Sisters and Husbands (5 page)

But she had been burned so often, from Vernon to Vance. Sometimes it was obvious, as when she had walked in on the guy screwing
another woman. Other times it was subtle, like the way he looked at other women—or men. Something
always
went wrong sooner or later. Julian treated her like a jewel now, but she figured that he was just more clever at hiding his
vices. So she decided to enjoy the moment while she could and guard against letting herself get too attached too fast.

Then he took her to Cincinnati, Ohio, to meet his family. They stayed for a week, and by the time they left, Beverly had totally
flipped her thoughts about marrying Julian. One hundred eighty degrees. This dude was the real stuff. His parents had been
together for fifty years and still held hands. And not only were his folks husband and wife, they were also the best of friends.
Julian had two older brothers in their forties. Both had been married longer than ten years and appeared to be very happy.
The only way the signs could have gotten any better would have been if Julian had had a halo perched on top of his head.

When he proposed again a month after the visit to Cincinnati, Beverly accepted eagerly.

At the hotel restaurant in Baltimore, she placed her half-empty martini glass on the table and took Julian’s hands. “I hope
Valerie finds someone like you one day,” she said. “Every woman should have a Julian.”

He lifted her hands and kissed them both. “Every man should have a Beverly.”

She sighed. He always said the right thing. She smiled and leaned forward so that he could get a good peek beneath her strapless
top as she lightly licked the tips of his fingers with her tongue.

His free hand shot up and signaled the waiter for the check.

As Beverly slipped into bed wearing a short black negligee, she could feel Julian’s eyes following her every move with ardent
appreciation. He had turned the covers down to the foot of the bed, as he insisted on doing whenever they made love. He wanted
to be able to see everything.

He reached out across the queen-size bed and gently pulled her in closer. She ran her fingers slowly over his bulging biceps
as his hand slid down her hips and beneath her gown. He quickly found her moist inner thighs, and she could hear him panting
heavily as his lips traveled from her neck to the crevice of her breasts. In one smooth motion he pulled the negligee over
her head and hoisted her on top of him. Julian seemed like a hero out of a romance novel at times, but there was nothing at
all fanciful about his lovemaking.

He lifted Beverly by the hips, and she spread her legs eagerly. She grabbed the top of the headboard for support and moved
with him, slowly at first, tossing her head back as each thrust filled her with more urgency. His eyes glued to her, he took
obvious joy in her pleasure as he slipped his middle and ring fingers into her mouth. She sucked and then bit down in frenzied
delirium, her teeth sinking further into his flesh than either had expected. He yelped softly, yanked his finger from between
her lips, and laughed softly.

“Sorry,” she whispered hoarsely.

She leaned down to his ear and nibbled playfully. He tossed her on the bed and landed on top of her. They faced one way, then
the other, legs twisting and turning, as they moved faster and faster. The headboard bumped against the wall until Beverly
suddenly heard a loud snap, and a corner of the mattress thumped heavily to the floor. The fall only served to heighten their
passion, and they rolled and landed on the carpet, never missing a beat.

The muscles in his face and arms tightened as he whispered dirty thoughts into her ear. Beverly could feel his desire mounting,
and the tingly sensation of his hot breath excited her as much as his words. She shuddered and moaned loudly, straining to
keep from screaming until she could hold it no longer.

He rolled off her onto the floor, and they lay holding hands breathlessly while their bodies slowly came down from the peaks.
Beverly closed her eyes and savored the moment.

Julian leaned up on one elbow, glanced at the bed and back down at her. He smiled. “This is why I said we should never visit
the same hotel twice.”

She opened her eyes and looked at him. They both burst out laughing.

C
harmaine danced across the kitchen floor in her bare feet and peeked into the oven at her meatloaf. She walked to the stove
and checked the collard greens simmering with smoked turkey, then dropped a stick of butter and a half cup of heavy cream
into the pot of steaming white potatoes. She added a chopped garlic clove to the potatoes and blended it all with her handheld
electric mixer.

She had been up since early that Sunday morning to knead the dough for her homemade rolls, and when the family returned home
from church she changed into denim knee-length cutoffs and a hot-pink tank top and picked up where she left off. She was fixing
some of Tiffany’s favorite dishes. And since Tiffany claimed that the KitchenAid mixer made potatoes too mushy and that mixing
them with a spoon left them too lumpy, Charmaine was using her handheld mixer. Tiffany also didn’t like tomato sauce in or
on her meatloaf. In fact, she didn’t want anything to do with tomatoes and other popular foods like baked chicken and pasta.
Who the hell didn’t like pasta?

Obviously, Tiffany was a fussy eater. Maybe that was how she stayed so slim. Girl couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds.
Charmaine didn’t plan to even try to appease her all summer long, but this would be her first day visiting. Not only that,
today was Russell’s last day before he left for his month-long summer visitation with his father in D.C. Charmaine wanted
to try and get them all together and off to a good start.

She was cleaning off the beaters when the phone rang. She could see that it was Tyrone on the caller ID, so she picked up
and held the receiver between her ear and shoulder as she moved about the kitchen.

“Just got her and we’re waiting for the luggage,” Tyrone said, his words barely discernible above the din at the airport.
“Knowing my daughter, she packed enough stuff to dress a small village, so we might be here a while.” He chuckled.

“Glad everything went well,” Charmaine said, smiling into the phone. He sounded happy, and it was good to hear him that way.
“So the flight was on time?”

“For once, yeah.”

“I should have dinner ready before you guys get here. I also rented a couple of videos for us to watch afterward. See you
around five, I guess?”

“Um, dinner and the movie will have to wait a bit. She wants to stop at the mall after we leave here. There’s some wedge sandals
she’s dying to get.”

Charmaine frowned into the phone, thinking she hadn’t heard right. Tyrone knew she had busted her ass going all out with this
dinner to welcome Tiffany. She had even baked a chocolate cake from scratch. It was sitting right on the countertop, waiting
for the cream cheese icing. “Did I hear you right? You’re going shopping straight from the airport?”

“She wants to have these shoes for the summer, so I thought we would swing by Columbia Mall.”

Charmaine cleared her throat. “Can’t the shoes wait until tomorrow? I’ve been cooking all day—since last night, actually.
I went through a lot of trouble to fix her favorite things. I’ve got meatloaf and potatoes, homemade rolls, and chocolate
cake for dessert.” Just in case he had forgotten how long and hard she had been slaving in a hot kitchen.

“I know. I told her that, but she really wants these shoes and some Purla handbag.”

“Furla,” Charmaine said, correcting him with a frown. Now it was shoes
and
a handbag, a five-hundred-dollar handbag for a teenage girl that Charmaine couldn’t even afford for herself. “Do you have
any idea how much those bags cost?” she asked.

“She said she knows where to get one on sale for half price.”

“A Furla for half price at the mall?” Charmaine said doubtfully.

“No, some boutique in Columbia that she found online.”

Charmaine found that difficult to believe. Columbia was a small city, not some large metropolis with shopping all over the
place. She shut her eyes tightly, crossed herself, and said a silent prayer to muster some patience.

“We shouldn’t be more than an hour longer,” Tyrone said. “Probably be there by six.”

Charmaine’s eyes popped open. No way was he going to get in and out of a mall and then go gallivanting about Columbia in search
of a nonexistent discount Furla bag with Tiffany and get here by six. It would likely be eight or nine before they got home.
Still, she tried to remain calm. Tiffany had landed only moments earlier, and Charmaine did not want to lose it just yet.
She would try reasoning with Tyrone.

“You know Kenny still has school for another week and he shouldn’t be up late,” she said. “And don’t forget, today is Russell’s
last day before he goes to stay with Clarence. If y’all don’t come soon, we won’t get to watch the movie together before he
leaves.”

Tyrone sighed and said something to Tiffany, then came back on the line. “She’s really looking forward to getting the shoes
and bag tonight. I promise we won’t be long. I just told her that we had to be home by about six or six-thirty. We should
be able to eat and watch the video together tonight before Kenny has to turn in.”

Charmaine glanced at her watch. “Tyrone, I have a hard time seeing that happen. You do realize—”

“Look, the luggage is coming,” he said, interrupting her. “We’ll work it out. Don’t worry.”

“But what—”

“I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Tyrone.” Charmaine quickly realized that she was talking to no one. He had hung up. She slammed the phone down with all her
might. “Dammit!” The prayer for patience obviously hadn’t worked.

She looked around the kitchen despairingly. At that moment she was tempted to dump all the food into the garbage can. After
all the trouble she had gone through to fix a special meal, Tyrone couldn’t even tell his daughter to come home and eat it.
All he had to do was say that the shopping spree would have to wait until tomorrow. What was the harm in that? He and Tiffany
could have had a nice dinner, and watched the video with Kenny and Russell, and then shopped at the mall to their hearts’
content tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. Tiffany would be visiting all summer.

But Tyrone couldn’t tell his fourteen-year-old daughter no to save his life, even when it inconvenienced others. This whole
relationship that he had with Tiffany was the strangest thing Charmaine had ever seen. She had noticed it when Tiffany visited
last summer and again at Christmas. But she hadn’t worried about it much then, thinking that Tiffany visited only a few weeks
out of the year. Now she was staying much longer. If this was an example of what was to come over the next several weeks,
it was going to be a long, hard summer.

Something was bothering Evelyn, and it wasn’t the fact that she was hunched over yanking weeds out of the vegetable garden
in her backyard. Given the recent dry spell, there weren’t many weeds to pull out. She stood up straight in her Capri jeans,
stretched her back, and wiped the sweat from her brow as she waited for a warm breeze to hit her face. She had held off doing
the yardwork until late evening, since it was so hot in the afternoon and she had been in church that morning.

She walked back toward the house and turned on the sprinkler system set up near the garden. As to what had been nagging her,
she just couldn’t figure it out. All she knew was that it had something to do with Kevin. They had barely spoken since their
argument yesterday, even when they were both hanging around the house. But there was nothing unusual about that. In fact,
that was pretty much how things were between them now. He hung around in the den; she gardened outdoors. He watched television
in the rec room; she read in the bedroom. When they crossed paths it was as if neither saw the other, for all the words exchanged
between them.

She walked to the shed and placed her gardening tools in a basket on the floor. Then she shut the door and locked it. At that
moment her mind flashed back to the day before when she had first returned home from the bridal fitting and visiting Andre
in Baltimore. She could remember hearing thumping and running noises coming from the bedroom as she climbed the stairs, and
when she entered Kevin was closing the door to his walk-in closet. Then she saw Kevin’s shaved head and freaked out, and the
strange sounds were forgotten. But now she remembered them vividly.