Admission of Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

right . . . Chloe. I haven’t seen or spoken to you since that night. You’ve done so well at avoiding all my advances until finally I stopped trying. You never gave me the chance to explain —”
    “Explain what, Calvin?” she hissed.  Her eyes glistened with anger as she stared him down, her usually beautiful mouth now a thin line. “Explain why you were banging the hell out of Yvette in the bed we shared together? Explain why I heard the man I thought loved me, telling another woman ‘I love you’ and ‘You’re the best piece of —’”
    “Chloe.” He cut her words off before she could finish. “Now is not the time nor the place.”
    She laughed bitterly and quelled the desire to slap his handsome and arrogant face. “You’re right. Now is not the time nor the place. I don’t think there will ever be that time or police. Just leave me the hell alone! Understand?”
    Chloe stood abruptly from the chair, almost knocking it to the floor. She stormed away from him, not waiting for an answer to the question and thus out of earshot as he said, “I will get you back, Cat. I swear it.”
    Chloe hated the way that seeing Calvin disturbed her. His sudden appearance into her life should’ve meant nothing to her, but here she was clearly shaking.
    What the hell is he doing here anyway ?
    She quickly crossed the room, putting space between herself and him. Olivia walked up to her dressed in a sharp black Donna Karan tuxedo styled suit and diamond jewelry. “Chloe… are you okay? It’s time to make your speech.”
    A vision of Calvin’s face flashed in her mind and Chloe visibly winced. Stay cool, Chloe , she told herself. Remember what Mama always said. One fool don’t stop no show and life does go on.
    She took a deep breath to clear her head and gave Olivia her million-dollar smile: coy, alive, innocent yet sexy, and false. “I’m fine.”
    “What are you going to do with yourself?” Olivia asked, finally resigned to the fact that her jewel was lost.
    Chloe thought of the tales her mother told and she was called instantly. She envisioned miles and miles of flowers, fresh air, peace and quiet, with only the sun and the moon as her immediate neighbors. “I’m going home.”

 
    Chapter Two
     
    Holtsville, South Carolina (one year later )
     
    The early morning was quiet and the sun was not set to rise for another thirty minutes at six A.M. Devon Jamison stepped down off the sprawling circular porch of the house and crossed the short distance to the renovated barn that now housed the offices for Jamison Contractors Inc. He entered the one-level wooden structure and began the morning ritual of turning on all the fluorescent track lights, pouring ground beans in the coffeemaker and checking the answering machine for any messages left after business hours.
    Jamison Contractors was the pride and joy of Devon and his identical twin brother Deshawn. They built solid homes, and their reputation was one of excellence, even beyond South Carolina. Who knew that what they did as chores for their father growing up would become their craft?
    They were skilled at their work and had brought growth to the small carpentry company their father had operated. Now their jobs ranged from building and installing woodwork and cabinets to room additions and homebuilding. The combination of their architectural degrees from North Carolina State and the natural skilled acquired from their father made them the best at what they did. He knew his parents were proud of their sons’ work and smiled down at them from where they surely rested in heaven together.
    Devon glanced over at the large wood-framed photograph of his parents that hung on the wall of the office. God, he missed them, something he had never said aloud but felt deeply just same. Their deaths had affected him more than he ever let on. First he lost his father to prostate cancer and then just a few short years later his mother joined the man she loved in death as she