Page 38 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

His lips were curved at the corners as he nodded at my facedown phone.

“Who was that?”

“Oh, that’s just Jackie.”

“Just Jackie, huh?”

His inquiry made me laugh.

“Yes, Daddy. Just Jackie. I met her a couple of weeks ago when a group of us went out to Fred Pierce’s club downtown.”

“Mmm.”

That was all he said before he returned his attention to the knobs and dials in front of us. That was my cue to drop it if I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Except, this was the perfect opportunity to discuss the phenomena that had been plaguing me about Jackie.

“Daddy?”

He slid his gaze my way. “Hmm?”

“Tell me if you’ve ever heard of anything like this before.” I proceeded to explain my auditory reaction whenever I heard Jackie’s laugh, watching his face carefully as I did so. His eyebrows shot up when I said her full laugh was equivalent to hearing nails on a chalkboard.

When I finished, I waited for him to process everything and tell me what he thought. I hadn’t told anyone about this, but I knew my daddy was the one person who could give me some insight on what the fuck was going on. Not only was he a musical genius, but he was the wisest person I knew. After a couple of minutes, he leaned back in his chair and shook his head.

“Star Shine, I know this might be disappointing, but I’ve never heard of that before. I’m curious about Just Jackie now.”

I busted out laughing. “Her name isn’t Just Jackie, Daddy. It’s just Jackie.”

“That’s what I said.” He lifted his eyebrows and shoulders simultaneously.

I shook my head. He was being silly. “No, Daddy. Her name is Jackie. That’s it. That’s all.”

“Ahhh.” He nodded his head sagely, which only served to make me laugh harder.

“Let’s get back to the music, old man.”

We finished up the track and moved on to another, but just when Hitta’s voice filled the room, my phone rang again.

“Come on, man,” I muttered, praying it wasn’t Jackie calling me back.

Eventually I was going to have to let her know that I wasn’t interested, and not just because I hated the sound of her voice. I just couldn’t get jiggy with the whole fandom thing she had going on. I knew plenty of artists and producers who thrived on that shit—hell, I was one of them before the Grammys came calling—but now that it was legit, I couldn’t vibe with it. To my surprise, it wasn’t Jackie who was banging my line this time around. Relief flooded my veins and I could feel the smile take over my face as I quickly swiped my thumb across the screen and lifted the phone to my face.

“Juleesa Marie.”

Her indignant squawk brought immediate laughter out of me. I was so fucking excited to hear from her that my chest was thumping.

“Why are you saying my government like that?!” she yelled.

My hand found its way to that spot between my breasts where my sternum sat and rubbed. “That’s your name, ain’t it?”

Jucee kissed her teeth. “One I only hear when I’m in trouble.” There was a moment of silence where I swear I could hear the wheels in her head spinning so damn clearly that I could’ve bet money on the next words that were going to come out of her mouth. “Am I in trouble, Poppa?”

I would’ve won the bet and still lost, because her tone had dipped a little past playful into the danger zone where I’d managed to avoid being for almost a full week and yet, just the lower timber had my mind thinking thoughts. Dark and nasty thoughts.

As if it had been beckoned, my tone dropped to join hers in the gutter. “Not unless you wanna be.”

Fuck.

I was so ready to meet her where she was at that my response had slipped out too fast for me to rethink it. But shit. Even if I’d been able to do just that, I might’ve still said it exactly as I had, because there was no more perfect response for what she’d said in the tone she’d said it in. My daddy didn’t turn to look at me, but I felt his awareness like a wool blanket draped on my shoulders during a nap.