Free If I'd Only Known (Milan Women Series Book 1) by C.A. Johnson Page A

housekeeper, and she declared
she spoke no English so when she spoke all Perri managed to understand was the
word ‘gone’ and since she wasn't versed in Spanish, it was pointless to
question her of Barrington's whereabouts, or if he'd even left word for her.
Besides that, Perri didn't much care for the way she was looking at her, like
she was intruding on her domain or something. She was a very beautiful woman
with stunning eyes the color of emerald green. Bet he was sleeping
with her, too , she thought bitterly.
    Perri
was embarrassed and didn't know how to respond, so needless to say, she
high-tailed it out of there with as much dignity and grace as she could fathom
in that given predicament. If the truth were told, by the time Journey arrived there
to pick her up she barely made it out Barrington's front door with her pride still
intact. As for her heart, well, she wouldn't even discuss that. It was
pointless considering it lay crumpled on Barrington's bedroom floor where she
left it after dressing in a hurry to escape him once and for all. She hoped.
Perri knew Barrington Rashaad Knight was not an easy man to forget. She was
going to need time, and plenty of it.
    He
could have at least been a man and told her to her face it was over, that she
meant nothing but another notch in his experienced bedpost. Instead,
he'd chosen to be a coward, tuck tail and run before she even woke up.
    “How
could you, Barrington? How could you?”
    “I
hate you, Barrington . . . I hate you.”
    “Oh
God, oh God . . . . Why?”
    I
love you, Perri , Barrington's lie echoed in her head. So
much for true confessions , she thought bitterly.
    “I
love you, Barrington.” Perri closed her eyes tight, hoping to squeeze out the
pain of loving and losing what she deemed her first love. “But you didn't love
me back.” She shook her head. “Not really. You didn't love me back! God,
Barrington . . . why don't you love me, too?” her voice cracked and she knew
she was done. Perri thought she'd choke and honestly wanted to, as she
collapsed on the floor, giving way to the flood of tears that seemed to have no
end in sight.

Chapter Five
     
    One
Year Later
     
    Man,
did Perri really hate it when the brothers from Blue-Eyed Soul came home. Most
times she was on guard because having heard it through the grapevine she could
prepare beforehand; but then there were those all too frequent times when she
wouldn’t know they’d come home until actually seeing one of them out somewhere
and, it was a pretty safe bet that if one of them was there the other was not
far behind. And guess which one she happened to see out today? Yes, that’s
right, the one she truly did not want to see and, for the past twelve
months, went out of her way doing almost anything imaginable just to avoid an accidental run in with at all cost. But fate just was not on Perri’s side today and it
seemed that destiny was bound and determined to have her own way whether she
liked the outcome or not—and she definitely did not like the way it seemed to
be going down thus far.
    “Is
he gone yet?” Perri asked, trying her level best to keep Imani content, at
least until they were in a relatively safety zone. It was her feeding time and
since Perri had her daughter on a set schedule, Imani was none too happy her
mother hadn’t started nursing her yet; and Perri was feeling bad because she
knew Imani was hungry and here she was trying to avoid what seemed to be the
inevitable.
    Journey
overtly glanced in the opposite direction and back to the clothes rack she was
pretending to browse through. “Not yet,” she discreetly whispered.
    Perri
rolled her eyes irritated that she was being inconvenienced to such a ridiculous
degree. “What is he doing, buying out the store? No, wait, let me guess; he’s
probably trying to holler at some hoochies or something of that nature. Am I
right?”
    Journey
giggled and answered with a question. “Would it bother you if he were?
    “Yeah,
right,