Page 60 of Worth the Trip

Another message appeared.

Nyla:

Have fun, Noli. And let that man be nice to you without turning it into a debt.

That one stayed on the screen longer.

Nyla could aggravate the natural life out of me, but being my twin meant she knew exactly which joke could be left as a joke and which truth needed to arrive underneath one.

I locked my phone without checking anything else.

The doorbell rang at exactly one thirty.

Punctual.

Smart man.

The card-game aunties went silent downstairs for one expectant second before Miss Corrine shouted, “Nolani, your football coach here!”

I closed my eyes.

Nana laughed from the foyer. “Come on down, baby. Bring them rejected outfits too. We taking a vote.”

“I’m leaving all of y’all.”

“No, you ain’t!” Miss Corrine called.

I drew one steady breath and headed downstairs under the full weight of five women’s curiosity.

Landon stood just inside the foyer with a small cedar garden box tucked beneath one arm and a white bakery box tied with green ribbon in his other hand.

And Lord.

The man had apparently decided Sunday deserved effort.

Cream linen trousers rested low and clean against his waist beneath a deep green short-sleeved button-down left open enough at the collar for a thin gold chain to rest against his chest. Dark ink climbed one side of his neck and disappeared beneath his sleeve. More tattoos covered part of his forearm beneath a gold watch, and his locs had been gathered high with enough left loose to fall toward one side of his face.

His beard looked disrespectfully precise.

Diamond studs flashed at both ears.

The overall effect sat somewhere between somebody’s distinguished professor and the man your mother warned you not to let smile at you too long.

Landon didn’t merely look polished.

He looked like the polish knew better than to remove the hood from him.

That man was fine as hell.

His attention found me before I reached the bottom stair.

The look that followed was slow enough to answer every question I’d asked the mirror upstairs.

“There go Hershey.”

Miss Corrine hummed behind Nana. “He said that like he been waiting all day.”

“Been waiting on her,” Landon said without taking his eyes off me.