“Settle down you two,” he said. “I can’t go for a ride today, but Jacob will take you out.”
As far as livestock went, and based on the very limited knowledge she had, the horses were good-looking animals. The long black face stood out on the first one who had a greyish body. The second one was tall and regal, and looking at DeShondra as if she were interloping and about to take her man.
“DeShondra, this is Lady Macbeth and that is Hamlet,” he told her, rubbing the muzzle of each horse.
“I didn’t expect them to have Shakespearean names,” she said, almost confused. Her attention was drawn to three ducks who waddled into the barn, coming straight for Isiah, who bent down to individually pet each one. “And who are they?”
“These are the Weird Sisters,” he said with a smile. “Come on. I have to get the stuff for Gabe so we can get on the road.”
She followed him to the house, trailed by the ducks, who were not ready to let Isiah get away. The horses weren’t happy with him either, but he was on a schedule that he had every intention of keeping. DeShondra had questions. She’d only been to his home a few times and had never seen the ducks or Jacob.
“Hello,” she said. “Shakespearean names for the horses and ducks. Is there anything else you want to share with me?”
He opened the back door, disengaging the alarm and heading down the hall to his home office, which she also didn’t know he had. It was clean space with a table, a couple of chairs and plaques on the wall for community service events he’d taken part in.
“My bachelor’s degree is in English; well, one of them,” he said nonchalantly. “My Mom, in the summertime, would make us read the classics. Zeke, like to read the heavy stuff like Dostoyevsky and Anna Karenina, but not me. I loved Shakespeare. Gabe liked to read the adventures, you know Huck Finn, Treasure Island, but I took a liking to the plays. So, in college, I majored in English.”
“I did not see that coming,” she said. “You are pulling my leg, right?”
“No, look at the wall,” he said, pointing to the framed degrees displayed.
She blinked several times eyeballing the three framed certificates. “Hold up, you went to Yale?”
“Yep for my graduate work,” he said. “I went to the University of Georgia for my undergrad. My other degrees are in psychology. I am a licensed and practicing criminal psychologist.”
“Shut the fuck up!” she said, shocked.
“No seriously,” he said. “The ATF recruited me to, you know, get in the heads of the criminals, de-escalate situations, mind fuck the bad guys.”
“I don’t even know what to say,” she said.
“See, you thought I was a dumb ass redneck didn’t you?” he said, chuckling. “Don’t let the beard fool you, Baby.”
“You, a criminal psychologist...it makes sense, I guess, with your rehabilitation program for felons. Is that what Jacob is? He seems kind of young,” she said, staring at the doctorate degree on the wall as well as the board certification as a psychologist.
Isiah riffled through his desk, looking for a folder, which he found. “Yeah, he is a sad story,” he told her. “At eighteen, you don’t expect to be put on the registry as a sex offender for having sex with a fifteen-year-old, but the girl’s daddy pressed charges against him.”
“Was it forcible?” she wanted to know.
“Hell no,” Isiah said. “They grew up together, went to church together, and had been dating. Her Daddy didn’t like the idea of Jacob putting his hands on the pretty little blond daughter. On his eighteenth birthday, the girl wanted to give him a special present, which cost him his life, so to speak.”
“What about his parents?” she asked.
“School teachers in Virginia,” he said. “They are good friends with my folks. The saddest part is that his parents work at the school where the kids attended and lived close by. Once his name went on the registry, he couldn’t live with them.”
Isiah moved about the house, gathering small items he placed in an additional overnight bag along with a hunk of bleu cheese wrapped in cheesecloth, a bottle of bourbon, and a bag of grass seed.
“I needed help with the horses, so my dad bought the trailer for him to live in independently. We tried him in college here, but he is still wrestling with the folks in the church where he grew up turning on him. Lifelong friends treated him differently and he couldn’t cope,” Isiah informed her. “On top of that, he was scheduled to go to college, but a felony charge, student loans, you know the rest, then the poor guy fell into a deep depression. Jacob stopped eating and they placed him on suicide watch,” he told her. “My Dad asked me to take him in, guide him, give him a direction. Here he resides, poor Horatio,” he said.
“Alas, you know him well,” she said, grinning.
“Damn, you are so sexy to me and smart to boot,” he said, moving quickly around the desk. “I find smart to be so...” he growled, lowering his head to nibble on her neck.
“Stimulating? Was that the word you were looking for?” she asked, gripping the front of his plaid shirt.
“You stimulate me all over, lady,” he said, lowering her hand to the rapidly rising bulge in his pants. “Every time I look at you, my basest urges kick in to have you until you make that little sound in the back of your throat which drives me insane.”
She stroked him through the jeans, going back to something he said a few days before. “Please tell me, Isiah Neary, that you are not marrying me or falling for me by default,” she whispered.
“I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you,” he said. “The only reason I came to Vegas was for you.”
DeShondra stepped back. “What do you mean, from the first time you saw me?”
“Get back over here and continue doing what you were doing,” he said. “I like that. Daddy wants some more.”
“Daddy ain’t getting shit until you tell me what you meant by seeing me for the first time? You mean in Vegas?” she asked adamantly. He grabbed her hand again.
“Zeke asked me and Gabe to come to stop Cabrina from doing something stupid, like coming to Georgia and blowing their cover,” he said. “Gabe, the spook, sent her a pop up about the matchmaker being in Vegas. He roped me into going, but I didn’t want to until he showed me a photo of three of you.”
“You came to Vegas to meet me?” she said, uncertain how to handle this new insight.
“Sure did,” he said. “There were three photos of you, one with the three of you. The one which got my attention was one of you in the white dress, clinging tight to that perfect butt of yours.”
“Isiah, did you come to Vegas to seduce me?”
“No, I came to Vegas to find, woo, and make you my woman. We have a lot in common, with the whole real estate thing, and you are smart. Daddy likes smart,” he said, taking her hand again. “Plus, you are so sexy as hell as to me. Then the match matcher put us together and we have all of this chemistry.”
“You planned all of this?” she asked, wanting to know if she’d been set up without her knowledge.
“I didn’t plan anything but to meet you, maybe have dinner, and try to get in your pants to start,” he said, rubbing her body against his own. “I figured once you got some of this good-good, nature would do the rest.”
“Nature,” she said, losing herself in the sensations he was evoking, thinking about the yumminess of his good-good.
“In our case, divine intervention,” he said, planting small kisses on the side of her face as he lifted the soft cotton skirt. His hands fumbled with the lacy underwear, trying to get inside of the maze to locate the prize at the center. “The even better news is that you are smart as hell and I earned my doctorate at 25, which kinda makes me a genius.”
“Genius,” she repeated, not caring what he was talking about as she undid his belt buckle.
“Our kids are going to be really smart,” he said, lifting her onto the desk. The lacy fabric he slid to the side as he positioned himself between her legs. “But not
as smart as their Daddy for recognizing an amazing woman and not being afraid to go for what he wanted.”
“Shut up and give me some of that good-good,” she said, wrapping her legs around his waist.
“Yes Ma’am,” he said, thrusting his hips forward to connect their bodies. She sighed in pleasure at the sweetness of the pleasure coursing through her. In her ear he quoted Hamlet, “Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.”
“I don’t doubt it at all,” she said, holding tight to her man.
THE DRIVE WAS UNEVENTFUL with DeShondra sleeping most of the way on a pillow which Isiah put in the SUV for her comfort. She woke once needing to stop to empty her bladder. It took nearly six hours to arrive in Elyria, but they made it in time for dinner.
“Wake up Baby,” he said. “Sit up and place your hands on the dashboard. No sudden movements.”
“Oh shit, where are we, at OO7’s house?” she asked, doing as instructed. A white light scanned over her as Isiah leaned out the car window, allowing the retinal scan to happen. The gate opened to a Colonial stone house with two other cars in the yard. Cars she didn’t recognize.
“We are late,” he said. “Dinner is about to start.”
Hurrying to the door, he asked her to stand by his side as another red light scanned over him. A voice came across the door speaker, “Please leave your weapon in the vehicle.”
“You can kiss my bearded ass,” Isiah replied to the mechanical voice.
The door buzzed, opening to a warm living space filled with furniture she recognized. Cabrina’s voice reached her ears with laughter as she spoke to another voice DeShondra knew: Aisha. Tameka. Whatever the fuck her name is now. Then she heard a baby. She left Isiah’s side to enter the kitchen where his brothers and father sat at the table chatting over a scrapbook and the women milled about the kitchen. A woman with deep brown hair, soulful brown eyes, and shoulder-length haircut turned to face her as she held a baby in her arms.
“Mom, Dad, this is DeShondra. We are getting married in three weeks and she’s carrying my child. I’m going to be somebody’s daddy!” Isiah said with his mouth wide open, looking around the room, “How is everyone doing?”
Chapter 17 – Awww Mommy! I’m Grown!
“Isiah Samuel Neary, you know better than that! I did not raise you in such a manner to introduce your fiancé in such a crass and unrefined fashion,” Mary Neary said.
“Oooh, you’re in trouble, Bleu. She called you by your whole name,” Zeke, his older brother, told him. Isiah ignored his older brother to focus on his mother’s dismissal.
“Mom, did you hear me? I’m going to be somebody’s daddy!” Isiah said, frowning, not happy that she wasn’t as excited as he was.
“I heard you just fine and I am reminding you that I am somebody’s mother—yours. Not start over,” Mary told him.
“Aww Mommy, I’m grown. I can speak like I want to,” Isiah protested.
“You are never too grown for me to pop you in your mouth, young man,” Mary Neary said. “Now, start again.”
“Fine,” he said, straightening his shoulders. He cleared his throat as everyone in the room stared at him. “Good evening, everyone, so glad to see you all made it safely. I would like to introduce you to DeShondra Leman. She has consented to be my wife. Our wedding will be in three weeks time, so I hope you will clear your calendars and join us for our nuptials. We have purchased a new home, where we will hold the reception, and I would be honored to have each of you standing at our sides as we commit to each other in love.”
“See, wasn’t that better?” Mary said. “Wait, in three weeks! Joe, can we make it to Kentucky in three weeks?”
“If that young lady consented to marry our bourbon drinking, bleu cheese farting, grass obsessed son, hell, I will clear my calendar for the rest of the year to see this,” Josiah Neary said, getting to his feet. “Hey young lady, I am Josiah. This here’s my wife Mary. You can call me Joe, or Dad, whichever is more comfortable for you.”
“Pleasure to meet you both,” DeShondra said. The idea of calling them mom and dad didn’t sit well with her since she had her own set of parents.
“I’m Zeke,” the older brother whom she hadn’t met called out.
“Zeke has agreed to be my best man,” Isiah said.
“Hold up,” Gabriel objected. “Why does he get to be your best man. I do all the legwork and he gets all the accolades. That’s not fair.”
“Give me a minute to explain,” Isiah said, walking over to the table. On his way, he passed out kisses to Cabrina on her cheek, telling her the house looked great and no longer smelled like meat pies and liniment. He also placed a gentle kiss on Tameka’s cheek, with a wink and a thank you. His mother, still holding Michelle, he provided with a bear hug but before he could get away, the baby pulled at the chin hairs. “Sorry, sweetheart, your Uncle didn’t mean to ignore you,” he said, kissing the top of her head, which elicited a slobbery toothless grin. He arrived in front of his father, throwing himself in his arms, squeezing hard. Isiah released his father to stand next to Gabriel.
“Don’t you try and kiss me,” Gabriel said. “I’m feeling some kind of way about not being your best man.”
“But you’re so handsome and you have a pretty mouth,” Isiah said, puckering up. Gabriel balled up his fist, ready to punch him in the face as Joe yelled at them to stop horsing around. A proud father returned to the table as the women fussed about preparing plates with matching napkins for the meal in the dining room.
“Gabe, I didn’t ask you to be my best man because I need your eyes and sidearm for the wedding,” Isiah said in a low tone.
“You think there’s gonna be trouble? Her folks don’t like you, son?” Joe wanted to know.
“No, they are great people, you guys are going to love them,” Isiah said. “I’m worried about her ex, John Lucas.”
“As in the basketball player?” Zeke said.
“One and the same,” Isiah added, continuing, “He came back for her, but too late, I was already in there. The fool even had the nerve to show up at her parent’s house for dinner so he could meet me. Everything in me wanted to drop him like a sack of shit, but I know he is coming to the wedding to make a fuss.”
Zeke leaned forward, speaking in hushed tones, “What makes you think he’s going to be a problem?”
“The man is a textbook narcissist with a superimposed ego,” Isiah said. “I can see that butt wrangler going out of his way to punish her with a humiliating confession or the likes in order to save face for losing her to me. He doesn’t like to lose.”
“What do you want us to do?” Gabriel asked.
“Put the fear of God into that man,” Isiah said. “I can’t do it. I don’t want to look like a Neanderthal in front of my woman on my wedding day.”
“Should I make a call and have a late-night visitor show at his house?” Joe asked.
“Too obvious,” Isiah said. “He will be expecting something like that, but he won’t be expecting to stare down the barrel of three guns in a church.”
“I am not bringing a gun to a church,” Gabriel said. “It is blasphemous.”
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,” Zeke said softly.
Isiah leaned forward on the table as the men huddled close. He lowered his voice as he provided the instructions for what he wanted to happen. “Zeke will be on my right, followed by DeShondra’s brother, DeAndre, then Dad and you on the end, Gabriel.”
“DeAndre and DeShondra,” Zeke said. “Are they twins?”
“Yeah, and her Dad has a twin, too,” Isiah said raising his eyebrows. “Yes, before you ask, I think there is more than one bun in that oven, but she assured me that it’s not.”
“I’m still not okay with bringing my piece to church,” Gabriel protested.
“Seriously man, where do you go and not have your service weapon plus a backup?” Isiah said.
“Well...,” Gabri
el said.
“Exactly,” Isiah replied. “So, here’s the plan.”
THE KNOT IN THE PIT of her stomach would not go away, no matter how hard she tried to focus on anything and everything else. Nervousness oozed from her pores as she stood in the kitchen looking at her longtime friends with whom she had shared memories and a good portion of her life, yet she felt out a place in this new space in her world. Cabrina was the first to notice the discomfort.
“How have you been?” she asked DeShondra.
“Oh fair to middling with the morning sickness, an upcoming wedding, and sharing my home with a man every day. I’m adjusting,” she said, looking at her soon-to-be-mother-in-law. “What about you? How is married life treating you, ladies?”
“I’m good,” Tameka said, taking the baby from Mary and attempting to pass Michelle to DeShondra, who refused the kind offer. “You may as well get used to this. Will you feed her for me while we get the food on the table?”
“No,” Deshondra said flatly. “I will not.”
Mary turned around to look at her with a curious gaze. DeShondra didn’t back down or change her answer. She stepped around Tameka to grab a bowl to serve the peas.
“DeShondra, are you telling me you don’t want to hold and feed your niece? I mean, in a few months, you will be doing this yourself,” Tameka said.
“I will hold and feed my child when the time comes. In the meantime, that baby is yours to feed and care for,” she said. “When the time comes for birthdays and whatnot, I will send my niece a savings bond and gift card to Toys R Us.”
Mary pressed her lips together as she loaded potatoes in a serving dish, taking them to the dining room table. The banter between her daughters by marriage said a great deal about their personalities. She continued to listen without saying a word.
Bleu, Grass, Bourbon Page 16
