All You'll Ever Need Read Online Free Page A

step back. “Oh, so what, now you don’t have anything to say?”
    “You know what? You’re trippin’,” Donny sipped the amber-colored liquor in his glass. “I’m going to give you a pass since I can tell you’re feelin’ this girl. But don’t you ever,” he pointed his finger in Zack’s face, “step to me like that again. I’m tryin’ to help your ass and you gon’ trip like this? Zack, man, a few months ago you almost lost everything to that gold-diggin’ heifer, Leslie. You’re my boy. Do you think I want to see you go through that shit again? This Jenkins woman might not be like your ex, but I’m telling you man, she’s not what you think. She is high maintenance and probably everything else you said you didn’t want in a woman. You’re just not trying to see it.”
    Zack set his beer bottle on a nearby table and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his pants. He and Donny grew up together. Zack knew he had his best interest in mind, and he also knew that Jada wasn’t anything like Leslie — his gold-digging ex-fiancée.
    ***
    Jada held on tight to Christina’s arm and pulled her into the bridesmaid’s room. “You care to tell me what that was all about?” Christina asked rubbing her arm. “I have never seen you behave so egregious toward a man before, especially a pulchritudinous-looking man.”
    Jada rolled her eyes at her cousin’s constant use of words that no one knew the meaning of. She moved across the room and stopped to primp in front of a full-length mirror. “I didn’t behave egregaga … or whatever the heck you said.” She ran her fingers through her long curls and smoothed out her dress before turning to her cousin. “I walked away because you said Peyton needed us.”
    “Then why’d you drag me in here? We’re supposed to be in Toni’s room,” she glanced at her watch, “in five minutes.”
    Jada stared at her cousin wondering how much to tell her. Christina Jenkins, also known as CJ, was one of her best friends as well as her landlord. Jada had moved in with her a year ago, planning to stay only a few months until she saved enough money to buy a condominium. However, compulsive shopping prevented her from saving enough to get the place she’d been admiring in Hyde Park.
    “I think I’m losing my edge with men.” Jada dropped into a striped upholstered chair near a bookshelf. “This guy Zack is a friend of Craig’s and there is something about him that unnerves me.”
    Concern marred Christina’s face, and she pulled a nearby chair close to Jada. “What?” She brushed her out-of-control curls away from her face. “I can’t believe that any of Craig’s friends would be a jerk. He doesn’t—”
    “Oh, no, no, no. He doesn’t unnerve me in a negative way. It’s more like just looking at him makes me sweat. And you know I don’t like to sweat. My heart rate kicks up, and my words get all jumbled, and when he’s close to me, I feel as if I’m hyperventilating.
    Christina sat back and folded her arms, a small smile tilting the corners of her lips. “Well, I’ll be. I can’t believe Your Highness is affected by a man.” She giggled. “I’ll admit he’s attractive, but you’ve gone out with plenty of gorgeous men. So what is it about this guy? Is it because he’s white?”
    She shook her head. “No, his race doesn’t matter.” The affect Zack had on her internally is what warranted concern. There was only one other man who had ever made her stomach churn in the way she had experienced tonight. Dion Greely . The only man she had ever loved and the only man who had ever ripped out her heart and crushed it into tiny, little pieces.
    Her thoughts skittered back to Zack. He might not be another Dion, but she couldn’t ignore how being in his presence shook her to the core. Those twin dimples … those eyes. His list of attributes were so long she didn’t know if it was just one thing that made her a bumbling fool whenever he was near