“No. I’m speaking English.” Jeremy flashed him an annoyed look.
Quentin’s hands shot up. “Don’t worry. I get it. No more lectures. Just think of me as a casual observer of this D-list Shakespearean tragedy.”
“Have you ever heard the saying, ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’?”
“Touché.” Q tapped his temple and then watched as his cousin finished off his drink in one gulp.
Jeremy grew uncomfortable under such scrutiny. So much so that after he drained his glass, he quickly poured himself another one.
“Fascinating.”
“Don’t start.”
Q’s hands came up. “No judgment.”
“Who are you kidding? You haven’t stopped judging me since I found out that me and Roy were in love with the same girl.”
Q’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Love? Who said anything about anyone being in love? I thought you just wanted to screw the girl’s brains out again. You’re in love?”
“No!” Jeremy shook his head to clear his thoughts. “I meant like. We like the same girl.” Quentin’s thunder-struck look remained. “Yeah, because I get those two words confused all the time.” He smacked the palm of his hand against his head. “Damn—you hardly know the girl. Does it happen that fast?”
“Q—”
“No. I mean, really. You just learned her name tonight. Did you fall and bump your head? Are you sure she didn’t slip something in your drink when you weren’t looking? How about voodoo? Did you see any strange dolls lying around with pins in them?”
“It was just a slip of the tongue,” Jeremy persisted, mainly because he couldn’t believe he’d said it himself. “My bad. It won’t happen again.” Love. Please.
Quentin’s eyes narrowed as he studied his cousin. A worry line creased his brow. “I swear, you Kings are going to turn my hair gray. I should have found more reliable business partners. He lowered his feet from the desk and then headed off to the bar. “You know what? I think I will take that drink now.”
“Be my guest.”
“I’m just going to have one,” Q said.
Pause.
“Are you monitoring how much I drink now?”
Jeremy watched his cousin. “Who are you talking to, Q?”
“Huh? What?” Quentin glanced around. “Oh. No one.”
Jeremy made a note to himself to renew his effort to be careful about what he said around his emotionally fragile and potentially unstable cousin. Damn. Maybe I should have a heart-to-heart with him. I’m really starting to worry about him.
For a few minutes Jeremy’s thoughts were pulled away from Leigh, as he contemplated whether he should be concerned—really concerned—about Q’s mental state.
“Now, back to your little problem,” Quentin said, making his whiskey sour. “Do you believe what she told you tonight?”
The question caught Jeremy off guard. And for a second, he didn’t know what his cousin was talking about.
“Was your little freak fest a one-time thing or is her game tighter than you two knuckleheads realize?”
“I don’t know.”
“You think she’s really going to break off the engagement?”
“I don’t know.”
“You think she’ll tell your boy about the two of you?”
“I don’t—”
“Better hope not.”
“I don’t— Wait, why? It’s not like I knew—”
“But now you’ve also missed your opportunity to come clean first. By the way, I want to be on record that I told you to do that. If she tells him and you didn’t—trust and believe there’s going to be a misunderstanding and some furniture moving around.”
“I like these no-lecture sessions we have.”
“When you see a baby reaching for a hot stove, you smack their hand away.”
Jeremy wanted to say something slick, but unfortunately Quentin was making too much sense. His directive to Leigh was for her to end the engagement. He wasn’t specific about how. “I know the risk,” Jeremy mumbled and then wandered back over to the sofa and plopped down.
Quentin had a hard time trying to hide his irritation. “Just so that I understand, you’re seriously willing to risk the friendship of the man you have known your whole life, a man who’s practically like a brother to you—a real blood brother—for a woman?”
“Roy deserves to know the truth.”
“Then why didn’t you tell him?”
Jeremy opened his mouth but was cut off.
“And before you blow smoke up my ass, let me warn you that we’re waaay past the B.S. now. This isn’t about an accidental one-nighter. This is about you wanting your boy’s girl. You’re rooting for the bust-up of this engagement, just so that you can swoop in and steal his girl for yourself!”
“That’s not—”
“Don’t do it!” Q shouted. “Don’t you dare lie to me! And before you bark at me about this having nothing to do with my problems, remember there are waay too many similarities in our situations. And I’m not going to be beaten into feeling guilty just so you can sit there wrapped in some fake-ass, moral-superiority robe to justify your jacked-up decisions. You should have told your boy—your blood brother—the truth. The girl is irrelevant. This is about brothers—and what you do and do not do to each other!”
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Jeremy jumped, thankful to whoever it was at the door for saving him. “Come in!”
The door swung open. A blast of music from the main floor filled the office as an angry blur stormed through the door.
Jeremy jumped up. “Roy!”
Chapter 20
A million thoughts raced through Jeremy’s mind as he stood with his feet bolted to the floor. He thrust his chin up and tried to prepare for anything. As a sign of unity, Q sprang up from his seat to stand beside him. The gesture touched Jeremy. It didn’t mean that they weren’t about to get their butts kicked, but it touched him all the same.
Roy slammed the office door and then proceeded to pace around like an angry, fire-breathing dragon.
“Roy,” Jeremy began cautiously. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at your engagement party?”
“Screw that damn party!” Roy said, tossing up his hands. “Screw all those fake-ass friends…and screw her!”
Jeremy jerked and then cut a look over at his cousin.
Quentin stood, bobbing his head as if he was bonding with Roy’s pain.
“Would you like a drink or something, man?” Jeremy asked, even though he knew that there was a fifty-fifty chance that the alcohol was going to either calm or escalate this fragile situation.
“Somebody better give me something,” Roy said, pacing like a caged lion. “’Cause I swear that I’m really ready to set it off in this damn town.”
Jeremy turned to go back to the bar, but Q caught him by his arm and said, “I got this, cuz. You see about your boy.”
The look his cousin gave him said for Jeremy to toss all his cards on the table and do the right thing.
Reluctantly, Jeremy nodded, but wondered where in the hell he was going to find the right words that could help this situation. Should he start off with humor, as in, “Hey, man, I have a funny story for you.” Or apologetically, like “Sorry, dude, but I accidentally hooked up with your girl. And, oh, by the way, is there any way for you two to break up so that I can date her?”
Sucking in a deep breath, Jeremy suspected that there really wasn’t any right or good way to about this. “Roy…would you like to sit down?”
“Hell, no, I don’t want to sit down.” Roy punched a fist into his palm. “I’d rather smash a brother’s face in.”
Jeremy touched the side of his face. “Now, c’mon. Violence has never solved anything.”
Quentin chuckled from behind him.
He mumbled. “Well, it hasn’t.”
Roy was in his own world as he tried to wear a hole in the floor with his pacing. “I c
an’t believe this, man. I can’t believe this!”
Wait. Why isn’t he already trying to pound my face into the ground? “I’m not quite sure what it is you’re mad about,” Jeremy said, tilting his head.
“I can’t believe this woman straight up played me. I feel like a damn fool!” He punched his hand again. “Me!”
Something wasn’t right here.
“Do you know how early in the morning you have to get up to pull something over on me?”
Jeremy shook his head.
Quentin took a guess. “About six?”
Both Jeremy and Roy cut a look at him.
Quentin shrugged. “What? He asked a question.”
Jeremy rolled his eyes.
“Well,” Roy said, disgruntled, “pretty early. And Ms. Leigh Matthews has been getting up at the booty crack of dawn for a while, ’cause this woman…” Roy slammed his eyes shut and shook his head.
Jeremy still wasn’t quite sure what they were talking about. He glanced back over his shoulder and gave Q a questioning look. Maybe he was having a better time deciphering what the hell Roy was talking about. Leigh told his boy something, but clearly not the whole truth. The last thing he wanted to do was rush headlong into a five-alarm fire armed with just a bucket of water.
Since Quentin didn’t have a dog in the race, he asked, “Did something happen?”
Roy laughed. The sound bordered on demonic. “Oh, something has been happening, all right. All this damn time, Leigh has been riding my back about how much of a dog I am—how I can’t walk by a set of tits without getting my howl on—and what has she been doing?”
“Clearly not out trying to get a fenced-in yard,” Quentin chuckled, plopping ice cubes into a glass.
No one laughed at the joke.
“Nah. She’s been out here roaming the streets without her own damn flea collar on.” Roy shook his head. “I can’t believe I fell for that straitlaced, girl-next-door bullshit!”
Jeremy dropped his head. “I’m sorry, bruh.” And he was sorry, but it didn’t mean that he still didn’t want her for himself.
Roy kept trying to rationalize how he got caught up. “You know what it was?” He stopped long enough to wave a finger. “I think I liked her because she wasn’t another one of those chicks that always had her hand in your pocket because she needed to keep her hair whipped and dipped. A lot of these females spend enough money on wigs and weaves to run a small country—saying nothing for what it costs to keep them in the right labels and shoes. Not once did that girl ever ask me for nothing. She had her own, you know what I mean? But not in that bourgie, I-don’t-need-a-man kind of way. She was cool. She was honest….” The anger gave way to confusion. But it wasn’t long before he was shaking his head again. “I need to get my B.S. detector fixed.”
“We all do,” Quentin said, stepping from behind the bar.
Q was the lone amen choir today.
“Fell for it—hook, line and sinker,” Roy continued. “Joke’s on me.”
“Here, have an Irish car bomb,” Q said, handing him his drink. “Should hook you right up.”
Roy snatched the drink and then tossed it back like it was water. “Thanks, man. But in all honesty, I don’t think even a horse tranquilizer could calm my nerves,” he said, handing the glass back to Quentin. “Right now, I just want to find this sneaky son of a bitch that’s been creeping with my girl behind my back.” Another fist pound. “Might even catch a case, you feel me?”
Quentin glanced at his cousin and winced.
Jeremy ignored him while he processed this information. So she told him about the affair, but not who it was with. That tidbit gave him a pinhole of hope. Why? He had absolutely no idea. After his argument with Leigh in the freezer, he doubted that he was very high on her list of eligible bachelors.
“Well,” Q said. “Since I’m fresh out of horse tranquilizers, how about I just fix you another drink?”
“Thanks, man.” Roy bobbed his head and then resumed his pacing.
Jeremy struggled with his guilt. It wasn’t like he had originally set out to steal Roy’s girl, regardless of what Q’s beady-eyed gaze seemed to accuse him of. He met a woman at a party. He liked her. They had a fling and tonight he discovered that she was his buddy’s girl. How did that make him the bad guy?
“Look, Roy. Maybe you shouldn’t just jump to conclusions,” he backpedaled. “Maybe this dude didn’t know she was your girl.”
Roy stopped. “What? You’re defending this dude now?”
“Nah. I’m just saying…” He shrugged his shoulders. What am I saying?
“What are you saying?” Quentin pressed, folding his arms.
Jeremy cocked his head. “I thought you were about to make Roy another drink.”
“Fine.” Q headed back to the bar, but as he walked past Jeremy he added, “I was just trying to help you out.”
You call that help?
“All I know,” Roy said. “Come tomorrow, I’m going to be a laughingstock. We bust up on the night of our engagement party. You know how that’s going to look in the papers? Hell, I turned my whole life upside down to get traded to L.A. Why? So we could be closer—so I can spend less time on the road.”
“And less time in someone else’s bed,” Quentin added, nodding. “That’s a huge sacrifice.”
“See?” Roy gestured to Q. “He gets it.”
“That’s a scarier thought than you know,” Jeremy said.
“All I know is there’s no way I’m signing those papers come Monday morning. I can’t stay in this town. What if I run into her again?”
“So you’re going to blow up a huge multi-million deal over a woman,” Q marveled. “Damn, that is love.”
“Oh, c’mon,” Jeremy said, strolling over and pounding Roy on the back. He needed to try and fix this. “I wouldn’t take things that far. This sort of the thing…happens—intentionally or unintentionally.” Roy frowned.
Jeremy gave him an awkward laugh. “I mean…take me for example…” A rock suddenly lodged itself in his windpipe so he started coughing to try and dislodge it. “Now, you know that I would never try to…intentionally hurt you, right?”
“Yeah…and?” Roy was clearly lost as to where Jeremy was trying to go with this. From the corner of his eye, he saw Q set the bottle down and lean over the bar, resting his elbows on the counter, like he was watching reality TV.
“And…who knows, it might have been the same way for Leigh.”
“What? You’re going to tell me that she accidently fell on some dude’s dick? Bruh, c’mon, now. Stop playing.”
“No. No. I’m just—”
“Look. All I know is that I don’t ever want to see that woman again. And if I ever catch wind of who this brother is, I’m going to stomp him into the ground. That man is dead. And to think how close I came to actually raising that man’s child!”
Jeremy’s head jerked up. “What?”
Roy sobered as his jaw squared. “Yeah. To top everything off, Leigh’s pregnant!”
Chapter 21
Leigh couldn’t stop crying.
When she didn’t answer Ariel’s fifty back-to-back calls, her best friend hauled butt out of the party and rushed over to Leigh’s place to check in on her. Seeing her girl sprawled across the bed and crying her eyes out, Ariel actually breathed a sigh of relief.
“Shhh. It’s going to be all right,” she consoled, rubbing her girl’s back and stroking her hair. “It wasn’t pleasant. But you did what you had to do and now you can move on.”
Leigh lifted her head off the pillow. “But you weren’t here. You didn’t see his face. He was soo excited one second and the next…I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that mad. Ever.”
“Are you having regrets?”
Leigh sniffed. Her guilt only doubled when she confessed, “No.”
“Then see? That just proves that you did the right thing. Sure, it’s painful now, but soon all this pain will go away.”
She could only hop
e so. “You know he’ll hate me forever.”
“Maybe. But why don’t we just try to concentrate on the things that we can control?”
Leigh smiled weakly at her friend. I’m so happy that you came over.”
“Aww.” Ariel curled up next to her on the bed. “That’s what best friends are for. Tears, chocolate and alcohol. Not necessarily in that order.”
Leigh laughed.
“See. That’s better.” Ariel smiled.
However, Leigh’s good feeling was only temporary. “I still don’t know what I’m going to do about Jeremy.”
“Humph. If you don’t know, then you’re more than welcome to pass his fine butt over to me—or at least his cousin, Quentin. I’d loved to spread that man over a Ritz cracker any day of the week.”
Leigh’s laughter rumbled pretty steadily. “Girl, you are a mess.”
Ariel shrugged. “Maybe—but I ain’t lying.”
Leigh propped her head on her girl’s shoulder and told herself that she was just going to have to rest her eyes for a few minutes. Next thing she knew, she was fast asleep and dreaming of a different party…
She was happy, nestled in the center of a large, white couch with equally large and overstuffed pillows. An army of women surrounded her. They were all laughing and smiling. A couple of them would tug on her arm only so that they could remind her of just how lucky she was.
“I know,” she’d tell them, one right after the other. And she believed it—felt it—even though a part of her was still aware that this was all just a dream.
“Okay. It’s time to open this one,” Ariel said, passing her a giant box. However, it was awkward to maneuver the present around her incredibly big belly.
“Do you have any idea what you’re having this time?” Cathy asked, pushing back her perfect honey-blond hair.
A deep baritone interrupted the women’s conversation. “We want to be surprised—again.”
All eyes turned toward the door, where Jeremy stood holding a little boy on one hip, and on the other a beautiful even younger little girl dressed in an adorable pink dress. Jeremy bent over and set them down on the floor. “Say hello to your mommy.”
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