstick. Thick gray socks covered her feet.

“No, it’s better.” He approached her.

“Don’t tease me.” She made her way to the breakfast bar.

“I’m not. This place feels cozy, like a hug. My house is huge for a couple of reasons. For one, that’s what the home owners association required.” He pulled the chair out for her before she sat. “The second reason is because I’m hoping to one day get married and fill it with a boatload of kids.”

“Really?”

He sat down across from her. “Yes. What about you? You want kids?”

“Of course.” She put her hand to her stomach. “I’d like to think I will be a better mother than my own.” She dropped her gaze for a moment. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring in a heavy topic.”

“No, I like it when you’re real.” He stared at her for a moment before looking over at what he’d brought. “I hope you’re into Indian food.”

“I’ve never had it, but I’m willing to try anything.”

“Good, because I actually brought Mexican.”

She gave his arm a playful slap. “You are so wrong. I thought I smelled cilantro.”

“I have nachos and cheese along with some salsa. I have tamales, chicken with chorizo, refried beans, rice, guacamole. I brought a buffet of food.”

“Good. I’m starving.” She rubbed her stomach.

“I’ll serve.” He spooned beans and rice onto their plates, then placed a chicken taco on each plate. “Start with that first.”

Gideon thought he had a voracious appetite. He watched Janelle. She finished off her plate of food and went in for seconds, getting the grilled chicken and chorizo in her next round. Her satisfied moans let him know his dinner pick had hit her spot.

With her formal dinner done, Janelle started on the nachos. “I can’t believe you’re
here in my home.”

“Why?” He picked up a chip and ate it plain. The taste brought him back to the days of working in a Mexican restaurant to help pay for additional expenses while in college. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted to see you. So tell me why you didn’t want to see me. What are you protecting me from?”

She shoveled another salsa-filled chip in her mouth, probably to stall for time. She made sure to chew it completely before she answered. “I go on the Internet all the time. There are pictures of us everywhere. They’re saying such nasty things about you.”

“See, that’s the problem. Stop reading the stuff you see on social media. It’ll drive you crazy. It’ll make you angry.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “I don’t want to see this face angry. Like I said before, I could care less what people say about me. The only people I care about are my family and you.”

“But they keep coming to my store and asking me questions.”

He shook his head. “Don’t answer them. Eventually, they’ll leave. They’ll make up stories anyway, even if you tell them the truth.”

“And what’s the truth?”

He put his fork down and regarded her seriously. “That you’re truly, deeply, achingly in love with me.”

She could barely contain the food in her mouth through her laughter. “Stop it. You’re going to make me choke.”

“I’ll save you.”

“Speaking of saving. How did you and your brothers get with Queen Elizabeth? I know you said you were adopted when you were about seven.”

He hadn’t really talked about that with anyone outside of the family. “Our biological mother was a bad drug addict. I was old enough to remember the funny-looking glass pipes that littered our trailer. There were people that were in and out of our home all the time.” Recalling those moments, Gideon could almost feel the roaches crawling on his skin again. He swiped his hand down his arm before continuing. “Once Thane was born, Child Protective Services came to the house and took all of us. I have no idea who my father is, although once I made pro, lots of men tried reaching me to tell me they’d had sex with my mother. Not an awkward conversation at all to have with a perfect stranger. Anyway, the three of us got bounced from one foster home to another. Sometimes, the three of us were together. Sometimes, we got separated. Queen took the three of us in her home as a foster mother at first.” He smiled to himself. “I remember the moment she took the three of us upstairs in her home and pointed out our individual rooms. We had never had a room of our own. We always shared bed in a room that we shared with someone else or shared a couch or slept on the floor somewhere. With her, we had our own rooms with our own beds. The house was warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and not the other way around. And she could cook. Man, my mom is great in the kitchen.”

“Sounds idyllic.” Janelle dipped a chip into the cheese mixture and then the salsa before taking a bite.

“It was. I count my lucky stars every time I think about where I could be had I stayed with my birth mother. I would probably be in jail or a junkie or dead.”

“Have you heard or seen from her?”

Gideon shook his head. “Last I heard, she died of an overdose when I was a senior in high school. I believe it. I never did any digging, and I would never disrespect my mother
now to try and find any information on her. It doesn’t matter. I’m where I need to be.” He picked up his coffee and took a sip. “What about you? You’re tight-lipped about your family.” He scanned the living room area. “I don’t even see pictures of them on the wall.”

“Not much to tell.” She kept her gaze down. “That I know of, I’m an only child. My mother had me when she was fifteen years old. Unlike your birth mother, mine wasn’t a junkie. She rolled with a bunch of older kids, including the rumored twenty-five-year-old pervert who knocked her up before skipping town.”

Gideon blinked. “Wow. Heavy. So you never knew your dad?”

“Not really. I saw pictures of him.”

“Your mother had pictures of him?”

She shook her head. “No. She told me his name. I Googled him and found him on the sex offender registry for Virginia. Yes, he’s currently doing time for taking inappropriate liberties with a minor. It made me sick. I look up his information from time to time to see if he’s out of jail. Otherwise, I don’t care to know him.”

“And your mother?”

She let out a sarcastic laugh. “She’s busy trying to be my best friend. She thinks it’s cool to only be fifteen years apart. She gives me such horrible advice on life and men.” She waited a beat before she continued. “She’s one of the reasons why I want to stay away from you. You are amazing. You shouldn’t get wrapped up in me and my screwed-up family.”

“Hey.” He framed her small face in his hands. “I’m a big boy, and a pretty good judge of character. You let me take care of any issues that come my way. As long as you like me, that’s all that matters.”

She turned her head and kissed the palm. “I do like you. A lot.” She touched his knee.

Not wanting her to feel his knee brace he had hidden under his pants, he held her.

“Did you make an appointment to have the surgery?” she asked.

Gideon couldn’t lie to her. “No. Playing football is all I really have. It’s what I want to do. I can’t have that ruined, and if I have this surgery I’ll have to be out of commission for months.”

She sighed and got out of her chair. She stood between his legs. “You remember when you said you wanted children?”

Gideon nodded. “Are you offering to start now?”

She grinned at his lighthearted joke and then became somber again. “Think about your house full of children, all running around you, and you barely able to walk or keep up with them. Imagine not being able to hold them.” She held his shoulders.

“You are amazing, you know that?” He watched her blink at his statement.

“Why do you say that?”

“You are so open when you talk to me. But during sex, you barely make a sound.” He watched her face flush to a bright shade of pink.

Janelle tried stepping back, but Gideon caught her around her waist and pulled her forward. “You are so strange.”

“No, I’m not. Men want to know that they’re fully satisfying their partners in bed. If you keep it all bottled up”—he kissed her neck—“I won’t know if what I’m doing is turning you on.”

“Trust me. You definitely turn me on.”

“I do?” He slipped his hands up the back of her shirt. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I’d like to show you. But you have to do one thing for me.” She pulled on his hand and guided him toward her bedroom.

“What’s that?”