Hot Girlz: Hot Boyz Sequel (29 page)

She continued, words dragging. “We’d
just like the time we spend to be as equal as possible.”

“Okay.” Torino looked away again, this
time at Sequoia.

Her eyes dragged his eyes to the front
door.

Colette asked, “Was Kyle Jr.
behaving?”

Torino said, “He was. It’s all new to
him.”

“It is.” Colette sounded like she was
about to go to sleep. “I was diagnosed as bipolar. I have post traumatic stress
disorder, too. I’m on medication. I don’t mind you knowing. I hate for you to
see me like this.”

Kyle said, “She’s been through a lot.”

“We’re just glad you’re okay,” Sequoia
told her.

Torino spoke up. “Yep. Well. We’re
gonna get going. Sequoia has a catering event.”

Kyle said, “Oh, really? If it’s
anything like the one you did for my brother, it’ll be great.”

Torino led the way to the door.

“Thank you. So, we’ll talk to you both
later.” Sequoia followed right behind him.

Colette said to Kyle. “Baby, call the
boys from the back.”

“Kyle Jr., TJ, come inside,” Kyle
yelled.

The boys came back in slower than when
they went out.

“Oh, man,” Kyle Jr. said, seeing
Torino and Sequoia at the door. “TJ’s leaving?”

Torino said. “Yes. Come on TJ. We’ve
gotta get going.”

TJ walked up to his dad. “Okay. Bye,”
he said to Kyle Jr.

Kyle asked him, “Did you meet Ms.
Berry?”

She gave him a smile. “Hi, TJ. I
haven’t seen you since you were a baby.”

“Hello.” He barely looked at her, only
at Kyle Jr.

Kyle Jr. said, “That’s my mom.”

“Okay.” TJ gave Colette a quick smile
and then held his own mom’s hand.

“Let’s go,” Torino said.

Sequoia waved to everyone. “We’ll talk
to you later.”

“Okay.” Colette closed her eyes half
way and then reopened them wide.

Kyle walked them out the door and to
their car. Everyone got inside except for Torino, who opened the driver side
door and turned around to say, “Man. I didn’t want to say it in front of
Colette. I wanted to wait until I saw you again, just you and me. I didn’t bring
it up the other day, either. But the DNA test I took came back negative.”

“It did?” Kyle looked like his breath
was caught in his throat.

“So, I think the next move is for you
to go ahead and take a test yourself. And if it turns out you’re his father, I
think you should take that to court and get full custody of Kyle Jr.”

“You think so?”

“I do. If he belongs to you, why not?
That’s a true daddy’s boy you’ve got there. And, if you really think Colette
can get well now that she’s getting the help she needs, the help she didn’t
have before, then I don’t see why you three can’t work it out as a family.”

“What about the boys? Looks to me like
they’ve bonded already.”

“They’ll be in each other’s lives.”

Kyle nodded and thought to himself. He
then said, “I’ll jump on that right away. Thanks.” He looked inside of the car.
“Thanks, Sequoia. You’ve been one-hundred percent through all of this.”

“No worries.”

He looked in the backseat. “TJ, we’ll
see you later.”

“Bye.” TJ was already playing with his
DS.

Then he said to Torino, “I’ll call
you, man. Thanks for everything.” They hugged the brotha hug, patting each
other on the back with one hand and shaking hands with the other.

“Got it.” Torino got into the car and
started it up.

As they backed out of the driveway,
Sequoia said, “Sorry to say, but she looks bad.”

“Yeah.”

“I still can’t believe she lied about
you being the father after all this time.”

Torino shook his head in agreement.
“Let’s just hope
he’s
the father.”

Sequoia cosigned. “True. Let’s.”

32

Mercedes

“. . . running for city council.”

It was a month later.

Thanksgiving Day.

Claude’s birthday was the night
before.

All of the family was over for the
annual dinner at Mercedes and Mason’s house.

Mason had been spending his nights
there for over a month, yet still not sharing his wife’s bed. He spent most of
his time being in solitude, finishing his second book which came out in six
months. And also, he had been interviewing with several networks regarding a
job in broadcasting.

Sequoia had come over early to help
Mercedes cook. They took over the kitchen with pots and pans and groceries and
seasonings. Mercedes was in charge of the turkey, ham, liver and onions,
cornbread dressing, and giblet gravy.

Sequoia was in charge of the side
dishes like yams, cheese grits, green beans, collards, macaroni and cheese, and
the biscuits.

And Star was in the kitchen every now
and then, too, making desserts, like lemon pound cake, carrot cake, and sweet
potato pie.

Today, Mason Wilson was not in his
office working. He was in the family room shooting pool with Claude, Torino,
and Star’s boyfriend Terrence.

TJ and Skyy were in Star’s old room
playing Uno, again, and again, and again.

Mercedes told her daughter, looking
over her shoulder at her baking skills. “Those look good, Star.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’m starving.”

“Did you and Terrence eat after your
flight this morning?”

“We grabbed something from Jack In the
Crack.”

Mercedes laughed. She was pleased that
her daughter had her sense of humor back. “Jack in the Crack? No you didn’t.”

Sequoia gave a snicker. “Wow.”

“What? It’s just what we call it
instead of Jack In the Box. They don’t have one in Atlanta, so when I come home
it’s the first place I go. But that was a few hours ago.”

Sequoia asked, “You call it that
because it’s like crack?”

“Basically.”

“These young folks," said
Sequoia.

Star said, looking at her aunt,
“Auntie Sequoia, you’re young. You both are.”

“Yeah, you had too much Jack in the
Crack alright,” Mercedes joked.

“Early forties. I hope I look as good
as you two when I’m forty.”

“Well, thanks, Star. That’s sweet.”
Mercedes hugged Star from behind, placing a kiss on the side of her head.

Star leaned her head back upon her
mom’s chest. “Love you Mom. It’s good to be home.”

Mercedes said right back, “Love you
more.” She stopped and took in the moment. “It’s good to have you home.” And
then she walked over to the sink. “This house is way too quiet without you and
Rashaad.” She wanted to also mention Mattie, but didn’t.

Star said, “I’m glad Dad’s back home.
I’m just happy.”

“I’m happy, too,” said Mercedes,
wondering if Star really knew that Mason wasn’t back for good.

Sequoia spoke up while adding grated
cheese to the macaroni. “Hell, I’m happy, too. And I’ll be even happier when we
finish all this food so we can eat.”

Star asked Sequoia, “You need help?”

Sequoia held her hand up and dropped
the bag of cheese on the floor. She bent over and picked it up.

Mercedes and Star laughed.

Sequoia regrouped. “I was gonna say
no. I’ve got this. You just tend to your little desserts over there.” She
looked at Mercedes who had a look of hilarity on her face. “And you to yours.”

Star placed the glass cover over the
pound cake and looked at the clock on the microwave. “In that case, I’m done.
I’m headed to the living room to watch Rashaad’s tournament. It comes on in
about two minutes.”

Sequoia poured in some milk. “Which
tournament is this?”

“He’s in China. It’s the
Omega World Cup or something. It starts today.”

Mercedes asked, “Is that
the team tournament that lasts three days?”

“It is.” She started to
walk out of the kitchen. “He’s playing with that hottie, Rory McIlroy.”

Sequoia said, “Uh-oh,
you’d better be careful. Your guy might hear you.”

Star clicked her tongue.
“Please. He knows. And I know who he likes.”

“Really?”

“Yep. He told me himself
that he’d marry Paula Patton hands down in two seconds flat.”

Mercedes added, “If she
was available. And him, too. Which he’s not.”

Star said while skipping
out of the kitchen. “Well, of course. Duh. He belongs to me.” Star said from
the living room. “Dang. It’s starting now.”

“That girl has some
energy.”

Mercedes looked proud.
“She does, with her genius self. You should’ve seen her in Atlanta playing in
that symphony. She’s so gifted. It’s good to see her smiling.”

“It’s good to see
everyone, period. Wish Rashaad could be home. And of course Cameron. Did you
invite him?”

“No. I told Venus to tell
him. I didn’t think I should call him myself since Claude is here. Don’t want
him tripping out.” Mercedes checked the oven and looked at the turkey.

“It’s your house.”

“And it’s his birthday
celebration as well as Thanksgiving. But it’s also the anniversary of Fatima
dying. If Cameron finds out it’ll be because they told him.” Mercedes did not
speak of the fact that she saw Claude at the cemetery.

Sequoia said quietly, “You
don’t think Venus is going back to him.”

“I don’t. But, you never
know. She did that one time before. Love is blind. You can’t see what other
people see or feel. That’s on them. I just hope they do.”

“Hey there, baby.” Torino
came into the kitchen looking at his wife. “You two are both fine, but I’m
telling you,” he said checking out Sequoia, “when I look at my wife I think if
beauty was a crime, she’d be a felony.” He gave Sequoia a look like he could
put her on a plate and sop her up with a biscuit.

She giggled. “Torino, are
you trying to get some in Mercedes’s kitchen? ‘Cause you know you can.” Sequoia
gave Torino sultry eyes.

Mercedes looked away,
about to laugh. “Let me leave the two of you alone.”

Torino said, “Just
kidding.”

Sequoia was serious. “I’m
not. Oh, you can get it.”

Mercedes cleared her
throat. “Oh, Lord. I’ll be right back so make it a quickie. Gotta check out my
son on TV.”

“Okay,” Sequoia said,
standing in front of Torino hugged up. She kissed him like it was a goodbye
kiss, and he wasn’t even going anywhere.

He said, “California face
with a down-south rump.” He grabbed her backside and squeezed.

Mercedes looked at them
and moon-walked out, then turned to head straight toward the living room to
where Star sat on the couch. “It started?”

“Yep.”

“Good. You see him yet?”

“Yep.” Star said, sitting
with her feet up on the couch.

“Oh my God. There he is.
He’s wearing red and black today. I’ll go tell your dad.” She hurried back into
the family room. “Hey you guys? Rashaad’s tournament is on.”

Mason yelled over to the
birthday boy, “Hey, Claude. Would you turn on that television please? Thanks.”
He eyeballed the plasma TV over the fireplace.

Claude took the remote
from the shelf underneath it and turned to ESPN.

Mercedes looked at
Terrence who was holding his pool cue. “Can you play?” she asked.

Mason said, “Oh, he got
game.”

“Really? Where’d you learn
that?”

Terrence looked proud of
himself. “Actually, I played my first game with Star. She taught me.”

“Oh, so now you’re gonna
brag. Just flaunting the fact that you’re new to the game. Making me look like
a punk? See, now I know why. It’s called beginner’s luck.” Mason was animated.
He leaned over and aimed the cue at the ball and took his shot. “Take that.” He
sank the yellow ball like it was a cinch.

Terrence said, “Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Trying to show off now that the wife is here.”

“Oh, no he’s not.” Mason
took another shot and sank it. “How you gonna talk mess to a golfer who’s
shooting pool? One thing I can do is get a ball in a hole.” Mason lined himself
up for the next shot. It went in. “Stick to the violin, Son.”

Terrence just shook his
head, watching, smiling so big he looked like his young cheeks were going to
burst. He was in Mason heaven.

Mercedes laughed, happy
that her home seemed alive again. She looked at Claude and asked, “How are
you?”

“Good.”