Love Thy Neighbor's Nephew

by Stephanie Williams

  “Hanging with my favorite ladies.” He rose and put an arm around each of them.

  Yolanda mentally groaned. The smell of his cologne caressed her in way that made her uncomfortable, not to mention Lawrence’s arm around her. What was that cologne anyway? “You mean to tell me you want to hang out with two chicks and go shopping?”

  “Well, since it’s my party, I should be able to pick out all the knickknacks I want. Besides, with two chicks shopping, I want to ensure I don’t end up with a Hello Kitty party.” He laughed.

  She rolled her eyes. “Let me go change quick.”

  “No prob.”

  She went straight to her room, locked the door, and performed some deep breathing exercises. Everything would be so much easier if Liz knew what was going on between them. How to tell her?

  What a mess.

  She changed into her yellow jogging suit and tennis shoes. After grabbing her purse and sunglasses, she returned downstairs. “I just threw myself together—literally.” She laughed and grabbed her keys off the coffee table.

  “Are you kidding? You’d look fabulous even if you put on rags,” Liz commented.

  Lawrence stared at her with less innocent eyes. “I’ll say.”

  Act cool. Easier said than done with a hot man beside me. Yolanda was more than a little nervous and kept shifting her weight from one foot to another. Not only was the nephew next to her but his aunt, too. Can the day get any weirder?

  Lawrence stood close to Yolanda while they perused the shelves of various festive items at the party depot store.

  Torture. Sheer torture. He didn’t even have to be near her, just in the same room, and he got an erection. When he’d seen her this morning at the table going over the party, he’d thought about what they’d done the night before, and he hadn’t been able to keep his hands to himself—or at least his feet.

  He would have paid millions to see the sight she’d described to him over the phone. Her spread-eagle on the bed, a vibrator going in and out of her—

  “Lawrence!”

  He shook his head, realizing his aunt stood right beside him. “Yeah?”

  “I tell you. You and Yolanda both have your heads in the clouds. I guess being a math whiz and a computer geek, your heads are always someplace else.” Liz chuckled.

  Yeah, it’s someplace else all right. Right between Yolanda’s legs. “Say, Lizzy, I saw some neat math-themed items over on aisle seven,” he said, trying to get her to focus on something else.

  “Really? Well, let me go have a look-see.”

  When his aunt had wandered off, he shifted his attention to Yolanda. “I don’t know how long I can go on like this.”

  “So, you understand the gravity of the situation,” she whispered, checking around the corner.

  “Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but it is serious.”

  She turned to him and sighed. “I’m having a difficult time, too. I just want to burst out and say that you and I want to pursue a relationship.” She glanced over her shoulder.

  “I think Liz should be sitting down first with a stiff drink in her hand.” He smirked

  “Make that two stiff drinks.”

  “I thought about our situation last night after I got off the phone with you. By the way, how did you sleep?” He wiggled his brows.

  She smiled. “Very well, thank you.”

  Her face was angelic. All he could do was grin back. “Anyway, I think I figured out a way we can approach this.”

  “Oh? This should be good.”

  “Hear me out. Let’s sit down with both Lizzy and Uncle Hank. Let me tell them how I feel about you. I won’t mention any physical contact we’ve had with each other. It’s none of their business, even if they already knew we were lovers.”

  She stared at him as if he’d said, “Let’s go step on puppy necks.” She checked down the aisle. “Just like that?”

  He grimaced. “I know it won’t be a walk in the park. And won’t be any easier if we tell them now, or several months down the line.”

  “We can at least prepare them. Like hint around.”

  He cocked his head toward her. “Hint? And what do you suppose we do, hold hands while walking down the street?”

  She threw him a stern glare.

  “Sorry. I’m just frustrated. Figuring out how to tell Lizzy and Uncle Hank about us is more exasperating than any math equation I’ve come upon in my career.”

  She rubbed his shoulder. “I know. If it’s meant to be, we’ll find the answer.”

  Enjoying the soothing soft touch of her hand, he took it and kissed her knuckles. “It is meant to be.”

  “Boy, you should see all the mathematical stuff they have.” Lizzy came back with a basket full of stuff. “Check out these balloons with calculus equations on them.” She held one up.

  Quickly dropping Yolanda’s hand, he leaned over and peeked into the basket. “Hmm. A wrong equation there.” He pointed.

  Lizzy shook her head. “He would critique a balloon.” She giggled.

  “Hey, I just thought of something,” Yolanda said. “We need a serious cake. Let me go down the street and have the designer bakery make one. I have the perfect image in my head. Math equations surrounding a picture of Albert Einstein.”

  “Wow. You better get on that. Hopefully, it’ll be done in time for the party,” Lizzy said.

  “I’ll go right this minute.”

  “Let me come with you,” Lawrence said. “I don’t want them putting numbers on the cake and it not making any sense.”

  She laughed as they left the store. “You are a geek.”

  Once at the car, he turned to her. “I’m glad you thought of the cake. Besides, I’ve wanted to be alone with you ever since last night.”

  “Same here.”

  “Really?” He tried to tamp down his excitement. He didn’t want to seem like some high school kid. But after what they’d done over the phone, he couldn’t stop thinking about her and wondered how she felt.

  “Yes really. Although I feel kinda guilty about—”

  “I hope you don’t feel guilty about last night.”

  “Oh no. In fact…it was kinda fun.”

  “Kinda fun?” He quirked his brow. “I thought it was fantastic.”

  “I’ll admit, I’ve never done anything like that before and wouldn’t mind doing it again.”

  “Then, why the guilt?” He took her by the hand and rubbed the pad of his thumb over her knuckles; even those were smooth and silky.

  “The fact that we have to sneak behind Liz’s back.”

  He understood and didn’t like tiptoeing around either. But the situation had to be twice as hard for Yolanda since the person they were keeping a secret from was her best friend. “Well for now, let’s concentrate on the party. Sometime tonight, you and I need to put our heads together and figure our situation out. Maybe we’re making this too big of a deal. Maybe, it’s because of your friendship with Lizzy, you think the solution is impossible.”

  “Maybe. But I really feel like a cougar. A sneaky one.” She started the car and drove off the lot.

  He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Don’t worry, baby. We won’t have to sneak for long.”

  ***

  Once they arrived at the bakery, Yolanda gave a description of what she wanted on the cake, and Lawrence made sure the equations were correct. She shook her head, laughing to herself. Okay, so he was a geek.

  As they waited for the lady to come back with a computer mock-up, he slipped his arm around her. She didn’t pull away, instead moving in closer. Leaning down, he kissed her.

  “Oops. Did I interrupt something?” the lady helping them asked, blushing.

  “Oh God,” Yolanda mumbled, putting her head in her hand.

  Chapter Twelve

  The drive home was quiet. Liz kept glancing over at her, and Yolanda kept staring straight ahead. The bakery incident had mortified her. What had she been thinking to kiss Lawrence like that in a public place? She hoped
the salesclerk wasn’t a gossip. It would be awful if Liz heard from some other source that she and Lawrence had been making out in the bakery.

  She’d been thankful the lady hadn’t created a scene. To Yolanda’s surprise, the woman had actually said she thought they made a cute couple.

  She kinda thought so, too—despite the age different and the fact he was Liz’s nephew. Damn! Did that have to be an issue?

  “Okay, folks, we’re home.” Liz peered over her shoulder. “Lawrence dear, could you take all this stuff to our house? I’m going to hang out with Yolanda for a while.”

  “Okay sure.”

  He unloaded the groceries while she and Liz crossed the street. On the porch, Yolanda dug her keys from her purse.

  Liz turned to her. “Okay, lady, what’s going on?”

  “What do you mean?” She hastily unlocked the door and pushed it open. Damn. Had she spaced out that much today?

  They walked inside the house. Yolanda had done her darndest to throw her best friend off the scent, just in case she suspected something. But would she have ever in a million years suspected this?

  “You’ve been acting kinda aloof since you and Lawrence came back from the bakery. They will be able to do the cake in time for the party, won’t they?”

  “Oh yes. In fact, they gave me a computer-generated picture of it. I forgot to show you.” She got it out of her purse. “Here.”

  “Oh wow. This is great.” She beamed.

  “Since we invited the whole block, I had three large sheet cakes done.”

  “Good call.”

  She opened her laptop and checked her emails. The client wanted more changes. “Man, this dude must have money to burn. This is his fifth change.” She emailed him back.

  Liz sat in the chair across from her. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

  “Oh? What?”

  “What’s going on with you?”

  She looked up from her computer. Liz’s nosiness was becoming a problem. It wasn’t so bad when the gossip focused on someone else. But now that she was the potential target, she wasn’t feeling it. She needed to make up something. If Liz didn’t get a satisfactory answer, she would start grilling Lawrence.

  “It’s this project. The client has a deadline, yet he keeps making changes.”

  “Oh.”

  “It’s frustrating to say the least.” So was her situation with Lawrence. She hated lying to her best friend—and these weren’t little white lies either.

  “I see. I thought maybe Lawrence had said something to you.”

  No, he did something to me. She was going to self-combust. He said a lot to me last night. On the phone. She’d better respond. To let it drop would be too obvious. “No, he was just being picky at the bakery, making sure those equations were correct. Drove the lady crazy.” She chuckled.

  “Ah.”

  Good. Maybe they could move on to more benign matters.

  “So, have you decided?”

  Yolanda looked up again. “Decided on what?”

  “Staying with us while Lawrence works on the roof.”

  “Oh no. That’s so far ahead in the future. I have this to contend with,” she said, pointing to the laptop.

  “Well, I’ll decide for you. You’re staying over. Besides, I need someone to break up all that testosterone.” She giggled.

  Damn! “I appreciate it. But I still think we have plenty of time.”

  She shrugged. “You know me, always planning ahead.”

  She didn’t know what else to say. To keep rejecting the invitation would invite more questions. She decided on another topic. “How’s the travel business going?”

  Liz sighed. “Well, you know the strike that just happened?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Had to rearrange everything.” Liz shook her head in disgust “Boy, customers were pissed. Others were stranded and we had to find alternative flights for them.”

  “That’s my worst nightmare. I’m in the jungles of the Amazon and the airline goes on strike.”

  Liz laughed. “Okay, let me get out of here so you can finish.”

  “Thanks, I’ll call you later.”

  Liz let herself out, and Yolanda’s shoulders sagged with relief.

  The problem would not go away easily. Sooner or later, she and Lawrence would have to say something.

  ***

  Lawrence sat in his room, trying to figure out the last step in the equation he and Professor Grayson were working on. He paused a moment to stare out the window. Today had been nice, just holding hands with Yolanda and stealing a kiss from her at the bakery. But his laughter quickly turned solemn. On the one hand, she wanted to give their relationship, such as it was, a shot. On the other, they couldn’t tell anyone about it.

  Could he tell Lizzy and Hank how he felt about their neighbor and good friend?

  He chuckled to himself about Yolanda’s reaction in the bakery. He hadn’t meant to kiss her like that. He’d initially intended to give her a peck on the cheek, just craving the sensation of her luscious skin on his lips. He sighed, remembering her scent. It was sweeter than any bakery.

  He closed his book and leaned back in his chair. He needed to let everyone know he was in love with her. He wanted to hold her hand in public, to kiss her in front of everybody.

  He placed his head in his hands. What they say is true. You can’t help who you fall in love with.

  “Hey, you, head in the books again?”

  He looked toward Aunt Lizzy in the doorway. “Yup.”

  “Can I tear you away for a few moments? I forgot to return these dishes to Yolanda. She’ll need them for the mac n’ cheese and bacon casserole.”

  “Is she making it tonight?” He hadn’t tasted Yolanda’s home cooking in ages, and those fluffy, sugary doughnuts and tasty bagels just whet his appetite.

  “Put your eyes back in your head and your tongue back in your mouth,” Lizzy said. “It’s for your party.”

  “Mmm. Not sure if I can wait that long.” He patted his stomach. He could almost smell the crispy bacon frying in Yolanda’s skillet. Just like when he used to eat breakfast with her and the twins.

  “You have no choice.” Lizzy set the dishes on his desk in front of him. “Now scat!”

  After his aunt left, he rushed to the bathroom to shave his five o’clock shadow and splash on his favorite cologne. Ten minutes later, he stood on the porch, dishes in hand. Who knew what this afternoon would bring? He took a deep breath and rang the bell.

  Yolanda answered the door and beamed at him. “Thank you so much.” She reached for the pans, but he pulled them back.

  “May I come in?”

  “Oh, sure.” She stepped aside, and he walked straight to the kitchen.

  “Lizzy said you’re going to make a mac n’ cheese and bacon casserole,” he said over his shoulder.

  “Yes, and of course my famous pot roast.”

  “You know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Yolanda took the dishes and put them away.

  “Um, Yolanda, about what happened at the bakery—”

  “It’s okay. If you and I told everyone, it wouldn’t have been a big deal anyway.”

  “True.”

  “And I don’t want it to be a big deal. So, let’s sit down and figure out what we’re going to do.” She pulled out a chair.

  “Your blood must run coffee beans,” he mused, pointing at the coffeepot sitting on the table.

  She grabbed two mugs and gave him a cynical smirk as they sat down. “So, anything off the top of your head?”

  “I’m thinking we just sit the both of them down and come right out and say it. But first we have to figure out what we’re going to say. We have to word it carefully.”

  “You’re right. I just can’t say, ‘Hey, Liz, I was feeling horny as soon as I saw Lawrence the other day.’”

  He suppressed a smile. Well, that made two of them. “Maybe we should go f
rom there.”

  Her eyes grew wide. “What?”

  “Wait, I don’t mean say all of that. But you can start off by saying something like, I don’t know…you mistook me for someone else and were immediately attracted to me for a split second. Then you found out it was me.”

  “Well….”

  “They’ll understand instant attraction. When you realized it was me, you’ve been grappling with your feelings ever since.”

  Yolanda leaned back, arms crossed. “And what’s your excuse?”

  “Same here. I was taken aback by you.” He grinned. “Besides, I’m a grown man. I’m seeing you through different eyes.”

  “It all sounds good. But it still boils down that I have feelings for someone that should be off limits.”

  He pushed his cup along the table. “That seems to be the only obstacle. It can’t be helped.”

  “So, we’re back to square one,” she said, twisting her mug back and forth.

  He shook his head. “There’s no getting around it.”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, since that part is settled, when do we tell them?”

  She put her head in her hand. “It has to be before the party.”

  “Wait!” Lawrence slapped his hand on the table. “How about during?”

  Yolanda jerked upright, her eyes wide. “Are you nuts?” she squeaked.

  “No. While they’re mingling with the guests and having a good time.”

  “You think if you tell them while there are other people in their home, they won’t make a scene. Kind of cowardly. And I think that might spoil the evening.”

  He grimaced. “Maybe. But it will give them time to sit back and watch you and I interact at the party. Maybe, they’ll understand a little better how we feel about each other.”

  “I’m not totally against the plan, but I’m not jumping up and down either.”

  “But…?”

  “It’s the only one we have.”

  He got up from the table and put his cup in the sink. The plan they would go with wasn’t the best one, but at least they had one. Besides, like he’d said, since people would be coming over, cooler heads would prevail, if just for putting on appearances.