CHAPTER FIVE #2
Actually it was, Janita thought. “Yes ma’am,” she said honestly.
Now Hawk’s impatience was showing. He crossed his legs. “Mother, what is this about because I know it can’t be about that?”
Reecie looked at him, and Janita could see that sadness return. “Nobody told me anything.”
Hawk frowned. “Told you anything about what?”
“That shooting. I’m browsing the web and I see where my child, my child, was nearly killed this morning.”
Janita was shocked. He was nearly killed? She looked at him.
But he looked more put-upon than concerned. “Oh mother! That was absolutely nothing.”
“Nothing? A gunman fired what they believe were several rounds at my child, and that was nothing?”
“I wasn’t injured at all. My guys took him out before I could even get off a round myself.”
“Listen to yourself. Get off a round, he says, like this is the wild west! I told you not to go into this profession. Didn’t I tell you not to do it? They killed Tupac Shakur. They killed Biggie Smalls. It was all tied up into this very profession. Now they’re gunning for you.”
“Nobody’s gunning for me, Mother.” It was all kinds of ridiculousness to Hawk. “Is that why you traveled all this way?”
Reecie looked at him as if he had just offended her. “I know you don’t like it, but I’m your mother. I have always taken interest in what’s happening in your life.”
“Oh really now?” Hawk sounded doubtful.
“I’m certain you believe your father have.”
“At least he calls me every week. Sometimes I don’t hear from you for months. So excuse me if I don’t see all this interest you supposedly have for me.”
Reecie was staring at her son with what looked like unshed tears in her eyes to Janita, although it was probably just the way her eyes appeared. “You judge me so harshly, Hawthorne,” she said heartfelt. “You all do. But coming from my firstborn is intolerable.”
Janita could feel her pain. But Hawk could only feel her shame. “Me judging you, as you claim, is intolerable. But what father is doing to you isn’t? Give me a break, Mother!”
Reecie shook her head. “You are so hard on me.”
“I’m not hard on you.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not! I just don’t put up with bullshit,” Hawk said and gave his mother a hard look.
They stared at each other for several seconds, until Hawk broke the silence. “In any event, I’m fine. I wasn’t harmed at all. Is that it? Is that why you came?”
Janita thought that was rather harsh.
Reecie did too. But that had always been Hawk. “I also came to say hello,” she said.
Her words disarmed Hawk. It was as if he realized in that moment that he was being exactly as she described him: hard. He exhaled and backed off. “Hello, Mother.”
They stared at each other for what seemed like an inordinately long time. And then Reecie exhaled. And then she stood up, which caused Hawk and Janita to stand up too. “I’m bushed,” Reecie said. “I have no appetite for flying back tonight. I’ll fly back tomorrow. But right now, I’m going to bed.”
Janita wondered if Hawk would object to her spending the night too, but he didn’t.
“Let me show you to your room,” he said.
“You needed bother,” Reecie said. “You have several guest rooms. I’ll take one. You stay here and talk with Janita. Good night.”
Janita felt as if her worst fear was realized. She was leaving her alone with a man who acted as if he didn’t even want his own mother in his home. Let alone some stranger like her. She was mortified.
She looked at Hawk. But Hawk was staring at his mother as she made her way up his staircase.
She was in every way beautiful. That was the catchword for his mother all his life.
His father, his friends, his siblings all referred to her as beautiful.
Never a great mother. Never a great cook.
Never a great human being. Just beautiful.
In many ways to Hawk, that was just tragic. And what was really tragic, he thought as he watched her ascend those stairs, was that his mother knew it was too.
When she was out of sight, he turned his attention back to Janita.
That crazy jolt he felt when he first saw her was gone, but the aftershocks were still there.
He still felt something every single time he looked her way.
And it was disconcerting. And the way she was staring at him.
“I’m an awful son,” he said. “Is that what you’re thinking? ”
She quickly responded to him. “I’m not thinking that, no. That would be a conclusion I can’t reach because I don’t know you.”
“But?”
“Your mother loves her children,” Janita felt a need to say.
“In the two months that I’ve been her . .
.” She couldn’t bring herself to lie and say assistant.
She was not that lady’s assistant. She was her bodyguard.
“In the months that I’ve been around her, I’ve found her to really care about her children. ”
“She cares about her children. Should she get a medal for caring about her children?”
Janita knew he knew she didn’t mean it like that. And she was not going to play his game. “I think I’ll call it a night,” she said.
Hawk knew he had offended her. And although he was being truthful, he regretted speaking to her in such a snide way. “My mother has her overnight bag. Did you bring any luggage that I need to retrieve for you?”
“No, this is all I brought with me,” she said as she pointed out her shoulder bag. “I’m good.”
Hawk therefore escorted her upstairs, past the closed door that he assumed was where his mother was sleeping, and a few doors down to the next largest guest room. He opened the door for her.
As she moved past him to walk inside, he didn’t feel that same jolt he felt earlier.
But he felt something entirely different.
She brushed past him as she walked into that bedroom, causing an aroma of a fresh, perfumy scent to encircle his nostrils and a hardness to engulf his penis when she brushed it ever so slightly.
Which never happened to him. A lady brush past him and he was aroused? That was unheard of for him.
But it was exactly what happened. It was so startling that he checked out her body when she walked past him. Was it that slammin’ hot? Was she that far ahead of all the other ladies he’d known before?
She wasn’t. That was the craziest part to him.
She had a nice figure. She had curves and a tight ass.
But so did nearly every woman he came into contact with in his line of work.
And none of them had him aroused just by brushing past him.
Not one of them. In the entire annals of his life, he’d never been a man easily aroused that way. Until now.
And when she surveyed the room and turned around as if she was more than pleased, and when he saw that twinkle of joy in her eyes that she would have a comfortable room for the night, he had an even harder erection. And he realized, in that moment, that he wanted her.
But he was not a man that slept around. His father’s fallacies taught him what not to do in that department. But he wanted to sleep with her. And because she had done to him what no other woman had done, he wanted to sleep with her very badly. The question was: was she that kind of girl?
He didn’t want to test it, but as he looked down the length of her, he couldn’t stop himself. “You can always join me,” he said.
Janita wasn’t going to lie to herself. Hawk Webster was a very alluring man in those bike shorts and jersey. He looked fit and well-built and more than capable to take her on the ride of her life. And she’d already saw how aroused he became when she brushed past him.
But she knew women were this man’s stock and trade. Sleeping with starlets and recording artists was probably how he got his jollies off every day of the week. Social media even said so. No way was she putting another notch in that belt. “No, this room is fine,” she said.
He stared at her until he saw her glance down at his arousal. And then he asked the question that would make or break it for him. “Are you sure?” he asked her.
She hated that he caught her glancing down at his penis, but it couldn’t be helped. “I’m sure,” she said.
He nodded as if it was no big deal to him either, said good night, and stepped out and closed the door. But he was very disappointed. He an itch he wanted her, and only her, to scratch. But she wasn’t that kind of girl. Which blunted his disappointment.
He wanted her still. But a part of him was very pleased that she didn’t want him.