Chapter 7
“Ma, y’all are supposed to only use that key in the case of an emergency,” Boogie said as he made his way down the rest of the stairs and greeted his parents.
Sweetie watched as he kissed his mother’s cheek and patted his father on the back. She stayed put. Her heart pounded as she recalled the last time she had seen his parents.
They eyed her, despite Boogie trying to distract them with his words. She eyed them wearily right back. This right here was what she had been afraid of. Sweetie could tell by the way both his mother and father looked at her that they knew exactly who she was.
“Son, care to introduce us to your guest?” Tandy finally asked as she smiled knowingly at her son.
Boogie looked back at Sweetie with apologetic eyes and held his hand out for her. Sweetie forced her feet to move down the last few steps as she fidgeted with the hem of Boogie’s T-shirt. She felt exposed and highly embarrassed.
When she reached him, his arm circled her waist. “Ma, Pops, I’ sure you remember Sweetie Bishop.”
“How could we forget? Vernon’s daughter,” Zander said as he eyed Sweetie.
There had been many times Sweetie wished she wasn’t her father’s daughter. This moment moved straight to the top of the list. Still, she wasn’t a liar, so she nodded her head and uttered, “Yes, sir.”
“How long has this been goin’ on?” Zander asked.
“We just reconnected. I was gon’ tell you once we figured things out,” Boogie admitted.
Sweetie watched how he interacted with his father, and a sting of jealousy hit her.
Boogie spoke with his shoulders back and his eyes on his father.
He was confident. He wasn’t afraid of the consequences of his actions.
Sweetie had never been able to speak to her father in such a way.
She always feared the outcome of any interaction she had with him because there was most definitely always an outcome—mostly bad.
“You sure y’all just connected again? Last time this happened, I recall it had been several years that you kept your . . . relationship from us.” Zander glanced at Sweetie before his eyes landed back on Boogie.
“We were teenagers back then, Pops. We ain’t sneaking around,” Boogie assured.
Zander eyed his son for a moment before he seemed to accept his words as truth. He turned to Sweetie. “I heard you lost touch with your family.”
“Zander!” Tandy slapped her husband’s bicep, but he didn’t flinch.
“Pops, what that gotta do wit’ anything?” Boogie asked.
Sweetie just stood there, stunned. She had never interacted with someone so bold. He wasn’t really rude, . . . just direct and straight to business.
“It has everything to do with everything,” Zander responded with his eyes still on Sweetie.
“You don’t have to answer that,” Boogie said as he glared at his father.
Sweetie didn’t want to cause friction between the DeLuca family.
She’d already done enough of that in her own family.
She placed a hand on his arm. “It’s okay.
My family and I don’t really see eye to eye.
I saw them for the first time yesterday in a year, and I doubt I’ll really be seeing much of them in the future. ”
Zander gazed at her curiously. She had the feeling that he was trying to figure out if he could trust her.
“What prompted you seeing them yesterday?” Zander finally asked.
Sweetie shifted uncomfortably. “My granny doesn’t have much time . . .”
A pain pinched her chest, and she let her words trail off.
Zander’s face softened slightly. “Lucille?”
“You know my granny?” Sweetie asked with a shaky voice.
Her tender heart couldn’t bear the thought of living in a world without her grandmother.
Guilt weighed on her for many reasons. She should have never distanced herself from her granny, and she should have done her best to keep the peace with her father in order to be with her for the remainder of her time.
Hell, she could have even moved back in and let her father rule her life just to be close to her granny again.
So many things she could have done, and now it was too late.
Zander cleared his throat. “A long time ago. I’m sorry to hear ’bout her declining health.”
“Alright, enough of that. We’re sorry to barge in on you like this, Boogie. We tried calling beforehand. We just wanted to take a look at that Jackson Pollock painting you mentioned wanting to sell. We can do it another time.”
Boogie nodded. “Great.” He tried to usher his parents out of the house, but they stayed put.
“Why don’t you two come to family dinner tonight? It’ll give us a change to get to know Sweetie a little better,” Tandy suggested.
Sweetie fidgeted. That sounded like the last thing she wanted to do.
“Uh . . .”
Zander interrupted Boogie. “Seeing as you two can’t seem to stay away from one another.”
Boogie blew out a breath and grabbed the back of his neck. “We just had family dinner last night.”
His argument sounded weak, even to Sweetie. She could tell his parents weren’t going to take no for an answer.
Tandy kept a kind smile on her face as she responded to her son. “We’re having another one tonight.”
“Does Zel know about this dinner?” Boogie asked with his brows lifted in amusement.
Tandy’s eyes turned to slits. “Seven o’clock. Be there or else. It was nice to formally meet you, dear,” she said as she turned to Sweetie, who stood there still as a statue, mortified.
“You as well, Mrs. DeLuca,” Sweetie murmured.
Finally, they turned to leave, and when the door closed behind them, Sweetie released a deep breath as she gazed at Boogie with worry in her eyes.
“Baby . . .”
One tear slipped from Sweetie’s eye, and then another from the other eye, and before she knew it, she was sobbing.
“They’re going to break us up again.” She buried her head in her hands as she slouched against the railing of the stairs.
Boogie rushed over to her. “Nah, they aren’t like that. They just want to get to know you. They ain’t never met a woman I’ve dated before.”
Sweetie filed that information to talk about later. She wanted to know why he never introduced a girlfriend to his family, but for now, she needed to get her anxiety under control.
She’d known this was too good to be true.
She knew she should have cut ties after night one with Boogie.
Now, he had painted this picture of them having a future together, and it was about to be snatched from her.
She wasn’t sure she could survive that. Since she was young, all she wanted was to belong somewhere.
With Boogie, she belonged, even if their families disagreed.
“I can’t go to this dinner,” she said into his chest.
Boogie didn’t respond, but he did pull away and grab her hand. Sweetie reluctantly followed him into the living room as she felt herself disconnect from everything. It was a defense mechanism. Knowing that she wouldn’t have this home or Boogie anymore made her detach.
With weary eyes, she watched as he clicked on the TV and went to YouTube. An upbeat song blasted through the speakers, and Boogie grinned as he turned to her.
“Dance with me.”
“What?” She frowned. Now wasn’t the time for a damn dance party.
Boogie spun smoothly on his heels in a full circle and then grabbed her hands. “Dance with me.”
“Boogie,” she whined, but the corners of her mouth twitched slightly. Boogie could be infectious like that.
“I don’t wanna hear nothin’. I just want to see that fat ass twerk on somethin’.”
A giggle spilled through her lips. Boogie grabbed her hips and swayed them for her. She reluctantly moved them on her own accord, and before she knew it, she was in a full-blown dance battle with Boogie.
They laughed as they took turns dancing and tapping each other in. For three songs, they went on like that until they were winded.
In a heap, they plopped down on the couch, breathing heavily.
After a second, Boogie looked over at her with a grin. “Dinner tonight? It’s gonna be all good. I promise.”
Sweetie gazed into his eyes. How could she give up so easily when all she wanted was him? After a deep sigh, she nodded slightly and whispered, “Okay.”
Nerves bounced around Sweetie’s body as they walked into the DeLuca home, which was even more extravagant than Boogie’s.
“Relax, baby,” Boogie reminded her as they walked through the foyer.
She didn’t respond because she wasn’t about to relax. Let her father tell it, she was in enemy territory. She knew Boogie wouldn’t do anything to harm her, but she didn’t know about his family.
“Sweetie!” Chloe exclaimed.
All Sweetie saw was a blur of yellow from Chloe’s shirt and toffee-colored skin before she was wrapped up in a hug. Relief filled Sweetie. For some reason, she’d forgotten that Chloe was a part of the DeLuca family. The last thing she expected was to see a familiar, friendly place.
“Hey,” Sweetie said as she hugged Chloe back.
When they pulled apart, Sweetie saw three other people sitting at the table.
They all looked at her with curiosity. She remembered Denzel from the strip club and, before that, from school.
He and Audra were in the same grade. He’d grown up nicely, just like Boogie.
When Chloe took her spot next to him, Sweetie could see the love between them.
Tandy and Zander sat on each side of the table. Tandy smiled at her while Zander watched her carefully.
“Go ahead and take your seats, you two, so we can eat while the food is hot,” Tandy said as she gestured to the two empty seats at the table across from Denzel and Chloe.
Sweetie nervously sat. After they blessed the food, they dug in. Well, they did. Sweetie kind of just sat there nervously while Boogie filled her plate when he noticed she wasn’t doing it herself.
“Chloe, Sweetie, how do you two know each other?” Tandy asked after a long stretch of tense silence.
Sweetie sat there like a deer in the headlights. Chloe glanced at her while Denzel cleared his throat.
Another uncomfortable silence stretched between them before her phone vibrated in the pocket of her jeans. It was loud enough for everyone to hear.
Sweetie’s cheeks heated. “I’m so sorry.” She quickly pulled it out and silenced it without looking at the screen.
She looked guiltily around the table and moved to tuck her phone away when it vibrated again.
Her brows pulled in. This time, she glanced at the screen and saw that it was her sister.
Her mind drifted to her granny, and she immediately stood up. “I’m sorry, I have to take this.”
“You good, baby?” Boogie asked as he stood as well.
Sweetie didn’t respond as she rushed out of the dining room and answered the phone. She realized Boogie followed her just as she called her sister back.
“Audra?” she asked as soon as the line connected.
“Sweetie, thank God you answered. Daddy knows.”
“Knows what?” Relief flowed through when she realized this wasn’t about her granny, but then dread filled her when her sister spoke again.
“About you and Boogie. Boogie, Sweetie, really? Again?”
Sweetie felt dizzy. “What? How? How could he know?”
“The streets talk, Sweetie. You know that. Daddy is pissed. You’re breaking a treaty we have with the DeLuca family.”
“Treaty?” she asked as she looked at Boogie, whose brows furrowed as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
“There’s been a treaty for years between us. We don’t mingle, and we stick to our own sides of town. Period. If that’s broken, it’s a threat and cause for war, which Daddy is gearing up for.”
“This is ridiculous,” Sweetie said as panic filled her. She suddenly felt like she needed to get out of there.
“I just wanted to warn you—”
“I gotta go.” Sweetie hung up the phone.
“What’s goin’ on?”
“There’s a treaty? You told me this was okay. You convinced me.” Sweetie ranted as she glared at Boogie.
“Girl, what are you goin’ on about?” Boogie asked as he stopped her from pacing and pulled her into him.
“The treaty between our families,” she stressed.
“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout a treaty.” Boogie grabbed her hand and walked toward the dining room. Sweetie tugged against him, but he paid her no mind. When they were back in the dining room, Boogie asked, “Pops, is there a treaty between us and the Bishop family?”
Sweetie immediately felt bad. She assumed Boogie knew about this treaty, but it was clear he didn’t. That was a relief to her. He hadn’t lied to her or tried to keep her in the dark.
Zander rolled his eyes. “Who told you about that stupid shit?”
Boogie looked at Sweetie. He hugged her to his side tightly in encouragement.
Sweetie shifted uncomfortably. “My sister just called me. My dad found out Boogie and I reconnected. He said we are breaking the treaty.”
“That old fool,” Zander grumbled.
“Honey—”
“No, Tandy, this shit is so stupid.” Zander looked at Boogie and Sweetie. “Vernon put a treaty in place years ago all on his own. I never followed that shit. What that nigga says doesn’t move me. I ain’t agree to shit. He’s like an old man yelling at kids to stay off his damn property line.”
That confused Sweetie. “So . . . it’s a one-sided treaty?”
“Sounds like it,” Denzel said, adding his two cents.
“But he’s talking about war—”
“War?” Denzel, Boogie, and Zander all said at the same time.
Sweetie stared at them all with wide eyes, feeling like she just dropped a bomb on this family she had always been taught to stay away from. Her mouth opened and closed as she searched for words, but nothing came out.
“That man is insufferable.” Zander finally exploded. He stood and pointed at his sons. “You two, my office, now.” He turned to the women. “Everyone is staying here until further notice. We’re officially on lockdown.”
Boogie gave Sweetie a swift kiss on the cheek, and she watched with her mouth hanging open. She wondered what the hell she had just gotten herself into.