Curves in the Road (The Southern Devotion Series Book 2) by Amy K. Mcclung

because I missed your voice too. That's not true; I called because I miss everything about you."  These words made my heart soar. I wanted to wrap my arms around her for saying it. That need is hindered due to a few hundred miles between us.
    "I miss you too, sweetheart." 
    "Can you take a few days off work and come see me this weekend? I'll meet you half way, maybe even as far as Atlanta?  I have this weekend off and I'd love to spend it with you, if you can manage it."
    As soon as she finished speaking I answered, "Absolutely. Tell me when and where." Well that didn’t make me seem desperate at all. Then again, it didn’t matter if I seemed desperate; I craved this woman and needed to see her.
    "Oh…Great. I wasn’t sure you were going to want to come see me."
    "MJ, I meant what I said, I've missed you. Not just your voice. I've missed your beautiful face, your lips, and the feel of you in my arms." I stopped as I realized that I hadn’t asked if she meant to spend it as friends or more and now she was being very quiet. "Damn, MJ. Did you want me to come down as a friend only? I didn’t mean to push for anything else."
    She laughed and I relaxed as she said, "I want you Derrick. Not as a friend. I want to be in your arms again and I want to kiss you and…other things."
    Her voice lowered into a sexy whisper when she said other things and it made me want her right then and there. "Oh," was all I could manage at this moment. She responded with a laugh and I closed my eyes as I ached for her. "MJ, I gotta get off here."
    She purred and said, "I was hoping you'd wait for me."
    "Shit, MJ. You're killing me." I couldn’t believe this was the same shy girl I met a few months ago.
    "Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. You left that wide open for me."
    We made plans to meet up in Atlanta so that we could do some sightseeing and really enjoy our few days together. Gracie and Ashton agreed to keep Katelyn for me. Katelyn thought I was going on a trip for work because if she knew I was going to see MJ she'd want to come along.
    The week crept on as my anxiety for the weekend heightened. Midway through the week I went to pick up some supplies for my trip. I grabbed the normal toiletries and a few snacks for the road so that I could make as few stops as possible. Then as I was leaving an aisle my peripheral vision caught the display of condom packages. Did it seem presumptuous or responsible to grab a pack of these for the trip? I'm going to go with responsible, which is appropriate for me being a father as a teenager.
    "Derrick?" I heard Gracie's voice call out as I rounded the corner to the next aisle. "Are you stocking up on supplies for your trip?" She maintained a warm smile until her eyes skimmed over the condoms package. "Oh."
    "It's not what it looks like, Gracie." Well there's a cliché of a line that never really works out when it's used since it usually is exactly what it looks like.
    "It looks like you're buying a pack of condoms for your trip that you said was for business. What kind of business exactly?" She placed her hand on her hip for a moment then waved her hand in the air. "Forget it, I don't want to know. We'll see you and Katelyn in the morning."  It was easy to tell she was disappointed in me. I couldn't allow her to go on thinking I was betraying Mary Jane.
    "Gracie, wait." I yelled out. She turns around waiting for the reason I stopped her. I move my cart to her and say. "I've been lying to you, to Ash, to everyone about where I'm going and who I'm seeing."
    Gracie interjected before I got to my point. "It's not my business, Derrick. Do I wish you had worked things out with MJ? Yes, I do. You two were great together, but she told me that she told you to move on. If that's what you're doing than I know it's what MJ wanted for you."
    "Gracie, I'm doing this for Mary Jane." I said.
    Again she interrupted, "I get it, I do."
    "No, you don’t. When I say I'm doing this for Mary Jane, I mean the trip and all.