Denise always waited for Rhett to get out and come around to open the door for her, but tonight was different. She was out of the car before he cut off the engine. The front door opened and Geraldine stood in the doorway, waiting. The car’s doors closing sounded unusually loud in the stillness of the warm summer night. The hoot of an owl and the incessant chirping of crickets serenaded the quiet countryside.
She waited for Rhett, and hand-in-hand they approached Geraldine Russell. Her hair, held off her face with a wide headband, looked as if she’d combed it with her fingers. The T-shirt she’d put on backward over a pair of cropped jeans was evidence she’d gotten dressed in a hurry, or in the dark.
Geraldine kissed her son and the young woman she’d come to think of as her daughter. “Thank you for coming so quickly.” Even though she had Maynard, she’d felt as alone and frightened as she had at sixteen. She opened the door wider. “Please come in.” Denise walked into an entryway, Rhett following, and she closed the door behind them.
“Where’s Russ?” Rhett asked, looking around for his stepfather.
“He won’t be joining us.”
“What’s going on, Mom? You called me in hysterics asking me and Denise to drop everything and come here, and now you tell me your husband won’t be joining us. Did he do something to you?”
Geraldine rested a hand on her son’s shoulder. “No. Maynard Russell would never hurt me.”
“Where is he, Mom?”
“He’s in the bedroom. I told him that it would go better if I was alone with you and Denise to tell you—”
“You’re not sick?” Rhett asked, as fear filled his eyes.
A hint of a smile broke through Geraldine’s expression of uncertainty. “No, I’m not sick. Come in the kitchen. I just brewed a pot of coffee.”
Denise lagged behind, staring in awe at the living room filled with light from diamond-paned windows or light screens. Antique runners on gleaming wood floors imbued a sense of warmth and richness, and artificial light diffused through colored panels and skylights were reminiscent of the style attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright.
The smell of freshly brewed coffee lingered in the kitchen as Rhett wrapped an arm around Denise’s waist and led her over to a breakfast nook, seating her on a cushioned bench seat at the rectangular oak table.
“Sit down, Mom. I’ll bring the coffee.”
He poured coffee into delicate china cups for his mother, Denise and himself, placing them on the table already set with place mats and serving pieces. The silence in the room was deafening when he opened the refrigerator for a container of cream. He sat down beside Denise and opposite Geraldine, watching her under lowered lids as she added dollops of cream to her coffee until she achieved the shade she sought.
“We’re ready.” It was his signal for her to talk.
Geraldine stared at her cup. Overhead light glinted off the older woman’s flawless dark face. “What I’m about to tell you should’ve been told years ago.” Her head popped up, her gaze steady. “I’ve lost count of the number of times you’ve asked me about your father, and I never could work up the nerve to tell you, Garrett, until now.”
His hands tightened around the china cup. “Why did you change your mind?”
Picking up a napkin, she blotted the corners of her eyes. “I don’t want him to die without giving you a chance to meet him.”
Rhett leaned forward. “Is my father dying?”
“I don’t know. The last news report was that he’d suffered a massive heart attack.” Her reply was a whisper.
Suddenly it hit him, the realization rocking him to the core. “Is Trey Chambers Sr. my father?” Geraldine nodded as tears streamed down her face unchecked. Rhett got up and sat next to her. Reaching for a napkin, he wiped gently at her tears. “Tell me about it, Momma.”
Geraldine broke down, sobbing inconsolably. Her son calling her Momma was like going back to a time when she fought to keep her son safe, to make sacrifices in her life so he wouldn’t repeat her life and that of his grandmother’s.
“I was sixteen when I met Trey for the first time,” she said after she’d regained control of her emotions.
Rhett and Denise listened, stunned as Geraldine told of working part-time at a restaurant to earn money to help out her single mother and save enough to pay for her senior prom. She had put off plans to attend college part-time because her mother’s asthma had made it more and more difficult for her to work.
Trey would come to the restaurant several nights a week and sit at Geraldine’s table. “He was the foreman at a construction site in my neighborhood, but what I hadn’t known at the time was his father and uncles were in the business of buying up properties in low-income D.C. and Baltimore neighborhoods. Some they renovated but many were left to deteriorate. He would leave me tips that the other waitresses would have to work a week to collect.
“First there was the money, then gifts like gold earrings, a silk scarf, a shopping spree where I would select beautiful lingerie and cashmere sweaters. When I asked him why he was spending so much money on me he said it was his wish to make me happy. Of course, he being older said all the things I wanted to hear. What I hadn’t known at the time was he was dating another woman in his social circle. I’d become the plaything across the tracks that kept him occupied when his fiancée was busy with her Jack and Jill and sorority meetings.
“Everything came to a crashing halt when he told me that he had to get married to save his father’s company. In other words, it was to be a marriage of convenience. What I hadn’t known at the time was that his girlfriend was pregnant and they’d opted to marry sooner rather than later that year. The day I discovered I was also pregnant was the day my mother died from an asthma attack. The social worker from social services arranged for me to live with my aunt, who’d never married or had children. She asked me once who the father of my child was. I was too ashamed to tell her, and she never asked again. I dropped out of school and went to work while Aunt Audrey watched my son.”
Rhett closed his eyes, digesting what his mother had revealed. “Why,” he asked, opening his eyes, “did you enroll me in Marshall Foote knowing your former lover’s son was also there?”
Geraldine’s eyes narrowed. “It was the only way I could make him pay for his deceit. I knew he would send his son to the boarding school, because he’d been one of four students who’d integrated Marshall Foote back in the day. I wanted him to see that I’d moved on, and that he’d given me a gift that was priceless. When he saw me with a young boy whom he knew had to be his son I thought he was going to pass out. I could see him mentally doing the math, and I told him Garrett was my son, would never be his and I had no intention of messing up his so-called perfect life.”
“What did he say, Mom?”
“Thank you.”
Rhett blinked. “That’s it?”
Geraldine gave him a tender smile. “That was it. I read later that his wife had filed for divorce and Trey was already looking for her replacement. It was apparent Trey could not remain faithful to any woman.”
“Like father like junior,” Rhett mumbled under his breath. “Do you know if senior told junior that we were half-brothers?”
“I don’t know. That’s something you’re going to have to ask him when…or if he survives.”
Rhett, still numbed by the news that he and Trey Chambers were brothers, placed his hand over his mother’s. “Have you told Russ?”
Geraldine grew teary again. “Yes. I had to tell him.”
“What did he say?”
“What he always says. He loves me.” Blowing out her cheeks, Geraldine stood up. “Let me go and get my husband. It’s time I introduce him to his future daughter-in-law.”
Denise waited for Geraldine to walk out of the kitchen, then moved to sit beside Rhett. He took her hand, threading their fingers together. She didn’t say anything only because she didn’t know what to say, knowing it would take time for Rhett to come to grips with the revelation
that his brother had systematically planned to destroy his happiness.
She rose to her feet when Maynard Russell entered the kitchen, walking into his outstretched arms. Russ was only several inches taller than his wife. His light brown skin was still smooth; dimples and a sprinkling of freckles afforded him a boyish look. His graying sandy-colored hair was cropped close to his well-shaped head.
“We finally meet,” Maynard said, kissing her cheek. “Gerri has been bragging about her beautiful daughter and I agree with her. You are lovely.”
Denise nodded, pressing a light kiss to his jaw. “Thank you, Father.”
Maynard glared at Rhett over her shoulder. “You call me Russ, while this beautiful child calls me Father. Son, you’ve picked a real winner.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Rhett winked at his mother’s husband. “What can I say? We’ve got impeccable taste when it comes to women.”
“No lie,” Maynard drawled. “You guys must be exhausted, so I want you to bed down in one of the guest rooms. Everything will look clearer in the morning.”
“Come, darlings,” Geraldine crooned, leading the way out of the kitchen. Rhett and Denise exchanged a glance, then followed.
Trey Chambers Sr. survived his heart attack and sailed down to his vacation home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to convalesce. It took Trey Jr. longer to recuperate. The assault had left him with a concussion, six broken ribs, a broken nose, fractured leg and cheek.
Rhett found himself spending hours in his brother’s hospital room, waiting for him to surface from his heavily drugged state so he could ask questions and put their past to rest. He had Stanley Tolpin contact the board members of Chambers Properties to inform him that his client was still interested in investing in the real estate company. Instead of a takeover, his client now sought a partnership.
“Mr. Fennell, Mr. Chambers is lucid and can speak to you now.”
Rhett popped from the chair like a jack-in-the-box. He’d spent the past hour in the hospital’s solarium, reading. He smiled at the nurse. “Thank you.”
He hadn’t realized how fast his heart was beating until he walked into the private room to find Trey sitting up in bed. Most of the bruises dotting his face were beginning to fade. A two-week stay in a hospital room had robbed his olive complexion of its natural rich color.
Standing at the foot of the bed, he and Trey engaged in a stare-down. “How are you feeling?”
Trey ran a hand over his hair. “I’ve been better.” He closed his eyes. “Just say better than the other day.”
“What happened?”
“I got my ass kicked.”
Rhett’s impassive expression didn’t change. “Why?”
“I owe gambling debts.”
“How much do you owe, Trey?”
“A lot.”
“How much is a lot, brother?”
Trey closed his eyes. “You know?”
“Hell yeah, I know. What I want to know is when did you know?”
Trey’s chest rose and fell heavily. “When Dad found out that you were graduating at the top of the class and I was near the bottom he let it slip that the son of a high-school dropout was smarter than one whose mother had graduated college with honors. That’s when he told me you were his son. I’d always been jealous of how easy it was for you to get As, when I was lucky to get a C. Then, when you’d managed to snag one of the prettiest, most intelligent black girls on campus I knew I had to mess up your perfect world.”
Rounding the bed, Rhett sat on the chair next to the bed. “It looks as if your perfect world has imploded. I’m not going to pay off your debts. I’m willing to make Chambers Properties a partner of CMP. Your father will be given a generous retirement package, while you will be demoted. I will pair you up with someone who knows the ins and outs of the real estate business. You will be evaluated at the end of a year and, based on your job performance, I’ll decide whether to keep you on or fire your ass.”
“What about my debts? The moment I walk out of this hospital someone will be out there waiting for me.”
“I don’t want to know who you owe. However, I’m going to send someone to see you and you’ll give him the name. Then, he’ll negotiate with your loan shark as to how he wants to be paid. The first thing you’re going to put on the table as a bargaining chip is your Thoroughbred.”
“No!”
“Yes, Trey,” Rhett countered heatedly. “It’s betting on something with four legs that put you in that bed, and if you don’t want to end up in a box six feet under, then you will sell the horse. My person will have you sign a power of attorney, giving him the authority to sell the animal to pay off your debts. Tell me now if you agree with what I’m proposing, because when I walk out of this room the deal will be off the table.”
Trey nodded. “Okay.”
Rhett leaned over, patting his shoulder. “Hurry up and get well, brother. You’re going to have to work for the first time in your worthless life.”
He walked out of the room and bumped into Denise. She’d called to tell him she would meet him in the hospital’s visitor parking lot. “I know I’m early, but I didn’t want to wait downstairs.”
Rhett angled his head and took possession of her sweet mouth. “Let’s go to the Cape.”
Denise rested a hand over his heart. “You want to go tonight?”
He gave her a tender smile. “Yes, tonight. It’s been too long since we’ve had a quiet evening at home.”
“How long has it been, darling?” Denise asked.
“Too long, baby.”
And it had been. Since Geraldine’s frantic telephone call it was as if their cloistered world had been turned upside down. He’d spent most of his free time at the hospital, and when he went home to Denise it was to fall asleep in her scented embrace.
He loved her, loved her more than he could’ve imagined loving a woman.
He’d waited six years for her. But now he was counting down the months, weeks and days when he would claim her as his wife. Denise Eaton had tempted him not once, but twice, and both times he’d succumbed to the woman who’d captured his heart forever.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7000-2
TWICE THE TEMPTATION
Copyright © 2010 by Rochelle Alers
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Twice the Temptation Page 18