Perfect Fit Read online

  BRENDA JACKSON

  Perfect Fit

  All copyrighted material within is

  Attributor Protected.

  Contents

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  PART TWO

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  PART THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  EPILOGUE

  About the Author

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  850 Third Avenue

  New York, NY 10022

  Copyright © 2003 by Brenda Streater Jackson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  All Kensington titles, imprints and distributed lines are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotion, premiums, fund-raising, educational or institutional use.

  Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write or phone the office of the Kensington Special Sales Manager: Kensington Publishing Corp., 850 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022. Attn. Special Sales Department. Phone: 1-800-221-2647.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Dafina Books and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-6773-3

  eISBN-10: 0-7582-6773-8

  First Hardcover Printing: May 2003

  First Trade Paperback Printing: April 2004

  First Mass Market Paperback Printing: April 2006

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Printed in the United States of America

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To the love of my life, Gerald Jackson, Sr. and to my sons, Gerald Jackson, Jr. and Brandon Jackson.

  To Cindy Clay for letting me pick her brain on a subject where I have no experience—getting back into the dating scene.

  To my aunts, Jennie Bell Mercer and Josephine Cooper. Thanks for always being there for me.

  To my Heavenly Father. I’m everything I am because you love me.

  PART ONE

  It is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in men.

  —Psalms 118:8

  CHAPTER ONE

  Gabe

  Detroit, Michigan

  Gabriel Blackwell had a low tolerance level for women who constantly tripped on excess emotional baggage, and the one sitting across from him had bags packed so heavy he wondered how she was lugging them around.

  After listening to her moan, weep and groan for the past hour, he’d just about had it. There were only so many burdens a mortal man could take from a woman who refused to see the light of day because her lover of the past two years had made one mistake too many.

  He lifted the wineglass to his lips and took a sip as he continued to listen to her whine. Since this was their first date, she was evidently clueless that this was not the way to go about establishing a new relationship with someone. When he’d picked her up for dinner, he’d been truly impressed since she definitely was a looker who had everything in all the right places. For once he had thought his mother, who’d harassed him into going out on this blind date, had finally done something right. It didn’t take long for him to change his mind and decide that instead, she’d definitely done something wrong. En route to the restaurant when a certain song by Luther Vandross began playing on the car’s radio, the woman had begun crying her eyes out over what she’d tearfully described to him as “painful memories.” Evidently the pain only got worse, because she’d been sobbing ever since. Several times he had offered to take her back home, but she’d refused, saying that at some point she had to get on with her life. And each time he’d come close to telling her that she was exhibiting a piss-poor job of doing so.

  He knew of very few men who needed or wanted the stress of getting involved with someone who couldn’t regain control of her emotions and let go. He’d found out the hard way three years ago that some women actually enjoyed bemoaning a lost cause. He had fancied himself in love with such a woman. After they had dated exclusively for ten months, she broke things off between them the moment her ex-lover returned to town and decided he wanted her back. The scars from that encounter had been slow to heal.

  “I guess I’m not making a good impression tonight with it being our first date and all, but I can’t help it,” the woman said, breaking into Gabe’s thoughts as she sniffed into the handkerchief he’d given to her earlier.

  When he didn’t say anything, she continued by saying, “I can’t believe I’m still upset over the fact that he left me. He was nothing but a total jerk anyway.” A few minutes later she added, “But still, after what we used to mean to each other, you’d think he would have the decency to at least return my phone calls.”

  Gabe lifted a brow, wondering if she really thought a jerk would actually do something decent. Then, belatedly, what she’d said caught his attention. “You’ve tried calling him?” he asked, more in astonishment than interest. She had spent the past hour telling him how she’d discovered the guy had hocked her jewelry to pay his gambling debts, as well as the fact that he’d been carrying on an illicit affair with a woman in the office where he worked. As far as Gabe was concerned, the man had two strikes against him. She was definitely better off without him and had said so herself several times during the course of the evening. Yet in the same breath, she’d just admitted that she’d tried contacting him. Gabe determined she was a glutton for punishment and was taking obsessive love to an all-new high … or in his opinion, a very disgusting low.

  “Yes, I’ve been trying to reach him for the past two days, ever since I found out about my condition,” she finally answered as fresh tears appeared in her eyes.

  Gabe inhaled sharply, almost choking on the wine he’d just sipped. He cleared his throat and shifted uneasily in his chair, then inquired as calmly as he could, “Your condition?”

  Red, swollen, tear-soaked eyes met his gaze. She again put his handkerchief to use as she sobbingly replied, “I’m pregnant.”

  The next day

  Joella Blackwell looked at her son and said calmly, “The situation you described doesn’t sound like a major crisis to me, Gabriel.”

  Gabe shook his head in disbelief, clearly stunned. After a brief moment of recovery, he was almost certain he had misunderstood his mother’s response, so he decided to tell her again.

  “I said the woman who you talked me into taking out last night announced over dinner that she’s pregnant.”

  And just in case his mother still didn’t get it, he clarified by saying, “She’s g
oing to have a baby, and before you give me an all-accusing stare, just remember that last night was our first date and under the circumstances it was definitely our last.”

  Joella Blackwell raised a dark brow as she continued the task of setting the table for dinner. Christopher Chandler, Gabe’s best friend and business partner, whom she considered her surrogate son, and his wife and their ten-month-old son would be coming, and she looked forward to seeing them. She was pleased that at least one of her sons had finally put aside his whoring ways to marry and start a family.

  “I know what being pregnant means, Gabriel. All I’m saying is that at least she was honest and up front with you. So the way I see it, to decide you won’t be seeing her again is acting rather hasty. I would think you could put the issue of her pregnancy behind you and move on.”

  Gabe leaned in the doorway that separated the kitchen from the dining room, wondering if his mother actually thought such a thing was possible. But then, he knew she really did. Everyone who knew Joella Blackwell was well aware that she had a soft, loving and forgiving heart. She was a good Christian woman who saw good in everyone and believed a positive spin could be derived from any negative situation. In this case, she was dead wrong. “You’re expecting too much if you assume I’ll consider asking her out again,” he finally said.

  Joella Blackwell shrugged. “I see no reason why you shouldn’t. Being pregnant is not the end of the world. Men date pregnant women all the time.”

  Gabe frowned. “Yeah, and usually when they do it’s because they have a vested interest, like being the father of that child. Don’t you see the problems that can develop if I become involved with Keri Morton?”

  “No, I don’t see the problems since she’s made you aware of her condition. It’s not as if she’s trying to pass the child off as yours. I think you’re being too judgmental. Your name may be Gabriel, but you’re far from being an angel yourself.”

  Gabe shook his head. “I happen to like children, no matter whose they are, but there’s a lot more to it than the pregnancy issue. She’s still hung up on her baby’s father.”

  “She actually told you that?”

  “She didn’t have to. She talked about him enough over dinner for me to tell, and I refuse to get involved again with a woman carrying around excess emotional baggage. And trust me, Keri Morton is up to her ying-ying in it. I’m not interested in dating a woman with issues.”

  Joella Blackwell didn’t say anything for the longest moment. She remembered how a few years back Gabe had fallen in love; a woman he had practically offered everything—his time, his money and most important, his heart. The day before he was going to ask her to marry him, she broke off things between them to get back together with her old boyfriend and had even had the gall to send Gabe an invitation to their wedding. Since that fateful time, he had refused to date women who he thought had personal problems they couldn’t let go of. What she’d tried to get him to see was that everyone had some sort of issues. No one lived a completely carefree life.

  “There’s no such thing as a perfect woman, Gabriel.”

  Gabe met his mother’s gaze. “I’m not looking for one, but any relationship I get seriously involved in again has to be uncomplicated and straightforward.”

  Joella shook her head. “I hate to disappoint you, but there’s nothing uncomplicated or straightforward about any woman. God made us unique and he gave us emotions and I do thank him for that. Otherwise, this world would have ended long ago if it was left up to a man. Your gender on occasion has shown to be rather heartless. And heaven forbid if anything has to be done. Men take forever to do nothing. Women are known not to beat around the bush. And we are a nurturing breed. We’re sensitive, understanding, and luckily for the male, we’re also compassionate. That’s the reason we can’t let go of things as easily as a man. Then there are some of us who can’t seem to let go at all. They’re the ones in need of more personal growth and healing, along with tender, loving care. But in due time they’ll learn there is life after a love that’s ended.”

  Gabe heard everything his mother said, but still he felt women like Keri were the ones to watch out for and avoid. As far as he was concerned, the best way to handle those types of women was to put concrete and solid rules into place. And his number one rule was to not become involved with a woman who obviously sweated the small stuff and who refused to let go and move on.

  “Is it wrong for me to want a woman who’ll complement me in every way?” he finally asked. “A woman who I’ll consider as my soul mate, my perfect fit? Until that time comes, I have no intention of getting seriously involved with anyone with issues.”

  “And what if you fall in love with her first?”

  Gabe frowned. “Trust me, that won’t happen. I may not be an angel, but neither am I a fool. I’ve learned from past mistakes.” He then turned and walked away.

  Joella watched her son leave and shook her head sadly. She wondered when it would occur to him that in addition to not being an angel or a fool, he lived in a glass house and shouldn’t throw stones because it was quite obvious that he had issues of his own.

  Late that evening Gabe entered his apartment, went straight to the kitchen, grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and took a swig. His mother had been too busy lavishing her attention on her surrogate grandchild to remember to harass him any more that afternoon. But he wasn’t crazy enough to think she was through with him. With Christopher married that meant Gabe was now the recipient of all of her attention. As soon as she could, she would try playing matchmaker again.

  Walking down the hall to his bedroom, he smiled as his thoughts fell on his partner and best friend. Christopher had begun working for Gabe’s father’s construction company at eighteen. Omar Blackwell had taken the young, hard-working loner under his wings and become not only Christopher’s boss, but a mentor and father figure. The Blackwells had offered Christopher things he’d never had before, family ties, trust, respect and complete love.

  Gabe knew his parents considered Christopher their other son, and since the two boys were the same age, they had talked Christopher into furthering his education right along with Gabe. They both had graduated with MBAs at the top of their class. Christopher had a degree in Industrial Design, and Gabe had earned a degree in Structural Engineering. And when Omar Blackwell retired six years ago, signing ownership of the company over to Gabe and Christopher, they had taken it in a whole new direction, one that was now world known. The Regency Corporation had built numerous upscale shopping malls, industrial office parks and department stores all over the United States in the past five years. Their biggest contract to date was the Landmark Project, which involved building a multimillion-dollar ski resort near Anchorage, Alaska. Plans were to start on it by the first of the year.

  The fact that a deal of that magnitude had been awarded to a company owned by two African-American men had made headlines. He and Christopher had been featured in several newspapers and magazines, and had even made the covers of Black Enterprise and Ebony, as well as being the recent recipients of Black Enterprise’s prestigious Minority Businessmen of the Year Award a few months ago. At the age of thirty-two, they were the youngest individuals to receive such recognition.

  As Gabe began stripping off his clothes, he thought about his mother’s fixation with marrying him off. It was as if she was on some sort of mission. Unfortunately, it was one he was having no part of. He had tried placating her by dating a few of the single women from her church, but since it seemed the majority of them had issues that he refused to deal with, he continued to make his work the top priority in his life.

  Now that Christopher was a family man, their roles in the company had switched. Gabe did the majority of the traveling these days as well as working most of the international deals. Christopher was the one who stayed in the office and ran things on the home front, and the few times he did travel, he took his wife, Maxi, and the baby with him.

  Gabe sighed deeply. The new demands of t
he job had taken over his life. He didn’t have time to develop any sort of serious relationship with a woman other than a brief fling, which was just fine and dandy with him. Anything else took time and energy he couldn’t spare.

  Stepping into the shower, he couldn’t help but appreciate his on-going affair with Debbie Wells. Like him, she was a successful professional who preferred a sex-only relationship; no romance, no commitment—just raw physical contact and sexual release, which was an invigorating way to work off stress.

  Over the past three years, after his disaster with Lindsey Jefferson, he’d found that a nice unencumbered, noncommitted sort of relationship with a woman was what he needed. It definitely had its advantages. There wasn’t a chance you would fall in love, and neither party had expectations of anything turning serious. There was no room for jealousy or possessiveness or broken hearts. And best of all, you could walk away at any time without looking back. Debbie was great in bed, and like him, she played by the rules. He couldn’t ask for more, nor did he want to. He liked things just the way they were.

  He heard the doorbell the moment he’d stepped out of the shower and had begun drying off. Tucking the towel around his waist, he walked barefoot to the door. Glancing through the peephole, he smiled as he opened the door. It seemed his thoughts of Debbie had conjured her up on his doorstep.

  She entered his home after placing a chaste brush of her lips across his cheek. He closed the door behind her. “How was your trip?” he asked, knowing she had been out of town on business for the past week.

  “Atlanta was fun as usual,” she replied, tracing a polished fingertip along his earlobe. “I know this visit is rather unexpected, but I hope you’re in a position to help me out with something.”

  Her voice was low and seductive, and he liked that. “Something like what?” he prompted, although he had a fairly good idea. He watched her eyes grow dark and sensuous which caused a deep stirring in his body.