by Clay, Ann
Autumn responded the only way she could whenever he directed all of his masculine attention on her as he did now. She moaned. Her body burned with unchecked desire. She turned in his embrace and rested against him. She could feel his manhood harden. “Yes, babe, I know,” she finally said.
Capturing her lips, Travis pulled her closer using his strength to crush her against him. He moaned and lifted her to the open space of the counter top. With busy hands, he undid the top and lowered his mouth to capture the tips of beautiful mounds of flesh, one by one. He trailed kisses down the front of her flat stomach. She whimpered.
Instantly, he picked her up from the counter and carried her to their bedroom before he placed her on her feet. Neither spoke a single word. Autumn worked at the small buttons on his shirt until it was completely opened while Travis undid his belt buckle and zipper to his pants. It didn’t take long before they both were undressed. She looped her arms around Travis. The heat of their flesh sent a sea of goose bumps up and down her body. “I missed you,” she whispered into his mouth.
Travis placed Autumn on the cool comforter. The lip lock and the feel of her silky skin revived him. With hunger, he trailed wet kisses down the length of her, stopping and nibbling the buds perked at attention before moving to her navel and past the patch of soft, curly hair.
Autumn obeyed the commands of his heated lips and tongue. She arched and rolled, willing her senses into a fog. When Travis arrived at the center of her trouble all day, she shuddered as he explored and teased her.
Autumn’s familiar scent filled his nostrils, and made him harden and lengthen instantly. Travis paid homage to the one part of her body he knew would bring her pleasure, and she didn’t disappoint him. Autumn fell off an orgasmic cliff, after his tongue gently danced across the tip of her bud several times. He used the time it took her to descend to push inside her wanting body. He centered all of his vigor, fulfilling her most intimate needs. He gave her everything he had. Each stroke was a measure of how deeply he loved for her. When she exploded beneath him for a second time, he followed, as he grunted his sweet release.
He pulled himself up and Autumn clung to him as he moved on to his back. Satisfied, she cuddled with him for a while before she decided she would finish putting away the food. When she moved, he caught her with his arm. “Not yet,” his voice resonated low and husky.
“I’ll let you get some rest. I’ll be back in a little while.” She kissed his chin. The tired lines she saw in his face earlier were gone.
“Stay with me for a little while, darling.” He rubbed her back.
“Okay. I won’t go anywhere.”
Travis sighed heavily and drifted back into a deep slumber. A few hours later, he peeled his sleeping wife off of him, and slid from the bed. After a lingering shower, he felt alive again. He could hardly believe what a couple of hours of sleep, especially after some good loving, could do for a man. His stomach growled, so he walked into the kitchen, remembering Autumn had cooked. He rummaged through the containers left on the counter. One of the containers was left uncovered and he knew why. His body stirred when he recalled the scene of her half-naked body seated on top of the kitchen counter.
Travis heated a plate of food in the microwave when the phone rang. He stood and with a few long strides, picked up the phone before it went to voice mail; and hopefully before the phone disturbed Autumn. “Hello.” He looked up the same instance and saw her enter the kitchen; so much for not disturbing her. He captured her alluring gaze. “Sure hold on a moment, please. Here she is.”
Autumn walked up to Travis and accepted both the phone, followed by a short kiss. “Hello?”
“You may have to come sooner than you think, girlfriend if you’re going to be my coach,” Reggie answered breathless.
“What’s happened? Are you in labor already?”
“The doctor says it is false labor. So he’s given me instructions, of course.”
“Well, Travis and I are scheduled to leave tomorrow afternoon. You can’t do anything before then, Regina Brooks.”
“I think you need tell that to this little one, and not me.”
“I really mean it, Reggie. You better wait until we get there.” Autumn caught Travis’s quizzical gaze. A hint of a lazy smile grazed his face. She frowned at his mocking.
“Well Lil’ Sha, you better get here and soon. Until then, I’m on standby. Love you.”
“We’ll see you tomorrow. Love you too.” Autumn walked up to Travis with the phone still to her ear. She released it when he took it from her hand.
“Do you want me to change our flights?” He pulled Autumn against him.
“I want to be there when she has this baby. Yes, if it’s okay with you.”
“Sure, darling, no problem. I’ll book us on the first flight in the morning.”
* * * *
Autumn raced up the hallway of the maternity ward, Travis followed closely behind her. Reggie was finally in labor and dilated four centimeters. She and Trae were her designated labor partners. When she reached the desk she gasped for air. “I’m looking for Regina Brooks, I’m her labor coach.”
The nurse looked down at a chart, and glanced back at the breathless Autumn. “She’s in the second door on the right.” She pointed down the hall. Travis caught up with her and attempted to follow her. “Ah, excuse me, sir.” She shook her head at Travis. “Can I help you?” Before he could open his mouth the nurse cut him off. “You’ll have to wait in the lobby.” She pointed toward the hallway directly in front of the nurse’s station.
“I’m the uncle.” Travis’s voice trailed behind Autumn who didn’t bother looking back. She eagerly rushed to the mom-to-be in the second room on the right.
“Well, uncle, you’ll have to wait in the lobby with the rest of your family. Straight through there.” She pointed at the hall directly in front of her.
Travis almost defied the woman but the warning in her eyes told him not to tempt her. “Through here?” He pointed in the direction she pointed out earlier. He watched Autumn disappear through a closed door. He looked at the woman again to size her up. He outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds. He could take her and the other two behind the desk.
“Yes, sugah. We’ll let you know when the time comes.”
CHAPTER 38
Travis found his family in the waiting room. They all stood to greet him when he walked in. “So, is there anybody at work today?” He looked at his brother and then his father as he hugged Diane.
“I think you forgot I work for myself, son.” Alvin hugged him next.
Michael didn’t say anything, only wrapped his arm around his brother’s shoulder.
“This is our first grandchild, Travis. We’re staying here even if Reggie is in labor for 48 hours. We’re not moving,” Diane finally said.
Three hours later, a tearful Autumn came through the door. She went straight to Diane and grabbed her hands. “Congratulations, Mama, you have a beautiful grandson. Tyler Alexander Brooks, and he’s gorgeous!” Reggie’s parents were still en route, so Autumn immediately texted them a picture and wonderful news of their new grandson.
Tears filled Diane’s eyes. Everyone else cheered. Travis pulled Autumn into his arms and squeezed her. “Woo hoo! I’m an uncle and a Parran.”
“How is he? How is Reggie?” Diane asked over the roar.
“Mom and baby are both fine.”
The entire family, a few at a time, went in to see Reggie, a proud Trae, and little baby Tyler. “You get some rest sweetheart. We’ll be back tomorrow.” Diane kissed Reggie’s forehead.
* * * *
After everyone finally left, Travis and Autumn went to the floral shop to purchase balloons and a teddy bear. On the way back, she walked ahead of him. “Come on, Travis. Quit being nosy,” Autumn fussed as she passed several doors propped open. Just as she was about to round a corner, she heard a low cry coming from a room she’d just passed. She doubled back and stuck her head in the room. She saw a man, str
apped by several machines attempting to get out of the bed. No one else was there with him, so she rushed in to help him.
Demarcus thought for sure that he was meeting his maker because he already saw his angel ready to escort him to the pearly gates. The heavy dose of pain medications had finally set in and he was seeing things that weren’t really there.
“Whoa. Let me help you, sir.” Autumn set the teddy bear down on the chair next to the bed, pressed the nurse’s call button, and then reached for his arm. “Please lay back. I’ve called a nurse for you.” She helped him back into his bed, but Autumn froze when the man said to her, “Drace, joie de la vie.” Drace, the joy of my life. She captured the man’s glassy glaze as he grinned up at her.
His glassy eyes made her believe that he was heavily drugged and perhaps delirious; he swayed when he stood and swung at air when he reached for her hand, but couldn’t quite reach her. He looked so lost. That moment forever changed her life, a moment she would at first rejoice about, but would later damn until the full truth revealed itself. “What did you just say to me?” Her voice shook.
“Drace you come to take me home?” He stood again.
Both confused and shaken, Autumn peeled her hand away from the man’s grasp. Travis walked through the door and saw an old man standing at his bed, but didn’t see Autumn’s wide eyes as she backed away from him. “I’m sorry sir, but you’re going to have to find your own girl.” His smile faltered when Autumn turned and looked at him. “What’s wrong?” He immediately rushed to her.
“Who is this Drace?”
Travis and Autumn gazed at the man, and then at each other. “Who are you?” she asked, just as a nurse walked in.
“Mr. Grimillion, you’re going to have to stay in your bed.” She moved to where he now sat. “Are these your children?” She turned and said to them. “For a while we didn’t think he had relatives. He’s been here a week and nobody has been here to check on him.” She saw the confused looks on their faces and paused. “You are his family, right?”
* * * *
It took several days to sort things out, but in those few days, between her time spent helping Reggie with the new baby, Autumn learned that the patient she stumbled onto was her estranged maternal grandfather, Demarcus Grimillion. Apparently he’d been hospitalized, heavily drugged to treat an infection he’d contracted, and had been in and out of consciousness. When he was finally stable, he told her the story of how he thought Drace and their children had succumbed to the dreaded storm, Flossy.
“See in those days, storms didn’t have names or categorized by numbers. Not until Flossy. Her sixteen inches of rain and thirteen-feet-wide tides submerged Grand Isle in water. I’d left for New Orleans already, and was told that families, livestock, crops, and most homes were destroyed.” Demarcus hung his head. “I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I tried to go back to verify what I was told, but ended up locked in a Jefferson Parish jail for something I didn’t do. It took ten months for me to get out of there. And when I did, I headed straight for Chicago.”
Demarcus told Autumn and Travis that he’d only returned to New Orleans a year ago, that a strong yearning had led him back. He confessed to them that he had no idea that Mer Drace and his children were still alive, and he didn’t think he deserved a second chance, but he wanted one anyway. After hearing his tormented story of abandonment, she fell into a dangerous situation, having to tell the rest of her family that she’d found their estranged relative. The news would be devastating, especially to Mer Drace. Just before leaving for Grand Isle, she visited him.
“Are you headed to see Drace?”
“Yes, sir.”
He nodded without saying anything. He knew what Autumn was about to do was going to change all of their lives.
* * * *
Autumn pulled up to her grandmother’s house around midmorning. She’d traveled alone after convincing Travis it was something she had to do on her own. “I’ll only be gone for the day and will be back home before you’re home from work.”
Now as she sat in Mer Drace’s driveway, she wished he was there because she had no idea how her grandmother would take the news. All she knew was that she had to tell her soon or risk losing Mer Drace’s trust. She was a hard woman.
Mer Drace knew Autumn was there with bad news. She just couldn’t figure out what it was. And when she heard her sweet granddaughter say, “I found Demarcus, Mer Drace,” her heart broke in two. Not just for her sake, but the sake of her children and grandchildren. She’d chosen poorly, and they’d all paid the price for it.
* * * *
Demarcus paced the hospital room and mumbled as he moved around the room. Since he encountered his beautiful granddaughter, and after she told him that his Mer Drace had not perished in the storm as believed, he couldn’t eat or sleep. He wanted to see her, to talk to her. He made his plans to head to Grand Isle as soon as he was released.
* * * *
Mer Drace hugged both Maree and Autumn snugly. Autumn had to call her mother to come over because she didn’t exactly respond to the news very well; but Mer Drace commended her granddaughter for trying to take on a responsibility that really wasn’t hers. She had to make sure Autumn understood that none of it was her fault.
“Somehow I knew he was still alive,” Mer Drace told them. “Even though he never did come back for us, Lord knows why. Dear daughter, I am sorry I chose so poorly; that you had to live without a father.” Tears streamed down their faces.
“You were the best mother and father any girl could have.”
“Thank you, child.” Mer Drace patted Maree’s back. “I would do anything to protect you.”
“I know. I know you did your very best, Momma.” It wasn’t often Maree addressed Mer Drace by her title. Mer Drace always insisted that her family and friends call her Drace. It was Maree who started calling her Mer Drace and the name stuck.
Maree then turned to Autumn. “Go call your husband. He’s worried.” Autumn nodded.
CHAPTER 39
“Sorry, babe. I didn’t mean to worry you. Mer Drace didn’t take the news well. She didn’t give me a chance to prep her for what I had to tell her.” Autumn knew that Travis would get in his car and head to Grand Isle, driving like a bat of hell if she didn’t call him. The only reason he’d not done so already was because he’d talked to Maree who explained how they’d taken her report.
Travis sighed heavily upon hearing Autumn’s voice. “Do you need me to come down?”
“No. We’re okay. But I think I’ll stick around for a couple of days. Will you tell Reggie?”
“Yes. Take your time. I’ll help her get someone to cover the studio while you’re gone. Is there anything you need, darling?”
Autumn wanted so badly to tell him that she needed him, needed his strong arms around her, but she knew what would happen if she told him this. So, instead she said, “I’m okay. I’ll call you later.”
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
Travis fingered the envelope that he’d placed in his office desk drawer since he received it from Clem’s lawyer, first in his business office, and now in his home office. The terms of Clem’s last request were already implemented. The shakeup in Autumn’s family made him rethink his decision about what Clem asked him to do. He opened the envelope to read the documents. His brothers had already responded. As he sat in his home office he contemplated what he would have to do to carry out Clem’s wishes.
As he shuffled through several of the documents, one in particular caught his eye. It was a handwritten note in Clem’s handwriting. “Big man, you are like a son to me. For this I leave my most prized possession, and the majority of my estate, contingent on a couple of things, of course. I know you will do this for me because I trust you. Take half of what I’m leaving and give it back to young people in our community; to give them a chance to succeed like you, Michael, and Trae. The money I’m leaving will be far more than enough to do what you need to do.”
/> Travis went on to read through Clem’s grand plan, a proposal he’d started before he passed. With plans pretty much in place, all Travis had to do was put them in motion. He was instructed to provide twenty-five scholarships each year to deserving young people interested in music, theater, and dance.
How could Clem know that he would meet Autumn, a perfect candidate to help him put this plan in motion? He trusted her intimately, and knew that she had all the right connections to make it happen. The project was a perfect way to get Autumn to New Orleans without making her choose to stay in her profession. Nothing else mattered to him, not even the business, not inheritance, not any worldly possessions. He just wanted to spend his life with Autumn. He needed to figure out how to get her to help him with Clem’s plan
After he scanned all the papers, he completed some of the forms; reading, signing, and initialing in all the spots required. He talked to Autumn earlier that morning and was expecting her home soon.
* * * *
The drive back to New Orleans gave Autumn time to digest all the tearful, heartbreaking conversations she shared with her family. Mer Drace told them how she went to New Orleans to look for Demarcus, having to live in the allies, almost being raped, and after more than a year when she hadn’t found him, had to believe in her heart that he was dead. Autumn’s spirit nearly shattered hearing this and couldn’t imagine a hurt so devastating. She wished she could go back to the hour before she found Demarcus. She would mind her business, bypassing his room. But the damage was done, and when she got to New Orleans, she planned to tell him that the family wanted nothing to do with him.
An hour into her drive home, all sorts of crazy thoughts and doubts entered her head. She wondered if Travis could betray her this way. Would he? Would he risk his life to protect her? Would his promises stand?
In her heart, she believed he would, but that nagging voice just poked her over and over again. By the time she made it home, she was a complete mess. She pulled into the garage and her heart nearly stopped when she saw Travis’s truck parked next to their sedan. She expected him to be at work. She thought she would at least have a couple of hours to pull herself together.