Diamond Revelation (17 page)

“Keisha, leave it alone, okay?” Topaz let out a long sigh.

Germain came back into the club and joined them at the table. “Those Negroes already took all my money.”

Topaz and Keisha laughed because Germain was practically pouting and he looked just like Chris.

A smile brightened Germain's fallen countenance. “What are you guys laughing at?”

Topaz kissed him on the cheek. “You, baby, because you are too cute when you pout.”

“I wasn't pouting.”

“I know, baby. Come on. Let's go home now so Mama can take good care of Daddy.” Topaz smiled at him and Keisha.

“Sounds like a plan to me. I do have surgery in the morning.” Germain stood up and extended a hand to his wife. “Shall we?”

Topaz took his hand and stood up. “We shall.”

“All right, you two, good night.” Keisha kissed and hugged Germain and then Topaz.

“I don't have a good feeling about this, girl. Tell him the truth. All of it. Tonight,” Keisha whispered in Topaz's ear.

The rest of the friends returned, and the guys were teasing Germain about losing all of his money.

“Let sleeping dogs lie, Key,” Topaz whispered back. “Isn't that how that old saying goes?”

“Yeah, that's how it goes, only your dogs aren't asleep. They're awake and starting to bark all over the place.”

A
s the sun crept into an eastern sky, it gently warmed the Pacific, casting a soft glow over the Malibu coastline. It was morning and the tide was out, extending the beach on the oceanfront property. Nina lay in Kyle's arms as she had all night, neither of them sleeping or talking.

“Babe, you awake?” Nina shifted her position and rested her head on her husband's chest.

“Yeah, you?”

“Of course I am, silly.” A smile found its way onto Nina's face.

Kyle rubbed her hair and gently eased himself out of the bed. “Gotta take a leak.” She watched him walk on his toes as he headed into the bathroom and watched him as he came back out. He was pigeon-toed and she felt it added character to his handsome physique. He climbed back into bed and they resumed their positions.

Nina ran her fingers gently across the hair that was beginning to grow again on his chest. Kyle was a metrosexual who took great pride in his grooming. He would have made a great underwear model. “Babe, you love me?”

“No.”

“Kyle.”

“Ask a silly question, get a silly answer.”

“I was just thinking about Topaz and Germain.”

“I haven't been able to think about anything else.”

Nina let out a long sigh. “I still can't believe how she told him all those lies.”

“They weren't all lies. Actually, she told him the truth according to the conversation you told me you had with Dr. Lawrence when you were in Hawaii.”

“She told him everything except that she is Niki's biological mother.”

They lay in silence as the hard truth of Nina's words sank in.

“Now that part of the truth came out, I can't keep lying to Germain. When we agreed to adopt Niki I didn't know Germain. Now he's family. He's the brother I never had.” Nina wiped a tear from her eye before it could land on her husband's chest.

“I feel exactly the same way. He's my best friend now. We're boys.”

They were both quiet until Nina's BlackBerry became an absolute pest. “Guess we better get to the office.” She got out of bed and Kyle watched her as she walked into the bathroom. He was immediately aroused and joined her in the bathroom, where Nina was turning on the shower. She dropped her robe and stepped into the warm pulsating water as it massaged her well-toned body. There wasn't an ounce of fat anywhere. Would she lose her figure and get cellulite if she had a baby? She looked at Kyle as he stepped inside the shower.

“I knew you'd bring your bighead in here. You know you got to be where I be.”

“Get over here, woman.” He pulled her toward him and kissed her until she was burning with desire. “You don't need to be so sassy. You're not off punishment yet.”

“Punishment?” She smiled and kissed him again before she began to scrub her body with a pink puff.

“What's up, girl?” Kyle's eyes were pleading.

“We've got meetings. We don't have time to go there right now.”

“We are the bosses.”

“That's true, but we don't want to be too late. I'll give you a quickie.”

Forty-five minutes later they were in Kyle's Escalade heading through the canyon to Burbank. They both returned phone calls during the drive into the city.

Mimi was waiting for them in the conference room when they arrived. “Good morning, you two.”

“Hey, girl.” Nina kissed her on the cheek.

“Good morning, Ms. Bluest Eye.” Kyle gave Mimi a Denzel Washington smile.

“I may not be able to keep the tabloids off the Topaz baby story.”

“Oh no.” The smile on Nina's face disappeared.

“Publicity like this definitely won't hurt. It'll blow over eventually. Meanwhile we book shows and sell millions of CDs.”

“It's all about the Benjamins. My kind of woman.” Kyle was such a flirt.

Nina smiled at her husband. With Kyle around she could get through anything.

Mimi smiled at Kyle, too. “Speaking of shows, I've got Topaz booked for a performance on the Grammys. She received five nominations for
Superstar
, too.”

“Praise the Lord! This is wonderful.” Nina was ecstatic.

“Isn't it? I'm so excited,” Mimi said.

“Me too,” Nina replied. “It is such a blessing to be a part of this. I passed on her project, and God gave it back to me.”

“What do you mean God gave it back to you?” Mimi fixed her baby blues on Nina.

“Topaz brought me her music and I passed. I was tripping, and God brought this wonderful project back to me.”

“That's because you were chosen by the Almighty, darlin'. You too, blue eyes.” Kyle smiled at Mimi, who beamed every time Kyle spoke to her.

“That's a very interesting perspective,” Mimi said. “But you are definitely some kind of lucky.”

Nina simply smiled.

“The press can't write enough good things about the CD. People love her singing with that guitar. That was ingenious,” Mimi said.

“That was all Topaz,” Kyle added.

“She was amazing,” Nina added.

“Wasn't she? And the concert at The Diamond…oh my God. I actually cried,” Mimi confessed.

“She was phenomenal,” Kyle commented.

“I cried too,” Nina said quietly.

“Sherwin is doing something wonderful for her as a signing bonus. It's a secret, so don't bother asking,” Mimi declared.

“Dish, girlfriend,” Nina demanded.

“Yeah,” Kyle agreed. “We're good at keeping secrets.”

“No, I promised.” Mimi smiled.

“Awwww. We won't tell,” Nina prompted.

“No. You'll know when it happens. It's something totally awesome,” Mimi said.

Nina flipped through a small stack of tear sheets from the covers of major magazines—
Vibe, Allure, InStyle, Essence…Glamour
. Many had made last-minute changes and run Topaz's feature article instead of previously selected cover stories. The girl was on fire, and people couldn't get enough of her.

Ne-Yo was waiting for Nina with a bunch of new tracks for Sky. Nina had released her CD despite the catastrophic showcase, and one of the singles had caught on really big in Europe and Africa. There was talk of sending her over to do a promotional tour.

“These are some great tracks, playa. I think we need to get Sky back in the studio as soon as possible. Her fans will want new music. We have to be ready with the next CD.” Kyle made a few notes on his pad. “I can work a great tie-in with American Express.”

“Cool,” Nina replied quickly. “Let's get a video crew on the road. We can do a Diary-type show and run it as a six-week reality show on one of the music channels.”

“I'll get video to do a treatment and run a budget.” Kyle made more notes on his pad.

Nina walked Ne-Yo to the door. “Get the studio time booked and get back to me. I've got to get as much done with you while you're still available, because I know everyone's knocking at your door.” Nina smiled at the talented young songwriter and producer.

“Nina, you can get me in the studio anytime.” The young man flirted with Nina easily, not even caring that Kyle was there.

Kyle looked Ne-Yo up and down.
He's trying to mack my wife.

“A'ight, baby. Call me with that schedule.” Nina extended a hand. Ne-Yo kissed it and strolled out the door. Nina turned around to face Kyle. “This is so cool. I love working with you, Kyle Ross. We make a great team.”

“We do, don't we? Now that you decided to give a brother a chance.”

“My bad. I was seriously tripping.”

“Yes, you were.” Kyle looked up at Nina. “You and your thugs.”

“Are you a thug?” Nina smiled at Kyle.

“Hell, yeah. I'm straight up gangsta.”

“Bourgeois style.” Nina laughed.

“Valley girl.”

Kyle was silent again as they made the drive back into Malibu. Even though it was after seven, traffic on the Ventura Freeway was still very heavy.

“We should think about getting a place closer to the office so we don't have to deal with all this traffic every day.” Nina sighed as red brake lights lit up for miles in every lane on the freeway in the stop-and-go traffic. “This is ridiculous.”

Kyle made no indication of whether he had heard her or not. His mind raced with ideas.

Nina took out her BlackBerry that was surprisingly quiet and pressed a button. “What are you doing?”

“Just finishing up dinner with Germain and the kids.”

“You received five Grammy nominations.”

Topaz screamed. “Oh my God.”

“They love you, girl.”

“They love me?”

“They love the woman and her guitar, Superstar.”

Topaz screamed again and Nina laughed. “Have you spoken to Mimi lately?”

“No. I've just been here with my man waiting for everything to blow over.”

“The music press is all about the music, but the tabloids are having a field day with this baby story.”

“I could kill Rosalyn Lawrence.”

“As long as everything's cool with you and Germain, don't worry about it.”

“We're great.” Topaz sighed. “He's all excited about his birthday. You know I have to do something.”

“Give him a party at The Diamond, and then you two should take some away time. Go to Fiji or something.”

“I'll have to talk to you about this later.”

“Is he in the room?”

“Sorta kinda like.”

“A'ight. Later.” Nina clicked off the phone.

“I was thinking,” Kyle began, “why don't you, me, and Niki have some away time? I know I got those tickets for Jamaica, but we need something in the interim.”

“I'd like that. What did you have in mind?” Nina focused on her husband.

“A three-day Disney cruise to the Bahamas.”

“Kyle, Niki would love that and so would I.”

“I was thinking about my little princess and my queen when I came up with the idea.” Kyle grinned.

“When do we go?”

“Next weekend over Veterans Day. We'll take the red-eye to Miami Friday night, hit the ship over the weekend, and fly back to LA on another red-eye Monday.”

 

“Look, Mommy. Isn't it pretty?” Niki looked up into Nina's eyes with soft topaz eyes. They were much prettier than Topaz's because Niki's were flecked with blue. When you looked into her eyes, you had to take a second look. Her eyes were pure and clear like glass.

The airplane ascended over the glittering Los Angeles skyline. Niki looked out of a window seat in first class with Mama Nina leaning over her shoulder. Kyle took out the
New York Times
and began reading.

“We're going to have fun.” Niki sang a little melody and Nina smiled.

“We sure are. Now everybody go to sleep because we're getting on the boat first thing in the morning.” Nina covered Niki and Teddy with her favorite Cheetah Girls comforter and pillow. Then she covered herself and Kyle with a cheetah-print throw, leaned on his shoulder, and went to sleep. Kyle looked up from his paper and cast the women in his life an appreciative glance, then folded the paper and slept.

The plane arrived in Miami late. There was a stretch limo waiting to take the family to the harbor. Traffic was so congested they almost missed the ship. Once onboard, it was only a matter of minutes before the anchor lifted and the ship slowly glided out to sea.

“Yay.” Niki was so excited she was ready to explode. She was on a cruise with Mickey Mouse. Kyle booked an oceanside state room suite with a verandah. It was two rooms…a bedroom with a king-sized bed for Nina and Kyle and a pullout bed for Niki in the living room.

“What do you guys want to do first?” Kyle looked at Nina and Niki.

“Let's go up on deck and chill. It's very warm outside,” Nina suggested.

Outfitted in summer gear, the family stretched out with books and magazines on chaises by the Mickey Mouse pool. Water and sky were brilliantly blue. They read books until one by one, they drifted off to sleep.

When Nina opened her eyes, Niki was wearing her swimsuit. “Mommy, can I go in the pool now? I've been waiting for you and Daddy to wake up.”

“Sure, baby. Just make sure you come out if you begin to feel chilly.” She watched Niki slide into the pool, found the camera, and snapped away.

“Look, Kyle.” Nina beamed with motherly pride. “Isn't our baby girl the cutest little thing?”

After dinner, they attended a concert.

“This reminds me of when you had me come to New York for the weekend. We had so much fun, and you were the perfect gentleman.”

“You were cute,” Kyle recalled.

“I fell in love with you that weekend.” Nina positioned herself in her husband's arms.

“I know.”

“Kyle…”

“That was the plan, woman. I had to get you to fall for me. I fell in love with you the day you came up to Sean's ranch for Kobe's christening party.”

“You did? Baby, that is so sweet.” Nina had warm fuzzy feelings when she finally fell asleep.

When the ship docked, they took a tour of Nassau, where Nina and Niki had their hair braided on the beach. They purchased identical pairs of gold bangles and a gold watch for Kyle in a jewelry stall near Straw Market. After a Bahamian dinner, they went back to the ship where they watched movies in the stateroom. On the final day of the cruise, they enjoyed massages in the spa. The turnaround was much too soon before they were back in the airport waiting for the return flight to Los Angeles.

“Thank you for bringing us, baby. We really needed that little vacation.” Nina smiled at Kyle.

“We'll take a longer cruise next time and bring Chris and Baby Doll for Niki.”

“Niki would love that, but I think she really enjoyed hanging out with Mommy and Daddy.” Nina pushed the braids out of her daughter's face.

“That's my little princess road dog.” Kyle grinned as he carried the sleeping child onto the airplane.