“Okay. Whatever you need.”
“And I wanna show you something,” she said, grabbing her phone from her lap, swiping and tapping on it, then handing it to me. It was an Instagram account for a young girl named Stacy Bradshaw. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, and her profile was full of smiling pictures of her—in a high school cheerleading uniform, in a Crimson Tide sweatshirt, in a unicorn onesie. Some were of her alone, others with friends and family. She was beautiful, tall, and thin, just like Bridgette.
As I stared at the phone, Bridgette said, “I was nine when I was first taken from my mother and put in a series of foster homes after she and her mother were arrested for drug possession. My father was already in jail by then, and my uncle was overseas in the service, so he couldn’t take me, not that I think he would’ve wanted to. He was never close to his mother and sister—my grandmother and mother. Anyway, I was allowed to move back home with my mother when I was ten after she went to rehab and got her own place, and the damn foster homes were so bad, I was actually glad to go back to her. Then she moved back in with her mother about five months later. I stayed with her almost two years before the sorry-ass case worker finally realized I was back in that house with those men coming in and out—crackheads, random niggas off the street, any and everybody. My grandmother’s house was always a flop house. But by then, I was already pregnant. I was twelve, and the man who got me pregnant was in his thirties. He was once my grandmother’s man. He was nice to me, was always giving me things, and when he started touching me, I just went along with it because he told me it was okay and there was no one in my life to tell me otherwise. He said I was his girlfriend and that he loved me, and I thought that was cool, so I just did whatever he said. Anyway, when I ended up pregnant, my grandmother started talking about how she’d been dreaming about catfish and that she should’ve known I’d turn out to be a whore. That word? The way she said it? It did something to me, made me feel like I did something bad, like me being pregnant was all my fault. It took a long time for me to understand that I was the victim, that I should’ve been protected from that. They were in the house when it happened, every time it happened, and I believe they knew. I’m pretty sure he paid my grandmother for me, knowing her.”
I swear I wanted to dig her grandmother up and kick her ass. “This is the baby? This is your daughter?” I asked. “Does Jo know about her? Were you gonna tell me about her?”
“Jo knows about everything, except the Lazarus Holmes thing. Haven’t gotten around to telling her that yet, and I was gonna tell you. I just…I wasn’t ready.”
I nodded and set the phone down, giving her my attention.
“I gave her up at birth,” she continued. “It was a closed adoption, but I had a…a friend who worked for the state and she was able to track her down for me. I’ve never contacted her, but I keep up with her through social media.”
“It looks like she’s happy.”
“I believe she is. I believe I did the right thing by giving her up. I have no regrets about that. I mean, I was twelve and living in a youth home. How could I have taken care of her?”
“Is she why you don’t want kids…anymore kids?”
She sighed. “I’m not gonna lie and say that wasn’t a traumatic experience, having a baby at that age, but truthfully, being a mother has just never been in my plans, like I said before. I wanna conquer this acting world, travel, be free, and love you. That’s it. You still okay with that?”
“Yeah, baby. I already told you I’m good with it. I just want you to be okay. That’s all I care about.”
“I’m gonna be okay as long as you never stop loving me.”
“I can’t. You’re in my soul now. You’re a part of me. I’ll love you until the day I die, and then my damn ghost will love you.”
She smiled and leaned in to kiss me. “I do think I got the best McClain man.”
“And I got the best Bridgette Turner. Hey, let’s be lazy and spend the day in bed. I can order some food, we can watch some movies, or we can make a movie…”
“Okay, just a second.” She took her phone from my lap and I watched as she texted Jo:
Nolan knows and he still loves me. I am so damn lucky. So blessed.
29
“We in here!” I yelled, after Black, one of Jo’s and South’s newer bodyguards, opened the door for us. “This better be good, because I’m supposed to be learning lines for my next project and I’m missing a Swamp Murders marathon.”
“Thank God,” Nolan mumbled.
“I heard that,” I said.
“You heard what, baby?”
Once we made it into the living room, I stopped in my tracks. Jo, who had packed forty pounds onto her tiny frame during her pregnancy with Lena, was wearing a tight little black dress, looking too cute. “Dang, bish! Little Lena done sucked you into a mean-ass snap-back! Oops, where’s Nat?”
“In bed. You know it’s past her bedtime,” Jo responded. “And before you ask, Lena is upstairs with Ms. Sherry. I swear all you care about is my kids. Just…fuck me.”
“True,” I said.
Jo rolled her eyes.
Nolan stepped from behind me and bent down to give Jo, who was sitting on the sofa, a hug. “Hey, sis-in-law.”
“Hey, Nolan. I don’t know what you see in this woman.”
“Shit, me either,” Nolan said.
I tilted my head and lifted a brow. “I’ma remember you said that later on.”
“Aw, baby. You know I’m playing.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Hey, Jo…where’s Ev?” Nolan asked.
“Right here,” South replied, walking into the room with Neil right behind him.
As Nolan, South, and Neil slapped hands and pulled each other into hugs—damn they were all fine, and since South had made Neil trim that wild-ass beard of his, he and Nolan really looked identical—I turned to Jo, and said, “Guess what we brought to this little shindig?” as the doorbell rang.
Before Jo could respond, Nolan said, “Pineapple vodka.”
“Oh, hell yeah!” That was Leland, walking into the room with his arm around his wife’s waist. She was so pretty to me, and that skin of hers was gorgeous! And unlike mine, her body made sense. Shit, she had curves everywhere. And that baby boy on her hip? I could just eat his little cheeks!
“I didn’t know you were gonna be here, man!” Nolan said, as he and Leland gave each other dap.
“Shit, Papa Ev said to be here, so I’m here. Plus, the season is over, so we been out here for a minute. You’d know that, but your ass be up under your woman all the time.”
“I know you ain’t talking. And have you forgotten that I’m running a film studio, got a film in theaters right now that I’m pushing, and I manage your damn club on top of trying to keep up with this woman here?” Nolan said, as he moved behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I tilted my head back so that he could kiss my neck.
“Oh, y’all are so cute!” Kim gushed, as she fell onto the sofa next to Jo who quickly grabbed Little Leland—who wasn’t so little anymore—and pulled him into her lap.
“Yeah, they cute, but do you know she taller than you, Nole?” Leland teased.
Nolan spun me around and tucked his bottom lip between his teeth. “Hell. Yeah.”
“This nigga must love that shit the way he looking like he about to pounce on her,” South quipped.
“I sure do. The higher the heels, the better. Shit, I bought the ones she’s got on now,” Nolan informed him.
“He really did,” I agreed. “And this skirt. He done bought me like a hundred short-ass pencil skirts.”
“That’s like Leland and waist beads,” Kim chimed in. “I have a whole collection of them now.”
“Waist beads?” Jo and I asked in unison.
“I told you about pineapples, and you holding out on these waist beads, Leland? That’s fucked up!” South said.
“I have arrived!” was how the only McClain siste
r, Kat, made her entry, followed by Tommy, and Tree, who were both on Leland’s security team. That huge living room was filling up for the surprise announcement Jo and South were going to make.
“Damn, about time! What took you so long to get in here? We got here at the same time!” Leland asked Kat.
“I had to fix my makeup. And now I need to use the bathroom. Don’t be tryna track me, little brother,” she said.
“I’m also your boss, Kit-Kat. Don’t forget that!” Leland called after her as she walked away.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…”
A few minutes later, Sage arrived looking cute in an orange jumpsuit that fit her curves like a second skin, and then South asked everyone to have a seat.
“A’ight, I know y’all all busy with your lives and shit, so I appreciate you for coming over so me and Jo can share this news with you,” he began.
“You’re having another baby?!” Sage screamed, making Little Leland, who was asleep in his father’s lap now, flinch.
“Hell, no!” Jo and South both yelled.
“Oh,” Sage said, her voice at a normal volume.
“So, y’all know I been begging Jo to get in the studio with me for a while now, right? Well, she finally broke weak a few months back, and I want y’all to be the first to hear the little EP we made together while she was pregnant. It’s just five songs, but they’re all bops.”
“You let her eat in your studio?” I asked, and everyone laughed.
“Yeah, her little ass was spilling crumbs everywhere,” South said through a chuckle.
“Hey!” Jo shrieked.
“I’m just playing, baby,” South stated, then lowered his voice, and added, “but not really.”
Jo hopped up from the sofa and walked over to him, playfully punching his arm. In response, he pulled her to him, and said, “So anyway, this is a listening party for the Mrs. South EP. Here we go.” He pressed a button on a remote, and music began pouring from the Beats by Dre-caliber speakers of their stereo system.
Three of the songs were heavily Big South songs with Jo singing soulful, catchy hooks. But on the last two, their roles reversed, with Jo singing the verses and South rapping the choruses. They were all love songs—well, a couple were freaky in nature—and as they played, South explained that he and Jo wrote the lyrics and Neil wrote the music. Neil. Neil McClain. Wow! My goodness! Every song sounded so good! This EP was crazy!
After the last track ended, we all applauded and congratulated them. Then Kim yelled, “Hey, play it again!” And once South restarted the EP, she turned to Leland. “Go lay Junior down, baby. I wanna dance.”
Looking like he was going to drool at the mere thought of dancing with his wife, Leland left the room with his son on his shoulder. A few minutes later, all of us—with the exception of Neil who just spectated with a smile on his face—were up on our feet dancing to the music, a good mix of up-tempo, mid-tempo, and slow songs. I thought I could get ratchet on the dance floor, but that Kim was a mess! She was rubbing her ass all over Leland, and from the look on his face, he was loving it. Nolan had a hold of me from the back and was grinding on my booty to a nasty-ass song called Panty Gag in which Jo sang: “You get so loud, gotta muzzle your mouth. I take my panties off so I can silence Big South.” Yeah, South and Jo were freaky as hell.
I watched as Leland whispered something in Kim’s ear, and then the two of them snuck out of the living room. I figured they were going to find somewhere to sneak in some sex because this EP was definitely an aphrodisiac. Hell, I was about ready to attack Nolan because of it.
“I wonder where those two are going?” Nolan said into my ear.
“Probably to get in a quickie.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll explain what that is later, baby.”
“What the fuck?!”
The music stopped, and since this was a room full of black people, we all ran in the direction of Leland’s voice to find Kat with her legs around Tommy’s waist while he had her pinned to the wall just outside the living room.
“What the hell is going on?! Everett yelled.
I was too damn shocked to say anything.
“Tommy, are you fucking my sister in my damn house?!” Everett continued.
“Uh, no?” the giant bodyguard replied. “We were just kissing.”
“You kissing my sister in my brother’s house?!” Leland yelled. “I ain’t paying you to kiss my sister!”
“Well, technically, I’m paying him. He’s just on loan to you,” Everett said.
“He’s kissing me because I want him to kiss me because he’s my man!” Kat said. Then she looked at Tommy. “Put me down, baby.”
“Oh, right,” Tommy said.
“What?!” Leland, Everett, and Neil all yelled.
I was so relieved that his big ass had moved on, I didn’t say shit. I was uncomfortable as hell around him since me and Bridgette got together, even though he’d never said anything to me. But you just never know.
Well, now I knew, and to be honest, Kat looked happier than I’d seen her look in years.
“So y’all been messing around behind my back?!” Leland asked.
Now on her feet, Kat straightened her skirt, and said, “First of all, we are both growner than your ass, so shut up. Second, you can’t talk with a stepson that’s damn near your age. No offense, Kim.”
“None taken. Leland is tripping,” Kim replied.
“What?!” Leland said, looking at his wife like she had just spoken in Cantonese or something.
“And, we’re in love, and I’m…pregnant,” Kat announced. “Me and Tommy are having a baby.”
I swear everyone in the room shouted, “What?!”
“Are you even divorced yet?!” Neil asked. “I mean, is your divorce final?”
“Yes. It’s final, Neil,” she said.
She didn’t say how long it’d been final, and I didn’t want to know.
“Well, congratulations,” Jo said, moving to hug Kat, followed by Bridgette and Kim. When I hugged her, Everett gave me a look and I shrugged.
“Yeah, congrats, you two. I’m so happy for you both,” Bridgette said. She didn’t hug Tommy, and I appreciated that.
“Look,” I said. “I get it. You can’t control how or when you fall in love. I’m happy for you, sis.”
“Man…” Everett shook his head.
“Man, nothing. You need to get over yourself, because we’re also getting married. That’s why we were kissing.” She held out her left hand. “He just proposed, and I said yes!”
Leland’s and Everett’s heads snapped toward Tommy who shrugged. “It was that music. I was gonna wait to ask her in a few weeks, but I couldn’t. I had to do it tonight.”
“Got damn,” Leland said.
I don’t know what hit my ass, but before I realized what I was doing, I had grabbed Bridgette’s arm and spun her around from admiring Kat’s ring, fell on one knee, and asked, “Will you marry me, Bridgette Dominique Turner?”
“What?!” Jo squealed.
“OMG!” Sage screamed.
“What in the shit is going on here?” Everett mumbled.
“Damn,” was Leland’s contribution.
“Okay, I see you, Nole!” Neil shouted.
Bridgette gazed down at me, her eyes glistening with tears, and nodded. “Hell, yes!”
“Uh, I’m ordained. I can marry any of y’all,” Tree, who lived up to his name, said.
I hadn’t even realized he and Black had followed us out into the hallway. “Huh?” I said.
“I’m an ordained minister,” he explained. “Got ordained here in California before I moved to St. Louis. I used to preach all the time. Taking a little hiatus right now, but I can marry y’all right now if you want. Y’all can just get the license tomorrow and I’ll sign it.”
“Can you marry us, too?” Tommy asked.
“Really, baby?!” Kat chirped.
In response, Tommy smiled down at her. “Yeah, let’s do it.” Damn, he wa
s tall, taller than Kat, and she was taller than me!
I turned to Bridgette, but before I could ask, she said, “Yes. I wanna do it right now.
“What the fuck is happening?” Everett grumbled.
So, there in my big brother’s living room, me and Bridgette and Tommy and Kat had a double wedding with Bridgette’s friend, Sage, crying through the whole thing. Jo lent us one of her rings that Everett had given her, but I ran out and bought us both rings the next day. And our wedding night? Shit, I hit an all-time low of twenty minutes.
30
“Jo, are you on here?” Sage asked, after she connected all three of us.
“Yeah, what’s going on? Bridgette, you on here, too?”
“Yeah, I’m here, and I have no idea what this is about.”
It was a little after seven in the morning, I had to be on set for my new movie that afternoon, and my heart was thumping in my chest because Sage had called me crying, saying there was something she needed to tell me and Jo. Shit, was she dying or something?
“Um, I know it’s early, but I finally got up the nerve to share this with y’all, and I think I can do it without crying,” Sage said.
I doubted that, because her voice was breaking.
“Okay…” Jo said.
“Um, I just wanted you guys to know how much I love you both and how thankful I am that we’ve been friends all these years. You remember when we first met, Bridge?”
Oh, shit. She was dying. Since I was a damn spontaneous crier now, I blinked back tears, and said, “Yeah. We were both at that little club in West Hollywood for that comedy show.”
“Yeah, and both of us got there so late there were no tables left and we had to sit at the bar. I was too damn short to climb on the bar stool, and you helped me. Then we both got drunk and shared a taxi ride home,” Sage added to the story.
“But you left your purse in the cab and I brought it to you. You were still living with your parents back then and you were doing your sister’s makeup the day I brought your purse to you, and I was like, this girl has skills!”
Let Me Show You (McClain Brothers Book 3) Page 17