Jones
The plane ride from Portland, Oregon, to the East Coast was uneventful.
The flight took off before the sun had even risen, and lasted more than five hours.
Church slept the entire flight. My mother had made the offer for us to stay at their house, but I thought that was a bit much because it was not only Church’s first time meeting them, but the two of us hadn’t even defined what we had going on.
We booked a hotel. Since it was our birthday trip, Lex and I balled out and got a two-bedroom suite.
After a brief recovery period from the flight, the four of us prepared to meet both sets of Sumners parents for dinner. Our mothers had apparently made reservations at a fancy, new restaurant on the shore.
Church was quiet on the ride to dinner. Once I handed off the keys of the truck to the valet, I walked around the truck and helped her out, while Lex was doing the same with Mari.
I took Church’s hand while I grabbed up the gift bag that she brought with her in my free hand. I pulled her to me for an embrace.
“You cool?”
“I’m nervous,” she admitted. “Mothers can be . . . challenging.”
“I’m hoping they’re like Aunt Beverly.” Mari chimed in, having heard our conversation. “Aunt Beverly is mad cool.”
I chuckled. “My mom, yeah. She’s laid-back. Lex’s mom . . .” I let my sentence trail off.
Mari’s mouth fell open. “Your mom is one of those moms?”
“What moms?” Lex pretended to be confused. He was bullshitting. He knew how his mother was. She liked to act like the sun rose and set on Lex and his older brother. Nobody was ever good enough for either of them in her eyes.
Mari stopped walking and placed her hands on her hips. “One of those moms who acts like her son is the prize, and any woman ought to be happy to have him.”
“You’re not happy to have me, Mari, baby?”
She rolled her eyes. “Right about now, I’m really hoping that I don’t have to cuss your mama out. You should’ve told me so I could prepare.” Mari looked down at her outfit. “And you let me wear this top with my titties out? Ooh, I could punch you right now.”
While I hated to see Lex go out like that, it did loosen some of Church’s tension. I brought the hand I was holding to my mouth and kissed her fingers. She gave me a small smile. “I promise, my moms is mad cool. If I had to describe her, I would say she’s like Claire Huxtable. She’s cool.”
“How would you describe Lex’s mom? Is she more like Patti LaBelle playing Dewayne Wayne’s mother, or more like Whitley Gilbert’s mother?”
“Right,” Mari agreed. “Am I getting Marian Gilbert or Mrs. Wayne?”
Lex sighed heavily. “It would’ve been a little bit of both. But Memphis told me that Yahida ran up on Moms, and she’s been different ever since.”
Memphis was Lex’s older brother, and Yahida was his wife. “Yahida ran up on Aunt Renee?”
He eyed me. “Verbally, dude. You know Yahida ain’t finna run up on Renee’s crazy ass physically.”
I had to laugh.
“According to Memphis, once Yahida had the baby, she wouldn’t really let Moms keep him or nothing.
When Moms asked about it, Yahida told Moms that since she never liked her, never made her feel welcome, and never treated her kindly, she didn’t want moms around the baby.
Said Yahida told Moms that she, herself, doesn’t fuck with people who don’t fuck with her mom, and she was raising her son the same. ”
“Damn,” I dragged out.
“No offense to your mom,” Mari said, “but that sounds reasonable to me.”
“Me too.” Church chimed in.
“Yeah, so my moms been tryin’ to do damage control ever since. You’re probably about to meet the nicest version of Renee Sumners that anybody’s ever met.”
We all laughed as we stepped into the restaurant. Lex walked up to the hostess stand and said a few words. Moments later, we were led to a private room.
All four parents were still standing as if they’d just arrived when we walked in. Church gasped when she saw our dads. She turned to me with narrow eyes and whispered through gritted teeth, “You never said that your dads were identical twins.”
“What’s up, Mom? What’s up, Dad?” I asked, pulling Church closer to me by the hand. “This is my girl, Church. Church, these are my parents, Shaunda and Joseph Sumners.”
“Hey.” Church gave them a smile and a small wave. “It’s nice to meet you.”
My mother returned the smile. “It’s nice to meet you, too. And aren’t you gorgeous?”
Church blushed, pushing a few strands of hair behind her ear, looking down at the floor. “Thank you.”
I winked at my mom. She’d always had the ability to make people feel comfortable with her.
“Let’s sit down. Everybody, sit down,” she instructed.
We all took seats. I introduced Church to my aunt Renee and uncle James, then Lex did the same for Mari and my parents.
“Ma, this is for you.” I handed her the gift bag that Church prepared.
“And this one’s for you,” Mari said to Aunt Renee.
My mom peeked into the bag then pulled out one of the bottles. “What is this?” Her voice held both surprise and excitement. “You didn’t have to get me anything, baby. Just putting up with my son is more than enough.”
We all laughed.
“Mari and I own a small hair care company—Apple Head. Our products are all natural, and they’re apple-based.”
“And they’re Beverly Sumners approved,” Mari added.
“My sister Beverly approved them?” my dad asked, clearly taken aback by the piece of information.
“Yes. My sister, Collins, and Mrs. Beverly co-own the salon at the lodge: Posh Moments. When Mari and I came up with the first formulation, it was for a clarifying shampoo with apple cider vinegar. The first people we took it to were Collins and Mrs. Beverly.”
“Wow. Okay.” My mother twisted off the cap of one of the products and sniffed it. “Wow. That smells delicious. It smells like something I want to eat. What is this?” She held up the bottle. “Shampoo?”
I noticed that Aunt Renee hadn’t said anything. She was taking each item out of the gift bag and setting them on the table.
The waiter came into the room to take our drink orders and let us know that the food would be out shortly.
“We pre-ordered,” my dad explained. “We didn’t want to wait all night.
We got a variety of dishes, so hopefully, we got something for everybody’s palate.
But if not, we’ll order whatever. Now.” He turned to Church.
“How’d you get into hair care? I’m sure Joe told you that the Sumners are a hair care family. ”
“Oh, he didn’t have to tell me. I’m very familiar with the Sumners family.
As I said, my sister is into hair care. She opened her salon when she was barely old enough to drink.
I’ve been around hair care all my life. Anyway, when I purchased my home, I realized that there was a small apple orchard on my property.
At first, I thought about baking pies with them or something.
I went to my best friend, Mari.” She glanced over at Mari.
“She’s a genius food chemist. I asked her to help me bake pies. ”
Mari picked up the familiar story. “I thought she should do skin care. After a little bit of back and forth, we both agreed on hair care. So, with the abundance of apples that her trees provide, we make shampoo, conditioner, edge control, a loc moisture mist, a beard oil, a serum, a hair mask, and the list goes on and on. If we can dream it, I try to find a way to formulate it, using the best possible products.”
Aunt Renee held up the bottle of Apple Locs. It was their moisturizing mist for locs. “What’s in this?”
“Pure rose hydrosol, pro vitamin B5, liposomal apple stem cell extract, and a few drops of argan oil to seal in the moisture.” Mari was proud. I could tell by the way her chest puffed out.
My aunt’s eyes bugged before she grinned big. “My girl!” She held the bottle up. “That is an expensive recipe.”
“It is,” Mari agreed. “But Apple Head is a luxury hair care brand. We don’t cheap out on products, and our results speak for themselves.”
The four ladies veered off into a conversation about the benefits of high-end ingredients, and I saw both Lex and my uncle James visibly relax when Aunt Renee smiled.
While the ladies talked, we fellas fell into a conversation of our own about the Vipers, life in the Pacific Northwest, and the current state of America.
Soon enough, several servers came into the private dining room, carrying platters of food and carafes of drinks. Once that happened, all conversation ceased as we dug into the delicious offerings.
I lay on the bed and waited for Church to finish her shower.
After the early morning flight and dinner with my parents, I was ready to shut it down.
After dinner, my mom and Aunt Renee insisted on taking Church and Mari to some dessert bar they knew they claimed had the best sweets.
The men weren’t invited to tag along, and when Church and Mari got back to the hotel, they wouldn’t tell Lex and me what they talked about with our mothers.
Church finally stepped out of the bathroom, bringing steam and the smell of citrus with her.
She wore a Manor at Sienna Sunset Resort sleepshirt that hit her mid-thigh, and she had arranged her hair into two braids.
She looked so fucking alluring, sexy, and innocent all at the same time.
She set up a bottle of water on the nightstand and put her phone on the charger right next to that.
As she climbed into bed, I scooted over slightly.
I would give her room, but I was not about to back up off the girl.
The more time I spent with her, the more she became the girl that I couldn’t stop thinking about.
I hugged her without thinking about it. “You smell so damn good.”
After a giggle, she said, “Thanks.”
“You tired?”
“Exhausted.”
“Me too. Was Aunt Renee cool? She didn’t show her ass while y’all were out, did she?”
“Nah.” She shook her head. “She was on her best behavior. She seems to really like Mari.”
“That’s cool.” I picked up one of her long braids in my hand. Her hair was soft. “Can I ask you a question?”
“I guess.”