CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The ride from Atlanta to Dillon was so quiet and tense-filled that Wyatt, while driving, kept taking peeps at the boss and Maude through the rearview mirror as they sat on the middle row.
Doc, in his pristine suit, was on one side of the row, and Maude, in her slacks and sleeveless blouse, was all the way on the other side.
They were usually sitting so close they looked melded together, as if there was no daylight between them.
But as he watched them now, there was so much daylight between them that they seemed worlds apart.
He had assumed they patched up their differences when she arrived at his hotel suite that morning. But apparently not.
He glanced over at Don. They’d been working together for so long that they considered each other brothers from another mother.
They had a way of communicating nonverbally and even telepathically.
And when Wyatt glanced over and lifted his eyebrows, Don responded with a knowing nod of the head.
He had it right. Boss and Maude were pissed with each other.
Edmund knew their tension was all his fault, but he also knew he was never going to pretend he could be this one-woman-man she needed him to be.
All his life he’d had the pick of the litter.
Variety was always the spice of his life.
How could she expect him to give that up so easily? That, to him, was absurd.
But as he glanced over at her, and he could just feel the pain all over her, it made him reconsider.
Was it all that absurd? Why was he reconsidering it then, if it was so off the wall?
And here his arrogant ass had her believing she wasn’t enough for him.
Why would he let that stand when he knew better than that?
Why didn’t he just shoot it down when it came up?
Because he was an asshole, that was why, he decided.
An asshole of the first order. But also, maybe, because he couldn’t bear breaking her heart the way so many of the ladies he’d been with claimed he had done to them.
All because they didn’t believe him when he said he was not going to commit to them.
But Maude was so different. She wasn’t going to allow him in her life without a commitment.
But what if he committed to Maude and another woman came along that he wanted to try out?
What would he do then? Would his love for Maude be enough to keep his dick in his pants?
He had no idea. He couldn’t even fathom what a one-woman-man monogamous relationship was like because he’d never had it.
Never wanted it. It had never entered his mind.
Until he met Maude, he thought, as he looked at her again.
The very idea that she wouldn’t be his woman scared the shit out of him.
For some twilight zone reason, he felt she was already his woman!
But what if he punted on committing to her and she went off and found herself another man?
What if after that his ass woke up and he wanted her back?
Maude would never leave her new man to run backwards to him.
It wasn’t in her DNA. It would be too late for him.
The love of a woman never was a thing for Edmund. But could it become a thing with Maude?
He was a forty-two-year-old man who felt as lost as a little boy trying to play grown-folks’ games. And it was eating him alive. He leaned his head back against the headrest, and closed his eyes.
When they finally made it to Dillon, they had to travel all the way to the other side of town just to get to Natasha’s house. And Maude immediately saw the difference in lifestyles between the two siblings.
Unlike her apparently far-wealthier brother, Natasha Keating lived in a blue-and white mid-century modern home with a low, angular-roof, huge windows all across the front, and brick to the bottom with rustic wood up top that wrapped around the sides of the house.
It reminded Maude of those movie star homes she used to see in those hip magazines when she was a kid.
But it looked kind of old-fashioned to her now.
When Wyatt parked on the driveway behind a sports Mercedes, Don hopped out and opened the back passenger side door of the big Tahoe SUV.
Edmund got out, buttoning his suit coat, but when he turned to assist Maude out, assuming she would have slid across the seat and got out on his side too, she was already getting out on the opposite side. It was as if she wanted nothing to do with him.
Don glanced at the boss when he saw it too.
He could see the hurt in the boss’s eyes.
But he brought it on himself. Don was convinced of it.
He knew righteous sisters. He knew the kind of sisters that were never going to be one of many women in any man’s stable.
Including a man like Edmund Keating. And Maude, in Don’s eyes, was definitely that kind of sister.
Edmund waited for her to walk around to his side and then they walked together toward Natasha’s front door.
“Come on in!” Natasha yelled out before either of them could ring her bell, and Edmund placed his hand on Maude’s lower back and ushered her in first.
He could feel her muscles tense up when he touched her, as if she didn’t appreciate his touch the way she previously had.
But she didn’t make a scene. Because Maude was a grownup.
She was younger than any of the women he’d been with in years, and his first impression of her was that she held no elegance or sophistication of any kind.
But he now knew he was wrong. Maude was, in his estimation, the most sophisticated woman he’d ever known.
Because she seemed to have learned long ago the unmitigated bullshit of trying to eat your cake and have it too.
When they walked into the home, they both could see that Natasha was no housekeeper.
Although a nice home, it lacked any consistent level of upkeep.
Clothes were thrown about. Old food was still in plates on the coffee table.
Cigarette butts were everywhere. Natasha, in fact, was seated in a chair in her living room pulling a pack of cigarettes out of her bra when they walked in.
She smiled when she saw Maude. “Well hello there, Miss Maudetta Drayton. How are you doing today?”
“I’m good.” Maude sat down on the sofa. “How are you is the real question?”
“Thankful to you for getting in touch with my brother. Donnell said you went all the way to Baltimore to get him. That true?”
Maude glanced at Edmund. For some reason, she didn’t want him to appear in any bad light. Even in the eyes of his sister. “It was no biggie,” she said instead. “I’m just glad his lawyers were able to get you out.”
“I don’t know about any lawyers. But I do know he paid off the DA to drop the charges. I know that.” Then she looked at her brother. “Didn’t you, Eddie?”
Edmund ignored her as he sat beside Maude on the sofa. He sat so close to her that their arms overlapped. There was no daylight between them. Although they both knew it was. He crossed his legs.
“Want one?” Natasha asked Maude as she offered her a cigarette.
“No thanks.”
“Still vaping hun?”
Edmund looked at Maude. “You vape?”
Maude hated to admit it. “Only when I have a lot going on.”
“Which is always,” said Natasha with a grin.
“It’s not always,” Maude said. She hadn’t vaped since the day her car was repossessed.
But one time was too many times for Edmund. “Stop it at once,” he said. “It’s as bad as those cancer sticks she’s got all over this place.”
“Oh, Eddie please,” said Natasha. “Vaping is harmless. It’s just water vapor she’s inhaling.”
“That’s not true. There are plenty of toxic aerosols she’s inhaling, including formaldehyde. That shit damages the lungs and causes irreparable cardiovascular disease. It is by no means harmless.”
“I know that,” Maude said. “That’s why I hardly ever do it.”
“Stop at once,” Edmund ordered.
He ordered her in that domineering, my way or the highway tone she hated, but she knew it was coming from a good place. “Yes sir,” she said.
Natasha was shocked. “Yes sir? Don’t you listen to him. He’s been like that his whole life. Lecturing people. Correcting people. Ordering people about. I don’t know why he was never a college professor, because that’s all he does. People change. People grow. But not my brother.”
She was about to light up, but Edmund stopped her. “Wait until we leave. I don’t want Maude inhaling that shit.”
Natasha rolled her eyes. But she put the cigarette back in the pack. “So answer my question,” she said to her brother. “The only reason I’m out is because you paid off the DA. Isn’t it?”
But Maude was offended. “Why would you ask him something like that?”
Edmund and Natasha both looked at her. “What do you mean why?” Natasha asked.
“You’re out. The charges, according to you, have been dropped. Who cares about how the sausage got made? It got made. Isn’t that all that matters?”
Edmund felt a touch of pride inside when Maude defended him. It was something he was not accustomed to. It felt wonderful.
But Natasha grinned. “I see he’s got you hooked on that dick like all his other ladies.”
But Edmund didn’t find it funny at all. “Keep it up, Tasha, and we’ll get up and walk right back out of this house. Because what you aren’t going to do is disrespect Maude. That will not happen without penalty to you. Now do you want my help, or don’t you?”
Natasha got serious. She knew her brother meant it. “Yes, I need your help.”
“So knock it off!”
“Yes sir,” Natasha said, but derisively. She was five years older than Edmund.
Maude decided to move on before Edmund could zing her back. “Tell us why you got arrested,” Maude asked. “What happened?”
“Hamp set me up, that’s what happened. I didn’t kill that ugly-ass wife of his and he knows it.”
“Did you know her?”
“Pernita? Everybody knew her.”
“When did they get married?” Edmund asked her.