Sizzling Seduction (7 page)

“You do seem like you’re a little bit more ready to be a wife now. And I have to say I would love it if you and Patrick got back together. Once Patrick has a wife and a family, my brother wil pass the house down to his oldest living son.

And it would be nice to have a woman worthy of bearing the Hightower name in that house again. Do you know that Celia has had my brother James ban me from the house?”

“Again? What happened this time? What’s her problem?

Lord knows she never liked me and I never liked her, either.

She never real y got in our business or anything like that,”

Courtney paused and glanced at Sophie with a smirk. “But I just know she didn’t try to get Patrick to take me back.”

Sophie wondered what that little smirk was about.

Courtney needed to be glad Sophie had been in their business. If she hadn’t been, Courtney would not have married Patrick in the first place. Some people needed to have a little more gratitude. But she couldn’t be concerned with that now. There was no time.

“At least it would have been time wel spent getting you and Patrick back together. You should have seen how hard Celia worked to get Jason back together with that video vixen daughter of a crackhead, Penny Keys. Now we have al kinds of recovering addicts and former jailbirds at the family gatherings! And that’s not the latest. My nephew Lawrence married a little gangster girl from South-Central California of al places. I cal her little orphan anger because she doesn’t have any living family at al . Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

Courtney burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you cal ed the woman Little Orphan Annie.”

“I didn’t. I cal her little orphan
anger
. The girl has a smart mouth on her and she was extremely rude to me when I tried to give her advice that Lawrence might not be the man for her. But al that is beside the point. The point is that Patrick is my last chance. Celia has built her a little army and they have al but fazed me out. If you can atone and make Patrick take you back, when you two are in the house, it won’t matter what Celia does.”

“I don’t know if your plan wil work. Patrick has done a pretty good job of avoiding me through the years. At first it was cool, because I needed time to lick my wounds after messing up so badly. But after a while…I’m just not sure he’l ever forgive me. But I want him back. And when Patrick and I have kids, I want you in that house with us helping me, Sophie.”

Sophie mental y rol ed her eyes. The girl was such a suck-up, but she needed her if she was going to make this work. So Sophie would give as good as she got. “I’l certainly be there. This is going to work. What’s your plan?”

“I don’t have a plan.” Courtney frowned. “You always tel me what to do.”

“Wel , I didn’t tel you to cheat on your husband, did I?

You came up with that little plan al on your own.” This time she rol ed her eyes for real. You just couldn’t get good help these days.

Sighing, Sophie leaned forward to school her coconspirator. “You need a way for him to see you. You know, he stil keeps his spare key in the same place…”

T
he book club was actualy starting to seem like a pretty good idea. Of course, Toni, for al her “Be my person”

requests, was running late and had left her alone. But Dil on seemed to hit it right off with Toni’s cousin’s daughter and son. And Aisha was more than ready to meet some new people. The other three women seemed real y nice.

“So why don’t we get started by introducing ourselves and saying a little bit about what kinds of books we like to read?” Jenny, Toni’s cousin and their hostess, took a seat on the plush cream sofa and the three of them turned their attention to her. The short and pleasingly plump cinnamon-complexioned woman had a bubbly demeanor and Aisha could see her being an excel ent receptionist. Her entire aura was welcoming.

“My name is Jennifer Saunders. But everyone cal s me Jenny or Jen. I’m a receptionist at a physical therapy clinic and the married mother of two. I have a ten-year-old girl and a seven-year-old son. I love to read mystery novels mostly. I just love a good whodunit. Some of my favorite authors are Barbara Neely and Valerie Wilson Wesley.” She turned to the woman on her right, signaling that it was her turn to go.

The young woman appeared to be in her mid- to late twenties and reminded Aisha of that hot new Hol ywood actress, Lauren London. Her long, natural y curly hair was pul ed away from her pretty face with one of those stylish blinged-out hairpins. She had a hip, youthful energy about her that reminded Aisha of the now-seriously-late Toni.

“My name is Minerva Hightower and my sister-in-law, Samantha—” she pointed to the beautiful dark-chocolate sister sitting next to her before continuing “—invited me to join you guys in the book club because she knew I would read anything between two covers with a spine. I’m sort of a bookaholic. I’m also a newlywed. I’ve been married a little over a year. I’m finishing up my MSW and just found out that I’m almost four months’ pregnant.”

When the young woman spoke, there was something about her accent that let Aisha know she wasn’t from Jersey. Everyone rushed to congratulate Minerva immediately, including Aisha, but in the back of her head, she couldn’t help but wonder if the two Hightower women were somehow related to Patrick.

They said they were sisters-in-law. One could be his sister and the other could be his wife for al she knew. How awkward would that be?

Samantha introduced herself and apparently she was a doctor of physical therapy.

Soon it was Aisha’s turn to introduce herself. Not one woman in the group had mentioned romance novels in the lists of books they like to read. She was suddenly feeling out of place and wondering where the heck Toni was. What would these other, seemingly happily married women with interesting jobs and eclectic reading tastes think of a divorced single-mom kindergarten teacher who steals away snatches of time to devour African-American romance novels?

She needed to go into the back room, grab her son and break the hel out of there before she had a chance to find out what they thought.

Wait a second
, she thought, halting al her negative ramblings. She was just as good and just as smart as anyone else. She certainly wasn’t ashamed of final y having the courage to break the cycle of violence in her family by divorcing her abusive husband. And she had worked darn hard raising a smal boy alone and going back to school to become a kindergarten teacher.

Building back her self-esteem after years of a verbal y abusive marriage had been hard, and it was clearly something she would have to continue to work on. She gave herself a mental shake to shore up her courage and introduced herself. Before she knew it, she was spil ing out her introduction and waiting for the first person to even look like she had something sarcastic to say.

What she found instead surprised her.

“Girl, I love romance novels, too, especial y the African-American ones. I’m addicted to them and my soaps, girl! I just
love
some
love
. I just didn’t know what you al would think about my reading choices.” Jenny gave an embarrassed chuckle. “So I left them out.”

“Shoot, I cut my teeth on Arabesque when I was a preteen. My mom was sick, dying of AIDS, and she used to have me read her novels to her because she knew I liked to read,” Minerva added.

“And these two got me hooked on them now. They keep me nice and romantical y ready for my handsome husband.” Samantha grinned widely when she mentioned her husband.

Aisha wondered if the man that put that smile on Samantha’s face was Patrick Hightower.

They bonded and connected for over half an hour about their love for romance novels. They al had their top ten and al of their top ten favorites included the two BJs, Brenda Jackson and Beverly Jenkins.

“Wel , since we al like African-American romance novels, I think we know what genre our first book wil be,”

Jenny folded her hands on her lap and smiled.

“Romance!” al four women said in unison.

After setting up the parameters of the book club and deciding on a first book, a few of the women sat in Jenny’s den chatting and continuing to get to know one another.

Toni final y showed up and Aisha thought about reading her the riot act, but she’d had too much fun with the other women and had a good vibe about the possibilities for some new friendships, so she decided she would let Toni slide this one time.

“So tel me how’s everything with you and that fine Hightower husband of yours. I bet he’s loving being a new dad.” Jenny playful y shoved Samantha’s shoulder. “One day I’m going to have to tel you al how Samantha pretty much owes being married to the hottest man next to my Walt to my persistence in getting her to give the fine Joel Hightower a chance.”

Aisha felt a gush of breath whoosh out of her mouth and it startled her. Why should she feel anything like relief just because Samantha wasn’t married to Patrick?

“I would have come around eventual y. I didn’t need your nagging. Plus, Joel was a man on a mission. And nothing can stop a Hightower man once he has his sights on the woman he wants,” Samantha said with a giggle.

“I know. Lawrence even arrested me a couple of times.

Talk about a Hightower man getting his woman!” Minerva broke out laughing. “He’s a real overachiever, my Lawrence.”

Aisha broke out into a wide grin. Neither woman was married to Patrick.

Okay, missy, why do you care?

“Speaking of Hightowers…” Toni glanced at her and Aisha gave the woman the closest thing she could to a glare without cal ing too much attention to them.

“The last Hightower standing, that fine fire captain, Patrick Hightower, has the hots for our Aisha here.” Toni burst out into a giggle and moved away from Aisha as quickly as she could.

“Toni, stop making stuff up. We read fiction in the book club—we don’t create it.” Aisha let out a nervous chuckle.

“I’m a witness. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the great Patrick Hightower go down. The man couldn’t keep his eyes off her. And he seemed genuinely upset that she wouldn’t budge.” Toni added fuel to the fire, refusing to let the conversation die.

Aisha cut her eyes at Toni. “Sure he was upset—

because he’s probably not used to hearing the word
no
when he asks for a date.”

“Wel , now, that is probably true. I don’t recal very many women that would tel a Hightower man no when he asked for a date, unless you count my friend Samantha here. She played hard to get for…oh…about a minute with Joel.”

Jenny laughed and slapped her knee. “I thought they weren’t going to ever get together. They had me addicted weren’t going to ever get together. They had me addicted to their little drama like I am to my soaps.”

“Anyway…” Samantha rol ed her eyes at Jenny. “This isn’t about me and Joel. It’s about Aisha and Patrick.”

“There is no Aisha and Patrick,” Aisha offered with a smile.

Minerva slanted her eyes and pursed her lips. “Wel , after everything that happened with his ex-wife, that man deserves some happiness.”

“What happened with his ex-wife?” The question fel out of Aisha’s mouth before she could stop it.

Why did you ask that? You don’t care. Get your son
and get out of here
.

“Oh, I went to high school with both of them, so I can tel you that story from the beginning. Someone else would have to pick up the later end, though. I only have gossip and hearsay about the later years. But I wil say that Courtney Phil ips grew up in a very strict household. Her parents barely let her go outside al through grammar school and high school and they kept her hemmed up in the church.”

Jenny twisted up her lips and twirled her neck before continuing. “But anyone with an eye could see the girl was a slut waiting to happen and looking for a place to be al the slut she could be. She had a lot of people fooled by her goody-goody demeanor, especial y Patrick. What a waste.

A lot of girls in our high school would have married him.

And we were al shocked and appal ed when we found out about eight years after high school that he had married Courtney. I just guessed the only way she could get from under her family’s thumb and final y be free to turn into the wild thang she was destined to be was to marry someone.”

“Al I know is he came home early from work one day, sick as a dog, and found his wife in bed with another man.”

Samantha added what Jenny left out.

“Oh, my God! That’s awful!” Aisha knew a lot about cheating spouses and she wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on anyone, especial y the sexy fire captain.

“Yeah, awful for that young church deacon Patrick caught her with. Joel said that they were lucky the man was too ashamed to press assault charges, because Patrick put a hurting on the man and kicked Courtney out.”

“Hmm…So Patrick is violent? I teach my kindergartners to use their words for a reason. I don’t condone hitting or violence.” She couldn’t help the self-righteous know-it-al tone she used, because she final y felt vindicated in turning Patrick down. She couldn’t be with a violent man. She should have known a man like that would have a violent streak. Good thing she’d said no to him.