Hot Like Fire (6 page)

Kade shook his head as he came to a stop in front
of her. "If I was looking to get involved with a
woman-which I'm not-it wouldn't be one who
sends a man sex toys."

Garcelle nodded in understanding.

Kade moved past her to walk into the house. He
paused in the doorway, and Garcelle looked up at
him. There were just inches between them. Inches
that were infinitely filled with power.

"Thanks so much for helping out with Kadina,"
he told her in that masculine voice that was everything good: a hot toddy during a bad cold, great
sex, sweet and hot double chocolate, a foot massage
after a hard day of work, winning the lottery...

Garcelle swallowed a lump in her throat. "You're
welcome," she said as she fought off her awareness
of him.

"Do you want me to follow you home?" he asked,
as he'd done every evening since she'd taken the job.

"No, I'll be fine. I'll call, like always, to let you
know I got home okay."

"Good."

"I better be going," she said, turning to walk into
the house.

"Garcelle."

She turned at the sound of him saying her name.
Her eyes locked with his. ". Si?"

"I was only joking earlier," he said, with a smile. "I
didn't ever think you sent that box to me. Trust me."

Garcelle nodded and smiled playfully. "I didn't
think you were crazy."

Kade flung his head back and laughed, and the light from the porch bounced off of his silver curls.
"You don't bite your tongue, do you?"

She shook her head. "Never."

They fell into a comfortable silence.

"Listen, I better warn you," she said suddenly. "T he
ladies feel like you're open for business since you
moved back in your house. Your little gift tonight is
just the start of it. You are the talk of Holtsville."

Kade looked disbelieving. "Me?" he asked, pointing to himself.

Garcelle shook her head. "Don't pretend like
you don't know you're cute, Kade Strong."

His eyes locked on her, and she saw them fill with
hesitation.

"I'm not feeling you like that," she balked, reaching up to pinch his arm. She tried not to notice the
steel beneath her fingertips. "In fact, I'm probably
one of the few single women in Holtsville who ain't
on the prowl."

Kade sat down on the top step of the porch. In
the quiet, the sounds of night creatures echoed
loudly. He dropped his face into his hands before
he wiped his eyes and then dragged his long fingers
through his soft hair. His eyes were troubled as he
looked up at the full moon, which seemed three
times its normal size.

Garcelle moved from the doorway to sit on the
top step, beside him. She licked her lips as she
knocked her leg against his. "There's nothing
wrong with not wanting to get over your wife. I
think it's beautiful how much you loved-"

"Love," he stressed.

"Right." Garcelle touched his arm lightly. "My
father hasn't remarried since my mother passed away,
and it's been close to five years," she told him. "Now, I won't say that I don't want him to find love again,
but it has to be in his own time ... just like you."

Kade shrugged. "I'm just sick of people making
me feel like I'm crazy out my ass because I'm not
out sexing women and acting a fool. Damn, can't a
brotha just chill?"

Garcelle nodded, but her mind was momentarily
stuck on something else. Did he admit he hasnt had
sex since his wife died? Garcelle pursed her lips. I feel
for the woman he drops all that pressure on.

"Most men would probably head trip off the females chasing them, but it's not what I need right
now, for sure," said Kade.

Garcelle bumped her shoulder against his.
"Don't worry. I got your back, and those hoochies
and hags are gonna have to get through me," she
said, pointing to her chest, as Kade dropped his
head and laughed.

"You don't look like much of a bodyguard ... for
me, anyway," he said as he turned his face to look
at her.

Garcelle felt breathless. Kade really was a goodlooking man, with his square, angular features and
caramel complexion, which the sun had deepened to
a bronze. His eyes were deep set, and so very intense,
above sharp and high cheekbones. His features were
hard and handsome, in perfect contrast to his soft
and curly hair.

"Garcelle?"

"Huh?" she asked, her eyes focusing in on his.

"Thanks for the talk," he said. "I never had a
female friend-besides Reema."

She forced a smile. "That's me. Your buddy," she
joked, even as the disappointment she felt surprised
her.

"See, Daddy, we're late for church," Kadina
scolded him as she double-checked her ponytail in
the passenger-side window.

"God will understand," Kade told her as he
turned his Expedition onto the unpaved driveway
of the Holtsville Baptist Church. Cars filled the
yard, and Kade had to park near the ditch running
along the side of the road.

They made their way inside, and Kade saw that
his usual seats in the row with his family were taken.

Tsst ... psst."

Kade turned his head to find Portia Minton, an
old classmate and the ex-wife of one of the men
from his hunting club, patting the empty seat next
to her in the pew. She had "gotten saved" a few
weeks ago, and everyone mockingly called her
Sister Portia because she seemed to be saved only
on Sundays. Every other day of the week, she did
plenty to repent for.

Kade waved and kept on moving.

He saw his brother Kaeden trying to discreetly get
his attention near the front. Kade gripped Kadina's
hand tighter and headed that way. Feeling like all
eyes were resting on him, Kade was glad when they
finally were in their seats.

As the church service continued on, Kade became
more and more confused. Wherever he happened to
rest his eyes, a woman smiled, winked, waved, or even
blew kisses to him! Just when he thought he had to
have imagined it, another woman would make her
presence known to him. After Hazel Rogers, a divorcee with six kids-all under the age of seven-gave
him a more than friendly smile, Kade focused his
eyes and his full attention on the minister.

The weirdness continued after church. He could
have sworn he saw the twins, Pita and Rita, shoving
people out of the way to head in his direction. Kade
rushed Kadina out of the church, behind Kaeden.

Everyone mingled outside, on the church grounds,
and Kadina went running over to Kade's parents as
soon as she spotted them. Kade and Kaeden followed
at a slower space.

"Everything going good at the house?" Kaeden
asked as he removed his rimless spectacles to clean
them.

Kade towered over his brother by nearly four
inches and had to look down at him as he answered.
"Still have some unpacking to do, but I'm glad to be
home."

"Kadina like it?"

"She says she does, and she talks about her mother
more ... asking lots of questions and remembering
things about Reema," Kade told him, with a smile.

"She was a special woman."

Kade paused in his steps. "Yes, she was."

Kaeden nodded. "There wasn't a better whist
player around-"

'th, excuse me, gentlemen."

Kade and Kaeden turned to find Ollie Freehold
standing behind them, with a big smile. "How you
doing, Ms. Ollie?" Kade asked the sixty-something
church secretary.

"Blessed all day, every day. Amen," she replied.

"Yes, ma'am," the brothers said in unison.

"Kade, I wanted to talk to you about hosting a
shooting match as a fund-raiser for the church,"
said Ms. Ollie.

Kaeden smacked Kade on the back. "I'll let y'all
talk business then and excuse myself."

Kade glared at his brother's retreating back as he
felt himself cornered by Ms. Ollie.

Kaeden chuckled as he walked across the church
grounds, toward where his family stood. His stomach growled, and he couldn't wait to taste whatever
his mother was serving up for Sunday dinner. Being
a bachelor, Kaeden rarely got a home-cooked meal,
and when he did, it was at his parents'. His hightech kitchen still looked as spotless and new as the
day he moved into his town house. Of course, to
meet his Mrs. Right, he had to get more going on
in his life than just his work.

Most of his time was spent with facts and figuresnumerical and not feminine. Growing up, his brothers had joked he was the nerd of the family. The safe
one. The cautious one. The nonphysical one. The
nonfarming one. The nervous one.

It was always a joke that he was the spitting image
of Kahron, but they were as different as night and day. Being allergic to everything under the sun had
a way of making a small boy find things to do other
than be outside. And being the only person in the
family to avoid the outdoors had taught him often
and early how to be comfortable being alone.

He felt the heavy pollen in the air tickle his eyes,
nose, and throat. He lifted his glasses to rub his eyes
and gave in to a sneeze that rose fast. He tried to
fight using the inhaler in his suit pocket but eventually gave in, hurrying to put it back in his pocket as
soon as he was done.

At the sound of a flirty and feminine laugh,
Kaeden turned his head. His heart hammered, and
he instantly felt his palms sweat. He paused, and he
nervously licked his lips as his eyes locked on her
through his spectacles.

Jade Prince.

She was surrounded by four men, who all were
just as captivated by her as he was. He watched as
she reached out to lightly touch the arm of one of
the guys as she spoke to him. She flung her head
back and laughed, exposing the smooth dark brown
of her neck.

In his mind, everything about her moved in slow
motion. Her bright smile. The wind blowing in the
medium-length curls of her jet-black hair. The flutter of long and curly eyelashes. The way her dress
clung to her curvy, full shape.

She was woman. All woman. Curvy enough to compete with a glass Coke bottle. Full enough to be held
tightly by a man. Soft enough to make that lucky man
sigh at the very feel of her body pressed against his.

Kaeden wished he could be that man. When it
came to Jade, he felt like a character in The Wiz: if he
only had the nerve. Chancing one last look at her, Kaeden forced himself to keep on moving. A woman
like Jade Prince would never take a second look at a
guy like him. He had long since dealt with that fact.

"Well, who put the honey on your brother to
draw all those bees?" his mother asked as Kaeden
strolled up to his family.

Kaeden turned and looked over his shoulder. His
eyes widened at the fifteen or so women circling
around Kade. His brother looked like a deer caught
in headlights from both directions.

"Whether he wants to be or not, looks like our big
brother is back on the market," Kahron quipped
from behind Kaeden.

"Oh, Jesus, is that Nettie Barnes gazing up in
Kade's face with her fifty-year-old self?" Kael said,
sounding annoyed.

"She's just hitting her prime, Pops," Bianca
added.

"Well, I would want a stepmother, not a stepgrandmother," Kadina said, with a definite frown.

The entire Strong bunch laughed.

Garcelle stroked her brother Paco's head, which
rested in her lap, as they watched television. Her
father was napping in the recliner across the room,
and her two uncles were in the backyard, playing
dominoes with a couple of their neighbors. The
house was quiet, and it felt good just spending time
with her little brother. Every day he was changing.
She was already chasing off fast and hot little thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls who were flirting
with him because they thought he was older than
he looked.

She knew that soon he would be the one doing the chasing. She smiled at the thought of Paco with a girlfriend. It seemed like it wasjust yesterday that he was
a chubby toddler that she loved to rock to sleep.

Paco used to love strawberry ice cream on a
cone. He would lick the ice cream and then talk to
it in that gibberish talk of toddlers. It was if he was
in love with that cone, and he was that way each
and every time he had one.

"Paco, do you remember how much you used to
love ice cream cones?" she asked.

Her answer was a quiet snore that got louder as
it lengthened. She kissed her two fingertips and
then pressed them to his cheek. It was a special gesture that she'd done ever since he was just a baby.

She eased his head off her lap and rose to walk
into the kitchen. She double-checked their lunch
of roasted pork and yellow rice before she glanced
out the window. Her uncles' music was blaring and
mingled with their and their neighbors' raised
voices as they played dominoes like their lives depended on it. They were making quite a ruckus.
The trailers were not that far apart, and with the
blurred line between one person's backyard and a
neighbor's front yard, she was glad everyone in the
trailer park got along so well.

She glanced over to the next row of trailers and
saw that her friend Marta was home from her job as
a housekeeper at the Holiday Inn. Garcelle reached
in the back pocket of her jean gauchos. She counted
out fifty dollars.

She wasn't at all surprised when the telephone
rang just moments later. "What's up, Marta?"

"You know what's up. Get your wide hip ass over
here."

Garcelle just laughed as she hung up the phone. She walked out the back door, throwing a wave to
her uncles and the hand to their friends, whose
mouths started to drool as soon as they spotted her.

"Man, hook me up with your niece," one of them
said.

"What the hell this look like? Match.com or some
shit?" she heard her Uncle Anthony say. `Just play
dominoes, man."

Garcelle walked up the dirt road circling the entire
trailer park. She came up on the big field in the
center of the park, where the kids were playing kickball.