Chapter 27 – Cooper
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cooper
“ A re you sure this is all I need to bring?” I ask Alise for the millionth time, eyeing the three bags of ice I just placed in the back seat of my truck.
If there’s one thing Momma has ingrained into us boys, it's to never show up at someone’s house empty-handed. The first time I was at Beauty’s doesn’t count, even if Ms. King had something to do with me being there. The second time I was there, I brought brunch. It’s probably more than what Momma had in mind, but I think of it as an apology for the first time. I didn’t have a plan for what I wanted to bring to the barbecue today, but Alise was adamant. Ice was the only right answer. Still feels wrong to me, but Alise has known the Kings for a long time. The last thing I want to do is offend Ramona’s family when I’m meeting them for the first time.
“Yes. Like I told you before, this is the only safe thing for you to bring. Anything else could end in disaster. Trust me, Coop, I’m saving all of us some heartache.” Alise rolls her eyes at me before climbing into the passenger seat.
“How can there be so many rules for a barbecue?” I question, climbing into the driver's seat and heading toward Ramona’s place.
“This isn’t a barbecue. It’s a cookout. There’s a big difference.”
“How is that even possible? I understand the length of cooking time for the food and how much time people spend there are different, but is it really that drastic?”
“Would you just take the excuse that it's a Black thing and leave it alone?”
I stop and pause for a minute to think about it. This isn’t the first time Alise has said the same phrase multiple times to me over the years. Most of the time, it makes sense, but in this instance, I can’t wrap my head around it. “Do I have any other choice?”
“No, not really.” Alise shrugs her shoulders, pausing to think for a few moments before continuing. “I don’t know how to explain it to you other than they’re just different. When Auntie Mel hosts a barbecue, everyone brings a dish. There are large cuts of meat like steak, brisket, and even ribs. We have organized games like sack races and drink lemonade out of fancy pitchers. Most of the time, the entire yard is decorated to perfection for the event, as well.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” I always knew Momma went overboard when she hosted anything. After she was introduced to Pinterest, it got even worse. She had a place to source new ideas to ensure people would talk about her event months later. It wasn’t a way for her to brag or show off to the neighbors. She just wanted to make sure that people enjoyed their time so they’d want to come back again.
“No, not bad. It’s just different. A cookout is hamburgers and hot dogs but also collard greens, baked beans, mac and cheese, and any other soul food you can think of. Usually, whoever’s house it's at throws some tables outside with some folding chairs and calls it a day. There are no games, unless you count spades, which you are under no circumstances allowed to participate in. We just kind of go with the flow. Everyone more than likely will overstay their welcome and not even move a muscle until someone tells them to leave.”
“And why can’t I play spades again?” Not that I actually know what that game is or how to play it, but being told not to do something makes me want to do it even more now.
“Because that damn game ruins families. Auntie Na and her sister, Phylicia, still haven't spoken to each other since Darius’s party last year because both swear the other cheated. I can guarantee they both did.”
“And she’s going to be there today, right? That’s the woman I have to keep away from Beauty?”
Alise attempted to give me a rundown of everyone attending today, but I got lost after the second set of cousins on Ms. King’s side of the family. Ramona’s family is enormous compared to mine. I vaguely remember Momma’s parents, but they passed away before Cole was born. Dad wasn’t very close to his parents. His funeral was the first time I met them in person, having only done Skype and phone calls in the past. Neither of them have siblings, so Auntie Peggy and Alise are the only other family we have, besides each other.
“No, that’s Aunt Thea and Trina. You’ll know those two the moment you step foot in the yard, if they even show up. They rarely threaten to attend these things if they don’t plan on coming, but I’d put nothing past either of them.”
“What is their problem with Ramona? I couldn’t imagine anyone treating family as horrible as you described.”
The question has been rolling around in my head since Alise came barging into my room. She was ranting about Beauty’s harpy aunt and her demon spawn offspring—her words, not mine. Family has always been the most important thing to me, even my dumb-ass brother who won’t listen to reason. I’d lay down my life for any of them in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I can’t even fathom being so nasty to any of them that they need someone to run interference to keep me away from them. That’s not how families should treat each other.
“They blame Ramona for something that wasn’t her fault,” Alise deadpans as I turn into the driveway.
“But what?—”
“Shit! Everyone is already here,” Alise exclaims loudly, cutting me off before I can ask the rest of my question. “I promised her I’d be on time, but I figured she’d lied about the start time, as usual, and I’m still late. We need to get in there quickly.”
My truck barely comes to a stop before Alise clambers out of the cab of my truck, rushing toward the back of the house. Loud, boisterous voices and the melody of a song I can’t place filter through the open door.
When Alise said this differed from any event Momma has held at our place, she wasn’t exaggerating. There are cars everywhere. Parked on the grass and the sides of the house, and some are even pulled onto the side of the main road in front of the house. I can see round tables surrounded by chairs placed strategically around the side yard. Most are filled with people, but I can’t make out anyone’s face from this distance.
“Thank fuck you’re finally here.” Beauty jumps into the forgotten open door and throws her arms around my neck, pulling me tightly to her.
“I wasn’t gone for that long.” I chuckle, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into my lap. “Sorry we’re late, but someone didn’t want to adhere to your arrival time.”
“For once, this has nothing to do with Alise’s tendency to be late for everything. Everyone arrived early. It seems the entire family knows about Darius’s special guest.”
“I highly doubt that many people in your family are here just to see me.”
“You have way too much faith in my family. But they aren’t coming because they love hockey. They want to meet you because you're famous.”
“You can’t be serious.”
She buries her nose in the crook of my neck and inhales deeply. “Dead serious. I love my family, don’t get me wrong; they always have the best of intentions, but be prepared to take a lot of pictures so they can show off to their friends.”
“I can live with that.” I plant a kiss on the top of her head before pulling back and brushing my lips against hers. “But the bigger question is, how are you doing? Alise gave me a small rundown about what to expect from today, but she said my number one priority is to keep you away from Thea and Trina.”
“I’m fine.”
Ramona is lying to me, but I let it go. She’s not fine. It’s written all over her face. She was already worried about seeing her family today, but this seems to be something different. There is sorrow in her eyes that wasn’t there before. An acceptance that she deserves whatever they throw at her, but I have a feeling nothing could be further from the truth.
“No. You aren’t fine, Beauty. Tell me what you need.” She tries to turn her head away from me, but I grip her chin, forcing her eyes to stay locked with mine. “Whatever it is, I’ll give it to you.”
“What I want and what I need are two totally different things, sadly. How about a kiss and a promise that you won’t go anywhere without me? I can’t protect you if I can’t see you.”
“As if I’d be anywhere else.” I pull her body against mine, my eyes never leaving hers as our lips press together.
Electricity sizzles through my body as my hold tightens around her waist, pulling her closer to my body. I can feel the thud of our combined hearts as Ramona clumsily turns in my arms, straddling my lap. My cock thickens against the zipper of my jeans as she rocks her hips slowly, grinding her warm center on me.
A part of me knows this is a bad idea, that we should stop things before they get out of hand, but right now, I can’t bring myself to care. All thoughts of the barbecue, her family, and even Darius’s birthday go out the window. The only thing I can focus on is the sweet taste of her lips and the feel of her nails as they scrape along the base of my neck. My hand slips underneath her top, brushing softly against her soft skin, causing her to moan against my lips. Loud banging on my window causes us to break apart quickly.
“Fuck.” I drop my head forward, my forehead resting in the hollow of her neck, and my tongue peaks from between my lips as I run it along her collarbone. Beauty moans loudly, dropping her head back to give me better access to her neck.
I can make out Alise’s muffled voice through the window as Ramon’s hips buck against my cock. “Oh, no, you don’t. You two aren’t leaving me to deal with all of this alone.”
“Talk about a buzzkill,” she whispers as I lift my head.
“I do not want to get out of this truck,” I growl, nipping at her chin.
“Me either.” She leans forward, sparks igniting between us again as her lips draw closer to mine, but she sits up quickly. “But we need to.”
My head drops onto the seat as she climbs off me, sliding across the seat and out the open passenger door. Alise has now made her way around my truck, standing next to Ramona with her arms crossed.
“I’m glad to know one of you sees reason.”
“Not by choice. I just don’t want to give anyone any more reason to give me shit today,” Ramona mutters, reaching her hand toward mine.
“I’m gonna need a few minutes before you touch me again, Beauty.”
“You two are disgusting.” Alise spins on her heels and marches back toward the house.
“I guess that’s one way to get her to give us some privacy.”
“If I’d have known it was that easy, I’d have said something sooner.”
Beauty closes the passenger side door as I climb out of the truck, having gotten myself a little more under control. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” she responds, lifting her chin high and following Alise into the backyard.
I know this is supposed to be a simple family barbecue to celebrate Darius’s birthday, but for some reason, it feels more like I’m headed off to war. I’ll be damned if anyone has a chance to hurt my beauty. Not on my watch.
“I don’t think that’s how you play Uno,” I mumble, drawing six cards from the deck after Darius and his cousins each dropped draw-two cards on their turn.
“It’s Black rules, Uncle Cooper,” Darius says in triumph as his cousins snicker softly. “I explained this before we started. All specialty cards stack on top of each other regardless of the color.”
“And the color is whatever the last card on top is,” I respond, each one of them nodding their heads in agreement. “But why do I have a feeling you three are hustling me?”
Alise warned me about getting roped into a game of spades with adults, but she never said anything about playing Uno. I figured the game would be harmless, especially because I’m playing with a few of the boys, but I was wrong. I have a feeling that the children in this family are taught at an early age the need to win a game of cards at all costs.
“We would never,” all three boys respond in unison before breaking into a fit of giggles.
Everything has been going pretty well since Beauty and I finally made it to the backyard a couple of hours ago. As promised, I stuck to her side the entire time, keeping my eyes on our proximity to her infamous Aunt Thea.
Alise was right when she said I’d know Thea and her daughter the minute I spotted them. Everyone else was dressed casually in jeans and a different array of shirts and sweatshirts, but these two ladies were dressed to the nines. The younger of the two is wearing a bright green-and-blue-striped pantsuit and navy blue high heels, definitely not the best footwear to be walking around on the grass all day. Her long golden braids frame her face and hang down well past her waist. I have no idea what her eyes look like because they’re hidden behind a pair of red heart-shaped sunglasses rimmed in gold. She’s made a few attempts to flirt with me, but I shut them down every time.
She lingers close to our game, her eyes focused on the side of my head as I continue to ignore her.
“It’s your turn.” Darius bumps my shoulder, bringing my focus back to our game.
I drop a red draw two on the pile, smiling brightly. “Draw two.”
“Are you sure you want to start this? You already have a pretty big handful of cards to get rid of.” Quinton motions his chin toward my handful of cards, completely unaware of the six draw-two cards I’m holding in my hand. It seems someone has been trying to stack the deck in their favor. Too bad things are leaning in mine.
“I’m sure.”
Quinton eyes me skeptically, drawing two cards and allowing his cousin to have a turn. I have a feeling I know exactly who the cheater is in this group, but I won’t rat him out. The best way to get someone to stop cheating is to beat them at their own game.
Tyrese concentrates hard on the cards in his hand, no doubt finally catching on to Quinton’s plan. Just as he’s about to lay down a card, I hear Trina’s voice as she walks by to grab a cup from the table to the right of me. “I don’t know what she is playing at.”
Thea comes strolling behind her daughter, her eyes narrowed in my direction as if she is assessing me. She’s dressed a little more sensible in a forest green pantsuit, cinched in at the waist with a belt in the same color. Instead of high heels, she has on some wedge-looking beige sandals, and her hair is pulled back in a sleek ponytail.
I smile brightly back at her before turning my attention back to the game. The one thing I’ve learned about bullies is to never give them the satisfaction of knowing they’ve gotten under my skin. Thea’s and Trina’s words don’t bother me at all, but I’d be lying if I didn’t get a small amount of satisfaction each time they realize this, as well.
“Me either,” Thea responds, clucking her tongue before continuing. “What did she think? All she has to do is bring a man with money home to meet the family, and everyone would forget what she did?”
What she did? This is the first time Thea has said anything about Ramona, unlike her daughter, using every chance she can get to talk badly about her cousin. Alise alluded to the fact that they blamed Ramona for something that wasn’t her fault, but what the hell could she have done to be on the receiving end of so much hatred from her aunt and cousin?
“I wonder if she even told him she killed her own father and sister,” Trina whispers, her eyes locked on me, trying to gauge my reaction.
Killed? My hand tightens around the cards in my hand, but I don’t make any other move, not wanting to let them know I heard them. I don’t doubt those two are having this conversation near me on purpose, wanting to make sure I hear whatever horrible thing they think she’s been hiding from me, but I won’t fall for it. Alise warned me they blamed her for something that she didn’t do, and I know in my heart she’s right. Beauty wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone someone she loved as much as her father and sister.
I don’t know much about Ramona’s family besides it consists of Ms. King and Darius. She considers Alise and her mother family, just like mine, but other than that, I know nothing about them. Neither one of us bothered to ask questions about our fathers not being around, mostly because I didn’t want to share what happened. Not yet. Not when everything is so new between us. I know I have to tell her. I can’t keep it a secret forever, but I’m not ready for her to see me differently. I don't want to see the look of horror in her eyes when she finally knows how selfish I am. How my need to celebrate my birthday in a cool fashion caused every member of my family such heartache.
“Don’t listen to them, D.” Quinton slides closer to his cousin, wrapping his arms around his shoulder.
“Momma says those two are miserable bitches that love nothing more than to bring everyone down to their level,” Tyrese says as he slides towards Darius’s other side.
The three boys are huddled together, the game completely forgotten as they try to comfort Darius. I’d love nothing more than to drop these cards to the ground and pull him into my arms, protecting him from their words, but I know this is on me.
My fault. My fault. My fault.
The skin on my wrist burns as I pinch the flesh tightly between my fingers, the pain coursing through me like retribution for my selfish actions. How once again my desires have brought pain to someone else I care about.
My fault. My fault. My fault.
How different would this have gone if I hadn't been here? Thea and her daughter are horrible, but would they be attacking so fiercely? No, I doubt that. All of their comments inflict the maximum amount of discourse they can. To drive a wedge between Ramona and me, and they don’t give a flying fuck who can hear them. Darius and the boys don’t need to hear this, but I’m powerless to do anything but sit there and listen to their words. My mind focuses on the pain as I pinch the skin on my wrist, twisting it at a 90-degree angle each time.
“I doubt it. Look at the way he and Darius have been carrying on all day. No one would pay that much attention to a twelve-year-old boy unless he was trying to make a good impression.”
A part of me wants to allow the numbness to take over, but a larger part of me knows I deserve this. The pain and regret for forcing Beauty to invite me. She didn’t want me to come, probably for this very reason, but my selfish ass wanted to be there for her. To know every part of her life, but all I did was make things worse for her, and now on top of that, I’m ruining Darius’s birthday.
Why the fuck am I so selfish? I deserve the pain. I deserve to be in pain for wanting something more than I deserve.
My nails dig deeper into my skin, needing to make sure I pay for what I’m doing to this family right now. I should get up and leave, never to return here again. To give them time to heal the wounds I’ve caused, but I can’t. My body stays rooted in place.
“She has to do something to keep a man like him interested. What better way than to use your dead sister’s son to keep his attention?” Thea whispers loudly, causing Darius to wince in his cousin's arms.
I blink back tears as I try to calm the anger raging inside me, threatening to explode. I want to rage against these women for everything they’ve said. I want to tell them they don’t know a fucking thing about Ramona or Darius, but I do nothing but continue pinching at the raw skin of my wrist.
Quinton scoots away from Darius, motioning for me to lean toward him. His eyes flick from side to side, searching for something before he speaks. “This isn’t anything out of the ordinary for them. They are actually behaving better than usual, waiting until she isn’t around before talking crap about her.”
“Ramona is his aunt, not his mom, but you probably knew that already.” Tyrese’s eyes narrow at his aunt and cousin, pure hatred for the two shining brightly in them.
“You thought she was my mom, didn’t you?” Darius says softly, his eyes filled with unshed tears as he looks at me. “You aren’t the only one, on account that we look alike, but do the math. Auntie just turned twenty-four last month, and I’m twelve. She’d have been eleven when I was born.”
You’re so fucking stupid. You can’t even ask a woman a simple question. You claim to be falling in love with her, but you didn’t think to ask her age or know that he was her nephew?
The voice in my head continues chastising me as everything clicks into place. All the signs were right there in front of me, but I was too dumb to notice any of them. I pinch the skin of my wrist tighter, feeling a small amount of relief as blood trickles from the crescent moon-shaped wounds from my fingers. But instead of stopping, I wipe my wrist clean before starting in on the other one, pinching the flesh between my fingers and twisting.
I feel the brush of something against my hand and stop, my eyes flicking up from the ground. “Does that change anything?”
My eyebrows pull down as I try to make sense of what he’s asking me. “What do you mean?”
“Does anything change between you and Mona now that you know I’m not her son?”
“Of course not!” I exclaim, my head swiveling around to see if anyone is listening.
Thea and Trina have disappeared into the crowd, no doubt congratulating themselves for a job well done, and everyone else is too busy eating to notice what happened a few moments ago.
I reach my hand toward him, noticing the thin line of blood trickling down my wrist, and pull my arm back. “Ramona is the best thing to ever happen to me. Neither of you are getting rid of me until you send me away.”
“Are they right? Are you only trying to get closer to her through me?” Darius asks. Quinton maneuvers his body between me and Darius. I admire his desire to protect his cousin, but he doesn’t need to worry about me doing anything to harm him. Not now or ever.
“No. I was more hesitant to start anything with Ramona because she had you. Being a single mom is hard enough without complicating it with a relatively high-profile relationship. But in the end, I couldn’t stay away from her.”
I’ve never felt the need to explain myself to a teenage boy, but he deserves to have an answer to his question. I never want him to doubt my intentions with his aunt.
“Don’t hurt her,” he whispers, reaching toward me and giving my hand a squeeze.
“I won’t.” I would die if anything happened to Ramona King, especially if I was the person to cause it.