Over the Hedge: Part 2- The Finale (Lucky in Love)

by Minerva Vesta

  She gave him a wink and an air kiss and handed the microphone to Stacy.

  “Good evening,” Stacy spoke into the mic, voice cracking slightly.

  She was never nervous speaking in front of a crowd. Her profession required she be comfortable striking up a conversation with just about anyone. No one wanted a tax accountant who wasn’t comfortable speaking.

  I looked at Crystal; we both understood why Stacy sounded so nervous. We walked to the middle of the stage and wrapped our arms around her. I stroked her back, mentally willing strength to flow through Stacy. The room was dead quiet as Daddy stood to approach the stage. Stacy smiled and shook her head at him not to, but he remained standing.

  She cleared her throat and spoke again.

  “I’ve got a nickname as well. I didn’t get it because I changed Philip Price’s life.” She paused and looked at Crystal standing on her right.

  “Nor did I get it because I’ve got two left feet and two right hands.” She turned to look at me standing on her left. I stuck my tongue out at her and popped a kiss on her cheek. Facing forward she looked at the crowd with tear-filled eyes.

  “I got my nickname at seven years old after meeting the most amazing man this world has to offer. I never knew what it was like to be around a man until I was seven years old. My biological father left before I had taken my first breath. My mother rarely dated, and if she did, those men never made it past our front door. But, after Lashawnda and I started hanging out after school, my mom felt comfortable leaving me with the Price’s. Some of you may remember me from family vacations and company picnics. There was a time I would be so mad at Crystal and Lashawnda for getting upset with their dad when he scolded them. I wished I had someone at home to scold me. But it didn’t take too long before I was getting scolded right along with them. I pretended to be mad; but inside I was so happy.”

  The room laughed at Stacy’s revelation.

  “As I got older, I thought about looking for the guy that impregnated my mother. But after thinking of all the reasons why I would need him in my life I came up with none. I had someone to attend my school functions with. I had someone to kiss my bruises and teach me how to throw a punch when little boys got too fresh. I had someone to make Father’s Day cards for. I have someone to call when Momma just doesn’t understand—both mothers. I have someone to escort me down the aisle.”

  “So, for those of you that don’t know my nickname is Stick Stickly.” Stacy proudly pronounced with a girlish giggle. “I got my nickname when I was seven years old—the day I met my daddy. My poppa is an intelligent man. He calls me Stick Stickly not because of how skinny he thinks I am, but, as a reminder that no matter where I might go in this life, I’ve gotta daddy that will always stick by my side. I call him Poppa Price, but he’ll always be my dad. Happy birthday, Daddy. I love you.”

  There was not a dry eye in the room as Sean helped us off the stage. We were met halfway to our father’s table by the man himself. The band began singing a slowed down version of Peter Cetera’s Daddy’s Girl. Daddy held on to his three greatest accomplishments, while hot tears flowed down his cheeks.

  Four hours later, I snuggled my head in the crook of Sean’s neck, arm wrapped lazily around his broad shoulders. I didn’t think I could move a muscle; not even the tiny muscles surrounding my eyes that gave my eyelids the ability to stay open. Exhaustion couldn’t describe what I was feeling. It was an understatement at that point.

  The last of the guests had finally left, and the family was sitting around sipping wine and recounting all the little things that made the party a success. My parents left soon after; both complaining it was past their bedtime. Mrs. Colcord had left earlier in the evening with them. At one o’clock we kissed everyone goodnight. Stacy and Crystal got a ride back home with Brent and Ian to our parents’ house.

  By the time Sean pulled the truck into our driveway, I was halfway knocked out. I cracked my eyes open just wide enough to see him smile down at me before planting a kiss on my upturned mouth. I griped the entire time he maneuvered me around, so he could carry me into the house. I felt like I was floating on a bed of clouds until he forced me to stand up while he locked the door.

  When we finally made it to our bedroom, I woke up enough to assist him in removing my dress and shoes. His green eyes blazed, and mouth hung agape at the sight of the erotic lingerie I was wearing underneath.

  “Umm…little lady please tell me you plan on wearing this again?” Sean asked lustfully.

  I crawled on the bed and laid my head back against the pillow.

  “I would love for you to enjoy it tonight, but truthfully, I’m way too tired to be an active participant.” My voice sounded strained and tired.

  Sean removed his dress shirt and tie, then crawled into the bed with me. He snuggled up behind me, grazing his hands along my textured fishnet covered skin. I could feel his steel pressed into my lower back.

  “Baby, I’m hard as granite for you right now. Hell, truth be told, I don’t need you to be an active participant for what I have in mind. But, the thought of making love to a wide awake you in the same outfit is more than enough motivation for me to keep my hands to myself,” Sean’s growl of need sent a shiver up my spine.

  “Babe…” I whined, feeling a jolt of energy spark in my tired body.

  “Come, let’s get you out of these and into bed properly.”

  He slowly peeled away the thin fabric. We had become accustomed to sleeping naked, so he didn’t have to worry about helping me into pajamas.

  “Face—off please,” I mumbled.

  Sean understood my words enough to grab a few moist towelettes from the bathroom. He returned and began lightly wiping at my face. My hands instantly flew in the air, knocking the cold towelettes away.

  “Cold…no…too cold,” I grumbled.

  After another trip to the bathroom, I felt a warm cloth gently removing my makeup. At some point, I drifted off to sleep.

  The loud ringing of my cell phone jolted me out of my sleep. It took me a few seconds to figure out where the noise was coming from, before I plucked it from the nightstand.

  “Hello,” I answered without looking at the number.

  “Price? Get up! I’ve only got two minutes,” said the familiar sound of Dr. Barnes’s voice.

  “What? Dr. Barnes, what time is it?” I eased up into a semi-seated position. My hand reached out and smacked against the hard metal of the alarm clock sitting on my nightstand. I squinted one eye open to see that it was after three in the morning. “Why are you calling so late?”

  “Price, I need you to pick me up from downtown.”

  I looked at the phone and scrunched up my face in confusion.

  “Oh, and bring bail money.”

  Those were the last words I heard before the line went dead.

  “Sean…” I said shaking his shoulders.

  “Hmm.” His answer was nothing more than a grunt.

  “Sean, get up,” I grumbled, fighting hard not to fall back asleep.

  I scratched my bonnet covered head, surprised I was wearing one. I couldn’t even remember how we got home much less how I ended up with my bonnet on my head. At some point, Sean must have slipped it on for me. Cracking my other eye open I looked at the missed calls on my phone and let out a long sigh.

  “Sean, babe get up.”

  “Mmm,” Sean groaned into his pillow.

  “I think Dr. Barnes just called me from jail,” I said in disbelief, suddenly wide awake.

  CHAPTER 30

  LASHAWNDA

  I kept giving Sean the side-eye as we sat in the waiting area. His comment last week about me knowing everything there was to know about him came back to me. Based on his actions in the past three hours, it was obvious there were quite a few things I didn’t know.

  From the time we drove inside the complex that housed the county jail, he seemed far too familiar with the ends and outs of the judicial system. After Dr. Barnes had hung up the phone, Sean immediat
ely called back and requested bail information, something I hadn’t thought of doing. I would have just shown up with a credit card to pay the bail. Sean had known how to stop at the twenty-four-hour check cashing center to get a money order.

  And, I clearly remembered Ian saying, ‘It was a good night since no one went to jail again’, on the night Sean got into it with Brian and his friends.

  I needed to have a serious discussion with Sean when we got back home. Not knowing your soul mate’s favorite ice-cream was one thing, but the fact he may have been to jail was something else altogether. Now, while my love for Sean knew no bound, the mysteries of what lay beyond some boundaries needed to come to light if we were going to have a happy life together.

  I felt him take hold of my hand, lacing our fingers for comfort. The waiting area gave me the chills. There were people of all breeds and classes there. Some I would probably never brush shoulders with; others made me wonder how they ended up here. I was certain they were thinking the same thing of me. When Sean and I walked in, we got a few stares. I chuckled inwardly wondering if it was Sean’s size that garnered those double takes. But I wasn’t that naïve. Even now we were getting looks.

  “It’s all right. We’ll be out of here soon. The clerk informed me he’s already been processed, and we’re just waiting for his belongings,” Sean said as he leaned into my side.

  The warmth of his breath tickled my cheek. Instinctively, I angled by body into his, pressing my face to his lips. I felt his mouth shift into a smile, warm against my skin.

  “You’re sleepy,” he murmured.

  I smiled tenderly at his concern. “How could I possibly be sleepy? My boss has been arrested for reasons unknown to me. And, the love of my life has obviously been on the wrong side of the law. Trust me when I tell you, I doubt I’ll get any sleep for the rest of the night.”

  “Am I the love of your life?” Sean’s eyes settled on my face with tender affection.

  “Don’t try to change the subject,” I lightly scolded.

  Sean readjusted his body, so he could look at me directly. He found it all amusing, and I could see he was ready to make a joke out of me knowing he’d been arrested. I scrunched my brows up with a pinched expression. Letting him know I was not having it. It was a face I’d seen my momma give Daddy a million times since I was a kid.

  “Sean?”

  “Huh? Say what now?” he asked, eyes roaming across my chest and thighs in a way that told me he was imagining me spread naked beneath him.

  I leaned back against the arm of the chair and threw my legs over the other arm, so my legs dangled across Sean’s lap. I eyed him warily, taking in his broad shoulders and messy bed head.

  We both probably looked a mess. We ran out of the house after Dr. Barnes’s frantic call without a care for our appearance. I had yanked on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. It wasn’t until Sean came out of the bathroom while I was dressing and started shaking his head at me. When I asked what the problem was, he palmed my heavy breast through the t-shirt and told me, ‘it might be safe for everyone if I covered them up’. His comment prompted me to check if I was wearing panties. I wasn’t.

  I smoothed my hair back away from my face, feeling the mess that was once put together so elegantly for my dad’s party. Sean looked way too good; like we both didn’t just roll out of bed. His worn t-shirt, long basketball shorts, and sandaled feet looked like it was purposefully put together.

  “You got something you want to ask me?” Sean asked.

  “How many times have you been to jail?”

  Sean scoffed at my presumptive question. “Shouldn’t you be asking me if I’ve ever been to jail?”

  “Nope…anyone can see you’re very much aware of the ins and outs of this place. Stop beating around the bush and answer my question.” I pressed my legs into Sean’s lap and scrunched up my face trying to look intimidating.

  “That’s your mean face?” He shook his head. “Little lady, that face is too damn adorable to be threatening.”

  “Whatever. I want an answer.” I pouted.

  He rubbed the outside of my calf and settled back in his seat. The sigh he let out, let me know he was thinking hard about the best way to broach the subject. With his head resting against the concrete wall he looked straight ahead. The twitch in his brow made me follow his line of vision. It landed on a young, brown-skinned woman with long, intricately designed multicolored braids. She stared back at Sean, and he nodded in greeting. I pinched his arm since he was staring so long.

  “Ouch.” He flinched, rubbing the spot while laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” I arched my brow questioningly at him.

  “Three times,” Sean replied, cheeks turning a rosy hue.

  “Really? How in the heck? I’m shocked,” I responded, mouth hanging open.

  Sean stared straight at me with a serious expression on his face. “I’m wanted in three states for murder. I’m not who you think I am. I stole someone’s identity.”

  My eyes bulged with shock, and for about three seconds, I stopped breathing. I looked at Sean’s face carefully. His voice and demeanor were that of someone telling the truth. Not a single trace of jest written anywhere on his face. But I knew him better than anyone else. The slight shift of his posture and the twinkle of mischief in his eyes gave him away. Leaning forward, I narrowed my eyes and gave him a good wallop on the thick bulging muscles that corded his upper arm.

  “You’re so full of crap,” I added as he feigned hurt.

  “What…you don’t believe me?”

  “Of course, I don’t believe you.”

  “Which part don’t you believe?”

  “The last part, silly.” I pressed my leg into his thigh and rolled my eyes.

  Sean continued to rub my thigh. He nodded his head toward the girl sitting on the other side of the hallway. “You see that girl over there?”

  “What about her?” I asked, getting a dirty stare from the woman in question.

  “The first time I got arrested it was because of a girl that looked just like her. Dark skin, full pouty lips and a head full of the longest red and blond braids I’d ever seen.”

  “Really?” I arched a brow at him.

  While I didn’t want to judge a book by its cover, the woman didn’t look like she would be Sean’s type. But, then again, I didn’t think I was Sean’s type, and look how far we’d come since then.

  I peeked at the young woman sitting across from us. She patted her braided tresses with the heel of her hand in an attempt to relieve her irritated scalp. A loud popping of her gum made me focus my attention back to Sean. I really didn’t know how I felt about hearing his trip to jail was due to a woman.

  “Like, seriously? You, who didn’t lose your virginity until you went to college, went to jail over a woman?”

  “Yes. When we were in undergrad Brent, Ian, and I decided we were going to have the best Spring Break ever. It was a time of drinking and debauchery,” Sean said.

  He leaned his head to the side and looked at me out the corner of his eye. That penetrating stare he always gave me when he wanted me to listen intently to whatever he had to say.

  “Now, you have to imagine I had just had my first real taste of being with a woman just a few months prior. All the women I’d ever been with up until that night had all looked the same—thin and white. The first night we went out with a group of guys from the basketball team. There was a house party off campus. Not just any party, but the party. When we got there, it was clear we were the minority; if you know what I mean. The guys and I had no problems fitting in. Brent was a part of the team and very popular around campus, so he knew quite a bit of people there.”

  Sean’s head turned as the girl got up and walked down the hall. She flipped her long braids over her shoulders and popped her gum again. The slap of her flip-flops against the tile floor resonated in the quiet space.

  “Well, you know how house parties off campus are—not everyone who goes to those partie
s are students. Anyway, there were a few girls, who lived in a not-so-nice part of town, out on the dance floor having a good time. Brent got into the mix, and you know how he is, always ready to be the center of attention. You would think he was auditioning to be a backup dancer for a boy band the way he was acting. He left the dance floor, and he came back with all three of them—one each for me, Ian, and himself.”

  Sean chuckled and shook his head at the memory. His large hands scratched at the hairs sprouting underneath his chin.

  “I was a naïve, little white boy. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t like being around black people was new to me. But there was something about having a black woman showing me she was interested that just put me in a different place.”

  “Oh really?” I said feeling a twinge of jealousy.

  “Man, you should have seen me. I kept twirling her braids the entire conversation. We ended up going back to the car, and one thing led to another.” Sean turned his head and looked at me. “She was the first black girl I’d ever been with. She was thick just like you.”

  He cringed as I pinched him on his triceps. “I don’t know if I want to hear about you being with another woman.”

  “Trust me you have no reason to be jealous.” Sean chuckled lightly, leaned forward, and popped a kissed on my lips.

  “Anyway, after her and I came back inside we were met by a big blowup between Brent and one of the other guys. Apparently, the girl Brent ended up with had no scruples against cheating on her boyfriend. She must not have known that he’d show up to the party. To make matters worse, the guy was also the brother of the girl I just nailed in the backseat of Brent’s car. To say he was furious was an understatement.”

  “Oh snap. What happened after that?” I asked leaning in for the juicy details.

  “He and his friends must have thought just because we were white, we would punk out and run from a fight. Brent has a bit of a temper under his court jester persona that he likes to show everyone. Well, it came out that night. He wasn’t the first one to throw a punch, but he’s the last one to take a slight like that lightly. I remember him rubbing his jaw after being hit. All hell broke loose after that. The cops were called, and we were arrested along with the other guys. We were charged with disturbing the peace and public intoxication.”