Sizzling Seduction (17 page)

“Get out of here! Patrick found somebody to put up with his ol’ cranky self? Wel , ain’t that a blip? My name is Carla, and I’m Penny’s mom and the cutest little girl in the world’s granny.”

“Al right, ladies, we can start bringing platters into the dining room. Soup’s on.” Minerva headed out with the green bean casserole.

Aisha figured she couldn’t mess up carrying the platters, so she chipped in and helped bring things out.

Once the buffet table was al set up, folks started coming in, fixing their plates and taking seats at the table.

Since she had been an only child, she had never experienced this kind of large family gathering. It was a nice feeling. It felt like something out of one of those movies,
Soul Food
or
This Christmas
or something like that. She decided she liked it a lot and could get used to it.

The doorbel rang as the last of their bunch were serving themselves and Aisha could hardly believe her eyes.

Who in the hell invited Patrick’s crazy ex-wife?
Another woman with a severely tight bun on the top of her head walked in behind
Crazy Courtney
, the name Aisha had become fond of cal ing Patrick’s ex.

“Hel o, everyone, I hope y’al don’t mind that I brought a guest. Courtney is back in town and since she is stil just like family, I thought it would be great to invite her to Thanksgiving.” The tight-bun lady made the statement as if she ran the household and was daring anyone to have a problem with it.

Aisha made a point of checking out each and every face Aisha made a point of checking out each and every face in the room. They al looked shocked and appal ed.

The only person who didn’t appear shocked was Penny’s mother, Carla. She simply broke out into a wide grin that showed her front chipped tooth in al its grandeur and shook her head.

“Who in the hel left the gate open? That’s al I wanna know right now. Ha!” Carla laughed even harder, even though she was the only one laughing.

Courtney looked around the table with a big fake phony smile on her face. “Hi, everybody.” She chirped in her overly bright, overly happy, overly overly everything voice. When she saw Aisha, her smile froze and dropped. “What the hel is
she
doing here? Patrick, what is she doing here? I know I saw y’al together, but damn. I’m part of this family, not this little trick.”

“Harpo, who dis woman?” Carla tried her joke once again and this time at least one of Patrick’s brothers laughed.

Aisha didn’t know for sure which one of Patrick’s brothers was cracking up, but since he was sitting by Samantha and Samantha herself seemed as if she could barely contain her laughter, Aisha assumed that the laughing brother was Joel.

Aisha would have laughed, too, if she wasn’t trying to keep her wits about her. Because if something jumped off, she was protecting her child first and taking off Courtney’s head—lace-front wig and al .

Patrick glared at Courtney first and then at the older woman. “It’s none of your business why she’s here, Courtney. She was invited. You were not.”

“I was too invited—by your aunt.” Courtney glowered, turned and poked the older woman. “You said he wasn’t serious about her or you would know. You said I had a chance.”

“Sophie, what kind of mess are you bringing into my home?” James Hightower spoke in a low but powerful voice.

“This is so-o-o not worth it! I should have stayed in Trenton. Sophie, if you think I’m the only one going out like a sucker, you’re wrong! I’m taking your high and mighty behind with me.” Courtney’s face took on an evil glare.

“Sophie can’t stand the thought of Celia in this home and she wants me and Patrick to get back together and have a family so that you wil be forced to give the house to your oldest living son and his family. She figures she can move in once me and Patrick get back together. But the way she has been messing things up, I’m not so sure if I’d like that now. This has been very traumatic for me.” Courtney placed her hand over her head and plopped down in a seat.

Aisha noticed that she did it careful y, so as not to disturb the lace-front wig.

“Courtney, you need to leave. And Sophie, so do you.”

Celia Hightower stood up and walked over to the women.

“A house, Sophie? You have been acting like this al these years over a damn house? Do you know you can have this damn house?”

“Awwww sookie sookie now! It’s about to be on up in here. I ain’t never seen my girl Celia get this angry. She’s usual y the calm one. Go head, Celia, let the Fourth Ward come out of you, girl. I knew it was in there. Rep yo hood!”

Carla leaned forward as if she didn’t want to miss a thing. “I told you it was going to be some mess we wouldn’t want to miss. And you didn’t want to come, Gerald. If I had missed this, mannnnnn!” Carla elbowed the man sitting next to her and he did his best to ignore her.

Aisha could only assume that he was Penny’s father, since he had the same copper-colored eyes.

“Mommy!” Penny snapped.

“What?” Carla snapped back. “I’m just saying if stuff jumps off in here, I got yo back, Celia. It’s about to be on up in here and I’m ready. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

Courtney’s eyes widened when she looked at Carla, and Aisha didn’t blame her. The smal woman looked like she could kick butts and take names al day long.

“I don’t want to fight anyone….” Courtney started looking around the table and backing away.

“Then you’d best leave,” Celia said in the same low, hard and angry voice she’d been using since Sophie and Courtney arrived. “Anybody who has been told to leave my house had better leave if they don’t want to be hurt.”

This time Sophie started backing up, too.

“You can’t ride with me, Sophie. I’m through with you fil ing my head up with nonsense. I had a good thing going in Trenton and ruined it with this bul .” Courtney glared at Aisha and Patrick before leaving. “He ain’t hardly worth al this drama anyway.” Courtney made a production of stomping out of the dining room and soon they heard the front door slam.

Sophie tried to move away from Celia, but Celia had latched onto her arm.

“James, can you take me home now?”

“I didn’t bring you here, Sophie. And I told you if you couldn’t come here and act civil then you shouldn’t have come. You came here knowing you were going to be starting this mess.” James made motions as if he were washing his hands of his sister.

“Come with me, Sophie. Let me talk to you for a minute.”

Celia started walking off and pul ing Sophie along with her.

“Not if you’re going to hit me again,” Sophie screeched and tried to drag her feet. “James, please! Your wife has obviously lost her mind. Patrick! Lawrence! Jason! Joel!

Please.”

Nobody made a move to help the woman as Celia dragged her away.

“Whew! Now that was some drama! And y’al Hightowers think our family has drama. I’l tel you, I get my fil of drama when I come over here. You watch, new girl…

whatever you name is…Mark my words—they have some drama up in this piece every time Sophie brings her old crusty hateful behind around.”

“Carla, hush!” Gerald seemed a little embarrassed by his wife’s running mouth.

“What? Ain’t no shame in my game. That ain’t even how I rol . And as much drama as they got going, it ought not be no shame in they game, either.”

Patrick cleared his throat. “I apologize for any drama brought on by my ex-wife. I don’t know what Aunt Sophie has been fil ing her head with, but she needs to stop it.”

“And what is this about Aunt Sophie being scared that Mama is going to hit her? Mama wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Jason piped in.

“Mama used to be in a gang, so she might just give Sophie something to be afraid of after al these years,”

Lawrence offered. “And I’m going on record now, letting y’al know that if Mama does bring it to Sophie, I. Am. Not.

Arresting. My. Mama!”

“I’m not arresting Mama, either,” Jason added.

“Nobody’s arresting my wife!” James looked at them al so that they were al clear. “It’l be fine. Just eat your food and change the subject.”

Dil on glanced up at Aisha and she shrugged at him.

She had been an only child and so was her son. Neither one of them had had any experience with this kind of large-family dynamics. But she certainly found it entertaining.

“A house, Sophie? You have treated me like crap al these years because you didn’t want me in this house? Do you real y want to know what you can do with this house?”

Celia couldn’t believe her sister-in-law and former friend.

Sophie sat down on the bed. Tired and a little bit worn.

“It wasn’t just the house…It was more than the house.”

She had made her sister-in-law come upstairs with her to one of the boys’ old bedrooms that she had turned into a guest bedroom and sewing room. If they were going to have it out once and for al , she didn’t want any interruptions this time.

“What was it then?” She sat down on the sewing bench in front of the bed, waiting for Sophie’s answer and feeling a little tired herself.

Sophie paused and for a minute it seemed as if she wasn’t going to say anything. Final y, she sighed, opened her mouth and closed it again.

“Al of the sudden you have nothing to say? Al these years you wouldn’t shut up and now you’re silent?”

Sophie glared at her. “First it was my mother thinking you weren’t good enough and she convinced me that you had used me to nab my brother. And for years I held on to that, even after Mom died. And then you moved into this house and it became about the house and more. It was about you being too happy, and me being miserable. It was about you having a wonderful, handsome family and me having nothing. It was about al of that. And now, now I don’t know what it is about.”

“Do you hate me?” Celia folded her arms across her chest and waited for the answer.

“I don’t hate you. But I’m sure you hate me after al this…

Al these years…”

“I never hated you, Sophie. I always thought that, one day, we would even be friends again. I thought, ‘Once she sees how happy James is, how happy the boys are, how fine they grew up…’ I’ve wasted al these years, al owed you to basical y wreak havoc in my life because I wanted you to like me again. I wanted you to see me as worthy of your brother’s love.” A tear fel from her eye as she al owed herself to final y mourn the friendship she had lost with Sophie.

Celia wiped the tear away angrily. Too much had happened, too much hurt had been down for her to cry.

Sophie didn’t deserve her tears now. She straightened herself up and composed herself. Sophie’s bringing Courtney back into Patrick’s life for a house was the last straw.

“Courtney was a vile, selfish woman who nearly broke my son’s heart. He’s luckily found a woman who al ows him to experience joy again. She’s a nice woman, a schoolteacher—”

“That woman has a child. How could you want him to step into a ready-made family? He deserves better than that.” Sophie gave a bitter laugh and that was when Celia knew there was no hope for the woman.

If she couldn’t see that beautiful little boy as a benefit, as an added bonus to any relationship, then she was just hopeless.

“He deserves a woman who loves him enough not to cheat on him. He deserves love. And he’s found it. If I hear that you have been up to your tricks trying to break them up the way you did with Jason and Joel and Lawrence…I wil beat your ass.” Celia stood there and let her words sink in.

“I’m going to cal you a cab. I don’t know what happened to you. What happened to my friend and mentor? I don’t know why you became so bitter and miserable. But I can’t al ow you to hurt me or the ones I love—”

“I would never hurt any of your children. I love them. They are a part of my brother and a part of you…” Sophie’s voice trailed off. “I poured every ounce of love I had into my nephews. You have to know that, Celia.”

“Yes, I know that, Sophie. I know you love my sons. And I know that you love your brother. But you have to learn to love people without conditions, even when they love people you don’t.” Celia got up from the bench and walked toward the door. “I hope one day you realize that we al love you.

You were my friend, Sophie.”

Celia walked out of the room feeling several pounds lighter, as if a weight had been lifted off her chest. She no longer held out hope that she and her sister-in-law would regain their closeness. But she also no longer carried the burden of their failed friendship. That burden was Sophie’s now.

Sophie rode home in the cab feeling as if the weight of the world had been placed on her shoulders. Nothing had gone as planned and that insipid Courtney had caused her to lose everything.

She had truly lost everything—everything and everyone that ever real y mattered to her. She doubted that Patrick would have any time for her anymore. He hadn’t even told her about his new love interest. A schoolteacher, just like Celia. It was funny that al four boys had found women who, each in her own way, shared similarities with Celia. Her Celia…

What would Celia have said if Sophie had told her the truth? That al those years ago, she had been jealous because Celia chose James over their friendship. She could never have acted on what she felt for Celia, not back then, and certainly not now…She hadn’t lied when she said that she didn’t hate Celia.