A Weekend with the Cromwells

by Olivia Gaines

  “And? What does that have to do with me?”

  “Don’t be like that! I didn’t raise you to be so hard-hearted. He’s your father and despite his faults, he loves you,” Cookie said.

  “It still does not mean that I owe him anything, not even a minute of my time,” Tae-Tay said with anger in her voice.

  Cookie exhaled into the phone. It was once more followed by an extra-long pause. “You don’t owe him anything but I do. I am going to ask this favor of you, for me. I have to do right by him so that I can sleep at night.”

  “Again, Momma, your inability to sleep at night due to your transgressions should not cost me anything, financial, time or even a fleeting thought,” she told her mother.

  Cookie’s soft approach was gone. If there was one thing to be said about Cookie Brown, she had no patience for nonsense. “Listen here, chile. The Arachnids kept a roof of our heads for a year after Leviticus was sent to Chino. I managed to get a job then and Ethel was able to help with you girls after school. We were lucky in more ways than one, Tae. His name carried a lot of weight and still does. He made sure we were taken care of even after he was transferred to Lancaster. So, I owe him and so do you!”

  There was no need in arguing with her mother, “What do you need me to do?”

  “I don’t want him beholden to that little bastard Spyder and definitely not to that Big Nasty looking joker that came by here looking for you...”

  “His name is Big Nasty,” she said softly.

  “I don’t care what his name is...your father is older now, he can’t take on these young cats and he don’t need to be out there trying to sling either. He has to have a roof over his head,” she told Tae-Tay. “I left all the furniture and took out his old clothes and washed them and hung in them in the closet. I left the key to the house where he knows to look for it.”

  “You still ain’t said what you need from me, Momma,” she said.

  “If you are able, cover the rent next month and send him a little something for his pocket,” she said. “Nothing long term, Tae, just something to help him get some groceries, a burner phone, nothing much...”

  This time, the long pause came from Tae-Tay. “Why Momma? Why do you even still care about that man?”

  Cookie did not take long to answer her, “Because he gave me you.”

  It was an unfair answer in her mind. An answer meant to tug on her heart strings. The thing that really pissed her off was that it worked. “I’ll take care of it, Momma,” Tae-Tay told her. “Is there anything else?”

  Again, Cookie was taking a pause, “I didn’t tell him anything. I mean I don’t know anything. I guess when the time comes for me to meet your husband and learn your new last name...or where you have taken my grandson, you will tell me.”

  “That is correct,” Tae-Tay said flatly.

  “Fair enough,” Cookie said. “Just for that, I gave your father your number. Love you. Mean it!” And Cookie Brown hung up the phone.

  CHAPTER Ten

  Daddy Issues

  Dinner was quieter than the ride home in the car. Tae-Tay’s head was filled with new thoughts of dealing with her father, who was far more cunning than her mother could ever be. How am I going to send him money without a New York postal code? If I had a close friend I could send it to them, but that would endanger their lives.

  She didn’t even notice Douglas leaving the table to retrieve the drawing he had made of him and Thurston as super heroes saving all the lost puppies in the world. Thurston noticed.

  “Douglas, Iris isn’t a lost puppy,” he said.

  Douglas expressed his concerns. “But, what if Lawrence doesn’t understand how to give her food or give her enough water?”

  “He has lots of help, Douglas,” Thurston told him.

  Douglas’ little eyes were wide. “Not that Katie lady! I think she believed the puppy was a baby!”

  Thurston nearly choked on his wine. “Douglas, my father is there. So is my mother, Ms. Jones, Rodgers, the maids...Lawrence will have lots of help with Iris.”

  “I know, but I should be able to help him, too,” he said with his little lips pouting.

  “When you are old enough, we will get you your own puppy, Douglas,” Thurston told him. His eyes were focused on his wife, who was looking into her plate, pushing food about.

  At some point I am going to have to tell my husband about my father.

  Although she wanted it to be later in the week, fate intervened for it to be later in the hour when her cell phone rang.

  “Are you going to get it?” Lawrence asked her.

  “I really don’t feel good about taking calls during dinner or family time,” she responded.

  “Yes, but you rarely get phone calls.”

  “You’re right,” she said as she rose from the table to locate her phone. She answered it just as the party on the other end was about to hang up.

  “Hello,” she said in the line.

  Dead air hissed through the phone until finally a raspy voice could be heard in the line, “Hello TataLavisha. Did you know that name is a mixture of my grandmother’s name Lavisha and your grandmother Tatatiana?”

  Remain calm. Stay calm. “I did not know that. I always thought I was given that name so I could grow up to become a famous stripper,” she told her father.

  “You always had a quick wit and a smart mouth gal... how are you?” Leviticus asked.

  “I’m fine, Daddy. I understand you will be home soon,” she said, sounding more calm than she felt.

  “Is home anywhere near you and my grandson?”

  “Nope and never will be,” she responded with no emotion.

  “I never understood what I did so wrong to let you down. Whatever it is, you have never forgiven me for it. I wish I knew...at least I could try to make it up to you somehow,” he told her.

  For sixteen years, she had held onto the fear. Even as an adult, she still checked under her bed before going to sleep at night. She even checked the closets. The boogeyman was real.

  “You can never make up for it, Daddy. I will, however, send you a few ends when you get to the house to tide you over until you get on your feet,” she said.

  His deep, raspy voice eased its way through the lines, like a crook sneaking in through the window at night, “That’s generous of you.”

  “Times have changed and Big Nasty and Spyder ain’t no jokes. They are very bad men,” she told him.

  Leviticus was more curious about the man she was married to. “What about the man you call husband?”

  Tae-Tay looked back at Thurston. She watched him with Douglas sketching on a piece of art paper, making sure the superhero was able to save the lost little pups. Her husband was a good man. Douglas would grow up to be a good man.

  “I married a good guy, Daddy,” she told him.

  “Will I get to meet him?”

  “No. But I will send you regular pictures of Douglas as he grows up,” she told him.

  That deep raspy voice was softened and became almost soothing, seemingly caressing her as he spoke, “Before you hang up, tell me how I failed you so miserably that you hate me?”

  “I don’t hate you, Daddy, but when you started using, you became someone different. It is one thing to check under your bed and find gang members waiting to molest you when you go to sleep... it is another to wake up and find your high father in your bed trying to do the same,” she said with no emotion in her voice.

  The line was dead as Leviticus said nothing. She followed his silence with, “For that reason, you never need to call me again.”

  She ended the call and shut off the phone. “Thurston, will you clear the table and get Douglas settled tonight? I am going up to soak in the tub for a while.”

  “Let me know if you need anything,” he said as he watched her grab the bottle of wine to take with her up the stairs, her legs moving like lead shoes had been attached to her feet. Her heart felt even heavier.

  The words had never been spoken aloud be
fore, even though her mother had heard her scream, which also woke her sister. Although he was completely high, there was something in his words that made Tae-Tay believe that part of his actions were not a result of the drugs. Another thing that bothered her was that her sister, who shared the room with her, said nothing when he entered the room and slid into her bed. In her mind, he was no different than any of the predators who lived on the block. Instead of her father protecting them from the boogeyman, it broke her heart to find out he was one as well.

  Thurston showered in the hallway bathroom after he had gotten Douglas settled for the night. He’d overheard the phone call and was certain she’d said it loud enough for him to hear and understand. He understood that she was still hurting. This pain she carried with her and the shame over something in which she had no control.

  “Tae,” he said as he stepped through the bedroom door. He wasn’t certain if she had gone to bed and was asleep. She was wide awake, sitting in the middle of the bed with a magazine. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t have a choice to be anything else,” she told him.

  “No, you now have options,” he told her as he sat on the side of the bed facing her. “If you want to talk to someone professionally, I can have you an appointment by tomorrow afternoon. There are limitless options at your disposal, even if you only wish to talk to me.”

  “I don’t even know what to tell you,” she told him while her hands continued to turn over inside of each other.

  “Tell me the main thing that is making you the angriest.”

  For the second time in her life, she looked at her husband, this man, who promised to forsake all others and keep only unto her, asking for her trust. She opened her heart to him and her mouth and let it all fall out.

  “Nothing happened...I mean he never had a chance to...you know...my screams brought my mother into the room, but it was Kveisha, my sister,” she said as a tear rolled down her cheek. “...did you know we were twins?”

  Thurston shook his head, “I did.”

  “Well, she thought that Daddy loved me more because of what he tried to do to me...which was why she joined the gang. She wanted to please him, to make him love her more...she was so stupid. I tried to tell her that what he attempted to do was wrong, but she didn’t see it that way. She was going to prove to the world that she was Leviticus Wilson’s daughter. The only thing it got her was dead.”

  She stared at her hands, which had stopped wringing themselves in an effort to comfort her mind. Thurston was watching her waiting for his wife to say something. Her husband knew the truth and he had not asked her to leave. This man knew that her father was one of the most notorious gang bangers in California history and he was still here. He had just learned that her father had attempted to molest her, and he was still here.

  “Does this change you throwing that hat in the ring for Congressman?” she wanted to know.

  “This doesn’t change a damn thing. I love you and we are a family. That which we build from this point forward is by our hands, no one else’s,” he told her.

  “You and those pretty words coming out of your mouth,” she said as her fingers grazed over his lips.

  “I say what I mean and I mean what I say. You have no control over who sired you. Like any other political action, we stay ahead of the fray by being truthful. When he gets out next week, he will have served his time. You live in New York and have nothing to do with him. I will see that the money gets delivered to him by someone he would rather not trouble again, and that will be the end of that,” Thurston informed her. “I’ll make a few calls, get him a job, nothing major...set him up an account with a few dollars in it. You won’t have to do anything. I will take care of all of it.”

  “It should come out of my account in case it is traced back,” she said.

  “I have means to get things done where there is never a trace,” he said.

  “Damn, it’s like that?”

  He leaned forward and stuck his index finger into the top of her nightgown and pulled her forward. He kissed her lips lightly, “Yeah, it’s like that.”

  “Thurston, you said you were going to tell me tonight why you wanted to make sure Lawrence had all those things.”

  She watched her husband reach down beside the bed and pull out a medium-sized square velvet box. Her eyes were wide as she opened the lid to remove a beautiful string of pearls with matching earrings. She couldn’t help herself; she gripped the strand in her hands and rubbed the white orbs across her teeth. The grainy feeling was there. “Oh, my God! These are real like Veronica’s!”

  Tae-Tay grabbed her husband and pushed him back on the bed, throwing herself on top of him. “Thank you. They are so beautiful.” She littered his face with kisses as she moved her body over his, feeling the change in his body as it reacted to her weight atop him. Gazing into his eyes, she asked, “Tell me why you did those things for Lawrence?”

  “I did them because I know what it feels like to be anxious to come home each night and climb in bed beside a woman who loves me. The addition of Douglas in my life making me a father...that feeling of knowing the two of you are counting on me...makes me feel...valued. I have value not because of my bank accounts but because when you go to sleep at night in this house, you no longer check under the bed or in the closet. Although I have all of the right equipment that makes me a male, you make me feel like a man!”

  “Really, Thurston, how manly are you feeling?”

  “Man enough to have locked that door before I came and sat on the corner of this bed,” he told her. “Now come here, so I can put a smile on that face of yours.”

  “Wait, I want to make love to you wearing my new pearls,” she said.

  Thurston took them from her hands and put them on the night stand. “Not a good idea.”

  Tae-Tay’s face was distorted. “Why not?”

  “Because what this man is about to do you will have little pearls all over this damned bed,” he said as he rolled her to her back. He pushed up her nightgown while struggling to get his pajama bottoms off.

  “Why, Mr. Cromwell, you are displaying such un-gentleman like behavior!”

  “Well, what comes next is about to make me downright roguish,” he told her. She felt his mouth moving lower as he planted hot kisses along her abdomen. In the back of his mind he heard his brother’s words, “You must be good at the sex too. Tae-Tay is always smiling.’

  Her husband was learning to be more of himself around her, dropping his guard and becoming more playful, not only with her but also with their son. Tomorrow morning he would make the call to William and officially make a run for the congressional seat.

  Me.

  A congressman’s wife.

  Crazier things have happened.

  Thurston made love to her passionately with reckless abandon. He ensured she was as satisfied as he brought them to a satiating finish. They lay content in each other’s arms afterwards while he held her close and she nuzzled her face against his chest. Before he turned off the bedside lamp, he looked at her face. The smile is there.

  He would call his mother tomorrow to check on the soon-to-be married couple.

  I am a man. I just think slower.

  The words of his brother were permanently etched in his mind. Thanks to TataLavisha, Thurston Cromwell the Fourth, now felt the same way.

  I am a man. I am a husband, a father and a protector.

  Thanks, Lawrence, for the reminder.

  It was going to be a long road ahead for the couple as they navigated the shark infested waters of politics. In his heart, Thurston was ready for the fight, he only hoped his wife was as well. The next year would place a severe strain on their marriage while he made his campaign run. He was also uncertain how he felt about living out of a Winnebago, but if his wife was willing, then who was he to question her ability to make it a home. Tae-Tay had managed to make a home for them with borrowed furniture in a city that was foreign to her way of life.

  Tae-Tay was a
djusting and taking it all in stride.

  If she could do it, so he could.

  Thurston made a mental list of things he would need to get done this week.

   Call William

   Start a campaign

   Take care of Leviticus Wilson

   Find a Winnebago

   Get Douglas a puppy

  He sighed deeply before drifting off to sleep with a smile on his face. Tae-Tay is going to kill me for getting our son a puppy. The one thing that was not going to be as easy was handling Leviticus Wilson. A man like that never gave up without a fight. He would rather destroy his family than allow another man to have it. Especially when it came to TataLavisha.

  Thurston was ready for him as well.

  - Fin -

  A Note from the Author

  I hope you enjoyed this installment of The Value of a Man Series. While Thurston gears up for his campaign, our next two installments will introduce you to two of his cousins. We will see you again in March.

  All my best – Olivia

  About the Author

  Olivia Gaines is the author of numerous bestselling novellas and books, including Two Nights in Vegas, A Few More Nights, and has had several number one best sellers with The Blakemore Files including Being Mrs. Blakemore and Shopping with Mrs. Blakemore.

  She lives in Augusta, GA, with her husband, son and snotty cat, Katness Evermean.

  Connect with Olivia on her Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/1eorEAr.

  Also by Olivia Gaines

  The Slice of Life Series

  The Perfect Man

  Friends with Benefits

  A Letter to My Mother

  The Basement of Mr. McGee

  A New Mommy for Christmas

  The Slivers of Love Series

  The Cost to Play

  Thursday in Savannah

  Girl's Weekend

  Beneath the Well of Dawn

  Santa’s Big Helper

  The Davonshire Series

  Courting Guinevere