I turned back around. “Destiny, this is my boyfriend Matt and his nephew, Cody.” I pointed them out and they said their greetings.
“Tasha has told me so much about both of you that I feel like I already know you,” Destiny stated.
I blushed and Matt chuckled. “I hope she didn’t bore you with stories about me. I’m not exciting enough for conversation, I’m sure.”
She snickered at Matt’s attempt to be modest. “Not at all. They were all very intriguing.” She pointed to the bags. “Bring those in and I’ll show you to the guestrooms,” she said, while Matt looked at me as if he wanted to know about the ‘intriguing stories’ I’d told about him.
We followed Destiny inside the house that was big enough for Matt and I, as well as Cody, to each get a room. Destiny showed us upstairs, where our rooms were. Cody walked in his and his eyes grew. “Whoa…where’d you get all this cool baseball stuff?” he asked as he touched a case that held a ball that had been signed. The way it was locked in glass let me know that they were collectables worth a lot of money.
And, I had no reason to doubt that everything in the room was valuable. Destiny’s husband, Jacob Turner, was the CEO of the largest construction business in the United States. Just with the hurricanes in Texas and Florida earlier this year, his company had been awarded a quarter billion-dollar worth of contracts to repair and restore public buildings. The man could throw money away every morning, and never get broke.
I glanced at Destiny, intrigued to hear her response.
“It’s my son’s. He plays in this room when we don’t have guests. Jacob is a baseball fan, so he keeps it stocked with whatever rare memorabilia he can find,” she told Cody. “When Montie Jr. gets home, he’ll show you all around.”
“Oh cool, Miss Tasha told me about Montie Jr. I can’t wait to get to play with him.”
“Well, he’s with his father right now, but he should be home by dinnertime,” Destiny told Cody and smiled lovingly at him.
“Yes, ma’am,” Cody walked into the room and put his bag down.
“Your bedroom is over here,” she said, pointing to Matt and myself. Cody stayed back at his room and Matt and I went on across the hall into another equally spacious room, but this one was decorated with pure elegance, like the rest of the house.
We got in the room and looked around. “What…no baseball memorabilia?” Matt asked.
That got the three of us to laughing. I touched his arm, as the laughter subsided. I looked back at Destiny.
“This is perfect. Thank you so much for putting us up for a couple nights. I really have been wanting to come back to Atlanta and see you guys, and I know you wouldn’t have let us stay in a motel.”
“Nope, I wouldn’t hear of it,” she said.
“Sometimes, I wish you were still in Miami, so we could see each other more,” I told her.
“Girl, I’m excited to have you here, but I felt it was best that we move back to Atlanta, all things considered.” She gave me a knowing glance, and I nodded, as she stepped back to the door. Her husband had a crazy stalker who had been admitted to a Miami mental facility, and the city just held bad memories for Destiny. “Jacob will be home in an hour, and Mama won’t be in until tomorrow. So, why don’t you guys rest up and dinner will be ready in a little while,” Destiny added.
“Okay,” Matt and I said together.
Before leaving, she glanced at me. “It’s truly good to have you back home.”
She left the doorway and I smiled, then caught Matt staring at me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.
He chuckled. “Like what?”
“Just looks like you have something serious that you’re thinking about.”
“So, you’re a psychic, are you?” he asked, grabbed my hand, and pulled me to him. Instantly, I could feel his warm breath across my lips. “She said it’s good to have you home,” he said. A small smile appeared on his lips. “So…this will always be your home?”
I snickered. “She said it. I didn’t.”
“Well, what are your thoughts on it?” he asked.
The deeper question simmering beneath his words penetrated the depths of me. I hadn’t felt more at home as I had with Matt, so wherever he was had become the new definition of home for me. I went to the door and closed it, then walked back to him and wrapped my arm around him and inched closer. “Frankly, this place stopped being my home when you and I started seeing each other.”
His mouth went to mine and we kissed, his tongue slipping between my lips and revolving around my tongue. His sultry kiss held me captive, and I didn’t want to let go, but then I heard a knock on the door and Cody’s voice followed.
“You guys in there?”