“That was what? Ten years ago?”
“Yep.”
“And you introduced me to Jo, and you two let me join your little circle.”
“Best decision we ever made,” Jo interjected, her voice in shambles from crying now. “What is it, Sage? Whatever it is, we’ll help you through it.”
“Yeah, we got you,” I agreed.
“But there’s nothing you two can do about this. There’s no hope. There’s no hope…” she sobbed into the phone.
“Oh, Jesus! Is it cancer?!” I wailed.
“It’s not, is it? Please tell me it’s not!” Jo screamed. Then I could hear South’s voice in the background, asking what was wrong with her.
“What’s going on? You okay? You sound upset? Is that your mother? Give me that got-damn phone!” Nolan had appeared in the living room out of nowhere. I’d left him asleep in bed, but I must’ve awakened him judging from the grogginess in his voice. Still, I had to tell my coochie to calm down, because it was doing back flips in response to him demanding me to give him the phone. Damn, that turned me on.
“It’s Sage, Nole,” I informed him.
“Oh, okay,” he said, and walked off.
“No! No, I don’t have cancer!” Sage yelled into the phone.
“Well, what is it? Diabetes, high blood pressure—oh, shit. Is your ass pregnant?” I asked.
“You don’t have AIDS, do you?” Jo queried.
“I’m getting deported!” Sage said.
I frowned. “What? Deported to where? New Jersey? Isn’t that where you’re from?”
“Hooker, you know I was born in Liberia. We moved to Jersey when I was like two and out here to California when I was ten.”
“Oh, shit. That’s right! Well, hell…you don’t act Liberian, so I forgot,” I said.
“How do Liberians act, Bridgette?” Jo asked.
“I don’t know, and don’t act like you didn’t forget she was born there, too.”
“Shut up,” Jo shot at me. “Wait, you never became a citizen in all these years? You’re twenty-nine, Sage. You’ve been here damn near all your life!”
“It’s not that simple. My family came here under temporary protected status because of the war in Liberia, but being here all these years under that protection doesn’t automatically qualify you for citizenship.”
I leaned forward, feeling relieved that my friend wasn’t sick but now worried about her having to leave the country. “But isn’t there some way for you to become a citizen or get a green card or something?”
“Well, I don’t qualify for employee sponsorship, because I’m self-employed. I don’t have a relative who can sponsor me, because my sister married a Canadian and lives in Canada now.”
“What are your parents going to do? Do they have a solution for this?” Jo asked.
Sage sighed. “They’ve decided to go back to Liberia. They say it’s their home anyway. But…that’s not my home. I don’t remember anything about it. I can’t go back there!”
“Well, shit, marry Gavin!” I suggested.
“Yeah!” Jo agreed.
“Don’t you think I tried that? He won’t! He won’t marry me and he…he broke up with me. He left last night. That was my only hope. What am I gonna do?” She was crying hysterically now.
“We’re gonna fight. We’re gonna get you a good lawyer and fight this, you hear me? You are not going anywhere,” Jo said.
I backed Jo up with, “That’s right. You ain’t going no damn where!”
“I don’t know…what if—” Sage began, through a sniffle.
“No!” Jo interrupted her. “No ‘what ifs.’ You’re staying in this country with us. You hear me?”
“Yes, I hear you.”
All I could do was hold the phone and hope that Jo was right.
“You will never know how much I appreciate this, Nole. I mean it. I know I’ve fucked up a lot over the years, but I’m ready now. I’m ready to get my shit together. I promise you that.”
I turned to my brother, my twin, my mirror image, and smiled. “I believe you, man. I don’t know why, but I do.”
Neil chuckled. “Okay, I guess I deserve that. Hey…congrats again, man. Bridgette is a winner. You got you a good one.”
“Yeah, it’s been three weeks and I still can’t believe she married me. The shit is mind-boggling.”
“I was thinking the same thing, but I wasn’t gonna say nothing.”
“Man, fuck you.”
We both laughed, then Neil said, “Damn, it’s good to be able to clown with you again and us not be ready to kill each other.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how things got so messed up between us, but I’m glad we straightened everything out. Hey, if you need anything while you’re in there, you can call me. Anytime, day or night.”
He dropped his head, staring at the backpack sitting on the floorboard of my car between his legs. “I won’t. I gotta do this on my own, no matter how hard it is. This is on me. Plus, you got me in here, paid for my stay. I can’t see bothering you after all that.”
“You wouldn’t be bothering me, Neil. You’re my brother, my damn twin.”
He smiled at me and nodded. “‘Preciate it, Nole. Well, I better get on in there. Thanks, again.”
“No problem.”
I sat in my car and watched as Neil walked up to the front door of the huge white house with the sign outside it that read Sankofa Holistic Healing Center, and after he walked through the front doors, I drove home to my wife.
31
“You sure you’re ready to talk to her?” Nolan asked, his hand on my knee.
“Not really, but I know I need to. Got to get some things off my chest.”
“All right, let’s go.”
As he reached for the door handle on the car, I said, “No, I need to go alone.”
He dropped his hand and looked at me with a furrowed brow. “You sure, baby?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
He kept his eyes on me for a beat or two, leaned in to kiss my cheek, and then nodded.
Taking a deep breath, I climbed out of the car and bit my bottom lip as I made my way to my destination. Once I arrived, I stood there under the October sun and stared down at the marker.
Jessie Mae Parker
Beloved mother. Beloved by her community.
She was buried next to my grandfather, who OD’d before I was born.
Standing there, I felt nothing. No sorrow, no hate—nothing. I was numb, I guess. Or maybe she just no longer held that power over me, the power to change my mood or ruin my day. Maybe, I was finally free of her.
I sighed as I stared down at the plastic yellow flowers on her grave and began to speak to her, “It’s Bridg—Jessie Mae. I just wanted to come and…shit, not pay my respects. You know what? I honestly don’t know why I’m here; I just know I needed to come talk to you. I guess what I want you to know is that I’m good. No, I’m great. I got a good man, a good life, and I’m happy. You didn’t break me. You tried, and I don’t know if it was intentional or if maybe someone broke you a long time ago and that’s all you knew, but that little cycle stops with me. I’m healthy, and my future is so bright. I’m…I won. You hear me? I. Won.”
I was wearing a smile when I made it back to the car.
“You good?” Nolan asked, as I slid back into the passenger seat of our rental car.
“No, baby, I’m great.”
*****
“Bridgette?!” the woman who was a couple inches shorter than me shrieked. Then she yanked me into a hug that she quickly released me from. “I’m sorry. I just…wow! You’re here? In Alabama?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I wanted to—” I turned to Nolan standing behind me and back to Karen. “Karen Seales, this is Nolan McClain, my husband. Nolan, well…I told you about Karen and why we’re here.”
“Husband! Wow, it’s only been what? Eight or nine months since we last talked? You didn’t waste time! Or were you already seeing him?”
“No, we h
ad a quick courtship. That seems to be the trend with his family,” I explained.
“Well, nice to meet you, Nolan. Oh! Come in! Come in!”
A few minutes later, Nolan and I sat on Karen’s sofa, sipping iced tea while she sat in a recliner with a huge smile on her face.
“I am so glad you dropped by, Bridgette! I have missed talking to you, but I know you well enough to know you’d contact me when you were ready,” Karen said.
“Yeah, we were in town, so I decided to take a chance and see if you were home. I guess I missed your husband and kids?” I replied.
“Yeah, they’re visiting his mother. I had some paperwork to catch up on for work,” she said with a wink.
“You’re still working for the state, right?”
“Yep. Still doing what I can.”
“I’m sure you’re doing more than your share. I know you did for me, and that’s why I’m here. I want to thank you and to apologize for how I last spoke to you. You’ve been a good friend to me, and you didn’t deserve that. You went above and beyond for me, and I just want you to know that I truly appreciate you. I am so sorry for the things I said.”
“No, no, I was wrong to give your moth—Arlette your number. But when I saw the obituary in the paper, I called and told her I was a friend of yours and she sounded so pitiful. I just…I thought giving your number to her was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t. I should’ve let you contact her when you were ready.”
I nodded. “Uh, Stacy graduated.”
“I know, and she got a scholarship to ‘Bama.”
“Yeah, I saw that. I’m proud of her.”
“She’s a smart girl, just like you. I hope you two get to meet one day.”
“If she ever reaches out to me, I won’t reject her.”
“I know you won’t. Oh! Did you hear that Arlette is in jail?
My mouth dropped open. “Again? For what?”
Karen shrugged. “I don’t know. She was arrested in California. That’s all I heard.”
About thirty minutes later, once we were back in the rental car on our way to the airport, I asked Nolan, “Did you have my mother arrested for something?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
I shook my head as I gazed out the window. Nolan and his damn connections.
32
We were in Costa Rica, a surprise little weekend getaway delayed-honeymoon Nolan planned for us during a break in my filming schedule. Our bungalow was right on the beach, mere inches from the ocean, and as I stood on the balcony, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the beautiful sunset.
His hands were the first thing I felt—warm, strong, encasing my upper arms. Then his lips on the back of my neck, his erection on my butt. He was naked, but shit, so was I.
Without uttering a word, he eased a hand around my body to my center and gripped my sex. I widened my stance and leaned over the banister with a moan as he played with me, his tongue blazing a trail down my back.
“You are so wet. Is that for me, baby?” he asked.
“Mm-hmm,” I hummed.
When he entered me, I gasped and gripped the wooden banister, my breasts dangling, my whimper being drowned out by the crashing waves. Nolan gripped my hips, sliding in and out of me with ease, smacking my ass, kissing my back, making me want to crawl out of my skin and into his. Damn, he felt good!
His body began to crowd mine as his warm breath hit my ear. “I love you, baby,” he whispered, still massaging my yoni stroke by stroke, diving deeper and deeper inside of me. “I love you so much.”
“I…love…you…tooooo!”
We made love until the sun was hidden beneath the ocean, until we were both drenched in sweat, until we were so exhausted we fell into bed without eating dinner.
“Is that your phone?” Bridgette’s voice sounded so damn fuzzy and distant, I first thought I’d imagined it. Then I realized the haze of sleep was making me think that.
“What?” I asked, my face still buried in the pillow.
“That’s gotta be your phone. I turned mine off.”
That’s when I heard the outlying ringing of a cell phone and remembered leaving mine in the bathroom. “They can leave a message.”
“It might be important, Nole.”
“Shit, Bridge. I was sleeping good.”
“Well, you’re up now. May as well answer it.”
Groaning, I stumbled out of bed but had missed the call by the time I got to the phone. Dragging myself back to the bed, I muttered, “It was Uncle Lee Chester.”
“Call him back.”
“Bridge, come on. It’s too damn early.”
“Something could be wrong with one of your aunts or something. Call him back.”
“If that was the case, he’d call Ev or Leland. He probably don’t even want nothing.”
“You won’t know that for sure if you don’t call him back, Nole.”
“Fine. I’ll call him back. Shit!” I tapped his number on the screen, put it on speakerphone, laid the phone on my stomach, and closed my eyes.
“Nolan! What-up-there-now?!”
“Hey, Unc…you called?”
“Yeah, yeah. I know you down in Costa Reefer on your honeymoon, but I heard something I wanted to tell you. It’s important.”
“Okay?”
“Earl was telling me about this song. It say something about eating groceries on your woman’s booty. I thought you should know that since y’all honeymooning and shit.”
Bridgette’s ass jumped up and ran into the bathroom laughing.
“Uh, Unc—”
“I don’t know what kind of groceries, but probably just, you know, some crackers, chocolate chip cookies, a slice of cheese, some ham loaf, maybe a piece of pound cake. You know…groceries!”
“Unc—”
“Yeah, you supposed to put the groceries on her ass, or maybe in her ass. Naw, that shit don’t sound right.”
“Unc, I got it! I got it!”
“All right, good. Tell Bridgette I said hi. What time is it over there anyway?”
“We’re just an hour behind y’all in Texas.”
“Shit, it’s still early then. I’ll let you go.”
“Bye, Unc.” I ended the call and looked up to see Bridgette standing at the end of the canopy bed with a big-ass grin on her face, looking beautiful in the early morning light. “I told you he didn’t want shit.”
“No, he gave you some valuable information.”
“Bring your valuable information ass here.”
She got that look in her eyes that she always got when I told her to do something, crawled into the bed, straddled me, and said, “Yes, sir?”
I smacked both her thighs and watched as her eyes flashed with what I knew was desire.
“What was that for?” she asked.
“That’s Nolanese for, ‘Thank you for being my wife.’”
“Ohhh…” She leaned forward and kissed me. “You’re more than welcome, baby.”
A southern girl at heart, Alexandria House has an affinity for a good banana pudding, Neo Soul music, and tall black men in suits. When this fashionista is not shopping, she’s writing steamy stories about real black love.
Connect with Alexandria!
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.msalexhouse.com/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cOUVg5
Blog: http://msalexhouse.blogspot.com/
Facebook: Alexandria House
Instagram: @msalexhouse
Twitter: @mzalexhouse
Also by Alexandria House:
The McClain Brothers Series:
Let Me Love You
Let Me Hold You
Let Me Show You
The Strickland Sisters Series:
Stay with Me
Believe in Me
Be with Me
The Love After Series:
Higher Love
Made to Love
Real Love
Short Stories:
/>
Merry Christmas, Baby
Baby, Be Mine
Text alexhouse to 555888 to be notified of new releases!
Let Me Show You (McClain Brothers Book 3) Page 18