Let Me Love You (McClain Brothers Book 1)

by Alexandria House

  So, like I said, things were good. Everyone was getting along. Bridgette and Jo even seemed to enjoy the cooking lessons Aunt Ever was giving them. Nat was as happy as she always was. My dozens of cousins had been dropping in all day that Wednesday, just to see me and meet Jo. Leland and the twins had arrived. Leland was staying with me and the twins plus Nolan’s latest foreign girlfriend—a different one from the one I’d met at the benefit—were bunking at my mom’s place on the property. The only hiccup was that I couldn’t reach Ella. I had been calling and texting her for two days to see when her flight was to arrive, since she’d decided to take a later one than the one Courtney originally booked for her, and had gotten no answer. Shit, I was getting worried that something had happened to her. I was contemplating calling Esther when she finally called me back, informing me that she had arrived in Houston and was taking an Uber to my place.

  “Why the hell would you do that?” I barked into the phone. “That ain’t safe! I was gonna have your cousin, Toot, pick you up.”

  “I didn’t feel like waiting for a ride to get to the airport,” she whined into the phone.

  “If you’d texted me back or answered your phone and told me what time you were getting in, your ride woulda been there waiting on you!”

  “I’m sorry! My phone’s been acting up. Can you stop yelling at me?”

  I sighed as I clutched my forehead and glanced up at Leland, who was frowning at me. We had been watching a football game despite my worry over her radio silence, and while I was relieved to hear from her, my daughter could be just as frustrating as every other woman I’d ever known. “Look, just be safe…and next time, stay in contact with me.”

  “Okay. Sorry, Daddy. See you in a little bit.”

  “All right.”

  “You good, bro?” Leland asked, as I ended the call and rested the phone on my thigh.

  I shook my head as I dragged my hand down my face. “Shit, I don’t know. Kids, man.”

  He chuckled. “And you gon’ have another one to deal with. Little Nat. You a glutton for punishment, man!”

  “Nah, the good outweighs the bad when it comes to being a father. You’ll see.”

  “Shiiiit, I ain’t having no kids. That’s why I like the older women. They got that baby fever shit out of their system. All they want is some Leland.” He popped the collar of his polo shirt.

  I gave him a smirk. “The way you always volunteering at them youth programs? You love kids.”

  “I like kids, but I don’t want any. I’m too selfish for that shit.”

  “Whatever, nigga. You young. You got time to change your mind.”

  “I bet I won’t. But you do you. I can see why you’d be willing to go down that road again with Jo, though. She’s good for you. Real sweet, too. Nothing like that damn Esther. I couldn’t never stand her.”

  “Shit, nobody that shared my blood could. I just couldn’t see her for what she was.”

  He shrugged. “Hell, I’da probably been just as blind to her if I was you. She still turning heads.”

  “Don’t you get no ideas over there.”

  “Naw, man. I like ‘em older, but I also like for them to have a heart. Esther ain’t got no soul.”

  “You ain’t never lied. Let me go see what Jo is up to.”

  “Yeah, I’ma go in here and see if I can sneak me a piece of Aunt Ever’s sweet potato pie.”

  “Cool. Just leave that pineapple upside down cake alone. I had her make that special for Jo.”

  “Damn, you done told me that ten times! I ain’t gon’ mess with your woman’s cake, man!”

  “Nigga, you better not.”

  Me and my little brother both left the theater room, him heading to the kitchen and me to the great room where I knew Jo and Nat were. Bridgette and Tommy had left early that morning to do some sight-seeing, so they said. Jo was convinced they were in some hotel room fucking. That was probably closer to the truth, but shit, whatever.

  The music met me before I made it to the room, Diana Ross’s Upside Down. While Jo was a true hip hop head, her musical tastes where still greatly influenced by her mother, a fact I found endearing. As hard as her upbringing had been, she still held a profound respect for her mom. Rounding the corner, I entered the room, leaning against the wall undetected as I watched her and Nat dance to the music. I loved seeing this, the two of them cutting loose, little Nat, who was too young to know the lyrics, belting them out at the top of her lungs nonetheless. Jo holding her tiny hands, leading her in the dance. But at the same time, I knew these little dance parties coincided with her having something heavy on her mind. She and Nat danced and sang to the clean versions of damn near every Outkast song in existence for a week after my arrest. And what made my heart sink was that I knew what was on her mind today—Ella.

  And I wished there was something I could do about her discomfort and Ella’s funky attitude. Sure, she’d been playing the part of a respectful teenager in my face, but that morning when I suggested an outing with both Ella and Nat, Jo broke down and told me about Ella’s behavior when I wasn’t paying attention and said she wanted to shelter Nat from it. I understood, figured that was why she made a point to take Nat to Ms. Sherry whenever she knew Ella was going to be around, and despite that, Jo still agreed to come here with me knowing it was tradition for Ella to come, too, because she believed having so much family around would buffer things. Now it seemed she wasn’t so sure.

  As I stood there watching her rock her hips to the song, I wondered why this all had to be so hard, why everyone—Ella, Esther, Bugz, the fucking world at large—couldn’t just get with the damn program. All I wanted to do was love this woman and make a life with her. Shit, was that really too much to ask?

  Closing my eyes, I sighed, and opened them when I heard a sound that felt like velvet to my ears. Jo’s back was still to me as she sang along with Diana Ross, and Jo’s ass could sing. No, bump that. She could sang. She could sang like a motherfucker.

  Shit!

  My mouth hung open as she continued belting out the lyrics, out-singing the hell out of The Boss on her own song. She hit the chorus and spun around, clutching her chest and shrieking when she saw me, “You scared the hell outta me!”

  “Scared! Scared! Scared!” Nat echoed. I smiled at her, wondering why she didn’t pick out her mama’s curse word like she did all the time with me.

  “My bad, baby. Why you ain’t tell me you can sing?” I asked, as the music faded out.

  She frowned a little. “I don’t know. I mean, you think I can sing?”

  “You don’t know you can sing? No one ever told you that?”

  “My mom, but she wasn’t a reliable source.”

  “Bridgette? Bugz?”

  “Bridgette’s heard me before. Look, I don’t sing around people, Ev. I don’t like singing around people,” she said, dropping her eyes.

  “I don’t know why the he—why not. Baby—” Missing You began to play, and I cut myself off.

  “What?” she asked. “Something wrong?”

  “Sing this one.”

  “Huh? Ev, I just told you I don’t sing in front of people. If I knew you were in here, I wouldn’t have been singing before.”

  “Okay, but sing this one.”

  She sighed and shook her head as Nat toddled over to me and tugged on my pant leg.

  Picking Nat up, I said, “Please, Jo Lena?”

  “Pweeeeease,” Nat sang.

  Jo blew out a breath and scratched her forehead. “I don’t know this one.”

  “Stop lying.”

  “Ev, come on. I’m not even that good.”

  “Damn, girl, can you do anything I ask without fighting me on it?”

  She groaned, “Okaeeeyuh!”

  Taking a deep breath, she finally began singing along with Diana Ross, starting out soft and timid at first. I could see her confidence build note by note, and by the bridge, she was belting the words out. She blew me away! When I say my baby could sing, I’m talkin
g about she was on some Ledisi shit, a strong, rich alto voice, and her ass could do runs, too.

  When the song ended, light applause could be heard behind me. I couldn’t turn to see who it was, because my eyes were locked on this woman with so much heart and talent that she had no idea she possessed. I was in awe, enthralled, and at the same time, my damn heart ached for the little girl inside of her who wasn’t given a fair chance or made to understand just how special she was.

  “Girl! How that voice come out of that little body of yours?!” Aunt Ever yelled, as she stepped up beside me. “Reminds me of little Stephanie Mills!”

  “I been told her she could sing. Won’t listen to me,” Bridgette said, stepping up behind my aunt.

  “Ev, why you ain’t tell me she could sing like that, man?” That was Leland.

  I shook my head. “Just found out myself.”

  “She need to be in the studio, like yesterday,” Leland said.

  Before I could answer, Toot’s voice boomed from the hallway. “Hey, Tick! Your little girl is here. Just opened the gate for her.”

  Jo grabbed Nat from me and headed out the room. “I’m gonna put her down for a nap,” she said softly, but abruptly.

  I sighed, knowing she was just trying to protect her baby from Ella and feeling like shit because she felt she had to.

  Leland gave me a look, and I just shook my head again. “I need to talk to Jo for a second. Let Ella in for me.”

  “A’ight,” he said, still giving me a curious look.

  I left everyone downstairs and trotted upstairs in time to see Jo backing out of Nat’s room and closing the door.

  “I won’t let her be mean to her ever again. I told you I won’t. I shoulda checked Ella the first time she acted like that with y’all the second she did it.”

  Jo gave me a weak smile while placing a hand on my chest. “It was her nap time, Ev. Everything’s okay. I’ll be down to greet Ella in a bit. I’m not running away from her; I just need a few minutes.”

  “Jo—”

  “Ev! Aye, can you come down here?” Leland shouted from downstairs, his voice echoing in the open foyer.

  “Hold on a minute!”

  Jo squeezed her eyes shut. “Please stop yelling.” She pointed toward Nat’s room. “She’s never gonna go to sleep if you keep yelling.”

  “My bad,” I said softly. “Baby, look, I promise things are going to be okay. I’ma make them okay.”

  “Ev, man, you really need to come down here!”

  “Shit!” I groaned.

  “Everett!” Jo hissed, stabbing a finger toward the door again.

  “My bad!” I whispered. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

  She shrugged, and I grabbed the back of my head, rubbing it as I made my way down the stairs. Once I reached the foyer, my footsteps faltered as I found myself face to face with Ella and Esther-motherfucking-Reese.

  31

  “You dropping her off?” I asked, as my eyes jumped from Ella’s guilty face to Esther’s fake innocent one.

  “What? Why would I fly all the way out here to drop her off? She’s not a baby, Everett,” Esther said.

  I scratched my eyebrow. “You got business in Houston or something?”

  “No.”

  My eyes shifted back to Ella as I lifted a brow. “Then what’s going on?” The question was for whichever one of them wanted to answer.

  “Uh, if you don’t need me for anything, I got some calls to make,” Leland said. He was standing by the door, behind Esther and Ella.

  I glanced at him. “Can you tell Jo to come down here?”

  He nodded and left for the stairs.

  I focused on Ella again. She dropped her head, looked up at me, and sighed. “Can I talk to you alone for a minute?” she asked, her eyes pleading with me as much as her voice was.

  I nodded, glanced around us, and took her arm, leading her into the formal dining room.

  Closing the door behind us, I began, “I know you don’t like Jo, but this—”

  “Mom was going to have to spend Thanksgiving alone, Daddy, and she was so sad,” she whined.

  “I get Thanksgiving with you and she gets Christmas. That’s the way it’s always been. This isn’t new for her. What happened to her visiting her mother in London like she’s been doing every Thanksgiving for the last ten, eleven years?”

  “I-I don’t know. They had an argument or something.”

  “So this was your idea?”

  She shrugged, and I knew better anyway. Esther put the bug in her ear and made it seem like Ella made the decision. Now she was manipulating her own child to try and fuck my life up. I’d never hit a woman in my life, but Esther Reese was testing me like a motherfucker.

  There was a tap at the door, and then it slowly opened to reveal Jo peeping in with wide eyes. “Uh…hi, Ella. Everett, your brother said you needed to see me?”

  After Ella mumbled a halfhearted greeting to Jo, I nodded. “Yeah. Come in.”

  “Can she stay?” Ella asked, as Jo eased into the room, eyes darting from me to Ella and back.

  “Let me talk to Jo. I’ll be out in a second,” was my answer.

  Ella hung her head and left, shutting the door behind her. Jo hadn’t moved, was still a few inches from the door.

  “Esther’s here,” I said.

  Jo’s eyes were fixed on me. “I know.”

  “Baby, I don’t know what to say. I knew she was tripping over us, but this?” I blew out a breath and peered over at her.

  Jo inched closer to me. “She wants to stay? Here? With us?”

  I nodded.

  “Ella wants her to stay? This was her idea?”

  “I think she believes it’s her idea, but I know Esther had to plant it.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I frowned. “The hell you think I’ma do? I’ma tell her ass she can’t stay!”

  “Ella’s going to think I told you to make her leave.”

  “I’ont give a shit!”

  “I do! It’s worse than I thought. For her to agree to bringing her mother? She really must dislike me, and if you leave this room and go out there and make her mother leave after she knows you were in here talking to me, she’s going to blame me and hate me for it.”

  I shook my head. “No, she won’t.”

  “Yes, she will! If we’re going to be together—”

  “If?!”

  She closed her eyes and released a breath. “If we are going to be together, I would like to, at some point, have a decent relationship with her. I’d like for us to be able to coexist on some level. That’ll never happen if she thinks I told you to kick her mother out.”

  “We ain’t got enough room.”

  “She’ll have to share with Ella.”

  I stood there for a moment, grabbed the back of my head, and said, “I can’t do it. I don’t even like the fact that I gotta walk the same planet as her ass does. She ain’t sleeping in my house. Fuck that, Jo. For real. Fuck that.”

  She nodded. “Okay, okay. Compromise. She can’t stay here, but she can come to dinner tomorrow.”

  I sighed.

  “Ev, I’m trying to make this work for us. This is your child we’re talking about.”

  “Ella ain’t no baby, Jo.”

  “She’s your baby.”

  “Shit! Okay, okay. Come on.”

  She looked confused and a little wary as I grabbed her hand and led her out the room. My daughter and her mother were still in the foyer. This time, I noticed the Louis Vuitton luggage behind them.

  “Ella, your room is ready for you. I’ll bring your bags up in a little bit. Esther, you can have dinner with us tomorrow, but uh, you can’t stay here, if that’s what you thought was gonna happen.”

  Esther’s eyes widened as she swung them over to Ella, who moved closer to me. “Daddy—”

  I shook my head. “She can come tomorrow for dinner, and that’s it. I love you, Ella, and I wanna share tomorrow with you, but your mom can
’t stay here. It wouldn’t be appropriate or comfortable.”

  “Comfortable for who?” Ella asked.

  I cocked my head to the side. “Excuse me?”

  Ella’s eyes darted to Jo and back to me. “Nothing.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You can go to your room. We gon’ talk some more later.”

  Ella dropped her head and slowly walked toward the stairs. When I was sure she was out of earshot, I fixed my eyes on my ex-wife, and said, “And your conniving ass can get your shit and go. Now.”

  Jo grabbed my arm. “Ev—”

  “Everett, I doubt there are any rooms available this close to the holiday,” Esther softly said.

  With raised eyebrows, I asked, “Do I look like I give a shit?”

  “She can stay at my place with Neil and Nolan. Plenty of food in the ice box,” Aunt Ever offered. She was somewhere behind me. I didn’t turn to see where.

  “That’s okay, Auntie. She won’t appreciate your hospitality, and she can find a room. Toot!”

  My cousin appeared in a matter of seconds. “Yeah, cuz?”

  “Would you drive Esther into the city? She needs to find a room.”

  “Yeah, no problem.”

  Esther glared at me before grabbing her rolling suitcase and following Toot out the front door.

  I couldn’t stand this woman. I couldn’t stand the way she pronounced Ella as “Eller” in that thick accent that it made no sense for her to still have seeing as her ass had been in the US longer than I’d been alive, or the way she smiled with her perfectly white, perfectly straight, gapless teeth, or how graceful she moved, or how flawless her makeup and hair were, but most of all, I couldn’t stand the way she kept eyeing my damn man. Even in a house full of Amersons—members of Everett’s mother’s side of the family—my attention kept making its way back to this woman, this intruder, with her irritating ass.