A Family Reunion (16 page)

Later as she got ready for bed she was grateful that she had the entire hotel room to herself, since the girls were doing a sleepover in Cody’s room.

As she placed her head on her pillow, numerous thoughts tumbled through her mind—of the very cute young man of eighteen whom she’d had a crush on at the last family reunion…and now of the very handsome man of thirty-three he had turned out to be.

In a way nothing had changed. Even after fifteen years Michael still managed to capture her fantasies and creep into her dreams.

Rae’jean glanced around when she heard someone call her name. She inwardly groaned when she saw the “Mod Squad,” the name she, Taye, and Alexia had given the three nosiest women in the Bennett family. “Yes, Cuzin Sophie, Aunt Lulu, and Aunt Lenora, what can I do for you?”

It seemed Cuzin Sophie was going to be the spokeswoman for the group. “We feel it’s our duty to discourage you from marrying that white boy, Rae’jean. All it’s going to do is bring you heartache later. Just think of the children the two of you are bound to have.”

Rae’jean blew out an exasperated sigh and wondered if any of the three had somehow spoken to Grady’s sister and brother-in-law. “Grady is a decent person and—”

“We didn’t say he wasn’t decent, Rae’jean,” Aunt Lenora piped in. “What we said was that he was
white.
We’ve never had an interracial marriage in our family before and we’d prefer it didn’t happen now.”

“Why?”

“It just ain’t right. Black folks are supposed to be with black folks and white folks are supposed to be with white folks. We tried telling your mama the same thing, but she didn’t listen.”

Rae’jean raised a brow. “So you know who my father is?”

There was complete silence; then Cuzin Sophie spoke. “If we do, we ain’t talking.”

It will be a first,
Rae’jean thought, shaking her head. She felt a severe headache coming on. “I appreciate all of your concerns, but the family needs to understand that I believe love is color-blind and—”

“Has he taken you home to meet his family yet?” Cuzin Sophie asked, interrupting.

“Yes.”

“And?”

Rae’jean frowned. “And what?”

“And you want to try and convince us that even with your light skin, they’re overjoyed about him marrying you?”

Rae’jean’s frown deepened. “It doesn’t matter how anyone feels. Grady and I are getting married and that’s that. Now if you ladies will excuse me, I’m rather tired. It’s been a long day.”

Without giving them a chance to say anything else, she walked off.

“Good morning, Taye. I notice you’re sitting alone. May I join you?”

Taye glanced up from her plate of grits, eggs, sausage, and toast and glared at Alexia. As much as she loved her cousin, she had nothing to say to her after that stunt she’d pulled the night before. When Taye refused to say anything to her Alexia sat down anyway with her own plate.

Taye ignored Alexia and looked beyond her to the beautifully landscaped yard outside the hotel. After a few minutes Alexia said, “OK, let’s have it out now and get it over with. I know you’re upset about last night, but I had my reasons for doing what I did.”

Taye drew her attention away from the scenery and placed it on her cousin. She narrowed her eyes. “What reason could you possibly have had for deliberately humiliating me in front of Michael the way you did?”

Alexia placed her fork down. “I did not deliberately humiliate you, Taye, and I apologize if you think I did. What I did last night was something you should have been doing yourself.”

Taye’s eyes darkened. “And just what might that be?”

“Finally getting some guts and letting Michael know how you feel about him.”

Taye looked at Alexia and actually gritted her teeth. “Alexia, my crush on Michael was fifteen years and two daughters ago. It was old news, news that I trusted you with. How I felt about him as a teenager wasn’t even worth discussing.”

Alexia fingered the crisp bacon in her hand before saying, “It was if you feel the same way about him now that you felt about him back then.”

“I don’t.”

Alexia placed the bacon back down on her plate and met Taye’s gaze squarely. “You, Octavia Louise Bennett, are a bald-faced liar.”

Taye sat up with anger flashing in her eyes. “What did you just call me?”

“You heard me loud and clear, Taye,” Alexia said without flinching, her own eyes narrowing. “Who do you think you’re fooling? I know when a woman is interested in a man. I can read the signs as well as I can read a Donna Hill novel and enjoy it just as much. I see sparks of interest in your eyes whenever Michael walks into a room. I see you trying to pretend you’re not looking at him when it’s plain to see that you can’t keep your eyes off him. And I enjoy seeing you break out in a cold sweat like you did last night when he came and sat next to you at the table.” Alexia took a sip of her orange juice. “So please, girl, don’t insult my intelligence by denying any of those things. If you want to lie to yourself, then go ahead and do so, but don’t lie to me. I would not have done what I did last night if I didn’t know for certain that you’re still interested in Michael—fifteen years and two daughters later. I know what I see, Taye.”

Taye stabbed her fork into her link sausage as she glared at her cousin. “You see too damn much, Alexia.”

Alexia sighed. “No, Taye, I see what I want to see, and I ignore what I don’t want to see. And when it comes to you and Rae’jean, I’ve always kept my eyes open. We promised Gramma Idella that we would always look out for each other and that’s what I’m trying to do. Regardless of whether or not you think you want one, you need a man in your life, just as much as Michael needs a woman in his.”

Taye’s mouth dropped open and she stared at Alexia. “Good grief, do you know what you’re suggesting? You’re actually advocating that Michael and I have a relationship, some sort of an affair.”

“Yes. I’d even go so far as to propose marriage if that’ll work.”

“That’s insane. That’s ludicrous. That—”

“Makes sense,” Alexia cut in. “Think about it, Taye. Like it or not, you still have feelings for him. Feelings I can clearly see, so don’t bother denying them. You owe it to yourself to be happy.”

“But not with Michael. It would never work.”

Alexia sliced her hand in the air to halt any further words from Taye. “Fine,” she snapped. “Then stop drooling each time he comes within arm’s reach of you. Stop trembling every time he innocently touches you.” Leaning forward, she added, “And for Pete’s sake, stop watching that doorway waiting for him to come down for breakfast.”

Taye and Alexia stared at each other from across the table for a few tense moments. Then Taye bowed her head in silent acknowledgment of everything Alexia had just said. When she lifted her gaze to meet her cousin’s once again, she wore a small flustered smile on her lips. “Am I
that
obvious?”

Taye’s question, asked with the enraptured emotions she could no longer hide, eased the tension between them. “Only to someone who knows you so well, Taye. Although we haven’t spent a lot of time together in recent years, some things don’t change. One of those is your inability to hide your emotions.”

“Do you think Michael has picked up on it as well?”

“No, and that’s why I decided to give him a little eye-opener. I think after last night he may start noticing you more. If he does, then he’ll be able to read your emotions as well as I can. But isn’t that what you want, for Michael to finally notice you?”

Taye smiled at the thought of Michael noticing her. Then reality struck and a frown marred her features. “It would cause too many problems if something was to develop between us. First of all, to our family it would be taboo, forbidden, sacrilegious. They’d consider a relationship between us synonymous with incest.”

“They would be wrong if they did. You and Michael are not related. He was adopted and everyone knows it, so the two of you aren’t blood relatives.”

“Yeah, that may be true, but to our family, we
are
family. We have the same last names. Our grandfathers are first cousins. My aunts are his aunts. My uncles are his uncles. My cousins are his cousins.”

Alexia rolled her eyes. “As long as your mama ain’t his mama and your daddy ain’t his daddy, you don’t have a thing to worry about.”

Taye shook her head, still not convinced. “What about the girls? Not only would a relationship with Michael stir up bad feelings within this family, but it would totally confuse our daughters.”

Alexia shook her head, disagreeing. “I think the girls would be fine with it. It’s obvious that Monica and Sebrina would go along with anything that makes you happy. I know for a fact that Sebrina is excited about the two of you going to Disney World with Michael and Kennedy next month.”

Taye grunted. “Yeah, she should be, since she’s getting a free trip out of this and a chance to have fun and kick up her heels for a week.”

“Maybe so, but from what Michael has told me, he’s been having discipline problems with Kennedy lately and thinks that since she’s been around your girls these last few days she’s shown definite signs of improvement. I think both Sebrina and Monica are good for Kennedy.”

“As cousins?”

“Even as stepsisters if it came to that. I can see you, Michael, and the girls as one big happy family.”

Taye sighed deeply. “For ten years I haven’t given diddly squat about a man. Now that I’ve seen Michael again, he has stirred up longings and desires that have been dormant for that long. I try telling myself that I shouldn’t feel that way about him, but I can’t help it. It’s like I’m a fifteen-year-old girl all over again and he is the recipient of all my cravings. But this time they are adult cravings.”

Taye decided not to tell Alexia about the dream she’d had last night. The one where Michael had played a major part. It had seemed so vivid and so real that if she missed her period and found herself pregnant next month she wouldn’t be surprised. She expelled a frustrated sigh. “Oh, Lex, what am I going to do?”

Taking a deep breath, Alexia launched into Taye without showing any mercy, since she had asked for her advice. “The first thing you’re going to do is stop worrying about what the family is going to think. It’s your life to do whatever you damn well please as long as you aren’t breaking any of the Ten Commandments.” A smile tilted her lips. “I do draw the line somewhere. And speaking of the Ten Commandments, there’s no place in the Bible that says you can’t marry an adopted cousin. Jacob married both Rachel and Leah, and they were actual first cousins. So if it happened in the Bible it can’t be wrong.”

Taye smiled at Alexia’s logic. “Yeah, well being wrong and being tolerated are two different things. You know as well as I that as far as the members of the Bennett family are concerned it doesn’t matter if a relationship between Michael and me is right or wrong; to them it won’t be tolerated. The family would probably divorce themselves from us.” She sighed, deep in thought. “I’m probably getting all worked up for nothing, since my interest may be one-sided. Michael hasn’t done anything to indicate he sees me as anything other than a cousin that he’s fond of.”

“Then you had better pay close attention, because what you see may suddenly surprise you,” Alexia said, smiling, just as Michael entered the room flanked by Rae’jean and Grady. His gaze immediately sought out Taye, and he gave her a warm smile.

Alexia cleared her throat as a huge
I told you so
grin touched her lips. “See what I mean?”

“Do I detect trouble in paradise, Rae?”

Rae’jean glared across the table at Alexia. “Is there anything you
don’t
notice?”

Sitting on the side of Rae’jean, Taye released a soft chuckle. “Didn’t you know, Rae’jean, that Madam Alexia and her crystal ball know and see everything?”

Alexia frowned at Taye. “Shut up, Taye, before I get back into your business again.”

“Heaven forbid,” Taye grumbled as she picked up her glass of orange juice and took a sip.

Rae’jean glanced across the room at Michael and Grady. The two of them were in the buffet line fixing their plates. She and Grady had had their second argument in a matter of two days, and because of it she wasn’t in the mood to eat anything heavy and had settled for a cup of coffee. “Grady is upset with my handling of Uncle Victor,” she finally said.

“Did you explain to Grady that in the end Uncle Victor agreed to tell you what you wanted to know without being coerced?” Taye asked as she took another sip of orange juice.

“Yes, I tried to explain that to Grady, but he still thinks I went too far. He thinks I’m forcing Uncle Victor to break a promise he’s made to the family. Grady believes that a promise is a promise and if you make one, then you don’t break it.”

Alexia snorted as she pushed her plate aside. “But in this case, it was a promise that should never have been made. For crying out loud, what’s the big deal? Doesn’t Grady think you have a right to know who your daddy is?”

“Yes, but he thinks I’ve suddenly become obsessed with knowing and he can’t understand it. But then I really don’t expect him to. He knew the identity of both of his parents from the day he was born. Unless you’ve been there and done that, you won’t fully understand.”

Taye nodded, wondering how she would handle it when the time came and Monica began asking more questions about her father. She knew that sometime in the future she would have to make contact with Lynell. He needed to be prepared for the fact that when Monica got older and if she asked for the name of her father, Taye would give it to her. It would be up to him to get his business in order and tell his wife about Monica before she found out another way. Seeing what Rae’jean was going through over not knowing the identity of her father, Taye refused to protect Lynell at the expense of Monica’s happiness and well-being. “So what are you going to do, Rae’jean?” she asked, bringing her thoughts back to the conversation. “Have you changed your mind about getting the information from Uncle Victor?”

Rae’jean shook her head. “No. In fact, I plan to pump him for all it’s worth. I think I deserve to know who got my mother pregnant and any details Uncle Victor can give me. Grady will have to accept that.”

“After you find out the truth, what do you plan to do?” Alexia asked, studying Rae’jean intently.

Rae’jean shrugged. “I don’t know. That will depend on what I find out. I just hope and pray that this doesn’t turn into a soap opera or
Peyton Place
.”

Grady and Michael returned to the table. Rae’jean watched as Michael sat down next to Taye and began sharing some of his food with her. As she studied them, she wondered if perhaps Alexia was right and Michael and Taye did, in fact, need each other. They sure as heck looked good together.