Thinking of the way he’d tasted last night caused a small sensation to travel up her thighs. She so wanted to touch and taste him again. But did she dare? She, more than anyone, knew what her obsession with Jason could lead to, especially when a lack of protection was involved.
She had become darn near addicted to making love to him, almost from the very first time. She had wanted him with a passion that refused to be quelled. Once she had gotten over the initial guilt of having premarital sex and let her love for him and her desire and attraction take over, she’d been a goner. She couldn’t get enough back then, and that was how she’d ended up pregnant.
“I’ll take a shower with you, and then we can kill two birds with one stone. That way, if you don’t mind stopping by my place so I can get into a change of clothes, I can take you to get a rental car before I go to work.”
“Parts of your plan sound good, Jason…”
Too dang good.
She let her eyes zoom back to his prideful manhood standing tall. “But don’t you think it would be a little more than unwise for us to shower together…”
“I promise, anything we do in the shower will be safe.” He gave her that wicked grin of his. “I’m sure you remember, before we actually had sex the first time, we found lots of innovative ways to find release. Feel like playing a little bit more?”
Her heart flip-flopped as it always did when he smiled.
Good God, yes!
But did she trust herself to taste and touch but not go all the way? Sure she did. “Last one in the shower is a scrub.”
She took off to the door and out of her bedroom, with Jason close at her heels. Their lifelong competitive streak kicked in full blast as they raced down the hall to the bathroom.
She remembered every moment of that scandalous shower as she stood in Carla’s room, waiting for the doctors to discharge her mother. She could still feel the tingles on her skin from every place his tongue had touched. She still felt the heavy thudding in her heart as she replayed his parting words. “Next time, we take this to my place. As much as I loved the nostalgia of Big Mama’s house, the thought of making love to you again with Ralph, Ronnie, Johnny, Ricky, Mike and sometimes Bobby watching isn’t sexy.”
She’d playfully slapped him on the arm when he joked about the old New Edition posters still hanging in her bedroom at Big Mama’s. The room had become a shrine to her preteen and teenage years, when she’d had a super crush on the boy band.
However, once she realized her feelings for Jason, there wasn’t a thing any pop singer could have done for her, not even Ralph Tresvant. And she had loved Ralph Tresvant.
Penny relished the fact that Jason was hinting that there would be a next time between the two of them.
She knew she had to be careful, though. There might not be any after-sex regrets yet. But she knew they were coming.
Jason surely couldn’t have forgiven her if he thought she had really betrayed him with Terrill. And even if he had forgiven her, once he found out it had all been a lie, he would never forgive her for that.
So why was she grinning like a fool and gazing into space at the thought of him making love to her again?
Her heart was only going to end up broken.
“Why you looking all dazed and confused?” Carla nudged her and gave her a thorough once-over.
Penny cleared her throat. “I’m not dazed, or confused.”
“Mmm…hmm…you got that I’m-so-in-love look on your face.” Carla turned up her mouth in disgust. “Aww, man! Don’t do it, Brat.”
“Don’t do what, Carla?”
“Don’t go falling for that uppity Hightower boy again. He’s out of your league. Even though you have made a success of yourself and all that…In this town, with his family, we still the underdogs. You need to be checking for that other one.” Carla rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth.
Penny folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips. Even though Carla was making a huge amount of sense to her at the moment, she found it disturbing that she had sunken to a level where Carla, of all people, had to get her focused and on track.
“What other one?”
“The one in California. Y’all are from the same neighborhood. You both worked your way out of Paterson to Los Angeles…. Plus, he’s gonna make me a star when we move there! Focus, Brat! We need to get on out there today or tomorrow, before you get sidetracked and end up in that Hightower boy’s bed again. Then you’d probably be trying to stay here or something. We need to cut Paterson loose and start over. California, Brat, me and you. California. Focus.”
Penny huffed and pointed to the wheelchair. “Get in this thing and let’s go home. I’ve got to get out of here. How do you feel about going with me to handle some of Big Mama’s affairs? I’m not sure how I feel about leaving you in the house alone, especially since you won’t come clean about who attacked you.”
Carla got in the wheelchair. “We need to just leave and go to L.A. You can handle the rest of that stuff by phone. You ain’t gotta stay here for that. I don’t feel like riding around and sitting in no car.”
Penny started rolling Carla’s mouthy behind down the corridor. “Oh, but you’re up for a four-hour plane ride to the West Coast?”
“Yep. I thought you’d never ask. When do we leave?”
“We aren’t leaving. I’m going back when I get done settling Big Mama’s estate. And I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you yet.”
Carla sucked her teeth. “Well, I guess you’ll be coming back to bury me soon enough. But don’t worry, you won’t be here long settling my affairs, ’cause I ain’t got nothing.”
Now why did she have to say that? Penny thought of finding Carla on the floor bleeding. She knew she wasn’t ready to lose her mother. But was she really ready for Carla to move to Los Angeles?
As they made it to the hospital exit, she saw her father coming in.
“Don’t you have work or something? What’re you doing back here? We fine. We don’t need you, Gerald.” Carla’s agitated voice held just a hint of panic.
Gerald simply gazed at Carla. “Well, I figured I’d come back and check up on you anyway.”
Either he’s getting off on annoying the heck out of Carla, or he’s really in love with her.
Penny chuckled at her thoughts. The look in his eyes was definitely the expression of a man in love, not a man playing games. Penny couldn’t believe the devotion she saw shining in her father’s eyes.
The way Carla constantly dissed the man, Penny was surprised he even bothered. Penny decided right then and there that she’d make more of an effort to get to know her father. It was only fair.
“I’m glad you’re here, Gerald. I’d love it if you could stay at the house with my mother while I go and handle some errands. I shouldn’t be more than a few hours, and I don’t want to leave her alone in the house, since she won’t say who attacked her and they might come back.” She gave Carla a pointed look.
Gerald’s face lit up as he nodded in agreement. “That’s a great idea, Penny. I’d be happy to stay with her and watch over her.”
Carla made a show of sucking her teeth.
“What? Oh, what part of the damn game is this?” Carla hissed before turning her lips up. “How the two of you gonna just gang up on me? Brat, you hardly know this man. You’ve known me all your life. And yet you side with him? I’ll tell ya, the game done changed. No loyalty at all.”
“I’m looking out for your best interests. So let’s get you home and settled, so I can do what I have to do. The sooner I’m done, the sooner I can be back and relieve you of your torture.”
“I don’t need him to stay with me. I’ll be fine.”
“Well, I’ll worry less with him there. What if the attacker comes back, Carla?” Penny shuddered at the thought.
The mention of the possibility of another attack must have gotten through to Carla.
“Fine. Fine. It’s not like you ever listen to me anyway. Nobody ev
er listens to me.” Carla sulked, but at least she stopped arguing.
Penny gave her father a weary look and almost pitied him until she noticed he still had that awestruck expression on his face as he gazed at Carla. She guessed he was happy any time he could spend time with Carla.
Love must make people crazy! Penny mused as she vowed to try and keep her own ever-growing insanity in check.
Jason spent part of his day at the downtown precinct going through the now reopened murder case that had sent Gerald to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He also went back over Gerald’s record. Even if the man hadn’t been the one to attack Carla, Jason had a nagging suspicion Gerald was somehow connected.
The murdered couple had been Good Samaritan community activists. They had been known to call in and report drug deals or any other crimes going on. Technically, any of the criminals they had reported could have been the one to kill them. It just so happened that Gerald had been the last person seen in the area and he’d argued with the husband about their snitching on him. Most of the evidence against him had been circumstantial. But it had been enough to convince a jury to find him guilty.
Lucky for Gerald, both victims had gotten DNA evidence from the real murderer on them. The technology hadn’t been as sophisticated then as it was now. But advances had helped to clear him some thirty years later, and the same technology would help the police to find and arrest the real murderer.
Jason couldn’t figure out why he had a feeling the two cases might be connected. But he never ignored a hunch. Even if the two cases weren’t connected, his feelings about Penny seemed to give both of her parents’ cases priority in his mind.
Jason knew Carla’s history wasn’t squeaky-clean. From what he could remember, she used to run with a pretty wild crowd, especially when she was hooked on crack. But based on what he’d seen of her over the past five years, and his visits with Big Mama, he thought she’d left all that behind her.
Whoever beat her the other day hadn’t stolen anything. In his mind, that ruled out any of her junkie friends.
On the other hand, Gerald was a former dealer and street hustler. Based on what Jason had read, Gerald hadn’t been big-time, but he’d seemed to be headed in that direction before the murder charge. Maybe one of Gerald’s enemies was using Carla to send a message to Gerald. Maybe one of his enemies had set him up for the murder. And if that was the case, how long would it take before he upped the ante and harmed Penny?
Rubbing his head in frustration, he leaned back in his chair. He had to find a way to get Carla to talk. Or maybe he could get Old Lady Henderson back down here to look at some more mug shots. He needed a name and a face. He needed to find the culprit and get rid of any threat to Penny.
Thinking about Penny’s mother’s case provided a nice distraction from his other thoughts of Penny. He couldn’t believe he’d actually made love to her. How had he gone from wanting answers and closure to darn near starting another relationship?
And what would he do if he…no, when he got the answers he’d waited all these years for? Because he was just as determined as ever to find out the truth. If anything, making love to her had made him desire the truth even more. But he had said he wouldn’t badger her about it until he found out what happened to Carla.
What kind of idiotic promise was that?
The kind you make when you want to make love to the sexiest woman you’ve ever known, the only woman who ever had your heart. Stupid!
When his cell phone rang, it didn’t take much for him to agree to meet his brother Joel for lunch.
Halfway into the lunch, he started to regret his decision.
“Do you really think you’re cool with the fact that she was with Terrill? That she left you for Terrill after she lost the baby?” Joel took a bite of his Johnny’s Grill Texas-style hot dog. Johnny’s was Joel’s favorite spot to eat, and talking him into trying another place was always a no-win battle.
North Jersey probably had more spots where you could get a Texas-style hot dog than the great state of Texas. There had to be hundreds of places serving them in Passaic County alone. But, out of all the restaurants, Joel swore by Johnny’s Grill.
Johnny’s Grill was packed, as usual; the restaurant kept folks coming in for their legendary wieners. The lunchtime hustle and bustle had a crowd of just about every class, creed and color that made up North Jersey’s multicultural population. Blacks and Latinos, Italians and Jews, all were packed in at the red and platinum chairs and tables, chomping down the signature dogs.
“All the way-way,” could be heard, along with whatever number of hot dogs folks were ordering, as the cashiers behind the counter shouted orders back to the kitchen.
“’Cause I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be able to forgive it, man.” Joel took another bite, chewed and swallowed. “I’m telling you, man, Johnny’s Grill has the best hot dogs in the area, if not the world.”
He closed his eyes and smacked his lips in reverence to the deep-fried, chili sauce, onions and mustard-covered tube of beef on a bun. Then he pinned Jason with a know-it-all stare. “I love Penny to death. I still think of her like a little sister, even though she ripped out your heart, stomped on it and handed it back to you. And if it had been any other guy but Terrill, I might even say give it another try. But it was Terrill, man. Terrill!” Joel stuck his fork in his cheese fries.
Jason had to laugh at his brother’s love for the deep-fried hot dogs and gravy-covered fries. The man was lucky he was in such excellent shape and had such a physically demanding job, because those hot dogs would have a lesser man looking more than a little round, the way Joel put them away every chance he got.
Jason sighed and took a sip of his root beer. “How did we get on the subject of Penny?”
“’Cause you have that same lovesick expression on your face you had at dinner. And since I’m a man who likes to watch out for my younger brother, I have to save you from yourself.” He paused and took swig of his root beer before continuing.
“Now, should you put the past behind you and stop letting it get to you? Yes. Should you be cordial to Penny and Terrill and show them their betrayal didn’t break you? Damn straight. But getting intimately or emotionally involved with Penny Keys again is a sucker move, baby bro. Sucker move. And I can’t let you go out like that.”
Too late.
“Look, I can appreciate your advice, especially given you’re all of two years older than me and have so much more wisdom.” Jason couldn’t contain the sarcasm lacing his tone and he didn’t want to. “But my love life is my business.”
“Love life? See, I’m too late. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Why don’t you let me hook you up with someone?”
Jason slanted his eyes. “Now I know you know I don’t need any help meeting women.”
Joel grinned. “All right. So why are you getting caught up with Penny again? She’s going back to Los Angeles, right? And who else is in Los Angeles? Let’s say you can forgive and forget what happened between Penny and Terrill, and the two of you start something real, right here and right now. Can you honestly say you’d be cool with her living in Los Angeles with the man who broke you guys up before right there? Yeah, right!”
“It’s time to change the subject. You’ve had your say, almighty big brother of mine.” Jason pushed away from the table. “Gotta get back to work. Some of us have to protect the streets and keep the riffraff at bay.”
“Yeah, one of those cold cases you’re obsessed with might get warm while you’re having lunch. Here’s some more free advice, because I’m feeling kind. A case that has gone unsolved for twenty-plus years probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.” Joel chuckled at his own cleverness.
“Oh, go put out a fire. I’ll catch you later. Love you, bro.”
Both stood, hugged and gave each other pounds. No matter how much he and his brothers got on each other’s nerves, they still made a point of hugging each other goodbye and saying I love you. With the dangerous jobs th
ey held, they knew anything could happen and they didn’t want to have their last words to one another be words of anger.
“Later. Love you, too, man.”
Penny didn’t know who was getting on her nerves more—her spoiled, snotty mother or the father who was overindulgent and had taken up permanent residence as Carla’s doormat. It wasn’t so much that he let Carla walk all over him, but he didn’t check her at all.
While Penny could appreciate his whole baby-I’m-back-and-I’m-not-going-anywhere routine, when she added Carla’s sulking I-don’t-care-what-you-do-I’m-not-giving-you-another-chance spiel to the mix, it had all the fixings to drive her crazy and make her willing to do anything to get out of the house.
Anything.
As she sat in the living room, watching the evening game shows with her parents, she sent out a desperate plea into the universe for someone, anyone, to come and save her from the slapstick comedy that her life had become.
She’d never been so pleased to hear a doorbell ring—until she saw it was Jason.
Oh, the tightening of her nipples and the sudden soaking feeling she felt in her panties as she remembered the previous evening signaled she was more than a little happy to see him on one level. But after spending the day going over all the reasons why things would never work between them, and how her mother and his aunt Sophie were right, she wasn’t in his league, he was the last person she needed to see.
“Hi, Jason.”
“Hey. Can I come in?”
Duh. She was standing there looking like an idiot. The man probably had information about who had attacked Carla.
“Sure. Do you have information about the case?”
“I don’t have any leads yet. It would be so much easier if your mother would just talk.” He shook his head in frustration and added sarcastically, “Oops, I meant regain her memory.” He didn’t believe Carla’s story any more than Penny did.
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