Sizzling Seduction (11 page)

Courtney turned around, rol ed her eyes, stuck out her tongue and flipped him the bird.

Lunatic! What the hell did I ever see in this crazy
chick?

Slamming the door in disgust, he could only be glad that he had been alone when he came home. Aunt Sophie was going to learn how to stay out of his business. And he was never keeping a spare key under the flowerpot on the back deck again.

He plopped down on the couch and thought of Aisha and Dil on and the laughter they had shared that afternoon and evening. He thought of Dil on’s description of one of Aisha’s attempts at making a shepherd’s pie based on the recipe she had gotten from one of her beloved cooking shows, and he started laughing even harder.

He realized then and there that nothing could ruin the high and the joy he got just from hanging with them for one day. And he knew nothing and no one was going to get in the way of him experiencing more joy. Not his ex-wife or Aisha’s ex-husband.

No one.

“You said he would be happy to see me!” The ungrateful, sobbing girl poked Sophie in the chest and crowded her.

Sophie had no idea the girl could be so aggresive.

“You said he wasn’t seeing anyone and he would take me back.” Courtney poked her again. “I made a fool of myself because of you, old lady. And I also left some good prospects in Trenton because you made me think there was a chance for me to reconcile with Patrick. So you had better fix this.” She poked her again and Sophie fel onto her pink-and-green floral Queen Anne-style sofa.

Sophie clutched her pearls and took deep breaths. She shouldn’t have let Courtney into her apartment. But how was she supposed to know that the girl had gone stark-raving mad?

“It would behoove you to keep your hands to yourself, Courtney! Then, I suppose if you could have done that in the first place we wouldn’t be in this predicament, now would we?”

“Oh, you got jokes?” Courtney leaned forward and poked Sophie in the chest again.

Where did this violent person come from?
Sophie wondered.

“We’l see how much you’re laughing when I tel your entire family about how you were trying to use me to get into that house. Patrick is already seeing someone else, so you might as wel start sucking up to her. Who knows, if Patrick can manage to make a woman happy long enough, he might just start a family and come into that house sooner than we think. But if you expect me to cover for you, you’d better believe that something has to be in it for me.”

Sophie took a deep breath, composing herself and trying to come up with a way to salvage the situation.

“Patrick is not seeing anyone. Don’t you think if he were seriously seeing someone, I’d know about it? My nephew and I are very close. He would have told me. He probably just told you that to lash out because he’s stil hurt by your betrayal. Tel me what happened and don’t leave a word out.”

Courtney went on an angry frustrated rant about what happened when she had gone to Patrick’s home.

Sophie wanted to know who in the world told the girl to get darn near naked and place herself in the man’s bed?

Didn’t she see that those whorish ways wouldn’t get her anywhere?

Maybe she isn’t the right one for this job after all…

But who else could she get? Time was passing and she wasn’t getting any younger. It would be nice to be at peace and to go out in the same home she had come into the world in. And Lord knows it was way past time for that two-faced, fraud sister-in-law of hers, Celia, to be out of the Hightower home.

She listened to the tale Courtney told and became increasingly horrified. “You told him that I told you where the spare key was?”

“Wel , you did,” Courtney snapped.

“You’re just messing everything up, Courtney. First of al , you shouldn’t have tried to win him over with sex. Have you ever known a Hightower man to have his head turned by such common actions? They have women offering them that al day, every day. You’re going to need some better tricks than that, young lady.”

“I shouldn’t need any tricks! He should be glad I even want him back, after the way he treated me.”

Lord, the poor child is delusional.

“Do you want him back or not?”

“I want him back. But he is going to have to pay for treating me so rudely.”

Delusional.
Sophie shook her head.

This was her only shot at besting Celia once and for al .

And she needed to have the last laugh. So Courtney would have to do. She only hoped the girl hadn’t ruined everything beyond repair. “What are you doing for Thanksgiving?”

“You mean she showed up at your house when you weren’t home, let herself in and proceeded to get undressed while she waited?” Lawrence frowned as he stretched. “You should have pressed charges. Wait—don’t tel me you stil have feelings for the woman. What about the nun?”

“I hope you changed the sheets?” Joel shuddered.

“There ain’t no tel ing where that skin has been.”

Looking at his two brothers, he almost wished that he hadn’t asked them to meet him at the gym this morning. He knew they were going to have jokes.

“Anyway, clown one and clown two. Aisha is not a nun.

And I’m working on that. I’m making slow progress, but I am making progress. And I did change the sheets, threw those bad boys out, as a matter of fact. But that’s not why I asked you guys to meet me here this morning.”

“Yeah, I know. You wanted my help to get you in shape so that you can woo your schoolteacher.” Lawrence stood up and stretched some more. “So whaddya want to start with—some hoops? Wanna hit the track a couple of times?

Want me to spot you on the weights? What’re you pressing?”

“He doesn’t want help getting in shape. He wants help reviving his old-school playa skil s. Being an original playa from the Himalayas is played out now, huh? You wanna learn from a new-school playa who has turned in his playa card but left the game so much better than he found it.

Someone like your younger brother…Me.” Joel popped his col ar and grinned.

“Umm…” Patrick turned to Lawrence. “No, and…” he turned to Joel. “Hel . No.” He shook his head. “I asked you here because I knew after I told you about the stunt Courtney pul ed you’d go running to tel your wives. So I wanted to let you know that you are
not
to tel Samantha and Minerva, also known as Betty and Wilma or, my favorite, Ethel and Lucy, anything about what I just told you.

Those two wil be up in that book club running their mouths to Aisha about this the first chance they get.”

“I’m wounded that you don’t think I’d keep your secret, brother. Wounded, I say.” Joel clutched his chest with his hand and chuckled.

“And I think you need to apologize not only to us, but to our wives.” Lawrence shook his head and laughed. “And from what I heard, they gave you valuable information that al owed you to spend the weekend with the woman and her son.”

“How in the…You know what, never mind. Just be sure to keep the information about Courtney to yourselves. And while we’re on that subject, was that woman always crazy?

What in the world did I see in her?”

“You were young and dumb, bro. Young and dumb,”

Lawrence offered and he pat him on the back.

“And yes, that chick was always crazy. Even Mama knew that,” Joel added.

“What do you mean Mama knew that? Mama told me, ‘If I liked it, she loves it,’ when I told her I was marrying Courtney.”

Both Joel and Lawrence burst out laughing.

Joel caught his breath first, only to start laughing again.

Lawrence final y stopped and clutched his stomach as he spoke. “Man, don’t you know ‘If you like it, I love it’ is Mama talk for she can’t stand the crazy woman?”

“Hmm…Courtney said Mama never liked her.” Patrick rubbed his chin in thought.

“Wel , Courtney at least got that right. Mama might not have tried to sabotage the relationship the way Aunt Sophie tried with al of us, except you and Courtney, but Mama didn’t care for Courtney. The difference between Mama and Aunt Sophie is Mama wil let you lead your life and love who you love. Aunt Sophie wil meddle,” Lawrence said.

“And now that Aunt Sophie has her favorite girl for you back in town, you’d better watch out. She’l have your relationship with Aisha derailed before it can even get on track for good. Keep your guard up,” Joel advised. “Aunt Sophie can be very vindictive. I stil haven’t forgiven her for what she put Samantha through with her job. And let’s not forget the hel she gave Penny. You can’t let Aisha become another casualty of Hurricane Sophie.”

“Oh, I won’t. Trust and believe I won’t. Aunt Sophie would want to tread lightly.” Patrick ran his hand across his head.

“Let’s shoot some hoops.”

He had always loved his aunt, and sometimes he felt as if he were her favorite. But there was no way he was going to let her mess up his barely formed relationship with Aisha.

It was too precious to him already.

Celia Hightower stared at her sister-in-law for a ful minute before opening the door and letting her in. She certainly wasn’t expecting the woman to show up at her door today. There was no one home but her, and Sophie usual y saved her torture for crowds. Ever since she had almost gotten Joel’s wife Samantha fired from her job, they had banned her from family events. And she had pretty much stayed away, until now….

“What do you want, Sophie?” She led her into the living room and sat down.

Sophie sat on the sofa with her handbag on her lap, her shoulders reared back and her large, conelike breasts pointing out. The older woman’s smooth mahogany complexion probably made it hard for people to tel her age with accuracy, but her stuffy, stuck-up demeanor always made her appear older than her years.

“I want to let bygones be bygones. I’m not getting any younger and neither are you. It’s time we put this behind us

—you and me. I’m tired of not feeling welcome in my family home, the home I was born and raised in. And I’m tired of my brother choosing your side over mine. So I’m going to give you al another chance. I’m going to come to Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve decided to forgive you al for the way you al treated me.”

Unbelievable
.

The woman would try the patience of a saint. And no matter how nice people thought Celia was, she knew her own limits and a saint she was not. In fact, she knew she probably shouldn’t have opened the door for Sophie at al .

Something inside her snapped, looking at Sophie’s smug, self-righteous face.

“First of al , Sophie, you don’t have anything to forgive.

You brought everything on yourself. And you have been staying away because we banned you, not because you are trying to punish us. And if you think you’re punishing us somewhere in that twisted little mind of yours, then you need to get a reality check because nobody is suffering from you not being around. In fact, it is only when you come around that the suffering begins.”

Sophie took a big huff of air and reared up in her seat.

“Oh, poor, useless, delusional Celia. I have to give it to you, the sex you trotted out to turn my brother’s head must have been good. He stayed with you this long after the boys have grown up and moved out. You real y ought to give other social-climbing gold-diggers advice.”

Celia jumped up from her seat and walked over to Sophie. No. She real y shouldn’t have let the woman in.

That had been a mistake. This was not going to end wel .

She tried counting to ten and gave up at five. Celia’s patience and her trying to keep the peace through the years had only made Sophie meaner.

It was final y time for a different tactic.

“I’m delusional? Sophie, what exactly did I marry your brother, the rookie cop, for, if not love? He wasn’t rich. And for years when I was assistant superintendent in the Paterson public schools, I made the majority of our income.

I’m the one with the degree. I’m my own woman and I was wel on my way to becoming that woman before I married your brother.”

Sophie rol ed her eyes and let out a disgusted snort, her dark brown eyes flashing in indignant anger. “Thanks to me, Celia! I mentored you when your foster parents couldn’t give a damn. I made sure you applied to col ege and for scholarships. I made sure you got my sorority’s scholarship.

I even stood up for you when my brother kept trying to prove that you were in a gang and unworthy of my time and attention. And how did you repay me? By marrying him. My baby brother.”

“Your baby brother was a grown man and he made his own decisions, Sophie. I didn’t make him marry me.”

“You think he would have married you if your stupid behind hadn’t gotten pregnant?” Sophie leaned forward with an angry glare. “Do you think he would have stayed with you if you hadn’t nearly lost it when little James Jr. was stil born? That baby being born like that was the perfect out

—”

She couldn’t let Sophie finish her spewing. Celia reached back and smacked the woman with everything she had in her. Sophie’s head bounced and her bun came loose.

“You hit me!” Tears sprang to Sophie’s eyes, but Celia couldn’t be concerned about that.

Her own eyes were flowing and her hot anger refused to stay under wraps. She hauled off and smacked Sophie again and the woman’s purse went toppling on the floor.

“Don’t you ever let my child’s name fal out of your mouth again, Sophie! The stress of being a newlywed, finishing my degree and you and your mother, God bless the dead, contributed to my unhealthy state during that pregnancy.