Ready for Love

by Gwyneth Bolton

  But she couldn’t pass out, because Terrill was still holding her and still working those well aimed circular thrusts that kept her orgasm going and just on the edge, keening to burst over again.

  She would have cried out, but his tongue was in her mouth and taking over. All she could do was kiss him back and move her hips in time with his and try to prepare herself for the next big one.

  As soon as she thought about preparing, Terrill clutched her hips tighter and held her even closer than she thought possible. She was straddling his lap and she didn’t think she could get closer, but she was wrong. Her breasts flattened against his rippled chest and her pelvis seemed to meld to his. His thrusts came quicker and sharper and with even more precision. And soon the blinding orgasm returned full blast.

  She tried to cry out again but with her lips pressed firmly against his and their tongues still dueling for supremacy, her cry got lost in his loud, gut-wrenching groan as they both reached completion and found release.

  “Samantha, would you like to come on in the kitchen with us to finish up the side dishes? We can have girl talk while the guys finish the grilling.” Celia Hightower called out for Joel’s new girlfriend to join them in the kitchen and Maritza smiled. She really loved hanging with all the Hightowers, mostly because of what the family meant to her best friend, Penny, and her secret man, Terrill.

  She never would have thought that one day she would get used to thinking of Terrill as her man. But that was how she thought of him. She wasn’t ready to shout it from the rooftop or anything like that. But she did feel that way.

  “Sure, I’d love to.” Samantha got up and followed them all into the kitchen.

  Celia stopped before opening the screen door. She paused for a good long second before speaking. “Sophie, would you like to join us?”

  “No, I wouldn’t.” Sophie turned her head so quickly Maritza thought that bun was going to come apart. “Too many…cooks…Mmmmph.”

  Relief didn’t begin to describe the expression on Celia’s face. “What about you, Carla?”

  Maritza had to admit, she was very glad the evil woman said no, because she had one time to come out of her face and call her a video ho like she had Penny, and it would be on.

  Crazy Carla was smooched up to Gerald and barely gave Celia a second glance. “Y’all know I don’t cook. But y’all need to hurry up and get this party started. I’m hungry.”

  “Eat some chips or something.” Penny rolled her eyes at her mother.

  “I don’t want chips! I want food. F-O-O-D. Food.” Carla snuggled with Gerald again, but not before giving their daughter the evil eye.

  “Okay, Carla, we’ll have things ready in a sec.” Celia Hightower just shook her head.

  Celia Hightower was so unflappable that it always left Maritza a little in awe. She had no idea how the woman put up with that crazy Sophie all those years.

  “My mother is a nut.” Penny rolled her eyes, but Maritza could tell that her friend had long since stopped being embarrassed by her mother.

  Maritza remembered when they had first met all those years ago on a video shoot. Back then Penny rarely ever mentioned her mother. Now she talked about her mom all the time and the love she had for her mother was clear in her voice.

  “Your mother is hilarious. Ain’t no shame in her game, that’s for sure.” Maritza had to laugh just thinking of some of the things Carla had said that day alone. “She cracks me up. I love Carla.”

  “Carla is real. And she tells it like she sees it, that’s for sure,” Celia said. “Okay, Penny you’re on pasta salad and Maritza can help you with that. I guess we can share the family recipe with her since she’ll end up with Terrill one day and he’s like a son to me, so that makes her family.”

  Maritza froze where she stood and for a moment she almost thought that their family and friends had somehow found them out. Panic didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. Was their secret finally out? It couldn’t be.

  She decided to just play it off the way she always did.

  “Terrill? No way. He works my last nerves. El stupido. Urgh!” Maritza rolled her eyes as if she hadn’t just woken up with Terrill and had him make sweet, sweet love to her that very morning. She shuddered at the memory as she turned to Penny.

  “Why didn’t you tell me he was going to be here, chica? I didn’t know he was coming until he had the nerve to call me and to try and tell me what to wear to the cookout! Like I don’t know how to dress myself?”

  Maritza almost laughed out loud because it was more like he had picked out her sleek Maxi-style yellow sundress and told her how sexy she looked in it…

  But they didn’t need to know all that.

  Celia and Penny exchanged those know-it-all looks of theirs and it almost took Maritza off her game.

  “Anyway, you’re just like family anyway. So we’ll trust you with the family recipes,” Celia offered. “And you, Samantha, sweetie, can help me with my signature potato salad.”

  Maritza frowned even though she was glad Celia was moving on to Joel’s new girlfriend, Samantha, now. Samantha’s nervous laughter gave away just how much Mrs. Hightower had gotten to her just by asking her to help with the potato salad.

  “Are you sure you want to share the family recipes with me, Mrs. Hightower?” Samantha asked nervously.

  “Of course, Samantha. Both you and Maritza are family whether you realize it or not.” Celia chuckled softly to herself and a devilish little gleam lit her eyes.

  As Samantha mixed up the potato salad, Maritza took a seat on the barstool next to her. She figured she would do some more damage control and make sure that Celia and Penny were off her scent as far as Terrill was concerned. “Anyway, can you believe this woman had to come and snatch up the second hottest Hightower brother?” Maritza held out her hand waiting for Penny to show some love.

  “That’s right, second hottest!” Penny slapped Maritza five. “Y’all better recognize. My baby Jason is the hottest by far.”

  “All my sons are hot, including Terrill, who is just like a son to me since he, Penny and Jason spent so much time here driving me nuts when they were kids.” Celia nudged Penny with her elbow.

  Maritza put on her most practiced scowl. As far as she was concerned, Terrill Carter was the hottest man on the planet: her man was a taller, finer, more built Michael Ealy. But she wasn’t about to let anyone know that’s what she thought.

  “What woman snatched up the second hottest Hightower? Is she here? Who’s the second hottest in your opinion, Maritza? I think I have to side with Mrs. Hightower on this one. They’re all equally hot.” Samantha asked with a giggle.

  “You, chica.” Maritza laughed. “You came up in here today with the second hottest Hightower,” Maritza said and drew out Joel’s name for emphasis. The shocked expression on Samantha’s face was priceless. What was even more priceless was the way that shock quickly turned to possessiveness.

  Maritza was glad she didn’t really have any interest in any of the Hightowers, especially Joel, because the evil eye Samantha was giving her let her know that she would have to fight for him.

  Samantha shook her head then smiled and shrugged.

  Maritza couldn’t let the glare that Samantha had just given her slide, though. “Look at her. I’m scared of you, girl! You gave me the look like, sorry, chick, he is mine. Did y’all see how she looked at me?”

  Celia Hightower looked as pleased as the cat that had eaten the canary.

  Penny just smiled.

  “All right, ladies, let’s take this food out there before Carla starts giving us a piece of her mind.” Celia shuttled them out of the kitchen, making sure everyone had a bowl or platter in hand.

  “Goodness knows we don’t want to get her started.” Penny rolled her eyes.

  The women carried the various salads and side dishes outside and put them on the big teak picnic table.

  As most of the Hightower events went, the cookout was fine until Aunt Sophie decided to show he
r behind and pretty much call Samantha and Penny a pair of nappy headed hoes. It was cool to see somebody bring it to Sophie, finally, because Celia and Penny cut the woman way too much slack as far as Maritza was concerned. And they kept Carla on a tight leash, because if they ever let that woman loose on Sophie that would be it. But Samantha told Sophie off.

  “…and for the record, I’m happy to be nappy. If I ever have kids, they will wear their natural nappy hair until they are old enough to make decisions about how they want to represent themselves in the world.” Samantha might have just as well snapped her fingers three times in a circle by the time she was finished.

  Maritza wanted to stand up and cheer because she had been waiting for someone to cuss Sophie out since she met the woman. Maritza and Sophie were both AKAs and Maritza’s mother, also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, would skin her alive if she disrespected an older sorority sister the way she wanted to get at Sophie. She had to figure that the sorority bond was the only thing keeping Celia from knocking Sophie out, since Celia was also an AKA, although she had just become active again after Sophie had turned her off on the sisterhood years ago. They were even thinking about getting Penny to pledge grad chapter just to piss Sophie off.

  Thank God for Samantha. Maritza gave her the thumbs-up, but Samantha was too busy looking a little ashamed to notice.

  Carla started a slow clap.

  Maritza started laughing then. Carla was a fool and a half. And poor Samantha looked like she wanted to crawl under the table.

  “Ha! You tell her, new girl! Ha! You finally got one who will stand up to your ol’ hateful behind. She’s not gonna cut you any slack like Penny did. I like her. Joel, you need to go on and wife her like the young kids say. She’s a keeper. Ha!” Carla stopped clapping and let out a gut busting laugh.

  Maritza almost fell out of her chair laughing then. Everyone was either laughing or trying to hold their laughter in. Only Sophie kept her sour face on and continued to give Samantha the evil eye.

  “So, Samantha, are you from around here?” Patrick made an obvious attempt to change the subject.

  “Yeah, I don’t hear a Jersey accent.” Lawrence eyed her inquisitively.

  Okay, once again y’all are going to just ignore Sophie’s bad behavior and let this stuff ride. Changing the subject is not going to change Sophie. Maritza wanted to tell the Hightowers what she was thinking and had to bite the inside of her cheek not to do it. She was used to keeping it real and saying it like she meant it. And boy, did she have a lot to say about how they let Sophie get away with her crap all the time.

  “I’m from Chicago. I came out here for graduate school and I got my MS in Occupational Therapy and Doctor of Physical Therapy degrees from Seton Hall University. Since I ended up getting a job in the area, I decided to stay.” Samantha seemed like she really didn’t want any of the attention on herself.

  Maritza had to admit the credentials were impressive. Joel had picked a winner. She was smart, down-to-earth and could stand up to Sophie, a definite winner.

  “Chi-town, huh? So how are you liking Jersey?” Jason asked.

  “I like it. I love my job. I’ve met some really cool people. It’s nice.” Samantha nodded and smiled.

  “What made you decide to become a physical therapist?” Terrill asked.

  Maritza’s eye shot up at the sound of Terrill’s voice. For a minute, she wondered if he was also impressed. Of course he is, she thought. Who wouldn’t be with Samantha? Maritza had no problem giving other women props when they deserved it. But it still stung a little to think that Samantha was exactly the kind of wholesome sister that men like Terrill should marry.

  “I’ve always been interested in the health care field. I realized early on that nursing wasn’t for me. And the idea of actually seeing a lot of blood didn’t really move me.” She shuddered briefly before continuing. “But helping people with the after-stages of recovery, after the nurses and medical doctors have cleaned up all the blood and gore, that worked for me.”

  “Mmmmph.” Sophie rolled her eyes.

  Maritza shook her head. Sophie wasn’t going to rest until either she was thrown out or somebody knocked her out.

  “Do you think it’s professional to be dating your patients, Samantha?” Sophie said the woman’s name like she was saying a curse.

  “Aunt Sophie, let it go.” Joel narrowed his eyes at his aunt.

  “Yeah, Sophie, let it go. You’ve just been allowed back at the house after the way you treated Penny.” There was an edge in Jason’s voice as he addressed his aunt.

  “I’m not letting anything go and neither should you all. I mean really, I’d like to see these DPT and MS degrees she claims she has, ’cause it looks like she is abusing her professional relationship to gain an M-R-S degree.” Sophie shook her head and let out a mocking laugh. “You better be careful, Joel. Mmmmph. Physical therapist, my behind, more like a cheap masseuse. Professional? Mmmmph… I bet she’s a pro all right.”

  “That’s enough, Aunt Sophie. If you can’t respect my guest you are going to have to leave,” Joel snapped.

  “Ha! Don’t let the doorknob hit you, Sophie,” Carla taunted.

  “Sophie, please just shut up,” Celia implored.

  “I’m not shutting up while you allow your sons to ruin our family name with their poor taste in women. Am I the only one who can see what is going on here? You’re building up a little army of harlots, Celia. But I won’t be silenced by the likes of you.”

  Celia pursed her lips, narrowed her eyes and turned right to James.

  Maritza had seen her mother give her father that look a million times. It was usually when either she or her brothers were acting up and her mother knew if she handled it they might have one less kid. Celia Hightower had the classic Black woman’s I’m-about-to-hurt-someone look.

  James got up and kissed Celia on the cheek without missing a beat. “Babe, wrap my food up for me while I take my sister home.” He stood by his sister. “You’re going to have to stop this, Sophie. You’re getting ridiculous. Worse and worse.”

  Sophie huffed and gave Celia, Penny and Samantha the evil eye before standing.

  “I wonder if your place of employment knows you are whoring yourself with your patients,” Sophie hissed at Samantha and then spun around and left without another backward glance.

  Samantha made a move to get up from the table but Joel stopped her.

  “Well, I think you handled Sophie very well, chica,” Maritza said.

  “For once I have to agree with Maritza. You held it down with class and Black power. ‘I find your comments insulting and self-loathing,’” Terrill offered with that sexy chuckle of his.

  Maritza’s heart warmed for a minute when her man agreed with her. Then she remembered that no one was supposed to know that he was her man. And she was going to have to tell him to stop agreeing with her in public. They were archrivals, for goodness sake.

  “Don’t be agreeing with me. Find your own opinion.” Maritza rolled her eyes at Terrill for emphasis when all she wanted to say was thank you for agreeing with me, baby.

  “Okay, enough arguing for one day. I can’t wait until you two get together,” Jason teased.

  Maritza crossed her arms, mustering up all the defiance and outrage she could.

  Terrill started fiddling with the food on his plate and she knew she was going to have to have a talk with him about his game face. He could never be her partner playing poker. His poker face sucked. And he had too many tells. He was going to blow up their spot and then everyone would know.

  “Carla, pass me the potato salad,” Gerald said. Penny’s father rarely spoke a word around large groups. Maritza could only surmise that Carla did enough talking for the both of them.

  “Just ’cause you put a ring on my finger don’t mean you got a maid, too. Your hands can reach.” Carla twisted her lips to the side. “I’ll tell you, these men forget they can do things once they get a woman to do things for them
.”

  Penny let out an exasperated sigh. “Mommy, it’s rude to reach. Pass Pops the potato salad.”

  “Rude, spude. Whatever. We are all family now. The Hightowers already know how we do.” Carla folded her arms and twisted her lips to the side.

  Penny gave Carla an intense, reproachful stare.

  “Oh, brother! Fine.” Carla passed Gerald the bowl.

  “Thank you so much, love of my life.” Gerald teased his woman with a smile.

  “This party is boring. Y’all don’t have any music?” Carla complained.

  Penny shook her head and Maritza almost felt sorry for her friend.

  “Hold your horses, Carla. I have music. James got me one of those iPod thingies and he put all these oldies but goodies on it. I have it right over here.” Celia got up and turned on her iPod. “I’ll put it on shuffle so it will just mix up the songs.”

  “All you got on there is old songs? I wanna hear some new music.” Carla folded her arms across her chest.

  The music started wafting through the air and Carla stopped short.

  “Oh…hey, wait a minute. That used to be my cut!” Carla screamed and then started singing. “It only takes a minute, girl…to fall in love…” She grabbed Gerald’s hand and they started dancing.

  The song brought back memories of growing up when her parents were both in graduate school and they couldn’t really afford to go out much. They used to play music and dance together, everything from soul music to salsa.

  “Hey, I remember my dad used to play this song all the time. Who sings this?” Maritza stood and started swaying to the music.

  “Tavares.” Terrill watched her move as he answered the question.

  For a minute she got caught up in his gaze and wished they were alone so that she could sway with him and feel his body next to hers.

  She watched Samantha and Joel swaying together. Then Jason pulled Penny into his arms. Gerald and Carla were still moving to the music as well.

  “May I have this dance?”