Yearning for Love (17 page)

Leslie smiled for the first time since she arrived. “If you make it tea, I’ll find it hard to say no.”

*****

Walker pulled into the driveway noticing the garage door open.  Killing the engine, he took the three bags of grocery from the passenger’s seat and went inside the house.  He walked through the living room towards the kitchen calling for her. “Nicole…..babe, the garage door is open.” He stopped talking and placed the grocery bags on the counter next to the sink.  He blinked allowing the site to focus on the two most important women in his life sitting at the kitchen table together. “Umm, what is going on?  Mom, what have you done?”

Leslie got up from the wood kitchen chair to give her son a hug and peck on the cheek.  “Relax and breathe, Walker.  Nicole and I are only chatting.”

His eye twitched nervously. “What are you chatting about?”  He leaned against the counter bidding to read Nicole’s face, but she wouldn’t lift her head to look at him.

“We were getting to know each other.  Well, I should go; I’m tired.  I’ve been here longer than expected, and Nicole has prepared a wonderful dinner for you.  She let me taste collard greens for the first time, and they were quite yummy.”

Nicole finally glanced over his way as she got up from the table. “Leslie, please stay for dinner; I made plenty.”

Walker raised his brow.  Were they on first name basis?  What the hell did he miss while he was at work?  Nicole was standing next to him at the stove attending to various pots steaming from whatever she was cooking. The aroma filling the kitchen had his stomach growling.

Scratching the stubby shadow of hair covering his jawline, he agreed with Nicole. “Mom, stay for dinner.  Nicole is a fantastic cook.  Why don't you go upstairs and lay down until dinner is ready.  After dinner, I will drive you home.”

“Honey, I don’t want to overstay my welcome.  You’re just getting home, and all.”

“Mom, it’s okay,” he assured her.  I’ll come get you when dinner is ready.”

Walker waited until his mother was upstairs before turning to Nicole. “So, you wanna tell me what is going on?”

Nicole replaced the lid on the pot and went to the cabinet to remove a serving platter and two large serving bowls. “Your mother came to talk to me.”

“Nicole, I had no idea she was coming over today.  When the time was right, I was going to let her know about us.”

“Walker, it’s okay.  I have to get used to stuff like this right?”

“No, I don’t have relatives dropping by out of the blue.  If mom said anything to offend you; I’ll talk to her.”

“She didn’t,” she said putting the dishes on the table.  “Leslie is doing her motherly duty and making sure her son isn’t being played by the mysterious black woman moving in with him.”

A tension headache ached at the base of his head.  He’d planned on telling Leslie about Nicole, but had to be sure Nicole was staying; a detail he hadn’t nailed down yet. “Babe, she has a medical condition.  She can’t help blurting out whatever is on her mind.”

Nicole stopped separating silverware to watch him sweat.  “Really, she seemed lucid to me and she didn’t insult me.”

“Good.  I wasn’t ready to let her know everything just yet.”

“Well, she has a right to be concerned about my intentions towards you.  Walker, she made a good point about me being here and not committed to you.”

“Nicole, I am close to my mother, but she does not rule my life.  She will not get in our way.”

She walked over to him. “I envy you.  I wish I had a mother who took an interest in my life.  Walker, don’t be mad at your mom for caring about you. The questions she asked me were fair and made me think.”

“Yeah, I am lucky to have her.  So, exactly what did she ask you?”

“One particular question turned the light bulb on in my head.  I had to make an important decision concerning us, and I have.”

He pulled a chair from the table to sit.  His legs were shaky, and he needed to be seated for whatever Nicole was going to lay on him.  “So, what is your decision about us?”

Nicole took a beer from the fridge and a frosted mug from the freezer.  Pouring part of the liquid in the glass, she handed it to him. “Do you want me to tell you now or after dinner?”

“Now, Nicole. Tell me now.  I can’t take any more surprises today,” he said downing the cold beer.

She moved his arm out of the way to sit on his lap.  “I decided I want to stay with you.  I want to be with you and make this work.”

He released a sigh. Her dark brown eyes glared into his shooting bolts of electricity through him.  “Jesus, Nicole; you scared me.  I thought you wanted out.”

Her arms went around his neck. “Nope, I want in.  I want to love you as no other woman has.  I’m sorry I don’t know where to begin but I’m willing to learn what I need to do.”

Walker tapped the end of her nose with his index finger. “You’re doing it, babe.  You said what you want now I’m going to make it happen.”  He couldn’t hold it in any longer.  His lips sealed hers in a passionate kiss.  Her hands crawled through his hair, grabbing his ears.  “Oh, baby,” he muttered between breaths.  “What bad timing having my mother here.”

Nicole slid her tongue across his teeth wiggling in his lap. “Yup, because I do believe I feel something trying to escape.”

He held her tight around the waist. “Don’t make a sudden move, or we won’t be eating at this table tonight.”

“Stop being naughty,” she said getting off his lap.  “I have to finish dinner.  What did you get from the store?”

Adjusting his erection to a comfortable position, he cleared his mind before getting up. “I got your insulin from the pharmacy and you’re lady products.”

She shot him a look. “Huh, you got my feminine products? How did you know I needed that stuff?”

“I saw the list on the night table and got them for you.  I admit that was not an easy task for me to do.  I swear every woman in the store had to come down that aisle while I was in it.”

She laughed. “You are crazy.  I’ll give you the money for my stuff soon as I’m done getting dinner on the table.”

Walker finished his beer and went to the counter getting the insulin from the bag to put in the fridge.  “I don’t want your money.”

“I’m paying you, and that’s final. My insulin is almost a hundred bucks a bottle now that I don’t have insurance to help cover the cost.”

He shook his head. Pinching his fingers together he said, “Pull it back a notch, Nicole.  I’m a man that takes care of his woman.”  He bucked his broad chest playfully. “Woman, get dinner on the table while I go wash up.  I’ve been working all day, and I’m starving.”

Taking the stairs two at a time, he heard her laughter echo from the kitchen.  She had been laughing a lot this past week, and it was a sound he would never get tired of hearing.

Walker whistled a tune as he turned on the water in the shower to warm.  Going across the hall to the bedroom he tiptoed inside.  His mother clicked on the light startling him.  “Geez, Mom; I thought you were taking a nap.”

“Walker, get that woman out of your house.”

Confused he looked at her. “What?  I thought you were coming around to liking her.”

She put her hand in her pocket pulling out a syringe. “I was until I found this in the bathroom.  Are you doing drugs with her, Walker?  Is this what you’ve reduced yourself to?”

“Wow, Mom, you had to dig through the medicine cabinet to find that didn’t you?”

“It doesn’t matter where I found it!  Are you doing drugs with that girl?” She said yelling loud enough to draw attention.

Walker squared his jaw to keep from blowing his top. He was a tolerant man, but his mother was testing his limits. “Nobody in this house is doing drugs!  Nicole is a diabetic and is on insulin.”

Leslie’s eyes drifted past his shoulder as Walker turned around to see Nicole standing in the hallway. “I didn’t know that.  I owe you an apology, Nicole,” she said putting the syringe in Walker’s open palm.

Nicole rolled her eyes shaking her head. Not saying anything, she went down the stairs.

Walker growled at his mother. “Stay here!”

Running after Nicole, he jumped off the last three stairs catching her before she walked out the front door. “Baby, don’t walk out on me.  I’ll take care of this.”

She said in a dry voice, “I’m going for a walk.  Dinner is on the table.”

“I’ll go with you. Let me turn the water off in the shower, and I’ll be right back.”

“No! I want to be alone—just leave me alone,” she said walking out of the house.

His throat tightened as he backed away from her.  Watching her walk down the street holding her arms together had him wondering if she would come back to him. 

The dark sky was threatening rain and the April night was too chilly for her to be outside without a coat. He closed the door resisting the temptation to go after her.  She specifically said she wanted to be alone, and he had to grant her that or risk losing her.  He started up the stairs to turn off the water in the shower and ran into his mother. Her tears did not deter his anger as he yelled.  “Just way can’t you like her?  Does it matter to you she makes me happy or are you jealous of what we have together, and you’re determined to ruin it?”

“I made a mistake.  I’m so sorry, son.  I do want you to be happy, and if Nicole is the woman for you then you have my blessing to be with her.”

His hand slapped the wall cracking the plaster. “What you don’t understand is I don’t need your blessings, Mom!  I’m going to marry Nicole, and you better get used to calling her your daughter-in-law.”

Leslie jumped from his angry outburst. “Walker, she is sick.  You will have another set of burdens on your hands.  Will you be able to handle that?”

“Her diabetes is under control and she functions just fine.”  He started to go by her but stopped.  “Mom, this is what will cause her to have a setback.  You are stressing her and that bothers me.”

“Baby, I’m sorry.  I’m so worried about you.”

“I’m a grown man!  You’ve done your job raising me; let me take it from here.”

“All right.  I will leave you alone from here on.  It is your life, and I need to let you make your own decisions.”

He shook his head. “I’m not asking you not to be a part of my life.  I'm asking you to stop making Nicole out to be a gold digger. If you keep pestering her, I will make a choice between the two of you, and right now, you are losing me,” he said choking in his emotions.

“Walker, you don’t mean that.  I’m your mother.  I gave life to you!”

He nodded.  The voice in his head was screaming for him to walk away, but his pride would not allow him to do it. “You did give me life but you’re trying to ruin what I have because your life did not go the way you planned with Mitch Collingsworth.”

Leslie slapped him across the face.  “You will not disrespect me!”

The stinging from her fingernails scraping his skin radiated to his ear. “I wasn’t disrespecting you.  I was making an observation an apparently a true one.” He turned to go into the bathroom.

Leslie broke down crying. “Before Mitch’s wife discovered we were having an affair, he treated me with dignity. I knew what I was getting into with him, but I loved him and was willing to wait for him.  I got pregnant with you on purpose because I knew he would never turn his back on me and his child.”

“But he did! Now you are blaming me for him walking out on you. You are miserable, and you want me to be miserable with you.”

“How can you say that? I want you to get married and have kids.  You are the one choosing the wrong women.  Every woman you have dated you found fault with and they ended up leaving you! Maybe you aren’t perfect.”

“I’m not perfect—far from it.  Mom, when I think about it, all my relationships failed after I introduced them to you.”

She snarled. “I was the one you came running to when those whores left you.  You were crying on my shoulder.  I tried to warn you about all of them but you didn’t want to hear any of my nonsense.  Look how Mary Ellen did you.  It wouldn’t have happened if you’d listened to me!”

“Mary Ellen probably wouldn’t have cheated if you’d left us alone! Damn, you drove her back to her ex-husband, didn’t you?”

“I don’t have to take this from you. I’m going home.”

“Mom, answer me!”

“I got rid of the bitch for you!  You were too stupid to see she was using you to take care of her kids.  I don’t know how you got this way.  I raised you to be a strong man not some spineless man who’d let women run over him.   At least I knew what I was getting into with Mitch.”

“I got some news for you, Mom! Mitch Collingsworth is lying at death’s door. So you can dig his cold rotting corpse from the grave and cuddling him all you want.”

Leslie slumped against the wall. “What? That’s not true.  He didn’t tell me he was sick.  I talked to him last week.”

“Jeremy told me he is dying from cancer.”

“I have to go see him.”

Walker crossed his arms over his chest. “You refuse to let that bastard go even in death.”

“He’s your father, Walker! There is no way to erase that fact.  His blood is in you, boy.”

“That’s all of him that is part of me, Mom.  You have let him control you with the same bullshit for years.  He has never come through once for you.”

“He promised he was leaving his wife for good the last time we talked, Walker.  Why didn’t he let me know he was dying?”

Walker didn’t take joy in seeing his mother suffering, but she had to hear the truth.  “He is leaving her, and you better believe he is leaving her and the kids they have together with everything he owns.”

The tears ran down her wrinkled face. “That is a cruel thing to say about him.  He is a good person.  You didn’t want to get to know him.”

“Mitch never reached out to me and I’m okay with that.  I’m living my life, and I’m going to enjoy every breath God gives me, and not grieve one minute over Mitch.”

Leslie raised her hand, and he grabbed it. “Don’t hit me again.  I’m sorry I don’t have any delightful words to say about Mitch.  But now you can imagine how I feel when you talk negatively about Nicole.”  He balled her fingers kissing her knuckles. “I’m going to take a shower.  Nicole left dinner on the table; help yourself to whatever you want,” he said going into the bathroom.