“I don’t know you,” she said with her little fingers twiddling together.
“No, you don’t know her sweetheart, but I know you’re going to love her as much as your daddy does once you get to know her,” I said.
“I lub daddy,” Montana melted my heart as she jumped in my arms.
“I love you too, Montana,” I said and a hearty smile spread across my face.
Junior stood watching the interaction between Lissa, Montana and me. My mini-sized twin remained distant and uninterested in engaging us. “I’m going to the front with Mama,” he said, grabbing his trophy and running to join his mother in the lobby.
“Junior, come back in here,” I started after him, but Lissa stopped me.
“Montie, let him go. You have to give him time to take this all in,” she said.
“Yeah, you may be right. There’s a lot for everyone to take in today,” I said and shifted Montana to my side. “Have a seat and I’ll be right back.”
I went into the lobby. Destiny was on her cell arguing on her phone. “I’m moving back to Atlanta!” she screamed as she took Montana from my arms. “Come on Junior. We’re about to leave.”
“Wait, wait a minute. So, you’re just going to leave without talking to me?”
“What more is there to say, Montie? You just sprung the fact that my husband slept with his ex a few weeks before we got married on me. The rest should be self-explanatory.”
“She could have been lying to me, so make sure you talk to Jacob and give him a chance to explain himself,” I said.
“Oh, I just got off the phone with him. He admitted to everything.” She began pacing the length of the carpet. “He called me to tell me that she’d been arrested for Rick’s murder. When I told him that I knew he slept with her, he came clean saying it was the night the power was out and that he thought she was me.”
“I’m sorry it had to come out this way. It would have been better if Jacob had talked to you first. Getting duped by Justine and getting in the middle of you and Jacob’s relationship isn’t what I wanted. I apologize for blurting his indiscretions out.”
“I thought you would look out for me and tell me something like this before I married the man, not afterwards. But hell, it doesn’t matter, Montie. Pretty soon, the tabloids will have a good story for all to laugh about!”
“Calm down, Destiny. Don’t upset the kids any more than they already are,” I said of a confused looking Montana and an incensed Montie Jr.
“I’ll see you later, Montie. Go back in there and talk to your girlfriend.” Destiny picked up her purse and stormed out with my children in her hands.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Lissa
The Burn in My Soul
Montie was knocking on my door an hour after I left his office. Many thoughts swirled in my mind about Destiny’s revelation that she was moving back to Atlanta. Would Montie be sucked back into her whirlwind of emotions and situations? He stood behind me holding me in his embrace. I was a bundle of nerves as I spun around and placed a hand on his broad shoulder. “Do you think we’ll make it?” I asked.
“I’m sure we can and will make it,” he said confidently.
How could I tell him I was scared to death of letting him go, but equally as terrified of holding on and being hurt by him. “What happened today with Destiny has me feeling uneasy,” I said truthfully as he stroked my back.
He eased his hands to the sides of my face and pulled me to him until our lips met. I stood on my toes and tried buried my anxiety into his bated breath. “Kiss me like that again, and I’ll forget all my worries,” I admitted.
“You don’t have a damn thing to worry about where I’m concerned, woman.”
My heart fluttered as I walked away from him. I had some things to get clear. Being subjected to his kisses wouldn’t help. Montie was the real deal. He told me that Destiny was emotional about finding out her husband’s alleged affair. But the look on her face still troubled me. She was going through it, but when Montie introduced me as his girlfriend, she crumpled right before my eyes.
“Lissa, yo
u’ve been pulling away from me ever since you meet my family today,” Montie said.
“Your family? No, I had no problem meeting your children. It was your ex-wife that gave me bad vibes.” I wasn’t going to say anything about it to Montie about it, but I just put it out there. If we were going to have anything meaningful, I had to be honest with him and with myself about how I was feeling.
“I told you she was upset because she found out about me and Justine and then I told her about Jacob sleeping with Justine,” he reiterated.