Something to Talk About (32 page)

Just then the
doorbell rang, but it was strictl
y a courtesy. The back door opened and Donnie walked in with Lily Rose and Angelique, all of them wreathed in smiles. Daphne, or maybe it was Dahlia, p
romptl
y took Lily Rose from his arms for a better look at her.

“My goodness, we do make pretty babies in this family, don’t we? And such a handsome young couple! Now which ones are you?” she asked with a smile. It was a phrase to be heard often as the house became crowded with Alan and Andre, their wives and their children. Angelique volunteered to host dinner that night since there was more room in the Palmer Park house. “We also have the most guest rooms available. We have three bedrooms up for grabs if you ladies would like to stay with us.”

Only
Emmaline
declined as she was staying with Big Benny and Martha in the guest room of their condo. The other women were quite happy to accept Angelique’s gracious invitation. “We can also help you make dinner; we’re quite good cooks; Adam can tell you that,” Reba assured her. Then she scanned the crowd of relatives with a question in her eyes. “Where is Adam? He’s the only one who hasn’t made an appearance,” she mused.

Benita looked at Clay and made a face. “I’m sure he’ll be here later, Aunt Reba.” In truth, she wasn’t sure about any such thing.

Chapter Twenty

While Renee and Andrew’s house was filled to bursting with both well-known and little-known Cochrans, Adam was miles away at the Southfield home of Leah and Jose Fuentes. Alicia’s whole family was there and it could have been a moment of supreme discomfort for Adam, but it didn’t bother him a bit. He didn’t care if his
fiancee’s
entire family heard him ask her father for permission to marry her. He was perfectly calm and composed, holding Alicia’s hand as though this were an everyday event with him. Alicia was his wife now, as far as he was concerned. This was all a mere formality.

Looking at a recent portrait of her mother and father on the wall of the living room, Alicia acknowledged that they were a stunning couple whose longevity had surprised many members of her mother’s family. Leah Ross Fuentes was from a socially prominent family of educators who were stunned when she brought home Jose Fuentes, a big, brash Cuban baseball player with no education and a thick Spanish accent. Leah had been working on her bachelor’s degree when his sisters introduced her to him. She was studying at
Spelman
College in
Adan
ta
and he was playing for the Atl
anta Braves farm team when they met and it was love at first sight, to her parents’ complete dismay.

No amount of dismay was about to interfere with their courtship, however; Leah stood her ground and the resu
l
t was a very happy marriage, which produced a large and loving family. Carlos Fuentes was the oldest son, followed by a daughter, Marielle, and another son, Raphael. Alicia was the baby of the family, something she felt keenly from
ti
me to time. Even though she was a grown woman who had a successful business, she wasn’t grown up to her brothers, who alternated between teasing her unmercifully and treating her like a doll. Today she knew it would be unmerciful teasing from her brothers and she was ready for it

When Adam and Alicia had arrived at the Fuentes house in Southfield for the big elaborate breakfast buffet that her mother loved to prepare, her mother greeted them at the door with hugs and kisses and a long, appraising look at Adam.

“My goodness, Adam!
I always knew you were good-looking, but you’re really something, aren’t you, dear? Turn around and let me get a good look at you,” she instructed.

“
Mami
,
don’t embarrass him,” Alicia protested, but Leah waved her off. Leah Fuentes was vivacious and outspoken and charmingly frank with everyone. Alicia had a lot of her mother’s
characteristics, although at the moment she would have denied it. Leah was very fond of her daughter’s best friend and was always especially attentive to him.

“I’m not trying to embarrass him,
mija
,
I’m paying him a compliment. I liked his hair long, you know, but he looks so polished and sexy this w
ay. You two look quite beautifu
l together, you really do.”

As she spoke, Leah was walking off with Adam with her arm linked through his, chattering away about this and that Alicia shook her head. Her mother, for all her flighty ways, was a distinguished academician with several degrees in anthropology and social psychology. People and how they related to each other was her mother’s passion. She found the structure of society and its evolution absolutely fascinating. Even though she was now a professor emeritus from the University of Michigan, she continued to write and was at work on her twelfth book.

Alicia sighed happily as she trailed through the house, beautifully decorated with artwork from all over the world, especially African and Caribbean art. The spacious modern home was filled with colorful and fascinating things and the walls that served as a backdrop for the art were bold and bright in warm tropical colors. Leah certainly put her mark on everything, Alicia mused. She finally made it into the great room, a huge family room that opened into the kitchen. This was where most of the entertaining took place in the Fuentes house since both Leah and Jose were passionate about eating well and took great pleasure in cooking elaborate feasts for family and friends.
 
Adam was sitting on a tall stool drinking a glass of what looked like guava juice while Leah stirred a huge pot of grits.

“What can I do to help,
Mami
?
"

Her mother looked up and smiled. “Not a thing,
mija
.
We’re having a traditional southern breakfast and everything is done. The boys set the tables for me and as soon as everyone is here we’ll be ready. You can relax with Adam,” she said with a smile.

Alicia went to stand next to Adam and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Adam kissed her back and then addressed her mother. “Actually, Mrs. Fuentes, I have something I need to talk to you and Mr. Fuentes about. Maybe now would
be a good time,” he said with a smile
.

Leah handed the wooden spoon to Alicia in a flash while taking her apron off.

“Here, baby, stir this. Come on, Adam, Jose is in the garden,” she said in a fluttery voice so unlike her normal speaking tone. She took him out to her husband, leaving Alicia with an apron in one hand, a spoon in the other, and a very goofy look on her face, or so Raphael claimed when he found her standing there.

“You look really stupid,
Patti.
Are you daydreaming about some man or something? If you’re not going to stir that, let me do it
.
”

Alicia gladly handed him the spoon but denied any such stupid look. “I’m not thinking about ‘some man,’ I’m thinking about my man. For your informa
ti
on, he’s out there talking to
Mami
and
Papi
right now so we can announce our
engagement ”

Raphael made a face of shock and horror, pretending to gag. “Somebody actually wants to marry you? Better him than me.” He laughed as Alicia twisted the apron into a snake and popped him with it. “You just better hope
Papi
doesn’t scare him half to death.”

There was little fear of that, as Jose had been expecting this particular announcement for a long time. He was sitting on the patio doting on Gabrielle while
Paco
was eating the slices of lemon out of his grandfather’s iced tea.

“
Mijo
, don’t do that, it will ruin your teeth,” he scolded gently. Jose tried to be gruff and tough, but when it came to his grandchildren he was an absolute softie. He looked up as Leah led Adam out onto the spacious deck with its big pots of flowers. He tried to hide a smile but was only partially successful.

“
Paco
, take the baby inside. We need to have a talk with Adam,” he said as he set Gabrielle on her feet, to her displeasure. She was protesting the whole time, but soon it was just Adam, Leah, and Jose on the deck. Adam looked at the beautifully landscaped garden that surrounded the deck and the house and took a deep breath.

He shook Jose’s hand quite formally, then wasted no time in getting to the point “Mr. Fuentes, I don’t think it’s a real secret that I’m very much in love with your daughter. I’m asking your permission to marry her, sir, because we want to build a life together,” he said simply.

Jose considered letting him twist in the wind for a while, just to see what would happen, but one look at
Leah told him this was a bad idea. He’d always liked Adam, even more since he’d gotten rid of that stupid ponytail. The important thing to him was he knew that Adam would take care of his daughter and make her happy for the rest of their lives and that’s what he wanted for her. He dragged his response out as long as possible, trying to keep a stern look on his face. Leah finally shot him a look of pure exasperation and poked him in the arm.

“Fine, son.
I will give you my daughter’s hand in marriage under one condition. That you understand this is a permanent gift, this is not a loan, you got it?”

Adam laughed and said he understood completely. “There’s no chance whatsoever that I will ever want to give her back, sir. She’s mine for life and I’m hers.”

“So what took you so long to figure it out
3
1 could have had four or five grandbabies by now,” he said grumpily.

“We’ll do our best to fill your order, sir,” Adam said with a grin.

The biggest surprise of the morning came a later when everyone was sitting around the table digesting the excellent meal Leah had prepared. Adam stood up and took Alicia’s hands,
bringing her up with him. He kissed her on the forehead and took a small box out of his pocket
With
a smile of total love and adoration on his face, he asked her again for her hand in marriage as he opened the box. She could barely get out her breathless “yes” when she saw the ring it contained.

It was an oval cabochon stone surrounded by two bands of unusual-looking stones set in a heavy gold band. She thought that one ring of the smaller stones were rubies, but Alicia had no idea what the middle stone was, she’d never seen anything like it. “I hope you like it, baby. That’s a champagne tourmaline and the other stones are red diamonds and pink tourmalines.”

“I love it, Adam, and I love you. Where in the world did you find this?” she breathed, staring at her hand with utter amazement.

“I had it made, Allie. I knew I couldn’t find anything as special as you in a store.”

A clamor from around the table made Alicia realize where she was and what she was doing. She immediately went around the table so everyone could get a good look at her hand. She was laughing with happiness when her father’s sisters suddenly entered the kitchen.

“So,
mija
,
you do remember your promise, right? This is a wedding I’m looking forward to planning from start to finish,”
Gigi
said, rubbing her hands together in glee.

Alicia’s eyes went to
Marielle’s
, whose were alight with laughter. She raised her glass of guava juice in a toast. “Better you than me,
chica."

Adam’s arms went around her waist and she relaxed into his embrace realizing that nothing could possibly upset her as long as they were together.

“I hope you don’t have any more surprises up your sleeve,” she whispered. “I don’t think my heart can stand the strain.”

“No more surprises, Allie. One per day is my limit
.
”

***

John was seated across the table from the formidable Miss Parker. They were just about finished putting his office in order thanks to her highly efficient nature. She’d agreed to come to work on Saturday to get it finished, and as a thank-you he had taken her out to lunch. He’d had a phone call a l
ittle while before that had rattl
ed him more than he wanted to admit and he was sincerely glad of her company right now. He looked at her appraisingly as she perused the menu. Without any preliminaries he asked her a question.

“Miss Parker, what would you do if you suddenly found out you were adopted?”

“A happy dance,” she said dryly, still looking at
themenu
. When she finally met his gaze she saw something unusual in his eyes.

“Is this a personal revelation of some kind? Are you sure you want to share this with me?”

Not really, but you have the advantage of being here,
John thought and was once again ashamed of himself.

“Yes, indeed it is, Miss Parker.
A very personal revelation.”
He filled her in on the past few days and was grateful, for once, that she showed virtually no reaction. “We were supposed to get together for lunch today and talk, to make plans to meet my, um, to meet Benny Cochran and the rest of the family, but plans have changed. Big Benny went trotting up to
Idlewild
and came back with the estranged aunts and now they’re having a big family dinner to which I’m invited,"
John reported glumly.