Chapter 12
E’Levyn ‘Lev’ Laurent
The gates opened before I had to reach for the keypad, and I eased the Range Rover onto the long driveway leading up to the house I bought Barbara Jean a few years ago.
The property sat back far enough from the street that the traffic along the Grove didn’t sound too bad behind the palm trees and thick hedges surrounding the place.
She had complained about the size when I first brought her here, swearing she didn’t need six bedrooms, a pool, or enough backyard space to host the whole damn family reunion, but that ain’t stop her from filling every corner with plants, family pictures, and furniture nobody was allowed to sit on.
The house fit her now, even if she’d never admit it with cream-colored stone wrapped around the front while tall windows reflected the late afternoon sun, and the fountain in the middle of the circular driveway pushed water into the air.
Her white Cadillac was parked near the front steps with the trunk open, which let me know she was already running late for whatever bingo game she’d been talking about all week.
Barbara Jean, or BJ as a lot of people called her was never in a rush until the very last minute, then suddenly everybody around her needed to move faster.
My phone vibrated in the cupholder before I could cut the engine off.
I looked down at the screen and saw my assistant’s name, followed by three unread emails and another call coming in from a number saved under one of the developers I’d been negotiating with for the past month.
I declined both for the moment, grabbed my keys, and climbed out.
I had barely made it halfway up the walkway before the front door opened and BJ stepped outside with her purse hanging from one shoulder and a large bingo bag hooked around the other arm.
She wore a navy-blue two-piece outfit with gold buttons, some low comfortable heels, and a lot of perfume.
Her silver hair was freshly curled, and the color of the lipstick on her mouth matched the scarf tied around the handle of her bag.
She stopped on the top step and looked at me like I was the one holding her up. “You took long enough.”
“I just pulled up.”
“And I’ve been waiting.”
“For what?” I asked, continuing toward her. “You already got your keys in your hand.”
She looked down at the keys like she had forgotten they were there, then shifted both bags farther up her arm. “That don’t mean I wasn’t waiting on you.”
I smiled and leaned down so she could kiss my cheek.
She held onto the side of my face for a second before looking me over from my head down to my shoes like she was checking to make sure everything was still attached.
“You look tired baby. I told you about working so hard boy. When you die, you can’t take all that money with you. ”
“I’m good.”
“That ain’t what I said.”
“I know BJ, I heard you.”
She dropped her eyes into tiny slits, but before she could turn it into a whole conversation, my phone started ringing again. She looked toward the sound and sucked her teeth.
“See there, that phone always ringing.”
“That’s how I make money.”
“You got enough money.”
“Ain’t no such thing.” I winked.
“That’s exactly what somebody with too much money would say.” She turned around and headed back through the front door without telling me to follow because she already knew I would. “Come get this food before I leave it sitting on the counter.”
“I told you I wasn’t staying long.”
“And I told you to come get this food.” She snapped.
The cool air inside the house hit me the second I stepped through the doorway.
Everything in my grandma’s house looked expensive because it was, but she had somehow made it feel like the same little house she raised us in back in Liberty City.
Family pictures covered the entryway wall from the floor almost to the ceiling, and most of them were old with school pictures, football photos, birthdays, graduations, all the cousins and my siblings squeezed together on couches, and one picture of me and Marvelous standing beside her in matching Easter suits with both of us looking mad as hell about it.
The smell coming from the kitchen made me look away from the wall because she had the whole downstairs smelling like Sunday even though it wasn’t. Barbara Jean moved around the kitchen gathering her last few things while a foil-covered plate sat waiting near the edge of the island.
“You cooked all this before bingo?” I asked.
“I cooked because I was hungry.”
I glanced around at the pots still sitting on the stove. “You cooked enough for twenty people BJ.”
“And somebody always come through here hungry. It’s always one of my grandkids that’s why you need to marry a good woman.” She kept searching inside the drawer for whatever she’d forgotten. “How Marv doing? I couldn’t make it today.”
“He’s better.”
“He look better or y’all just keep telling me that so I don’t worry?”
“He looks better,” I assured her, leaning one hip against the island. “Still bruised up, but he talking, eating a little, and irritating everybody around him, so I know he getting back to himself.”
That made her body relax and I could see it. She closed the drawer and turned toward me with one hand pressed against her chest. “Thank God.”
“He’ll be alright.”
“He better be.” She shook her head and reached for the plate she’d already packed. “That boy done had me praying every night like I don’t already have enough to pray about.”
I took the plate when she held it out, and the weight of it made me look down. “What you put in here?”
“Food.”
“This feel like the whole pot.”
“You just make sure you eat when you get home.”
“I eat.”
She gave me a long look over the top of her glasses. “Hennesy, coffee, and whatever them little skinny women feed you is not food.”
I laughed and set the plate on the island long enough to finally answer a call. “Hold on.” I swiped the screen and placed it to my ear. “Yeah.”
“Lev, we got the revised terms back from the developers in Brickell,” my assistant said without wasting any time. “They agreed to the percentage, but they want another meeting before they sign.”
“When?”
“They’re asking for tomorrow morning.”
“Move my ten-thirty and put them there.”
“You already moved that appointment twice.”
“They’ll get over it.”
“I’ll handle it.” She paused before continuing. “Also, the group from Dallas sent the registration link for the development seminar.”
“Forward that too.” I told her while checking my calendar.
“I already did.”
“Good.”
“And you have four new luxury consultations waiting on confirmation.”
I thought about everything else I had to do but the money came first. “Book two for Friday and push the rest to next week.”
“Okay, I got it.”
I ended the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket, only to find BJ standing there watching me with her arms folded.
“What?” I asked.
“You don’t know how to rest.”
“BJ, I do rest.”
“When?” She quizzed giving me that look like I better not lie.
“When I sleep.”
“That ain’t rest, that’s being unconscious.”
I laughed because there was no point arguing with her. She had already made up her mind, and she treated her opinions like facts everybody else needed to accept.
She looked toward the clock above the pantry and gasped. “Lord, I’m late.”
“You been late.”
“Then why you standing there talking?”
I frowned. “You the one asked me about Marv.”
“And you answered.” She picked up her purse, adjusted it on her shoulder, then glanced at herself in the reflection from the microwave door. “I’m going to see him tomorrow.”
“I’ll take you if you need me too. You the only person in the world I don’t mind moving some stuff around for.”
“I got a car Lev. Remember, your brother bought it.”
I thought about Cev for a second remembering I needed to call him back. He was serving time and he still had everything people on the outside had. If he got one burner discovered, he would get another one. He was a year younger than me and it was long overdue for him to come home.
“I know you got a car.” I told her.
“And I know how to drive it.”
“I know that too.”
“Then why you acting like I need an escort?”
“Because I said I’ll take you. Damn, you don’t want your grandson to be cater to his grandma?”
She looked over at me for a second before smiling to herself. “Alright then, come get me after church.”
“I got you.”
She reached for her bingo bag and started toward the front door, moving faster now that since she was truly behind schedule now. I grabbed the plate and followed her through the house with my plate in my hand.
When we made it outside, she stopped beside her Cadillac and looked back at me. “And Lev.”
“Yeah?”
“You keep that boy out of trouble.”
I let out a quiet laugh and leaned against the side of her car. “Grandma, Marv grown.”
“So are you.”
“What that got to do with anything?”
“It means being grown ain’t stopped either one of y’all from doing foolishness.”
I rubbed my beard and looked toward the driveway because she had me there, and she knew it.
Barbara Jean stepped closer and fixed the collar of my shirt even though nothing was wrong with it.
“He listens to you,” she said, quieter this time.
“Maybe not all the time, but he listens. Don’t let him get out that hospital and run right back into whatever put him there. ”
“I’m already on it.”
Her eyes stayed on mine like she was looking for more than the words I gave her. She had never been slow, and I knew she could tell there was more behind what happened to Marv than any of us had told her.
“You know who did it?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
“But you finding out.”
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t treat it like one. “Yeah.”
She looked at me for another second, then patted the side of my face. “Just don’t let finding out cost me another grandson.”
I looked down at her and nodded because making promises I couldn’t keep wasn’t my thing. “I hear you.”