“What’s all this? I don’t think I deserve it, whatever it is.”
Alicia turned around with a playful smile. “It’s your get-out-of jail-free card, querida. Everyone is entitled to act like a jackass when they have earth-shattering news to deal with. I made you arroz con pollo and empanadas and I’ll have a mojito for you in a few minutes. You are planning to get dressed, right?”
Adam didn’t answer; he danced his way over to her and grabbed her, starting a seductive merengue right there in the kitchen. Adam was a fantastic dancer and one of the things they loved to do on Saturday nights was go dancing, especially salsa dancing. Alicia laughed but had to point out that he was hardly dressed for dancing. “Put some clothes on so we can eat, you crazy man!”
Adam stopped moving and dropped the towel. “We can eat naked, Allie. In fact”—he leaned over her and whispered in her ear—“having no clothes on makes it easier.”
Alicia pretended to be shocked and tried to run away from him, which only made him lock his arms around her. “Adam, if we do this now what’s going to be dessert?” She laughed.
“Good point,” he conceded and kissed her hard before departing to put something on.
She smiled at his retreating figure, knowing she’d done the right thing by coming over. All the way to the condo she kept repeating it’s not my cat, it’s not my cat, but she couldn’t just leave things the way they were. As Adam had told her in Idlewild, she was supposed to love him out of his bad moods and not let him sit around and mope. So she decided to make him dinner and take it to him. The empanadas were in the freezer and just needed to be heated up. The chicken with rice was something any Cuban cook could make in a matter of minutes and it was always tasty. She’d made enough for Marielle and the children, too, and brought it over to the loft where it just required a little reheating and serving. The look of joy on Adam’s face told her that her mission was successful.
In a few minutes they were eating at the work island in the kitchen and Adam was effusive in his praise of Alicia’s cooking. “Allie, I still haven’t figured out how you can take something as basic as chicken and some rice and make it taste so exotic. You’re an amazing woman. You turned this from the worst day of my life into one of the best,” he told her. He leaned across the island to give her a kiss on the cheek.
She turned her face so that the kiss landed on her lips, a sweet soft smack that made her smile. “I’m glad, sweetheart I want to make all your days happy,” she said artlessly. Then her eyes widened as she realized her words could be interpreted in several ways.
Adam didn’t seem to have noticed, though, he merely stood up and began clearing their dishes off the island and rinsing them to put into the dishwasher. In minutes he had the kitchen as spotless as it was when she arrived. He turned around to find the kitchen empty and went in search of Alicia. She had opened the French doors and was standing out on the roof garden, sipping the last of her drink. The roof garden was what made the loft spectacular. It was bordered with evergreens in pots and there were two glass-topped tables with umbrellas and matching chairs as well as a couple of comfortable chaise longues. Alicia made sure that the big pots of flowering plants were kept well watered and clipped and in the summer it was a magical place for stargazing and relaxing. Adam came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, rubbing his face in her hair.
“I truly am sorry about what happened this afternoon, Allie. I had no right to go storming out of there and leave you with my family. I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the best of me like that”
She turned around in his arms so she could look at him directly. “Adam, your emotions are yours and no one, even me, can tell you how to react to something. It’s your right to respond to something the way you see fit, you’re not a machine. I can handle that. You know I come from a family who believes in expressing its feelings at the top of its collective lungs.” She laughed. “But when you won’t talk to me about it, I don’t know how to help you. Or if I can help you ...” Her voice trailed off and she was obviously thinking about something important. “You know before we were . . . involved I used to know what to do, I’d just leave your evil butt alone until you were over it. Now that doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. Isn’t that funny?” she mused.
Adam didn’t respond immediately, he just held her tighter. His deep voice seemed to resonate through her body as he spoke with his mouth close to her ear. “I resent that ‘evil’ comment. I may be aloof at times but I’m never evil,” he said loftily. “I do know that I’m not the easiest person to talk to at times, and I don’t mean to shut you out. But damn, Allie, for the life of me I can’t figure out how I feel about this. So much happened this weekend I’m still trying to get a handle on it. I think when I talk to Pop in person I can sort things out better. Right now, though, I really don’t want to talk about Pop or Idlewild or the phantom half brother,” he whispered.
Alicia sighed with pleasure and asked him what he wanted to talk about. He turned her around in his arms and slid his big hands down her back until they were firmly around her derriere. He lifted her up and she helped him by locking her legs around his waist. “I don’t really want to talk about anything except us, Allie.”
He kissed her and they reentered the loft with their arms looped around each other and their mouths joined together by the sensuous movements of their tongues. When they reached the bedroom, Adam reluctantly let her go long enough to lower her to the bed. He took off his shirt and jeans before getting on the bed with her. When she started to remove her own clothing, he stopped her. “Let me,” he said as he reached for her and made short work of the red dress.
They lay in each other’s arms, stroking each other and reveling in the feel of their bodies pressed close together. Adam reached over to the nightstand for the inevitable condom and while he was doing so, he also picked up the remote for the stereo system. With a flick of his thumb he selected something that made Alicia smile. The incomparable voice of Marvin Gaye floated out into the bedroom. She pulled away from Adam and straddled his body, taking the foil packet from his fingers. “So this is for medicinal purposes, is that it?”
“Absolutely, baby. ‘Sexual Healing’ is just what the doctor ordered,” he agreed. The lighthearted tone soon turned passionate as Alicia deftly slid the condom over his hardened sex. Adam slid his hands up her smooth thighs to her hips and then he held her firmly while he entered her, loving her soft sighs of pleasure. Alicia moved up and down slowly at first, until their rhythm was established and their ascent to ecstasy began. She looked down at Adam, not realizing how incredibly sexy she looked to him as the passion overtook her. Her skin was gleaming, her face wore a look of total abandon, and her nipples were huge and erect with fulfillment. Alicia braced her hands on his broad shoulders with her eyes locked on his and loved the profound look of love and desire he was giving her. The strong, sure thrusts brought the quivering explosion that bound them together in a powerful orgasm, so powerful that Alicia could feel hot tears coursing down her cheeks.
As she collapsed on top of Adam he stroked her over and over. “I love you, Allie. You’re mine, baby, you’re the one God intended just for me. I’m going to spend the rest of our lives making you happy,” he vowed.
Alicia sighed in repletion but before she could answer he spoke again. “You’re going to marry me, right?” She smiled against his neck and didn’t answer at first. She was too happy to speak just then and would have been content to bask in his love for a little longer, but he wasn’t having it. Adam gave her a squeeze and a little shake, repeating his question with just a hint of anxiety in his voice.
“Alicia, did you hear me? I just asked you if you were going to marry me.”
“Of course I am, you dope. Who else is going to love me like you do? And who else is there in the entire world I could love like I love you?” She kissed him with all the love she was feeling. “You’re mine, Adam, all mine. Of course we’re getting married.”
“Go
od. As soon as all this mess is resolved we’ll pick out a date. I just hope Pop comes to his senses soon so we can all get on with our lives,” he murmured.
Chapter Sixteen
The next morning Alicia knew she couldn’t wait any longer. If Adam was going to talk to Big Benny, she had to make sure he had all the facts. After their long, hot shower, made even hotter by their affectionate water play, she put on a short cotton robe of Adam’s that was much too big for her, but it at least covered her body. She went into the kitchen where Adam was already making breakfast for the two of them. His eyes lit up when he saw her. She just looked too adorable for words in the oversized robe. She sat on one of the tall stools by the work island and forlornly tried to roll up her sleeves. He could tell at once that something was bothering her.
Going over to her, he completed the task of getting the overlong sleeves out of the way and tilted her chin up for a kiss. “What’s bothering you, baby?”
She couldn’t put it off any longer. Urging him to sit down next to her, she repeated to him what the sisters had told her over the fateful weekend. His face didn’t change expression as she talked, telling him about the death of Big Bennie’s twin brother and the love affair that was destroyed by Francine’s lies. Finally she finished the story and took both his hands in hers.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away. I hope you can forgive me and not be too angry about it. I should’ve told you right away, but you’d had so much to deal with, and then your dad collapsed and that whole thing about his other son came out and...” She stopped talking abruptly and looked deeply into his eyes. “I’m just making excuses, Adam. I should have told you immediately. I apologize.”
Adam held her hands for a long moment, then bent his head and kissed each one. “Allie, I just realized what a jerk I am. If I wasn’t it wouldn’t have been so hard for you to come talk to me and you wouldn’t have put yourself through what was obviously a lot of turmoil. Sweetheart, you’re the one person in the world who can tell me anything, anytime, anywhere. How could I ever be angry with you for telling me the truth? Come here,” he coaxed, pulling her off the stool and into his lap.
“Alicia, chica, you’re the best thing that’s ever come into my life. You make my life have meaning, structure, and pure happiness. We’ve always been able to communicate about everything. We can’t let that change, baby. I understand why you felt you couldn’t talk to me before, but let that be the last time, okay?”
“Okay,” she said gravely. “Can I ask you something? Is this going to make talking to your father easier? I mean, now that you know more about his background?”
Adam thought a minute and rubbed his right earlobe between his thumb and forefinger. “Who knows, Allie? It should make it easier, but this is Pop we’re talking about. It all depends on how cooperative he wants to be.” He glanced at the kitchen clock. “We’d better eat fast and get out of here.”
Alicia agreed, saying she had two appointments that morning.
“Then it’s a good thing you brought your work clothes with you last night,” Adam reminded her. “In fact, why don’t you just move in with me?”
The only sound that could be heard was her fork hitting the thick pottery plate in front of her.
***
Adam greeted Martha with a kiss on the cheek and a sheaf of brightly colored spring flowers. “For putting up with my dad and making him happy,” he told her. “Where is he?”
“He’s out on the deck,” Martha told him. “I was just about to bring his lunch to him. Can I bring you something, too?”
Adam assured her that he was fine and went through the sunny living room of the condominium to the deck where his father was relaxing on a chaise longue. He had a glass of iced water with lemon slices at hand, and a copy of Black Enterprise on his lap. He looked like he was entertaining some very deep thoughts, but he heard Adam’s entrance and turned around to smile at him.
“Come on out, son, and have a seat It’s been a long time since we had a talk,” he said with dry understatement.
Adam leaned over and gave his father a kiss on the forehead. “How are you feeling, Pop? You gave us all a scare the other day. All that forbidden food, was it worth it?”
Big Benny didn’t have the grace to look the least bit embarrassed. “Probably not, but it was good going down. I won’t be doing it again, though. Martha swears she’ll leave me if I do.” He sighed deeply. “I’m going to have to toe the line from now on, I guess.” He glanced up at Adam and asked him to sit down again. “Quit hovering, you act like you’re about to fly out of here,” he said with a touch of his usual saltiness.
Adam pulled a chair next to the chaise and sat down, his long legs stretched out in front of him. He looked at his father, observing him carefully for the first time in a long time. They were so much alike physically, with their high cheekbones, sculptured lips, and firm, stubborn chins, that they could have been brothers if it weren’t for Big Benny’s snow-white hair. He still wore a thick moustache and neatly trimmed goatee and despite his occasional forays into forbidden foods, he’d kept his physique trim. The years had diminished very little of the man who was his father. This was the man he’d loved and respected his entire life, yet right now he felt as if he didn’t know the man at all.
“If you don’t feel up to talking about this right now I’ll understand. But you know I met the family when I went to Idlewild. Your great-aunt Emmaline, your aunts Reba, Daphne, and Dahlia, you know I met them. Why did you lie? You always said you had no family and we believed that. So now I want to know why, Pop. Those are the sweetest, funniest old ladies I ever met,” he said, sounding as confused as he looked. “And you’ve been pretending like they didn’t exist. I don’t get it.”
Big Benny didn’t respond immediately. He smiled suddenly and said, “Dilly and Daffy.”
“What, Pop?”
“Dahlia and Daphne. I called them Dilly and Daffy because they were so sweet and silly. Did they try to tell you they’re not twins? They’ve been doing that as long as I can remember and the sad thing is, they really believe it. You know they’re only two years older than me? Yeah, and Reba is three years younger. There were a bunch of kids in my father’s family. He was one of the middle children and when he married my mother, he had a brother who was a just a kid. His name was Richard but we all called him Buddy. Uncle Buddy started his family late, so I had aunts who were like my sisters.” He smiled fondly. “Great-aunt Emmaline, now, she must be a hundred by now,” he mused. She was a lot younger than my grandmother; she was the baby of the family. That was a big family, too. Did you meet any of your cousins? Dilly and Daffy and Reba all have their own families. A bunch of boys and a couple of girls, if I recall.”
“What happened, Pop? You obviously have fond memories of them. What happened to make you leave?”
After another long pause, Big Benny started talking and the story he told wasn’t that different from the one Alicia had told Adam that morning. “After Aaron drowned, my mother was never the same. She was always nervous, always afraid to let me out of her sight. I tried my best to never cause her any worry. In fact, I became the ideal son, hard as that is to believe. I was actually kind of a sissy-boy, if you can imagine that. No sports, no school activities of any kind, I came straight home every day and did whatever she wanted me to do, which was mostly sit and keep her company. I didn’t mind too much, because I wanted to please her, to make her happy. I guess I felt guilty for being alive when my brother wasn’t, who knows?
“My father told me my most important job was to keep her happy and that’s what I did. Up until the summer I graduated from high school, that is. That’s the summer I met Cassandra.” He sighed, lost in memories. “Cassandra Hightower was from Indiana and she came to Idlewild to work as a hostess in my father’s club, the Hacienda. I knew from the minute I laid eyes on her that she was the one for me. She was a sweet girl: tall and pretty with this long coal-black hair and great big eyes. She had a smile so adorab
le it could break your heart She wanted to be a teacher and she was earning the money to go to school. Her father knew my father and that’s how she ended up coming to Idlewild.
“Cassandra was a good girl, too, a church girl. All the hostesses did was greet people, seat them, and make them feel at home. She wasn’t a waitress or a shake dancer; now, they were older and more exotic. A lot of the dancers and waitresses dated the customers, of course, but the hostesses tended to be younger and more innocent, especially Cassandra. Nobody would have dared say anything to her anyway, because I was a big guy even back then and it was understood that I was her boyfriend.”
Benny paused and drank some water before continuing. “I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life, son. When she wasn’t working and I wasn’t working, we were together. We rode horses together, we went for long walks, we spent a lot of time on the lake, and we did just about everything together. Everybody thought it was so cute, the two of us. My father liked her a lot, thought she was a sweet little thing. My mother, well, she hated her on sight. Hated her so much she concocted this huge lie about Cassandra being my father’s mistress. I wouldn’t have believed her, but Dilly and Daffy and Reba all swore it was true. Adam, they might as well have taken out a gun and shot me dead, because it just about killed me.
“I left Idlewild that night and never went back. I never wanted to see any of them again, especially my father, the man I idolized. I couldn’t believe that he could be so low as to cheat on my mother and to do it with someone as young and innocent as Cassandra. Everything just seemed to go to hell after that. I went into the army and after basic training I got shipped off to the Philippines, and when my mother killed herself, I was in a hospital with dysentery. Couldn’t come home to see her buried and I knew I was the reason she did it. After she died, my father sold the club and moved to Grand Rapids. He just couldn’t stand to be there without her, I guess. I’ve always felt bad that I never contacted him again, that he died without one decent word from me.”
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