38. Real
Darnita was a smart lady. She knew people heard “Louisiana” and “restaurant” and thought of delicacies like gumbo, jambalaya, and seafood, so she had some of that on her menu. But Scoop had been right about us getting a taste of the kind of North Louisiana cooking Love had spoiled me with. The over-sized platter of oven-fried chicken, smothered neckbones, purple hull peas, candied yams, mustard greens, and hot water cornbread had me five seconds from the -itis.
“Yo, ya girl be cooking like this, too?” Juvie asked when he finally looked up from his empty plate.
I nodded. “She cooks a lot of stuff, but yeah, she can throw down like this.”
“Shiii, I gotta get me one. Watch me work,” he mumbled, before looking down the line of tables to where the Millers sat. “Ay, yo, Pip, how you feel about having a charming younger man in yo’ life, mama?” he called.
“I feel like I don’t want to spend my coins on formula, boo,” she replied smoothly before winking at him as the tables cracked up.
He shook his head. “Beautiful but heartless.”
“Looks like you gon’ keep giving yo’ money to Darnita,” Targen fucked with him.
“Unless I asked the wrong sister. You think their grandmother taught Theory?—"
“You wanna go back there in that big ass deep fryer Darnita got, then keep playing, Juvie,” Targen threatened.
“Swear his dumb ass be having a death wish,” Markel said, shaking his head.
Juvie shrugged. “Everybody gotta go someday.”
“And you want to go out as an entree, darling?” Theory asked him.
Little soft-spoken ass was an expert ear-hustler, I guessed, grinning.
“He still might, you keep calling him pet names,” mumbled Targen.
“How you gon’ fuck me up for what she say?”
Juvie’s question was met with more laughter. We cleared out of the diner a few minutes later. The cousins were going to check on the Infiniti so they could pick up a few more things. Scoop showed us a couple of other places like Freedom Park, the town’s historic public meeting grounds, and Antioch Baptist Church, the church the newly-freed people had brought above ground shortly after they left bondage.
“What’s up with this reunion stuff?” I asked him as we walked back toward the repair shop.
“Hmm? Oh! Emancipation High is the oldest high school in town. There’s a private school, but most of us went public. Because the graduating classes were so small for the longest, we have a tradition of having multi-year reunions,” he explained. “Your lady friends are coming.”
“Yeah, we heard,” I responded sarcastically, then felt kind of bad.
“I’m saying, you should come, too. Be no problem to getcha in there. Just wear something nice and behave.”
He side-eyed Juvie who gave his best, “Who me?” look. I glanced at Targen because there was no way in hell that I was unleashing Juvie on these innocent people. No one deserved that unprepared.
Except maybe the McKinley boy.
“I’on think we packed no real nice shit and it ain’t like we can just run in any store for it,” was Targen’s only comment.
Scoop stood up straighter and smiled like a man on a mission. “I’m a fella of size myself. Give me your info and just leave it up to old Scoop.”
* * *
Love had basically given me her ass to kiss all day, so when we were settled back at the Stone House, I swore I was good on her. I sat in the living room with Targen after Juvie and Markel went a little further down one of the roads that ran through the farm to the house Granny Nette had directed them to.
But by the third time Theory had walked through the living room “looking for something,” which coincided with the third time Targen greeted one of my statements with a distracted, “Huh?” I decided I was sick of their asses, too.
After strolling outside, I decided to take a little walk down the roadway and see more of the farm. This wasn’t my kind of living, but I couldn’t lie—the place was beautiful, and the Miller family seemed as crazy and close-knit as my own. I had just turned right when a familiar voice called my name.
“Where you going?” Love asked.
I hadn’t even seen her curled up on one of the swings they loved in the middle of the wildflower garden in the front yard. Shorty was so fucking pretty, man, sitting there in her purple dress surrounded by purple and pink flowers. But she was also frustrating as hell. I looked at her and kept walking, ignoring her question.
“Montréal! I know you hear me.”
Shoving my hands into my pockets, I started to whistle. The road here was shaded by a tree tunnel, just one more thing that made this place picture perfect. My gaze darted around, taking in what the Millers had built. Love came from some pretty dope people.
I walked a couple of minutes, pretending not to hear the footsteps behind me. I had every intention of continuing to ignore her until suddenly, there was a thick little honey-gold beauty standing in front of me, hands on her hips.
“This ain’t Texas, negro, and you don’t come to my neck of the woods and ignore me,” Love snapped.
I looked down at her and smirked.
“Gon’ on, Everly. Find you something to do. I’m busy,” I said.
Reaching out, I grabbed her shoulder gently and turned her sideways out of my way. She made a little outraged sound as I continued up the road.
“What are you doing, Real? You’on even know where you going!”
I shrugged. “Can’t a nigga sightsee?”
She stomped in front of me again.
“No! Not on my family’s property,” she huffed.
“Everly—"
“Love.”
Her eyes got big, and her cheeks reddened once she realized what she had done. I bit back a smile.
“But you right. I should call Danny or Heath and find something to do,” she taunted.
She wanted a reaction and even though the comment made me hot as the damn weather, and my hands balled into fists inside my pockets, I wasn’t letting her see shit.
“Why you tryna make a nigga you ain’t interested in jealous?” I asked calmly.
“Why you playing interested?”
We stared at each other for a long minute. This girl was turning out to be stubborn and annoying and?—
She shrieked as I picked her up and backed her against one of the big trees shading the road. I wrapped a hand around the front of her throat and tilted her head back.
“Call either one of them niggas and let them find you getting nailed to one of these trees,” I whispered against her lips.
Okay, I guess I wasn’t feeling that no reaction shit with her. I wasn’t perfect.
She sighed. “Real. If I show you something, can we talk?”
I kissed her hard and fast before backing up and nodding.
She surprised me by taking my hand and leading me a little farther until we came to a pathway between two of the trees. I followed her into the woods a little bit, then stopped when we came to a clearing on the left side. My mouth almost fell open.
“Damn, that’s nice,” I mumbled, looking at the space. It was surrounded by trees, but not like the ones along the road. There were trees heavy with summer fruit—I saw some peaches and cherries and plums. In the middle, there was a riot of plants—strawberries on circular supports, sage and blueberry bushes, all kinds of flowers. I could hear insects buzzing, attracted by the sweet scents permeating the air. Someone had placed a bench in the center of it all, making this a small escape from what looked like a busy farm.
“My great grandmother designed two of them on the farm. My granny and her sister call them thinking spots,” Love said softly, pulling me toward the bench.
I could see why someone would love to sit here. Shit, if I had a blunt right now, I’d sit my ass down and maybe think through what the fuck I was doing in North Louisiana. I settled into a spot next to Love and waited.
“My cousins and I are going to have to come pick fruit this week before it goes bad. The other one has apples and pecans and other stuff that won’t be ready til fall,” Love said before her gaze tangled with mine. “Real, what are you doing here?”
Exhaling hard, I dropped my head back as I rubbed my hands above my knees.
“The way you left was suspect, Love. I had to find yo’ ass.”
She turned sideways, her knee pressing into my thigh.
“You did. You talked to Prime, and you saw me. You can’t possibly still believe?—"
“You’on know what I believe, girl,” I murmured.
She sighed. “Okay, fine.”
A small pout played around her lips and I smiled as I lifted my fingers and tugged on that juicy bottom one.
“Stand up,” I ordered.
She rolled her eyes but did as I asked. Her dress stopped right above her knees, so I didn’t have far to push it before I could work my legs between hers, making her widen her stance or fall. She tilted her head to the side, giving me a fake shocked expression.
“All up in my great granny’s strawberries and sage,” she said as I pulled her to straddle my lap.
“Be quiet.”
She laughed softly, her fingers toying with the neckline of my t-shirt.
“Tell me the right answer to your question,” I said.
Frowning, she leaned back enough to look up into my face.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t believe I’m here to investigate your ass for some snake shit, so what will you believe? Because if I say I missed you, you ain’t trying to hear that either.”
“Is that what it is?”
I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her closer to me. For a moment, I just held her. She felt so good that not even the heat made me want space between us.
“Some of both,” I eventually admitted.
I hadn’t been lying when I told Granny Nette how I’d missed her.
“Real,” she breathed softly.
I waited as she buried her face against my neck.
“When’s the last time a woman broke things off with you?”
“Love—"
“Just answer,” she insisted.
All right, I could do this stupid shit. I thought. And thought. And thought some damn more. I’d had a couple of girlfriends, dated a few more, and fucked a lot more. I was trying to find an exception because I didn’t want to prove her point, but I already knew the answer. I shifted uncomfortably.
“Never,” I mumbled.
I had always called the shots, had resisted developing feelings too deep and getting too serious. This… thing with Love sneaked up on me.
“Right. So, my choice was an anomaly. Everly the Exception, and that has the irresistible Montréal Hamilton stuck. Let it go, Real. Your record is still almost undefeated. You’re batting .999.”
She kissed the side of my neck and then my cheek.
“Go back to South Texas and pretend I never happened.”
This woman provoked feelings in me I’d never experienced, meaning she could piss me off like no other. That was all her words did. I grilled her ass. She’d taken her wig off and unraveled her hair, so I was able to slide a hand into the thick, sandy brown and dark blonde coils that still surprised me. I made a loose fist and tugged her head back. Reluctantly, she looked at me.
“If I could do that, Love, you think I’d be here?” I asked tightly.