The subs were delicious, as was the tea. They talked about this and that. Wats told her how he was getting things ready for the addition he was putting on the back of his office. She asked him why he was expanding so soon.
“We’re going to start hiring the construction company to work on the private school that we’re building. I thought if we had a testing lab on site, as well as a place where workers can go for injuries that didn’t require a hospital visit, we’d be one step closer to keeping everyone safe. Also, it’s a good way not to overload the hospital emergency room.” She told him what Elliot had told her. “I’ve noticed that too. With jobs coming in and all the other improvements being made around here, there are more homes being rented or bought up. Booker bought himself a home yesterday when I was with him.”
“That’s wonderful.” Her phone buzzed, and she looked down at it. “That’s odd. It’s my aunt. I’ve not heard from her in years.” Letting it go to voice mail, she smiled at Wats. “I think we need to discuss a few things. Going forward, I mean. I wanted to say this to you earlier, but I was chicken to do it. I’m falling in love with you, Wats. I know it’s soon and all, but you’re a wonderful person that simply makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. My heart is so full of happiness because of you. I sometimes have to pinch myself to make myself realize that I’m really with you. For however long you can stand me.”
“I love you too.” Her phone buzzed again. This time she didn’t bother looking. “I think the moment I saw you, I was in love. You’re nothing like I thought I wanted in someone to love, but so much better. I do love you, Rayne, and I cannot wait to spend time with you, getting to know everything there is to know about you.”
He kissed her then. Pulling her to him, Wats made short work of the distance between them. They didn’t paw at one another, as her aunts used to say about people dating, but the kiss made her hungrier for him than she’d been before. When they parted, it took several minutes for her breathing to even out. The alarm on her phone buzzed that she had twenty minutes to get back to the test.
“I’d better get back.” She still had ten minutes after he pulled up in front of the building. “Thank you for this. I love that you didn’t ask me about how I’d done. Or anything about the test. I didn’t realize I didn’t want you to do that until you didn’t. You’ve relaxed me enough that I can go in and feel good about finishing up.”
“I love you, Rayne.” He kissed her again, but this one was quick. “Now, get in there and knock them dead, my dear. So I can take you out to dinner and then ravish you later.”
She was laughing when she entered the room. The timer still had several minutes on it, but she didn’t care. Getting her test back, signing off on the file again, she was refreshed and feeling good about herself as she dove into the rest of the questions.
~*~
Wats found his uncle just where he said he’d be. The others, his cousins as well as uncles and his dad, were already at the big house. Wats and Abby had put out some finger food, but he wasn’t hungry just yet. The meeting had been called just before he’d gone to have lunch with Rayne. He didn’t mention it to her because he wasn’t sure if it would upset her. Sitting at the large dinner table, the others had already been served drinks, but he declined even that. For now, anyway. Uncle Clayton stood up.
“The prison called me earlier this morning to tell me they’re having some trouble with the women. They want their husbands, all of us, to come up there and get them out, as you might well have guessed. However, the warden said he thought it was more than that. That their adjustment was difficult for them because they didn’t have anything of their own with them. It took me a few minutes more of asking questions before I was able to figure it out. They just want out and aren’t cooperating with anyone until they get it in their heads that where they are is a place they’re going to be for a very long time.” Wats asked if he thought they’d ever get that into their heads. “Doubtful, I think. They haven’t so far. However, he wants me to go up there and try to explain to them that they’re in prison for the rest of their days. The government is going to decide on their sentencing when their day comes up. The warden told me he believes, from the stuff he’s been hearing, that they’re going to be there until their deaths. They’ll either get the death sentence or time without parole. Either one of those will not let them out.”
“Why are you going?” Mars smiled at everyone at the table. “I’m not saying I should go. I’m thinking we all can understand how that would go. But why are you doing this again? Why don’t we, as a group, go there and make them see reason? I’m not saying it will have any more effect than you going alone, Uncle Clayton, but there is safety in numbers. In this case, I’m thinking if we allow them to take their hatred out on all of us, it won’t be so hard on a single person.”
“I think he’s right. This will give them a bigger focus on what they’re wanting to say, and like Mars, I’m not sure it will do a bit of good.” Wats looked around the room before continuing. “And while we’re there, we should make sure that they understand completely that we’re not going to drop everything we’re doing to get our lives going to run up there and calm them down. It’s almost as if they’re still in charge of everything going on. They’ve made their beds, and they should have to figure out how to lie in them. Is the warden doing this because of who we are? Or does he really think we’ll be able to help?”
“I didn’t ask him.” Uncle Clayton pulled out his cell phone and called the warden right then. He would never have done that before, gotten more information from someone before moving on. He was seeing lots of things that his dad and uncle had never done before that they did now. Uncle Clayton put his phone on the table and smiled. “He said you’re right, Wats. The reason he is giving them this opportunity to get settled is because of us being Wilkersons and the fact that he didn’t want to piss us off. I wouldn’t have thought to ask that. So thanks, Wats. So now that we know the reason for him wanting me to go there, where should we go now?”
“The same way. All of us going up there and closing this once and for all. As you said, Mars, it’s like we’re still being ordered around by them.” Dad looked over at him and smiled. “I think—and this is something you can do or not—but I’d think it would be a great idea for you boys in a relationship to take your ladies too. To sort of give them a little bit of how we’re going on without them, and enjoying our lives so much better. I know that I am. I’ve been dating and having a blast.”
“I have too, I must admit.” All the uncles and his dad agreed that they were having fun as well. “The best part of all this, as far as I’m concerned, is the time I get to spend with all you guys. I don’t worry about coming home to an argument about my being out with my son and nephews. I can come and go as I please. I even got rid of all my suits except two of them, and it’s very liberating being able to shop for the kind of clothing I enjoy wearing. Hell, yesterday I stopped by a fast-food restaurant and had one of those combo meals. Never enjoyed something so much in my life. Then I had an ice cream sundae. I don’t think I’d had one of those since I was just a child.”
They all talked about having this or that. Going to the movies just for fun. Dad talked more about his fast-food experience. Wats was so happy they were all were getting out and about that he didn’t want to go and see the women. Never again, he thought. But they’d been making their lives difficult for too long for them not to be able to just tell them to fuck off. Wats thought he might just do that, too. Tell his mom to just fuck off.
It was decided that, as a group, they’d go up there and see them in the morning. Tonight, however, was for themselves. Even Abby was going to go with them, and he was going to ask if Rayne wanted to go as well. But first, he was going to propose to her. He was going to ask the woman of his dreams if she’d spend the rest of her life with him as his wife.
Picking up flowers on his way home, he was dismayed to find a car
he didn’t know in the drive. Rayne hadn’t said she was expecting company, so he wasn’t sure who it would be. Going into the house, he stopped right inside the entrance hall when he heard shouting and screaming from Rayne and someone else. Make that two someone else’s. Barkly met him in the hallway and took the flowers he’d gotten for Rayne. He asked him who was here.
“Aunts, I believe, sir. They arrived not an hour ago, and this is how they’ve acted. I have wanted to call the police to have them removed from here, but Rayne said she’d take care of them.” He grinned. “She is doing a good job of it so far if you ask me. They seem to think she’s an employee here and won’t believe anything else she says to them.”
“Do me a favor, Barkly. Can you go to the desk in my office and bring me the ring in the top drawer? I was going to give it to her—” Barkly hugged him. Tightly too. “I take it you’re happy with the news?”
“Yes, I am, sir. Miss Rayne is a wonderful woman, and I’m glad to see you’re not nearly as dumb as we’ve heard you are.” Laughing again, he said he’d heard it from the other butlers from the larger home. “She is a good match for you. As well as someone that will not sit back on her butt when there needs to be something said. Yes, she will make a great addition to this family.”
Entering the room, Barkly right behind him, Wats walked up to Rayne and pulled her into his arms for a kiss. Much, he could see, to the displeasure of the aunts. Turning to Barkly, he asked if he’d get them some refreshments, as well as something to nibble on until dinner, as he and Rayne were headed out soon.
“Now, as I’m not caught up on things going on here, why don’t you two have a seat, shut up, and let my wife to be here explain to me what’s going on.” He looked at Rayne before speaking again. “I planned on proposing soon, but we keep getting sidetracked.” The first woman—he was going to call her mustache, as she had one better than his—told him she wasn’t going to shut up or have a seat. “I’m not sure where you thought I was asking you to have a seat, but I’m not going to tolerate you talking to Rayne like you are. Nor, as I said, did I ask you what was going on. Rayne, honey, why are these loud-mouthed women here?”
“They’re my father’s sisters. The one that is wearing pink is my Aunt Rebecca Oliver. The other, in green, is my Aunt Selma Woolen. This is my fiancé, Doctor Watson Wilkerson.” Rayne huffed as she sat down on the couch. “Wats, these are the women I was telling you about when I moved in here.”
She’d not said much more than that they were around, and he pretended he knew all about them. To him, they were bullies. Whatever they were there for, he wasn’t going to be run over by them, nor was Rayne.
“Rayne is claiming that she is going to be living here, with you, for the rest of her life. I will decide who she lives with and for how long.” Barkly brought in the tea trolley and asked Rayne if she wanted to pour. Saying that she did, he could have burst out laughing when she did just that, like a prim and proper lady. “At least you’ve learned a thing or two from staying here as a servant.”
“I’m not his servant, as I have told you several times already. If you call me that again, Aunt Rebecca, I’m going to smash this lovely teapot upside of your head and be done with you.” She smiled at the other aunt. “Would you like lemon or sugar, Aunt Selma?”
“Two, my dear. Just so you’re aware, I didn’t want to come here. When she saw it in the newspaper about all the students at your college being promoted to RNs, she just had to come.” Wats leaned back on the couch as Rayne told her other aunt that she hadn’t realized it was in the paper. “Oh my, yes. It was talking about how you and the others were taking your boards today and were going to help out with this lovely town.”
“Do you mind not prattling on and on about things you do not know about?” Aunt Becky, he decided to call her, pinned him with a pointed stare. “You. What do you do for a living that makes it so you can afford this extravagant home? She said, doctor. Are you some sort of doctor that sells drugs made right here on the grounds? I wouldn’t put it past my niece to do something just that way.”
“What do you mean?” He turned down the cup of tea and glanced at Aunt Selma, and noticed that she was trying very hard not to laugh. Wats had had enough of women bullying him around. “I’m a doctor of medicine. My cousin, Mars, he’s a chemist. He is opening a compound drug store right here in—”
She cut him off. “Why do you think I’m going to care what your cousin does, young man? I asked you what you did for a living. And I don’t believe for one second that a doctor, as you’re claiming to be, would attach themselves to someone like my niece. She’s not what people would call refined.” Wats looked at the aunts, then at Rayne. She was pissed, and he wasn’t helping, he didn’t think. “I demand that you call this off, whatever you call this travesty that you’re pulling.”
“Aunt Selma, do you think I’m lying about my love for Rayne?” She shook her head and sipped her tea. When she put it down on the table in front of her, she picked up the scone that was handed to her and nibbled on it. “Good to know.”
Before he could toss the older lady out of the house, which he wanted to do badly, Mr. Oliver came into the room and looked hopping mad. The first thing he did was look at Becky and ask her what the Sam hill she was doing there.
“I’ve come to make sure you’re being taken care of.” Selma huffed this time.
“Shut your mouth, Selma. You know as well as I do that this is just a ruse to get all his money.”
“What money? Last I looked in my account I had less than enough to buy me a newspaper. Rayne here would have to lend me some money before she’d be able to rob me blind. Now, tell me what you’re doing here. And you’d better not be lying to me again, young lady. I’m still your father, and I’m not going to be happy with anything less than the truth. Talk.” She asked him what he was doing here. “I live here. Same as Rayne does. They’re getting together if my eyes are right. But this here young man has welcomed me with open arms, more than you ever did. He’s been taking good care of me too. Never had anyone worry so much about me as an old man as these here two have. Got me a cell phone. Someone to cart my hiney around too. I even got me some walking around money when I need it. Now, you get your butts right back home or wherever rock you slimed your way out from under, and leave the two of us alone.”
“It said in the newspaper that your home has been torn down.” James looked at Selma, who shrugged, then back at Becky when she continued. “I thought it would be just like her to toss you aside and fend for herself.”
“You get out of here, Becky before I have to take a switch to your backside. Don’t you think I’m too old to do it either. Of all the things to say—how much have you done for me? Answer me that. Since you left home, you’ve not done nary a thing for either of us. Even when your momma died, you didn’t bother coming around.” She said she was working. “Working that evil mind you have there. I don’t want you coming back here. I’m sure that Rayne and Wats here will agree with me when I tell you that if you darken the doorway here ever again, he’ll call the police on you. You’re a terrible person, Becky. You have an evil mind and a nasty mouth.”
Becky stood up, and Wats did as well. She looked over at Selma and told her they didn’t seem to be welcome here and that they were leaving. Selma picked up her scone, and Wats thought for sure she was going to ask if she could take it with her. Instead, she leaned back on the couch she was sitting in and looked at her sister.
“You’re not welcome here, Becky. I am, I hope.” Rayne nodded, and Selma nodded. “Thank you. I’ve only just decided I’d like to live close to the two of you and my dad. I think I’d enjoy having some young company around me in my golden years. Are you going to have children?”
They both answered yes that they wanted several. James danced a jig, an honest to goodness jig, right there in the living room. Then he looked at his other daughter, asking her why she was still there.
/> She glared at Rayne. “She’s filled your head with terrible things, Father. I won’t have it.” Wats stood up. “Oh, do sit down and behave before I have to smack you around.”
“Try it, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do. Now, you were told to get out of our home. You aren’t welcome here. I’ve had enough bullies in my life that I don’t need someone else trying to take the wind out of my sails, as I’ve heard James say several times since he’s been living here. So, unless you want to be the next headline in the newspaper or the obits—I don’t care which—you will leave here. On your own, or I put you out.” She told him she didn’t care for his tone. “Like I give a fuck what you care for. Barkly, call the police for me, please. Ms. Oliver has overstayed her welcome. And if you wouldn’t mind making up one of the suites for Ms. Woolen, I do believe she’s going to be staying here.”
“Oh, how lovely. I’m not even going to pretend like I don’t want you to do that for me. I believe I will enjoy this even more.” Selma stood up and kissed him on the cheek. “Yes, you’re a good man, Watson. A very good man indeed.” She looked at her niece. “Come on, Rayne, let’s you and I go find us something more substantial to have to eat. Why don’t we? I’ve been eating crap food long enough. Dad, I’m so happy you’ve found a good man for Rayne. She of all people deserves it.”
As they left the room, he and James stood there with Rebecca while either the police took her out or she left on her own. He wondered if she’d say she’d change her ways. But the moment she lifted her chin, he knew that there was no changing her mind about them or what was going on.
“I’m going to have you investigated. The moment I find any dirt on you, I’m going to put it in the paper.” Wats didn’t even bother telling her to go ahead. “You’ll rue the day you messed with me, young man. See if I don’t make you suffer.”
Watson Page 5
