Page 51 of Buy Back My Love

“He stood by me the whole time I was inside. He made sure I had money. He came to see me. He answered every call. He didn’t just forget about me because I got locked up.”

I listened without interrupting her.

“And he changed,” she continued. “He left all that street shit alone. He owns a trucking company now. When I came home, he already had my place ready for me. He bought me a car, gave me money, made sure I had everything I needed. He’s good to me.”

The more she talked, the more I realized I didn’t know enough about them to be telling her how she should feel.

“I’ve been with him since I was fourteen years old, Van,” she said. “He’s the only man I’ve ever truly known. I’ve never even been with another man. So don’t sit across this table acting like you understand what we built.”

That shut me up. I hadn’t realized they went back that far. I knew she had a man, and now I knew she’d done five years protecting him, but being with somebody since fourteen was different. They had damn near grown up together. There was a whole history between them I knew nothing about.

“You right,” I said after a second. “I don’t understand it.”

She looked away from me.

“And I shouldn’t have acted like I did,” I added. “I’m sorry.”

Leona didn’t answer, but some of the tension left her shoulders.

I picked up my glass and took a drink, mostly to give her a minute. Lunch had gone from us laughing over her refusing to use chopsticks to me getting all in her business when I hadn’t known the woman two weeks. Not exactly my best work.

Neither one of us said much after that. Leona moved some rice around her plate without eating it, and I knew better than to try forcing the conversation back to where it had been. When the waitress passed our table again, I asked for the check and two boxes.

As soon as she brought the check, Leona reached for her purse.

“I got it,” I told her.

She looked at me. “I was supposed to be buying your lunch.”

“I know.”

“Then give me the check.”

I slid my card onto the tray before she could get hers out. “I never planned on letting you pay.”

Her eyebrows pulled together. “Then why you asked me to lunch?”

“Because I needed an excuse.”

She stopped digging through her purse and looked at me. “An excuse for what?”

“To get to know you.”

Leona let out a dry little laugh and shook her head. “I bet you regretting that shit now.”

“Nah,” I said.

She looked up at me.

“I hate that happened to you,” I told her. “And I probably should’ve kept some of my opinions to myself, but I don’t regret getting to know you.”

She stared down at the table for a few seconds. “Van, you don’t even know me.”

“Not yet.”

Her eyes came back to mine.

I smiled a little. “I know you got knocked down by my dog and still rubbed his head afterward. I know you made that empty-ass house look good as hell. And I know you just told me the truth when you could’ve lied.”