“Is that him?” Sam Lipson’s voice came from the landing. “Blane? Son?”
The nurse wheeled him out of the elevator. Tink was about to follow when Heather put her hand on the girl’s arm.
“Let’s give him a minute,” Heather said. “They haven’t seen him this entire time.”
Tink looked into Heather’s eyes for a moment before nodding.
“Isn’t this hard for you?” Tink asked. “Don’t you want him for yourself?”
“I’m okay,” Heather said. “We’ll have time later.”
“If it was Charlie, I’d be mad that he didn’t say ‘Hello’ to me first,” Tink said.
She glanced at Heather, who shrugged.
“I’ve learned a lot about love in the last month,” Heather said. She smiled at Tink. “Okay, go ahead.”
Tink got off the elevator, and Heather followed. They stood outside the elevator, watching Blane’s friends, family, and coworkers welcome him back.
“Wow,” Tink said.
Heather smiled and nodded.
“Let’s find a quiet place to wait,” Heather said.
She didn’t get far before Lipson Construction’s head of estimating grabbed Mack. Jacob got Tink to introduce her to some of office staff she would work with this summer. Heather and the baby went to the bench in the corner. She hadn’t been there more than a minute before Jill joined her.
“This is amazing,” Jill said.
“Yes, it is,” Heather said.
The baby squirmed and gave a squawk.
“Ahh,” Jill said.
“He’s hungry.” Heather reached into her baby bag. “Would you like to feed him?”
“Can I?” Jill asked.
“Sure,” Heather said.
“I can. . .” Jill said. She gestured to her swollen breasts.
“If you’d like,” Heather said. “I brought bottles, too.”
“You don’t mind?” Jill asked. “My boys barely have time for this before they want to cause mischief.”
“I am grateful for all you do for us,” Heather said. “This is such a loving gift.”
Jill greedily took the baby. She unhooked her nursing bra. Heather dropped a blanket over Jill’s shoulder, and the baby began to nurse.
“You’ve changed a lot,” Jill said.
“I have?” Heather asked. Jill nodded. “I hope it’s for the better.”
“You’re less insecure, less fragile, more loving,” Jill said. “Between almost dying and becoming the living embodiment of love — it makes sense that you might be a little different.”
Heather smiled. They settled in to watch the party while the baby nursed.
~~~~~~~~
Monday afternoon — 3:17 p.m.
Denver, Colorado
“Hey!” Tanesha yelled as she ran into the house. “I forgot my lab shoes again!”
She jogged through the house and took the stairs two at a time. Grabbing her Dansko clogs, she stopped. Jeraine’s car was outside. He was supposed to be here.
“Jer?” Tanesha asked. She listened for his response. Hearing nothing, she scowled. “Jeraine?”
She checked the upstairs bathroom. He wasn’t there. Holding her lab shoes, she jogged downstairs and set the shoes on the bottom step.
“Jeraine?” she asked and listened.
Nothing. It had been months since Jeraine had zoned out. The last time was. . . She thought for a moment. The day they’d received the DNA analysis on Jabari. She’d found him. . . in his office. She trotted down the basement steps. The basement studio was dark and empty. The lights were on in Jeraine’s office. Jeraine’s chair was pushed back as if he’d left his office in a hurry. She shook her head.
Where was he?
She slowly went back up the stairs. It’s not that big of a house, she reasoned.
“Jeraine?” she asked at the top of the stairs.
Still nothing. She went through the living room and dining room in front of her. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the kitchen, either, or in the downstairs half-bathroom.
“Jeraine?” she asked as she opened the small bedroom downstairs.
He wasn’t there, either. She called his phone. It rang from the hall table, where it was hooked up to the charger. The back door was open to the storm door. She went out to the backyard. Jeraine was standing on their back deck. His eyes were vague. His right hand was rubbing his reading glasses with a cloth.
“Jer?” Tanesha touched his arm.
He looked up at her. His eyebrows dropped with concern.
“Miss T? What are you. . .” Jeraine looked around. His head tipped to the side. “Where am I?”
“On the back deck,” Tanesha said.
“Of our house?” Jeraine asked.
Tanesha nodded.
“In Denver?” Jeraine asked.
Tanesha nodded.
“When did we get grass and trees and. . .” He waved his hand toward their backyard. “Stuff?”
“Jake and his team put everything in last Saturday,” Tanesha said. “You told me about it when we were in New York.”
“I did?” Jeraine asked. “Truly?”
He shook his head. Tanesha guided him into the house.
“Oh, yes — this is our house,” Jeraine said. “I love it here. It’s so beautiful. So safe. And it. . .”
He took a deep breath through his nose.
“It smells like you.” He gave her a broad smile. “This is the best place in the whole world.”
“Do you have a headache?” Tanesha asked.
“My head? Why yes, it’s killing me,” Jeraine smiled at her. “Why is that?”
Tanesha shook her head. She picked up her cell phone and called Fin to tell him that she wouldn’t make it back to school. When she turned back, Jeraine’s eyes were vague again.
“Jer?” Tanesha asked. “You’re really scaring me.”
“Oh?” Jeraine asked. He scowled. “Aren’t you supposed to be in lab?”
“Yes, I am,” Tanesha said.
“Well, off you go!” Jeraine gave her a broad smile. She scowled at him. He looked confused and said, “What?”
“You’re acting very strange,” Tanesha said. “Are you high?”
“High?” Jeraine asked. He looked very surprised. For the first time, he seemed more himself. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m worried that you had a stroke,” Tanesha said.
“A stroke?” Jeraine asked.
She scowled at him. She checked his balance and eyesight. His speech seemed fine. She led him upstairs. He let her help him out of his clothing without even one comment about having sex. Clearly, his head was killing him. She gave him his pain pills and his migraine inhaler. She laid a wet washcloth on his head. He was asleep in a moment.
Shaking her head, she picked up his shirt, checked for stains, and dumped it into the laundry bag. She pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his pants. His front pockets held his keys and a few Post-its. She set the contents of his pants on the desk. Turning to hang up his pants, she realized what the Post-it read. She scowled and hung up his pants. She went back to the desk and picked up the Post-it.
“10 gigs US. 3 nights LA. 3 nights Chicago. 3 nights NYC. 3 nights London. Leave next week.”
Tanesha dropped down on the bed. Jeraine had been asked to go on tour with. . . She turned the Post-it over. The gorgeous woman whose album he’d just finished —the same gorgeous woman who was the last girlfriend he’d splashed all over the tabloids. She turned to look at him.
Shaking her head, she went back to the desk to put the Post-it back, and she picked up the second one. It was another offer to go on tour. The third Post-it held another offer. She looked at him.
No wonder he’d had a headache. He had three competing offers to go on tour. She crept downstairs to the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea.
What should she do? She hadn’t thought of him going on tour again. But he’d just won another Grammy. It made sense that he’d go on
tour again. She sat down on a bar stool at the kitchen counter and thought it through.
He must have taken down these offers without thinking about her or Jabari. He’d just tucked them into his pocket. He’d probably heard the sprinklers for the new grass turn on and had gone to see what was happening. Standing there, he’d probably remembered her and Jabari. Hence the debilitating headache.
She needed to decide what she wanted to do. She drank her tea and made another cup. She’d finished her third cup of tea when she made up her mind. She went upstairs to retrieve the Post-its. Downstairs, she took her cell phone out of her bag.
“Schmidty?” Tanesha asked.
“Hey! Tanesha!” Schmidty said. It sounded like he was having dinner. “I’m having lunch in New York with Lizzie. We’re heading to Denver tonight.”
“I wanted to talk to you about Jeraine,” Tanesha asked.
“What can I do for you?” Schmidty asked.
“I’m wondering if you knew anything about offers for Jeraine to go on the road?” Tanesha asked.
“On vacation?” Schmidty asked. “I can recommend a great place to. . .”
“Tour,” Tanesha said.
“First I’m hearing of it,” Schmidty said. “Give me a minute.”
She heard him get up from where he was sitting. The noise in the background dropped.
“I’m sure he forgot that you were. . .” Tanesha said.
“I’m sure of it,” Schmidty said. “Don’t worry. I’m not offended. He’s used to having to take care of this crap himself. Do you think he agreed to anything?”
“No way,” Tanesha said. “I think he wanted to talk to me about it but freaked out. He was checked out when I got home. I thought he’d had a stroke.”
“A stroke?” Schmidty asked. “Is he all right?”
“He’s okay,” Tanesha said. “He had a bad headache. I’m sure it’s this stuff. He’s asleep now.”
“Good,” Schmidty said. “Okay, give me the details. I’ll call around and make sure everyone goes through me in the future. They know they’re supposed to. They just don’t do it.”
“Why?” Tanesha asked.
“Because I’m a hard ass,” Schmidty said. “I get the best deals for my clients, and everyone knows it.”
“Good,” Tanesha said. She gave him the details she’d found on the Post-its.
“I’ll take care of it, but. . .” Schmidty paused for a moment. “Are you certain you want him to go on the road?”
“I’m certain that I’m willing to look at his options,” Tanesha said. “The man is a sensation. That’s his life. He loves performing. I won’t stand in the way of that. I want him to be the best person he can be and live the biggest life he possibly can live. But I will not stand by and let him be a pawn in someone else’s game. We’ve come too far for him to be injured on the road again.”
“Good to know,” Schmidty said. “Don’t worry, Tanesha. I’ve got this.”
“Thanks,” Tanesha said.
“Tell Jer when he wakes up that I’ve got this,” Schmidty said.
“I will,” Tanesha said. “Thanks.”
He was gone. She looked at her phone again and set it down. She only hoped that she’d done the right thing.
Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty-nine
Being at home
Monday afternoon — 4:27 p.m.
Denver, Colorado
“Knock, knock, knock.”
A distinctively feminine knuckle hit Tanesha’s front door, and she scowled. Cursing under her breath, she left her stool in the kitchen and went to the door. She peered through the peep hole. The air around her crackled and popped before she remembered to control her temper. She opened the door.
“What?” Tanesha asked.
“Jeraine here?” asked the beautiful singer.
The women pushed one hip out. Her silicone breasts looked as if one deep breath and they would break free of the tiny band of fabric around them. The woman was wearing something that looked like it might be a skirt. However, if she hadn’t been wearing a slip of light cloth in the same color as the band around her breasts, you could have seen the entire landscape of what might be called her “private parts.” Her light-brown skin glistened with what smelled like cocoa butter.
“He’s not feeling well,” Tanesha said.
She moved to close the door. The singer put her hand on the door to keep Tanesha from closing her out.
“What’d you do to him?” the singer asked.
The air around Tanesha crackled again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the door to her grandmother’s house open with a bang.
“He’s simply not feeling well,” Tanesha said.
Crazy Aunt Phy flew out of Gran’s house. She ran across the street pulling a flowery shirt over her tank top as she ran.
“He was all right when he spoke to me,” the singer said with a seductive pop of her enhanced full lips. “He going to go on tour with this.”
The singer ran a hand up and down her body. Her hand had just reached her hip when a giant white spark flew from the singer’s hand to her hip.
“What the. . .?” the singer looked down.
“Static electricity,” Tanesha said. “It’s the altitude.”
As if she were running the hurdles, Crazy Aunt Phy jumped Tanesha’s white picket fence.
“But. . .” the singer started.
“I’m so sorry,” Aunt Phy said in her craziest voice.
Crazy Aunt Phy pushed past the singer and into the house. The door closed with a crack.
“Did you forget to drink your tea, Tanesha?” Aunt Phy asked a stunned Tanesha.
“Uh. . .” Tanesha said.
The singer pounded on the door.
“Just one minute,” Aunt Phy said.
She opened the door to the singer.
“Princess Tanesha is not taking visitors. If I were you, I’d leave before she turns you into something. . .” Aunt Phy looked the woman up and down. “Unsavory. Or catches you on fire, which, at this moment, is highly likely.”
She snapped the door closed. Tanesha listened to see if the singer would leave. Crazy Aunt Phy waved Tanesha over to watch through the sheer covering the window. The singer huffed at the door for a few minutes before deciding to leave. The gate to the white picket fence snapped the singer’s behind as it closed. The singer turned around and tried to get back through. The gate wouldn’t budge. When the singer tried to step over the low fence, it grew a few inches. With each try, the fence grew a few more inches until it looked like it was almost ten feet tall.
“What did you do?” Tanesha put her hands on her hips.
“I’m coming back,” the singer yelled before getting into her limousine again.
Jeraine’s phone rang. There was a great snap, and the phone started to smoke.
“Nothing you can prove,” Aunt Phy said. She wiggled her nose, and the phone stopped smoking. “Why do you think it was me?”
“Because I surely didn’t do that,” Tanesha said.
“No, you just tried to burn down the entire town,” Crazy Aunt Phy said. “Damn, Tanesha. Drink the tea!”
“I had three cups!” Tanesha said.
“You did not,” Crazy Aunt Phy said.
Tanesha stomped to the kitchen sink where her cup was sitting. She shoved the cup at Aunt Phy. Her Aunt took the cup and ran her finger over the brim. She scowled. She stuck her finger inside the cup to taste the remnant of tea.
“Damn,” Crazy Aunt Phy said.
“Well?” Tanesha raised her eyebrows and looked at the woman.
“Three cups and you’re still popping?” Aunt Phy asked.
“And?”
“Looks like our little girl has grown into a strong fairy,” Aunt Phy said. Her eyes welled with tears. She gave an exaggerated sniff. “I’m so proud.”
Tanesha scowled. Seeing her scowl, Aunt Phy laughed.
“What are we going to do?” Tanesha asked.
“We aren’t doing
anything,” Aunt Phy said. “I’m going to sit on your porch and keep guard. You are going to study your school work and take care of your man.”
“I have to pick up Jabari in an hour,” Tanesha said. “Jer is out for the night.”
“Your mother can pick up the boy,” Aunt Phy said. “In fact, she’s just about to call and ask if she can keep the child for the night.”
Tanesha’s phone rang. Shaking her head, Tanesha answered. Her mother had called to ask if Jabari could spend the night. Rodney was getting off work early. They wanted to take him and Mr. Chesterfield for a picnic in the park. Her mother was delighted when Tanesha agreed to the plan.
“How did you do that?” Tanesha asked Aunt Phy after she’d hung up.
“Do what?” Aunt Phy gave Tanesha a cockeyed blink of her eyes.
Tanesha smiled. She was just about to say something when they heard the slamming of a car door.
“Uh, oh,” Aunt Phy said.
She gave Tanesha a little wave before jettisoning out the door. Tanesha watched the door for a moment. She heard Aunt Phy settle into a rocking chair on the porch. Shaking her head, Tanesha took out her text book. She was about to sit down when she heard Aunt Phy yell, “Have another cup of tea.”
Tanesha went to make the tea.
~~~~~~~~
Monday evening — 5:52 p.m.
Denver, Colorado
“How you doing there, Mikey?” Lieutenant Colonel Alexandra Hargreaves asked over the intercom. They were flying to Denver in a Blackhawk Helicopter.
“He threw up again,” Sergeant Margaret Peaches said in reply.
“Jeez, Mike,” Captain Andrew “Trece” Ramirez said. “I went through it. I survived. How bad can it be?”
“B-b-b-ad,” Sergeant Michael Scully, Junior said.
“He’s stuttering, again,” Captain Zack “the Jakker” Jakkman said from the cockpit.
“Man up, Scully!” Chief Royce Tubman said.
“Col, can you give him something?” Alex asked.
“Not and be sure he can safely parachute,” Captain Colin Hargreaves said.
“You can jump with me, MJ,” Captain Chris “The White Boy” Blanco said. “We can strap you on my back. I don’t mind.”
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