Her Little Black Book Read online

  She scanned his face. “And you are a very handsome man.”

  Courtney could see that her compliment pleased him. It hadn’t been a hard one to make.

  From what he’d told her, he owned a limousine company that he claimed kept him pretty busy. He was an only child, and at thirty-five enjoyed a lot of outside sports, which was the reason he kept in great physical shape.

  Too bad she wasn’t one of those women who didn’t care if her man straddled the fence. Her parents’ mockery of a marriage had taught her to seek out the real thing when it came to love and relationships and to tolerate nothing less. To do otherwise was just plain ludicrous as far as she was concerned.

  That was the reason she wanted to call it an early night. Hanging around would be a waste of her time as well as his. Dinner had been nice, and they had enjoyed each other’s company, chitchatting about several things, but nothing of real importance.

  She knew she had to come up with an excuse to end the evening and was racking her brain, trying to come up with a pretext when his cell phone rang. A part of her was a little annoyed that he had kept his turned on when she’d turned hers off.

  After pulling the phone out his jacket, he quickly checked to see who was calling, then glanced over at her and said, “Excuse me, Courtney, I need to take this call.” He got up from the table and headed toward the men’s room.

  Now she was really irritated. To take her mind off that irritation, she looked around the restaurant. It was a nice place, real upscale. She’d been surprised when Don suggested it. The food had been excellent, the—

  “Excuse me, ma’am, Mr. Woods told me to let you know he had to leave.”

  Courtney blinked up at the waiter, a different man from the one who had served them earlier. “Excuse me?”

  “Mr. Woods, the man you were dining with, told me to convey his apologies, but an emergency came up and he had to leave.” The man cleared his throat when he added, “He also said that you would be the one to take care of both checks.”

  “What!”

  “That’s what he said.”

  Courtney breathed in deeply. In all her years, no man had ever stiffed her with a dinner check. The first thought that came to her mind was that Don Woods was an idiot to think she would cover the cost of his dinner as well as her own, but as she stared at the waiter, she knew he was expecting her to do just that. “Fine,” she said as calmly as she could. “Please bring me both checks.”

  When the man walked away, disappointment set in. Where on earth had Sonya found these men? Granted Harper and Don were handsome, but both of them had real issues.

  “Here you are, ma’am,” the waiter said when he returned. He was smiling, obviously relieved. She bet he hadn’t bought the story of Don’s sudden emergency any more than she had. Deciding not to stress over it any longer and to accept the fact that she had gotten screwed, she pulled the charge card out of her purse.

  Suddenly something clicked in Courtney’s mind. She looked up at the waiter and asked, “The other waiter who was serving us, what happened to him?”

  The man shrugged. “He also had to leave. An emergency came up for him, as well.”

  Courtney nodded. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions about anything but …

  She handed the waiter her charge card. She hoped her bad luck with the black book was a fluke and that the next name in it would be a whole lot better than the first two. He just had to be, or she would be tempted to toss that little black book right in the trash regardless of the promise she’d made to Sonya.

  Peggy glanced down at herself as she stepped off the elevator. The sun was shining brightly outside, and the drive in to work had been fantastic, especially since she had joined in with Sly and the Family Stone when her favorite song, “Everyday People,” came blaring on the radio.

  Her mother, Lola Phelps, had never intended for her two daughters, Peggy and Barbara, to be everyday people. Especially not after Disney arrived in the late sixties and decided they needed the tract of land—over four hundred acres—that had been in the Phelps family for years.

  Wanting a better life for her and her daughters, Lola hadn’t thought of not selling. After all, she was the last of the Phelpses, and there was no close living relative to offer advice on whether or not she was making a bad decision.

  So Lola had taken the money and basically ran, not away from Orlando but to a nice section of town where she had raised her daughters in grace and style and given them whatever she felt they would need to survive in what she saw as a harsh and oftentimes cruel world. She had educated them at some of the finest private schools, and had sent them to Atlanta to be educated at Spellman, letting them know from the jump that just a bachelor’s degree wouldn’t do. They would need graduate degrees. Then she had established trust funds for them, which meant that even after the last breath had left her body, they would be taken care of. And she had lived long enough to see the both of them married off to well-educated men.

  Peggy always admired her mother’s strength, her ability to handle just about anything in life—including men. And that is where, Peggy thought sadly, her mother had failed them. She had provided them the proper grace and breeding to carry themselves as ladies in the truest form, but Lola hadn’t educated her daughters on how to deal with doggish, no-good men. Men who didn’t believe in keeping their vows. Men who constantly thought with their pecker instead of their head. Men obsessed with sleeping with women more than half their age. Men who were just plain outright assholes. The exact men she and Barbara had married.

  At least she had gotten Joe out of her life and finally out of her system and had moved on. Barbara, for whatever reason, was still holding on to Ron. Peggy shook her head sadly, thinking about the conversation she’d had with her younger sister over dinner a week or so ago. Barbara actually thought that Ron was through screwing around on her, and that he was actually going to keep his pants zipped. He had promised her. On his mother’s grave. Yeah. Right.

  “Good morning, Ms. Morrison.”

  She smiled at Toni’s secretary. “Good morning, Sharon.”

  “How was the drive in to the office this morning?”

  “Funny you should ask,” Peggy said, grinning. “I was just thinking about how nice it was. Oh, I ran into the usual traffic snarls, but that was okay. The radio station I was listening to was belting out some of my favorites, songs I haven’t heard in years, so I decided to do a sing-along. It was wonderful.”

  “I’m glad, because Mr. Baker wants to know if your appointment with him could be moved up an hour. Something has come up, and he needs to fly out of Orlando sooner than he’d originally planned.”

  Peggy nodded. “Sure. How soon did he want us to meet?”

  A sheepish look came into Sharon’s eyes. “Umm, how about right now? He arrived unexpectedly, so I placed him in your office, thinking it would be better than having him wait in the lobby—especially when he said that he had a few private calls to make.”

  “Okay. Meeting him now won’t be a problem.”

  A few moments later she was walking down the long hallway to her office. When Toni had brought her back into the workforce a year ago, her best friend had done it in style by giving her a beautifully decorated office on the executive floor, overlooking a huge lake. Toni had claimed she needed her close by to be her sounding board when things got crazy in the office. She was yet to be used that way and always figured she wouldn’t be, since Toni was the most easygoing person she knew.

  The door to her office was slightly ajar, but as she got near, she could hear the distinct sound of a male voice. It had a deep, husky tone combined with a smoothed silken timbre. When she got to the door and looked inside, a man stood talking on his mobile phone, his profile to her. She was about to take a step back to give him privacy when suddenly he turned and saw her standing there.

  For some reason, her muscles suddenly went lax and her breathing became labored. Their eyes met, and it registered for her that Willie
Baker was a very handsome man. Tall, nicely built, he had a mature look, with a sprinkle of gray at his temples. His features were sharp, and the smile that settled on his lips at that moment was lethal. If he looked this good at fifty-nine, she could just imagine what a heartthrob he’d been at twenty-nine.

  Panic skidded up her spine. This was the first time she’d taken keen notice of a man’s attractiveness since her marriage to Joe. Even after the divorce, she had been too bitter to do anything but consider any man with a half-decent face nothing but trouble.

  “Peggy Morrison?”

  That sexy voice again made her blink, and she watched him put his cell phone in his jacket pocket before crossing the room to her, coming to a stop right in front of her, and smiling.

  “Yes, I’m Peggy Morrison.”

  He reached out his hand, gently took hers in no more than a business handshake, yet she felt the touch all the way to her toes. “Your secretary let me use your office. I hope you don’t mind.”

  She suddenly felt light-headed. Suddenly felt so unlike the disciplined person that she was. The one that she had become, thanks to Joe. “No, of course I don’t mind,” she quickly found her voice to say. “If you need me to leave and come back later, then I can—”

  “No, that’s not necessary.”

  “You sure?” she asked, thinking that maybe leaving and coming back wouldn’t be such a bad idea. A few moments alone were probably something she could use to screw her head back on straight.

  “I’m positive. But what I do need, before we get things started, is something to eat. I should have grabbed a bite before I left the hotel this morning but didn’t. Would you have something against us having a breakfast meeting?”

  “No, not at all, Mr. Baker.” She recalled Toni’s instructions to accommodate this man at all costs.

  “I prefer that you call me Willie, and I hope you’d be comfortable with my use of your first name, Ms. Morrison.”

  “Yes, and it’s Peggy.”

  “All right, Peggy, now are you sure you won’t mind us having a breakfast meeting?”

  A teasing glint in his eyes made her smile. “Yes, I’m sure. We have a number of restaurants in the area that you can choose from.”

  He nodded slowly and then said, “I’m a simple man who likes simple things. In fact, from your window I noticed my favorite breakfast restaurant.”

  She glanced over at her window and then back at him. “You did?”

  “Yes. Come let me point it out to you.”

  He led her over to the window, and when he pushed back the blinds and pointed to the golden arches, she couldn’t help but laugh. “I haven’t been to one of those in years.”

  His tawny brown eyes shone when he looked at her. She tried ignoring the none-too-subtle sexual pull inside her when he smiled.

  “Like I said, I’m a simple man.”

  Simple but rich, Peggy thought a short while later when they sat across the table from each other in the McDonald’s. Powerful but not overbearing. On the short car ride over, she quickly discovered he was unpretentious. What you saw was what you got. Willie Baker hadn’t been born with a silver spoon in his own mouth and appreciated his own humble beginnings. You couldn’t help but admire a man who thought like that. And then there was his bubbly personality, something else she hadn’t expected. He liked people, and acknowledging everyone’s presence with either a nod or a hello seemed to come natural to him.

  She glanced at his plate. He was a hearty eater, if the pancakes and sausages piled high were any indication. He’d also gotten a carton each of milk and orange juice. She had settled on a biscuit and coffee. The breakfast notwithstanding, he was also someone who believed in staying physically fit, if his body was anything to go by. He was tall, lean, and tight. She hadn’t seen an inch of flab anywhere. That said a lot for a man his age.

  “Whoever thinks McDonald’s is just for kids needs to think again,” he said, breaking into her thoughts. She inclined her head and met his gaze, and he continued talking. She was getting used to his smile, so when she saw the sadness that suddenly appeared in his eyes, she paid close attention to what he was saying.

  “Although I have to admit my granddaughter was the reason I first started coming and kept coming back. Nothing would put a smile on her face more quickly than walking into a McDonald’s,” he finished saying.

  Peggy figured the sudden poignant anecdote had to do with the granddaughter he’d lost three years ago. Toni had told her that the little girl had been born with a rare bone disease, which was one of the reasons Willie Baker was so involved in the Make Dreams Come True Foundation. It was his way of giving back and helping to make the life of a terminally ill child that much more rewarding.

  “Tell me about her.”

  The words were out of Peggy’s mouth before she realized she’d said them. Something within her that always recognized another’s pain was reaching out to him.

  Her gaze met his. Strong chin, gorgeous brown eyes set in a handsome and robust face that now displayed more than the faintest sign of sorrow, pain, and regret. She watched him place his eating utensils down, and the gaze staring back at her seemed to be considering and then decisive.

  He began speaking softly. “My granddaughter’s name was Tiara, and she was born on a beautiful day in May. Less than an hour after her birth, her parents—my daughter and son-in-law—and I were told the heart-wrenching news that she had a rare bone disease and would not live to see her fifth birthday”

  A smile touched the corners of Willie’s mouth before he continued, saying, “She lived to be ten. Beating the odds. But you’ll be surprised what a person can do when surrounded by so much love, and God knows that she was. To us, no matter her condition, Tiara was perfect, and our goal in life was to make her life—no matter how long it lasted—a very happy one.”

  He paused briefly before he went on to say, “We never considered her existence in our life anything other than a blessing and made sure that she knew it. Everything we did for her we did in love, even those mornings when the two of us would do breakfast at McDonald’s. Everyone got to know us, expected to see us. It was our time together, and a few of the staff who worked there even took it upon themselves to mark the place where we always sat as Tiara’s Corner. She liked that. She would smile for them. They would smile for her. Then we lost her, and for a while it seemed like there was a void in all our lives that could never be filled again.”

  Peggy knew the feeling. After the breakup of her marriage, for the longest time she had felt her life tumbling out of control and she with it. She cringed at the thought of what she had put her only daughter through during that time. But then she had finally awakened one morning and made the decision to pull herself together, or else she would truly lose her mind. No man was worth that. All that misery was taking place in her life about the same time that somewhere a sweet little girl was losing her life. And to think that at the time Peggy had thought she was the only one on the face of the earth having troubles.

  “How are your daughter and son-in-law doing? How are you doing?” she asked, not being able to imagine ever losing Sonya at any age.

  Willie’s mouth eased into a sparkling smile. “They’re doing fine. We’re all doing fine. And last year they did something I really thought they would never get the courage to do, considering everything, and that was to have another baby. Now I have a nine-month-old grandson named David.”

  Peggy studied the contents of her coffee cup a minute before lifting her head and asking softly, “Is he okay?”

  Willie knew what she was asking and nodded cheerfully. “Yes, he was born in perfect health.”

  She smiled. “I’m glad.”

  “So am I.”

  They resumed eating their breakfast. In the back of her mind, she realized they had yet to discuss anything relating to business, but that fact didn’t bother her. Nor did it bother her that she found a lot of pleasure being here with him. She could tell he was a man who would value an
ything he possessed. A man who could be trusted and who loved fiercely. She would bet anything that while his wife was alive he’d treated her like a queen, their daughter like a princess, and that the granddaughter he’d lost had taken a part of his heart with her when she died. That sort of man could cultivate only her admiration and respect.

  Moments later he pushed his tray aside, chuckled, and said. “Now that my stomach is full, we can talk business.” He leaned back in his chair. “So Peggy, tell me why you think that I should put that amusement park here in Orlando instead of Atlanta.”

  9

  “This is going to be your lucky night, beautiful one.”

  Courtney rolled her eyes, not caring if Solomon Wise saw her doing so. There was only one word she could use to describe the latest name she had pulled from her little black book: annoying.

  She’d decided to give the book one more try and made the initial contact with Solomon by phone a few nights ago, immediately nuking his suggestion of dinner, especially after her last two fiascos with Harper and Don. She’d decided to play it safe and came up with the idea that they meet at the movies instead.

  When she’d first seen him, she had not been disappointed—he was definitely a good-looking brotha. But so were the other two. The one thing she had learned—and rather quickly—was that looks could definitely be deceiving. It was to her benefit to check out the entire package.

  By the time the movie had begun, she learned something very quickly about Solomon: Not only did he think he was the wisest of men where women were concerned, but he also believed that he was the greatest gift to them.

  And for some reason, he was also convinced that tonight was going to end with them sharing a bed. The way he saw it, it was obvious the two of them connected, so why waste good bedsheets? Besides, what woman in her right mind would pass up a chance to sample the Solomon Wise experience? The only thing she had to say to that was, undoubtedly she would be the first.

  “So, are you sure you want to see the rest of this movie? I can think of a number of other things we could be doing right now,” he leaned over and whispered close to her ear.