Chapter 12
I’ve just gotten back to my Airstream from a long shift and put on my fuzzy UFO slippers when there is an insistent banging on my trailer door. “Pearl Brown! You open this door right now!”
I open the door to find Aunt Delta. Her hands are on her hips and the expression she levels at me is angry.
Uh oh.
“Hi Aunt Delta.” I step back, inviting her inside.
She struggles to climb up the steps; now that she’s seventy-three, her aging hips bother her regularly. I hurry forward and grab her elbow to steady her as I guide her into the kitchen.
She shuffles over to the dinette and sits down heavily. Then she looks at me with a stern expression. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
My heart starts to pound. I slide into the booth across from her. I look at her proud, chestnut-brown face and quaver. “Can you be more specific?” I try to keep my tone light.
She scrunches her face into a scowl and pulls out her phone. Before she even pulls up the Instagram app, I already know what she’s about to show me.
Whoever CapeSimonAroundTown is, they were present at the charity gala. Or maybe they got the video secondhand, I guess. Either way, they posted River’s surprise relationship announcement for all their followers to see.
I stop her hand, putting my fingers over her phone screen. “I’m sorry. River wasn’t supposed to spill the beans like that. He just got caught up in the moment.”
Her lips thin. “This is not how I expect my grand-niece to behave. That young man said that you two have been sneaking around for almost two years! I can’t believe that you didn’t once bring him around to introduce him to your family.” She clucks her tongue. “Your mom and your aunt Glory called me in a panic.”
“Awww, shoot.” I fidget, my face heating. “Mom knows too?”
“Yes indeed.” Aunt Delta rocks back in her seat, pinning me with her brown-black gaze. “She is very hurt by the news. This does not make us look good, Pearl.”
I bury my face in my hands. This was not the agreement that River and I settled on. I guess I didn’t give a lot of thought as to how I would keep the news from my family. But it’s too late for any attempts to save it now. “I wanted to talk to the family later. I didn’t mean for y’all to find out this way.”
“Mh-hmm.” She shakes her head. “I found out from Beatrice Wilson and she just loved that she knew something about you that I didn’t. Your daddy would have been livid if he had lived to see this, young lady.”
My heart seizes up in my chest. The fact that my great aunt just invoked my father in this fight is brutal. My hand flutters up to cover my heart. “I’m sorry, Aunt Delta. I should have come to you first.”
“Lord.” Her mouth pinches together. “I need to meet your boyfriend. Before you get any more serious, I need to see for myself that he has good intentions. You’re going to inherit all of my lands one of these days. And I have to know that you’re not with a man who will use his connections to get it and then leave you high and dry.”
“You will,” I assure her. “I’ll bring him out to meet y’all this week. I promise.” I hesitate for a moment. “Have you reached a settlement with the IRS about the back taxes on this property?”
She snorts and waves her hand like a fan. “The details are still being ironed out.”
I study her face and try to decide if she’s being completely honest with me. It’s hard to know with Aunt Delta. She plays her cards very close to her chest.
She leans in, her eyes intense. “Let me worry about that. All you need to know is that I expect you to keep our lands wild and free. I don’t want you even entertaining the idea of selling it off. Business men often come to me with offers to buy and develop it. But I say no. I want our land to stand on its own, as it has for almost a hundred and fifty years.”
“But Auntie, if you don’t pay what the IRS is demanding–”
My aunt holds up both of her hands, quickly shaking her head. “Let me take care of that. I won’t hear another word about it!” she insists.
I suck in a breath. “Okay. I will stop bothering you about it for a while.”
My great aunt points at me. “And watch out for rich men who are only interested in you for your land. Why do you think I never married?” She pulls a face. “These men, especially White men, only want two things. One is in your pants. And the other is in your checkbook.”
Dropping my gaze, I nod. I’ve heard this droning dirge of hers for my entire life. But inside, I’m wondering at her words.
Is the type of man she’s describing anything like River? I’m pretty sure he’s not like that… but I don’t know for certain.
She scoots out of the red pleather booth, leaning heavily on the table to get up. “Come on. Get dressed in something you don’t care about. Cabin five has a leak coming in from the ceiling.”
“Again?” I ask. Getting up, I head back toward my bedroom. “What are we going to do about that?”
“It”s leaking in a different spot than last time. I’ll just probably have you replace a couple of roof shingles and mop up the mess in the attic again. What the cabin needs is a whole new roof. But that’s way more money than we have to spend.”
I puff out my cheeks as I change into a pair of running leggings and a pink crop top. That sounds like a lot of work. I’m supposed to meet River in a few hours… but I’d better cancel.
“I’m just going to text River real quick,” I call. “We have dinner plans. But a leaky roof sounds more vital than that.”
“I’m going to go by my trailer. It’s time to take my pills. Maybe sit and rest a while, just to get my breath back. I’ll meet you down at the cabin in a little while. Okay?”
”Sure, sure. Go rest for a while. Get off your feet!”
Delta is already trundling away, fussing with her scarf as she goes.
I stand in the doorway of my trailer and stare blankly into the distance. Aunt Delta may be old as the red clay beneath our feet. But she does know a thing or two about life.
She has called out several times when I was about to be done wrong by a man. She”s proved that she can tell things about men that I can’t. Now I”m wondering if she can possibly know something about River that I don”t.
It seems unfathomable to me that he would have some hidden motive. How could he possibly be so shady?
My shoulders slumped, I head to my bedroom and text River. Not going to make it tonight. Sorry. There”s an emergency at the trailer resort.
My phone buzzes a few seconds later. He must have been waiting for me to call.
What kind of emergency? Is it something that you could use a big, tall guy for?
I tilt my head to the side and mull his offer over. On one hand, I just need to get my rear in gear. The sooner I start, the sooner I finish. Plus, I may have just learned something less than positive about River.
On the other hand, he is tall, like he said. And I do sort of want to see him...
Okay, I really want to see him. If nothing else, I know he can drown out my great aunt”s pessimistic words still ringing in my head. River seems good at distracting me.
Sure,I text back. I”ll be at my place. Wear clothes you don”t mind getting dirty.
Be there before you know it.
I pocket my phone and put my Nikes on. When I stand up from my bed, I bump again the tiny bedside table. A framed photo of my dad, taken during one of his firehouse”s training days, wobbles and falls. I throw myself onto the floor to catch it before I can even feel silly for saving a photo frame that probably cost less than five dollars.
I stand up, carefully replacing the picture in its place of honor on my bedside table. In the photo, my dad is only a little older than I am now. He”s young, and strong, and running flat out with a fire hose over his shoulder. His face shows the dedication and concentration that I”ve long wished I had.
Malik got Dad”s perspicacity. I just got his big ass feet.
He died when I was young. But at least I have my memories of him. Malik doesn”t remember him at all.
I clear my throat, feeling strangely emotional. Determined to be in a good mood when River comes over, I spend a few minutes cleaning my bathroom and cleaning up this morning”s rinsed-out-but-not-washed oatmeal bowl. River”s knock comes just as I am drying my hands on a clean dishrag.
Dashing to the door of the trailer, I open it. There is River in his full glory. He”s still dressed in dark jeans, and his shiny black motorcycle jacket. It”s what I consider to be his regular outfit.
I raise a brow. ”I thought I told you to wear your cast offs.”
He smirks and his sapphire blue eyes flash. ”I”m here. I”m in the dingiest clothes I own.”
He points down to the cuff of his dark jeans. Squinting, I can make out a couple of lighter smudges.
”That”s dirty to you?” I ask. I give him a funny look. ”Never mind. I”m just glad you came.”
He steps up into the doorway, more than filling it. I”m only steps away and his nearness is all it takes to make me flush.
Take it down a notch, girl. He”s just here to help.
River has a smug little grin on his face when he considers me. ”You don”t look so bad, either. Those leggings are....” He puts his fingers against his mouth and pulls them away with an audible kissing noise. ”Perfect.”
”Ha ha ha.” I give him an exaggerated, dry laugh. ”Let me grab a scarf for my hair and then we”ll go check out the leak.”
He cocks his head. ”Leak, huh?”
”Uh huh.” I duck into my bedroom and grab a pretty white scarf, with tiny lavender laurels printed all over it. It takes me just a moment to pull up my hair and tie the scarf over it, tucking the ends in to protect my hair from any musty muck we might come across during this leak-fixing adventure.
When I come back out of the bedroom, I find River studying the large, framed photo that hangs in my kitchen. It”s one of my immediate family, taken when I was six years old. I”m holding baby Malik on my lap. Mom is sitting beside me, beaming like a woman who”s got the world on a string. And my father is standing behind us all. His grin is too honest for me to look at. He really loves his life and his family.
That”s the last portrait we all got together. My dad died not long after that.
”That”s a good-looking family, right there.” River nods at the picture.
I give him a tight smile. ”Thanks.”
He reads my curtness as it”s meant to be taken. ”Should we go?”
”Yep. After you.”
I lock my Airstream, and lead River through the little path in the woods. We pass the trailers and keep going to the older section of the resort park. The cabins are back here. They predate the trailers by a couple of decades. Each one is rustic, simple A-frame built of leaning, peeling logs. They’ve certainly seen better days. But they are far down on my personal list of things to spruce up around this place.
As I swing open the door to cabin five, I see that water is actively spilling down one of the walls. I swear up a storm while River jumps back. Water pools on the floor, and when I clear a pathway with the door, it begins to pour outside. It”s probably only three inches deep but there are signs of chaos everywhere. An old, wooden chair is overturned near the wall. Closer to where we stand, there is an electrical outlet with a huge sizzle pattern all around it. It looks as if it was connected to the toaster, but someone unplugged it recently. Maybe something to do with Aunt Delta cutting the power.
There are also a hundred tiny sugar packets that were knocked off the kitchen counter somehow. They are now floating and soaking in the pool.
The whole house smells like rotting wood.
I stand in the doorway, trying to take it all in. ”What a mess!”
River splashes through the water to the wall. After looking at it for a second, he drags over one of the wooden chairs. He hops on it and removes the ceiling tile directly above him. With a quick, sure motion, he reaches in and fiddles with something in the darkness.
”I think there used to be a sprinkler system in here,” he says. ”Does that sound right?”
I screw up my face. ”Yeah. I think so.”
”Well, the line is backed up. It probably has been for a number of years. I”m surprised that this is the first leak you”ve had.”
I shrug. ”It may not be. I was away at college for four years. Who knows what”s been broken and fixed while I was studying.”
He smiles at me. ”That”s probably true.” He hops down, rubbing his hands. ”I shut the water off at the line up there. It should be okay until you can get someone out to take a look at it.”
A laugh burbles to my lips.
”Get someone? We are someone. Delta is not about to pay for a handyman to come out here.”
River squints at the hole in the ceiling. ”I don”t think a handman would do it. You need a plumber. And probably an electrician for that outlet.” He does some quick calculations. ”I”d say you have about three thousand dollars” worth of stuff to fix. And that”s only for this one problem. If a licensed electrician came out and had a look at what I assume is the nightmare that is your wiring, I think he”d have no choice but to call the county and have this place condemned.”
”What?” I yelp.
”I”m pretty sure that”s why no professional has ever stepped foot in this place.”
My mouth twists. My shoulders sag. ”I don”t have three thousand dollars lying around,” I say. ”I don”t think Aunt Delta does, either.”
River cocks his head, thinking for a moment. ”I think I know an electrician and a plumber who can come out.”
I sigh. ”You”re not listening. I can”t pay for them. I guess we”ll just have to close this cabin until we figure out a plan.”
River shoots me a secretive little smile. ”They both owe me a big favor. Trust me when I say that they”ll do the work for free.”
He fiddles with his phone, sending a text message. I pull a face. ”Are you serious? You can”t waste your favors on me.”
”Why not? You need it. I have it. It”s done.”
I walk over to him and tug his hand holding his phone. ”Seriously. Don”t. I don”t want to owe you anything.”
River smirks. ”Don”t be so calculating. We have a relationship. I mean, the fiancée stuff might be fake. But that doesn”t mean I”m heartless. Let me do this for you.”
Looking into his eyes, I feel my heart beat race. I scan his face. Is he for real?
He reaches out, puts a hand to the small of my back, and draws me in. I press against his torso and tilt my face up.
He kisses me, his lips hot against mine. My eyes sink closed and my hands wind around his neck. He deepens the kiss and dips me backward. I clutch his neck, feeling heat slide through my body.
Oh yeah. He”s about to get rewarded, big time.
River releases me and grins. ”I”m dispatching the workers.”
My cheeks feel hot and I feel as unsteady as a fresh born foal. I give him a grateful smile. ”Thank you.”
His lips twitch. ”You”re welcome.”
Is it strange that I feel such a magnetic pull between us? I must admit that this is just supposed to be a getting pregnant romp. Nothing else. Hell, I haven’t even had sex with River yet. And already, I can feel my brain attaching delicate strings to him.
It”s a terrible idea. But I can”t seem to help it.
I need to remember my reasons for not being interested in the false promise that River seems to offer.
”This doesn”t mean anything,” I blurt out.
River looks up from his phone. ”Excuse me?”
”You helping me out. I just want to be as clear as possible. This doesn”t mean we”re in a real relationship. I”m not like... your girlfriend.”
His brows rise. ”I hardly think that this is payment for being my girlfriend. This is just me being nice.” He purses his lips and gives me a considering look. ”We”re on the same page, Pearl. I still plan to move to Atlanta in less than a year. Not only that, but... you”re not really my type. I like a career woman. You don”t seem interested in that track.”
”I”m not,” I supply quickly. ”I”m just looking for a sperm donor. Nothing else.”
He slowly nods. ”We”re in agreement, then. Casual sex. Pretend engagement. Six months from now, we might never see each other again.”
”Okay.” I smile, relieved. ”Just checking. It seemed like we were vibing for a minute there.”
”We can vibe and still keep it casual. I promise.”
”That”s good. I”m not looking for my great love. Not now, not ever.”
He gives me a lazy half-salute. ”Aye aye, captain. I hear you loud and clear. Want me to kiss you again though?”
I can’t suppress a grin. “Okay, sure. You win.”
I open my arms to him and he scoops me up, carrying me off while I burst out laughing.