Love After War

by Cheris Hodges

He spread her legs apart and slipped between them. “I’ll show you some fun,” he said, then kissed her with a hot passion that made her forget about Broadway divas and motorcycles.

  Two days later, Adrian and Dana arrived at the Crawford Mountain Resort. The first thing Dana did when she got out of the car was lift her camera and began snapping shots of the picture-perfect mountains behind the resort. As she walked around the side of the building and close to the edge of what Adrian thought was a steep cliff, he rushed over to her and grabbed her around her waist.

  “What is wrong with you?” she snapped. “You know you messed up my shot!”

  Adrian looked down and saw a two-inch drop, then kissed the back of her neck.

  “You can’t blame him,” Solomon called out from behind them. “These first-time fathers think a woman can’t walk when she’s pregnant.”

  Kandace called out, “And he should know, because he was way worse.”

  Dana turned around and waved at Kandace. “I didn’t know you were coming, but thank God you’re here. Now I won’t be bored while they talk business.” She pushed past Adrian, just slightly perturbed about him messing up her picture. When he kissed her cheek, all was forgiven. Kandace and Dana headed into the resort, leaving Solomon, Adrian, and Richmond standing outside.

  “So, does she suspect anything?” Solomon asked.

  “If she doesn’t, she will when she sees the three of us out here and no one’s arguing,” Richmond joked.

  Solomon and Adrian looked at their brother, then burst into laughter. Over the last few weeks, there had been a change in Richmond. He was relaxed and pretty funny. It was a good change to see.

  “Well, let’s wrap this up, then,” Solomon said. “I got a message from the front desk that Imani and Raymond are checked in. Kandace and Dana should be heading to the spa soon.”

  Adrian nodded. “Is the cake here?”

  “Yes,” Richmond said. “The restaurant e-mailed me the menu for the reception.”

  “Then I guess it’s time to get fitted for—”

  “The monkey suits,” Richmond said.

  Solomon shook his head. “You’re going to remarry one day and I’m going to remind you of how bitter you were today.”

  “Please, I wouldn’t get married again if you paid me,” Richmond replied as the three men headed for a room where the tailor was waiting.

  “This is just the conversation I want to have before my wedding. Thanks, guys,” Adrian quipped.

  Three hours later, Dana stood in front of the full-length mirror in her suite, flanked by Imani and Kandace. The silver gown she wore was beautiful, strapless, knee-length, and way too much for a dinner with friends and family.

  “What’s going on? Because I know this is about more than dinner,” Dana said.

  “Why would you say that?” Imani asked. “It’s the Poconos, a romantic place, and we want to impress our husbands.” She twirled around in her beaded gold dress. Imani didn’t mind showing off her baby bump, which had become the talk of Hollywood. Kandace looked at the pregnant women and took a step back.

  “I need you two to keep your pregnancy dust over there,” Kandace said.

  “Oh, come on, Kandace,” Dana said. “Kiana needs a little brother and I’m sure Solomon would be over the moon.”

  “He’d better focus on being a happy uncle. And I hope you have a boy. It will take the pressure off if Solomon has a nephew.” The women laughed; then Kandace turned to Imani. “And are you going to be like the new Hollywood parents and sell your baby’s pictures to People ?”

  “Raymond is not going for that and I think that’s the dumbest thing that people do. Then cry about privacy. Besides, I’d like to see those photographers follow us to Harlem and try that LA crap.”

  Dana nudged Kandace. “My friend thinks she’s as gangster as some of the characters she plays.”

  “Whatever,” Imani said. “I keep telling you, I know people.”

  Kandace smiled and told them she couldn’t wait to take them to Charlotte and introduce them to her friends, Jade, Serena, and Alicia.

  “Charlotte sounds like a great trip,” Imani said. “And we can leave the husbands at home.”

  Kandace shot Imani a cautioning look, and she shrugged in return. Dana looked from Kandace to Imani. “What is going on?”

  “Nothing. Except we’re going to be late for dinner if we don’t hurry up,” Kandace covered.

  “That’s right,” Imani said as she slipped into a pair of ballerina flats. “I miss my heels but my feet are always swollen.”

  “It’s about time you started wearing sensible shoes,” Dana said as she applied a coat of lip gloss to her lips.

  “Anyway, let’s go.” Kandace and Imani exchanged conspicuous smiles and Dana was about to question them again when there was a knock at the door.

  Dana opened the door and saw a resort worker standing there with a bouquet of flowers. “Dana Singleton?” he asked.

  “That’s me.”

  “These are for you.” He handed her the bouquet of yellow, orange, and pink roses. She looked down at the card, recognizing Adrian’s handwriting immediately. She read the card and tears immediately sprang to her eyes.

  Today, I want you to make me the happiest man in the world and become my wife.—A.B.

  “What’s wrong?” Imani asked.

  “You can stop acting now,” Dana sniffed. “I guess this was your way of getting me back for your wedding, huh?”

  Imani shrugged and then nodded. “Yes, and that look on your face lets me know that it was worth it.”

  Dana turned around and hugged her best friend.

  “Aww,” Kandace said, then joined in the hugging. “Forget the pregnancy dust.”

  “Now let’s go get you married,” Imani said as she wiped a tear from Dana’s cheek.

  Candles illuminated the chapel. Adrian stood at the altar with Solomon and Richmond. All three men were dressed in black tuxedos with silver accessories. Adrian wrung his hands nervously as he watched the door. Part of him wondered if he could be this happy and lucky enough to have Dana in his life again. What if she didn’t want this kind of wedding? What if the flowers sent her running? What if . . . He locked eyes with Dana as she appeared in the doorway with Kandace and Imani. His future wife was glowing. And the way she was wearing that dress made him want to get directly to the “you may kiss the bride” part of the ceremony.

  Dana walked down the aisle and into his arms. Adrian couldn’t help it; he could not wait to kiss her. The minister cleared his throat and Solomon tugged at the tail of Adrian’s jacket.

  “Too soon, bro, too soon,” he said, causing everyone to laugh. Adrian and Dana broke their kiss and turned to the minister.

  “Sorry, Reverend,” Adrian said. “I couldn’t help myself.”

  The older man nodded and began the quick ceremony. Adrian made a mental note to donate a butt load of money to his church when he said, “By the power vested in me by the state of Pennsylvania and our Father, the Lord our savior, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Now you may kiss your bride.”

  Dana wrapped her arms around Adrian’s neck as he captured her lips in a hot, passionate kiss that left her weak and blushing in front of the minister because of the thoughts that were running through her mind.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Adrian whispered, then scooped his wife up in his arms.

  “Yes, let’s do that.”

  The newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Adrian Bryant dashed out of the chapel and headed to their suite where they would begin their life of peace and love.

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  Forces of Nature

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  Turn the page for an excerpt from

  Forces of Nature . . .

  Chapter 1

  Crystal Hughes was mad as hell and the person behind this madness would feel her wrath, she decided as she ripped the notice she’d received in the mail to shreds. “Welco!” she muttered. Crossing the
vast living room, Crystal grabbed her purse and keys from the coffee table. That company and its mysterious—at least from Crystal’s point of view—owner wanted to own everything in town. Well, Hughes Farm was not for sale.

  What was it that Douglas Wellington III had been quoted saying in the paper last week? If Main Street can’t keep their lights on, why should I have to share my bulbs? How heartless! Crystal knew this man didn’t give a damn about Reeseville. If he did, he’d know that helping, not buying, was the way people made it through rough times in this small town. Crystal wasn’t even sure if old man Wellington even lived in Reeseville. If he did, he wouldn’t want to destroy Hughes Farm. Bastard!

  Dashing out of her plantation-style house, Crystal nearly bowled over two teenagers planting rosebushes near her steps.

  “Miss Crystal, is everything okay?” asked Renda Johnson as Crystal placed her hand on her shoulder.

  “Yes, I’m just in a hurry. What are you and MJ doing?” Crystal forced a smile at Monique and Renda, two sisters who lived in the Starlight House, a group home that sat a stone’s throw from Crystal’s house. No one else in Reeseville wanted the home for wayward girls anywhere near them. People said that the girls would be a danger to their neighborhoods and would lower their property value. But Crystal, who owned more than one hundred acres of land in west Duval County, subscribed to the notion that one good turn deserved another. “To whom much is given, much is required,” Grandmother Hughes would always say. Crystal told the board of county commissioners that Starlight could have as much space as they needed. She treated the girls in Starlight just like the sisters she never had, and in return, they treated her to surprises like planting rosebushes in her yard, raking her lawn, and working in her community garden without any complaints.

  Placing her hands on her hips and smacking a wad of gum, Monique stood up and looked Crystal in the eyes. “Well, it was supposed to be a surprise. But we found those orange rosebushes you were talking about. Why are you up so early?”

  Nervously, Crystal twisted the green jade ring on her index finger. There was no way she could tell these girls about Welco’s plans, plans that would level everything on her property. In their short lives, they’d seen so much disappointment and despair, and Crystal wasn’t going to let evil Welco Industries add to it. She’d grown tired of watching this company buy up Reeseville as if they were playing Monopoly. In the last three years, Welco had purchased much of the land around Reeseville, building small factories that Crystal would bet her farm had been causing the increase in allergies around town. Did Wellington care? No. He simply said that people should take more vitamins.

  But what she was most peeved with Welco about was the supercenter they’d built downtown, which caused the Fresh Food Market to close because they couldn’t compete with the cheap prices of the supercenter. The Fresh Food Market had been the only grocery store in town where local farmers could sell their vegetables and fresh meats. When it closed, some of the smaller farms in Reeseville had suffered. Then Welco came along and bought them.

  “Just some business in town, sweeties,” Crystal replied. “Thank you so much for my surprise, though.”

  Mrs. Brooke Fey, the director and on-sight operator of the house, walked over to Crystal and the girls. “Ms. Hughes, I hope MJ and Renda aren’t bothering you this morning,” she said, surveying the scene in front of her.

  “Oh no. These girls have given me something that I’ve wanted for a long time. Now, I really have to go.” Crystal ran to her car, nearly tripping over her Birkenstock clogs and ankle-length rainbow-colored skirt. She started the car and peeled out of the driveway, leaving two black skid marks on the pavement. This isn’t going to happen. Welco isn’t going to buy me!

  It wasn’t nine a.m. yet and Douglas Wellington III, president and CEO of Welco Industries, was popping aspirin. His head throbbed like a heartbeat because the board was on his back, his assistant couldn’t find the documents he needed for his ten-thirty presentation—and did she just say a woman was threatening to chain herself to the front door if he didn’t meet with her immediately? This was not happening. Not today.

  “Amy! Amy! I don’t have time to meet with some kook. Call security or something. But what you need to do more than anything else is find my proposal !” he barked into the phone. From his desk, Douglas scrutinized Amy’s small frame as she slumped over her desk. He knew he was too hard on her, but today wasn’t a day for anyone to expect kindness from him. The board of directors was growing impatient about the time it was taking to get the business park project started. Douglas had no idea the owners of Hughes Farm would put up such a fight over that land. From what he understood, the farm wasn’t a working farm with livestock and whatnot. Basically, they grew vegetables. In Douglas’s opinion, there was enough dirt in Reeseville to plant a garden anywhere. It had been his great idea to hold off on any other projects until the business park was built. It wasn’t as if Welco was losing money, but they weren’t making money either. That was a problem Douglas had to fix—especially if he was going to keep Clive Oldsman off his back.

  Twirling a silver ink pen between his fingers, Douglas picked up the phone and dialed Waylon Terrell’s number. Waylon was his father’s best friend and Douglas’s godfather. In business, the only person Douglas trusted other than himself was Waylon. Were it not for his godfather, Douglas wouldn’t be in the position he was in today. On days like this, that wasn’t a good thing. He hadn’t planned to follow in his father’s footsteps. In fact, he’d spent a great deal of his life trying to be everything that Douglas Wellington Jr. was not, even if they were both coldhearted businessmen.

  Luckily for him, he had Waylon in his life to control the board most of the time. Waylon had mentored him and guided him though some of his toughest business decisions.

  “Hello, godson,” the older man said when he answered.

  “Waylon, the board is driving me crazy,” Douglas admitted. “I know they want me gone and I’m beginning to think Amy is working against me too.”

  “Calm down, son. These guys want you out of Welco, but your father groomed you your whole life for this. Don’t let these old bastards push you around. Take a deep breath and show them who Doug Trey is.”

  Hearing his nickname brought a smile to Douglas’s face. “All right, doc,” he replied. “Did you take a look at my business park plans?”

  “Uh, I haven’t really looked over them. I’m retired, remember? I’ll get back to you in a few days, but isn’t this decision already made?”

  Sighing, Douglas wished he’d gone to Waylon before presenting this business park idea to the board. What if he was going about building this place the wrong way?

  I can’t second-guess myself; that’s what they expect.

  “You’re still there?” Waylon asked, breaking into Douglas’s thoughts.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m going to go. We’ll have to have dinner sometime this week,” said Douglas. He said good-bye and hung up when he noticed Amy standing at his door. “What?”

  “Sir,” she said nervously. “That woman won’t leave. She’s handcuffed herself to my desk, sir. With her free hand, she keeps knocking papers off my desk.”

  Muttering a string of curses and profanities that would make a sailor blush, Douglas snatched his phone off the hook and dialed security. “There is a woman who needs to be removed from the building. You’ll notice that she’s wearing handcuffs,” Douglas growled at the guard. Slamming the phone down, he walked over to the door and peered at the woman cuffed to Amy’s desk as she dug in a huge brown sack. Thinking she might have a gun, Douglas immediately pulled Amy into his office and slammed the door. They ducked behind his desk, waiting for the woman to make her next move.

  The artificial beauty of the Welco lobby grated on Crystal’s nerves, from the potted silk plants to the shiny marble floors and the huge windows allowing bright sunlight to saturate the building. But there’s no life force here, she thought as she looked around.

  Cryst
al spotted a menacing security officer walking toward her, his massive hand at his side, gripping his flashlight. Dropping her bag to the floor, she sat down on the marble crossing her legs Indian style. This wasn’t her first time standing up—rather sitting down—to corporate security. She and some of the girls from the Starlight House had protested at the local mall because security officers had harassed a number of young people for no reason. The Reeseville Mall ended up donating a hundred thousand dollars to the Starlight House to stop the weekly protests and the security guards were trained how to deal with diverse youth. Crystal’s reputation as a community activist was born the day the settlement was announced. But she worried about living up to her family’s legacy. Hughes Farm, which meant so much to the community, had been handed down each generation and she refused to be the one member of the family to mess things up and lose it.

  She also didn’t want to be viewed as some liberal nut either. Still, there was a right and a wrong way to do things. Many in the community already questioned if Crystal could handle running the farm and why she allowed the Starlight House to be built there. She’d heard the murmurs around town about her not doing as good a job with the farm as her parents. People questioned why she stopped raising livestock, accused her of being a hippie, and said she was going to ruin what took decades to build.

  Maybe those whispers helped spur her anger toward Welco. People expected her to fail, and Welco buying out the farm wasn’t going to prove her naysayers right. If she had to protest every day or sue to keep what was her family’s, then she would. Douglas Wellington III was going to rue the day he tried to take over her farm. This was only the beginning.

  The Welco security officer, who reminded her of an ogre from Greek mythology, snarled at her before saying, “Ma’am, unlock these handcuffs and leave.”

  Rolling her eyes, Crystal stood up to the towering guard. “If you want me to leave, get Wellington out here, otherwise, I’m camping out. What’s right is right. I don’t want to make a scene, but I will and the whole town will see it.” Crystal threw her hand up, illustrating how close they were to the big bay window. Slowly, she returned to her seat on the floor.