Once You'Ve Touched the Heart (16 page)
Read Once You'Ve Touched the Heart Online
Authors: Iris Bolling
JD looked down and held his head back up as Al was talking.
“You’re not good at bullshit, Harrison. You’re a straight shooter. What gives, man? What’s got you so nervous?” Al laughed.
“You’re right.” JD smiled. “I need to talk to you about Tracy.”
Al sat up and asked, “What about Tracy? Is she all right?”
“Yes, Tracy’s fine,” JD replied with a broad smile.
“She’s all right?” Al said watching JD closely, wanting some reassurance.
“Believe me, she’s fine.”
Al noticed JD’s tone and change in facial expression when he talked about Tracy.
“I, um, wanted to tell you in person I’ve been seeing Tracy,” JD said, looking closely at Al.
“All right, so what’s the problem?” Al asked, not quite sure where JD was going.
JD stood up. He was pretty sure Al did not get his meaning. “Al, Tracy and I have been seeing a lot of each other and to be honest, I’m in love with her, I think.”
The casual atmosphere changed immediately and tension filled the air. Al abruptly stood up. “You’ve been fucking my sister, Harrison?” Al yelled.
Okay, now he understands,
JD said to himself as he watched Al approach him aggressively. JD stood his ground. “No, but make no mistake; it’s going there,” JD yelled back just as forcefully.
“I trusted you with my sister and you take advantage of her. Then you got the nerve to come in here and tell me about it. Man, have you lost your damn mind?” Al yelled.
Trying to keep things calm, JD stepped back and took a deep breath. He put his hands in his pockets. “Yes, Al, I have, and it was your damn sister who took it.”
Al stood there and stared; JD’s response took him off guard. Al paced a little, and then stopped. He started walking on the opposite side of the room from JD. Al needed to think for a minute.
Well, he did tell JD not to let any knuckleheads mess with her
. He stopped and stared at JD.
He was a good guy, clean cut, good family and an honest man. If he really loved her, he would protect her with his life.
He stopped again and looked at JD. “What happened with the senator’s daughter?”
“I had to let that go before I started anything with Tracy,” JD replied as he watched Al’s thinking process.
Al looked at him.
That was decent
, he thought.
JD continued. “I did not set out for this to happen. But to be honest, man, it happened years before I even met you. I didn’t want this to go any further until I had a chance to talk to you about it. But know this, Al, I don’t care if you agree or not, I am going to be with her. I’m only here because Tracy loves you. That makes your reaction important to me.”
This is a bold motherfucker standing here
, Al thought. He liked that. “You do know I can have your ass killed, even from in here.”
“I realize that. But it won’t change anything. I would still love her and she would still love me,” JD replied. “Either way, I’m here; do what you got to do, but I can’t let her go again, not now.”
Al sat down at the other end of the table. “Do you realize what position this will put you in? You’re a fucking DA, involved with the sister of a convicted criminal. Man, if that shit gets out, your professional career is gone.”
“That’s possible.” Both men were talking calmly now. “Al, I’m damn good at what I do.”
“Shit, you ain’t got to tell me,” Al said, “I’m in here.”
JD leaned against the back of the chair. “If they want to let me go because of my relationship with Tracy, then so be it. I will offer to walk if this becomes an issue. But there’s another angle that concerns me.”
“What’s that?”
“If this gets to your people, they may think you are working with me. That could cause problems for you.”
“You mean when, and that’s if they don’t already know,” Al said. He shook his head. “It might cause an infraction or two, but nothing I can’t handle. Does Tracy know you are here?”
“No,” JD replied.
“How do you think she will feel about you jeopardizing your career for her?”
“She would not be very happy with it,” JD responded.
“Tracy is not stupid. She has thought this through, Harrison. She usually see things a little clearer than the average person. Don’t try to keep her out of the loop. Talk this over with her. If she tells me she wants to be with you, then I’m all right with it. But JD, let me warn you, if you hurt my little sister, DA or not, I will kill you.”
T
he Special Services agency luncheon, which was catered by TNT Event Planning, was managed with a ease and flair. Tracy was very proud of the professional manner with which Cynthia and Rosaline handled the event. James was very pleased with the outcome. Ashley and Tracy were able to pull the employees into the scheme of things, and James added his own personal touch. He sat down and spent time talking to as many employees as he could, discussing his plans for the agency. Some employees felt comfortable enough to discuss some of their individual issues.
The employees were pleased James took the time to talk with them. Unfortunately, some things came out about upper management he would have to address immediately. James and Tracy arranged to meet later to discuss a strategy on how to deal with the major issues. To make the event as appealing as possible, invitations had been extended to family members.
“Ashley Harrison, you look better than you did in college.”
Ashley froze. She did not need to turn around to know who was there. She continued to put her papers away. “Hello, David,” she responded.
“What, I don’t get any love here?” he said with his arms spread open.
Ashley turned around to face him. “Isn’t that your wife over there?” she asked curiously.
He put his arms down. “Ashley, we are just two old friends saying hello. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Ashley knew this man meant her no good. If he could, he would take her right there in the room with his wife watching. “We’re not old friends, David. And yes, I think there is something wrong with that. I’m sure your wife would agree.”
Ashley cleared her throat to catch Tracy’s attention. Tracy looked over James’s shoulder and saw the expression on Ashley’s face and the object of her discomfort. Tracy sighed.
“What is it?” James asked as he followed Tracy’s attention path.
“I’m sorry, James, excuse me.”
A little concerned with the expression on Tracy’s face, James said, “No, I’ll go with you.”
As they approached it was apparent Ashley was uncomfortable talking with David. James did not like talking to the man or being in his presence for any amount of time. He went to Ashley, put his hand possessively on her shoulder and extended the other. “Hello, David. How have you been?”
“Brooks,” David said, “I’m doing well.”
“David,” Tracy sourly spoke.
“Tracy Washington, how in the hell are you?” He looked her up and down. “You are looking good these days.”
“Thank you,” she said, but her words were tinged with disdain.
“I should have known if one was here the other was not far away.”
“It’s a good thing we are like that.” Tracy smirked.
“That was a great presentation you two gave,” Karen Holt said as she stepped beside her husband.
“Yes, it was,” James agreed looking down at Ashley. “You two gave us that jolt we needed. Ashley, may I speak with you a moment?”
“Sure,” she said with a smile. “Excuse us.”
“I just need to go to my office for a moment. I’ll be right back,” she said and walked away.
David looked at Tracy. “Damn, girl, if I had known you were going to turn out looking this fine, I would have hit that back in the day.”
Tracy smirked. “You may have tried, like you did with everyone else. But you would not have made it; not man enough for me.” She turned and walked away.
“Ashley, are you okay?” James asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied with a wry smile. “James, I am truly sorry this happened here. I had no idea David was Karen’s husband.”
James shook his head. “It’s not an issue, Ashley. Please let it go.”
“Well, thank you for the rescue.”
David watched the exchange between Ashley and James.
Hmm, we will talk again, Ashley
.
“You ready, babe?” Karen asked as she walked up behind David.
“Yeah, I’m ready. What was all the hoopla about today?”
“James had the efficiency experts do a presentation for the employees,” Karen answered.
“How did they do?”
“Great, those two are really good.”
“Yes, they are,” he said as he looked back at Ashley. “It’s good to see some HU girls did learn something.”
Ashley walked away once David and Karen left the room. She was embarrassed about the scene.
“Is she going to be okay?” James asked Tracy.
“Yes,” Tracy replied. “That was a really bad situation, James. Thank you for stepping in.”
“It was no trouble.” He looked at Ashley. “She’s not as tough as she puts on, hmm?”
Tracy smiled. “No, she’s not. But she does put up a good front.”
Not knowing what the issue really was, James did not say anything more. But he had become very fond of both of the ladies from Next Level Consulting and, hence, very protective. “If he becomes an issue, be sure to let me know.”
Tracy looked at her watch. “It’s still a little early. Would you like to meet at my office around three to go over some of those issues you mentioned?”
“If you have the time that would be great. I’ll bring Angela along. I want her to hear some of these accusations.”
“All right,” Tracy replied. “I’ll see you at the office.”
Tracy went to help Ashley pack up. She pushed Ashley with her shoulder. “The asshole still looks good,” she joked.
Ashley started laughing. “He did look good.”
“Look, Ashley.” Tracy pointed to Cynthia approaching James.
“Oh, no.” Ashley laughed. “We need to help James.”
“You know, I think Cynthia may have met her match with James.”
Ashley shook her head. “You’re right. Cynthia couldn’t get or hold a man like James.”
Tracy looked at Ashley. “Is there something you’re not telling me about James?”
“No. Is there something you are not telling me about James?”
Tracy smiled brightly. “Not about James.”
Ashley looked sideways at Tracy. “What you talking about, Tracy?”
Tracy laughed. “We’ll talk later.”
♥
Tracy, Ashley, James and his human resource manager, Angela, were going over several issues raised by employees at the event when JD walked through the door. “Hello, Monica, is Tracy busy?”
Hearing Jeffrey’s voice, Tracy smiled. “Excuse me for a moment.”
Seeing the smile on Tracy’s face, Ashley raised an eyebrow as she walked by. Ashley stood in the doorway of the office and watched as JD and Tracy approached each other. When they met, JD grabbed her hands and looked down into her eyes. “Hello.”
“Hi.” Tracy smiled back. He then kissed her as if they had not seen each other for days.
Ashley smiled and said, “Excuse us” to James and closed the office door behind her. She stood there watching them, as did Monica. They both were enjoying the moment, as were JD and Tracy.
JD hesitantly broke away and just smiled into her eyes. “It’s been an interesting day. I just finished wrapping up a few things. So I thought I would stop to say hello before I went home.”
Tracy smiled back. “Would you like to say hello again?”
He smiled and kissed her again. This time he put her hands around his waist and his around her shoulders and gave her a long, hard sensuous kiss that made Monica exclaim, “Damn.”
Ashley cleared her throat. “Excuse me, umm, Tracy, we have a meeting going on in here.”
JD pulled away, because Tracy wasn’t.
Sighing, Tracy said, “I’ve got to go back in.”
He kissed her softly on her lips, rubbed her upper arms, not really ready to let her go. “All right, call me when you are finished.”
“Okay.”
“Ash, Monica, I’ll talk to you guys later.” JD turned and walked out the door. Tracy watched every step until he was gone.
Monica looked at Tracy, then at Ashley, then back to Tracy. “You okay, Ms. Washington?” she smiled.
“No, Monica, I’m not, I can’t breathe right now.”
“Shit, me either.” Monica laughed.
“Tracy,” Ashley said, laughing, “we have people in your office. We need to get back to them. Okay. Breathe, Tracy, breathe.”
She did, several times.
“Better?” Ashley asked.
Tracy sighed heavily. “Yes.”
“Okay, no harm done. Let’s go back in now, and before you go anywhere tonight you’re going to tell me what you were doing until four o’clock in the morning.” Ashley opened the door and pushed her in before Tracy could object.
They wrapped up the meeting about 30 minutes later. Ashley was walking everyone to the door as James asked to speak to Tracy for a few minutes.
“Sure,” Tracy replied.
James closed the door after everyone left. He exhaled “Harrison? Do you know what you are doing, Tracy?”
Tracy looked at him and then down at her desk. “That’s a little personal,” she said.
“In case you haven’t noticed,” he replied, smiling, “I take things with you personally, Tracy. I am sure I shouldn’t, but that’s me.”
“James,” Tracy started.
He put his hand up to stop her. “Tracy, you are a special young woman. I respect and like you, probably more than I should. But with that said, please know this: I don’t want to see you hurt,” he said sincerely. “If you ever need me for any reason, all you need to do is call, any time.”
Tracy smiled and lowered her head. She liked James. Not the way she liked Jeffrey, but as a friend. Tracy had to talk to someone about what was happening and she felt she could trust him. “This is all new to me, James.” She smiled while putting her hands on her hips. “I don’t know where this is going. I’ll admit I’m scared to death.” She let out a nervous laugh. “This man is totally out of my league and I don’t have the slightest idea,” she hesitated, “why he wants me. All I can say is: I’m on board for the ride and just have to see where it takes me.”