Let Me Love You (McClain Brothers Book 1)

by Alexandria House

  She picked the phone up and smiled. “I love it. Thanks.”

  “Good. You’re welcome.”

  “Um, Jo? I wanna say I’m sorry again, for acting like I used to act around you and for my mom. You didn’t deserve any of that. I just felt—”

  “Like I was taking your dad away from you? I never had a relationship with my father, so I value the closeness you have with yours. I would leave him before I’d come between the two of you. It would hurt, but I’d do it.”

  She stared at me for a second. “Wow, really?”

  “Yeah, I want him to be happy above anything else.”

  “Well, you obviously make him happy.”

  “So do you, Ella.”

  She dropped her eyes for a moment, then looked back up at me. “I saw Ms. Sherry earlier. Where’s little Nat?”

  That was a surprising question. I didn’t realize she even knew Nat’s name. “With the other sitter.”

  “Oh…how’s she doing?”

  “Good, still always happy no matter what’s going on. We’re thinking about putting her in preschool after the overseas leg of your dad’s tour is over, so she can be around other kids, work on her speech.”

  “I love how she talks. It’s cute, especially the way she says Daddy’s name.” She glanced at her phone, then toward the doorway to the ballroom. “There’s Tommy. Gotta go. Talk to you later?”

  “Sure.”

  I sat and watched as she ran into her dad and they hugged. Then he came to me, reaching for my hand. “Sorry, I got held up. Ran into a fan in the lobby. Let’s go upstairs.”

  I smiled. “Lead the way.”

  *****

  After two solid months of me ignoring his calls and texts, Sid had common sense enough to schedule a meeting with me through our lawyers. I was done with his ass, to the point that I paid Ms. Sherry to handle his Christmas FaceTime call to Nat. I’d never keep him out of his daughter’s life, but he had no place in mine. If he ever decided to be a real father to Nat, we’d have to arrange everything through a third party. And if he never stepped up and spent time with her, she had Everett. I honestly wished Sid would do both Nat and me the courtesy of disappearing. Neither of us needed his stupid ass.

  There in the conference room in his lawyer’s office, he looked tired, harried as he sat across from me, his lawyer leaning in close, telling him something. His eyes were on me, then on Everett who sat at my side, having refused my request to do this alone. My lawyer—who was actually Everett’s lawyer—sat on the other side of me.

  “On behalf of my client, I first want to thank Ms. Walker for agreeing to meet with us.”

  I just stared at Sid’s lawyer. What was I supposed to say to that? “You’re welcome?”

  Nope.

  “Okay,” his lawyer continued, turning to Sid. “Mr. Walker?”

  “Yeah…Uh, South? Man, can you give us a minute?” Sid’s eyes were trained on me as he spoke.

  “No,” Everett replied matter-of-factly.

  Silence and tension populated the room as the two men in my life—former and current—stared each other down. Sid was the first to break, narrowing his eyes at Everett before sliding them to me. Without a word, he pulled his cell phone out, the same one he’d had nearly since I met him because, while he loved spending money, he refused to upgrade his phone, tapped on the screen a few times, and placed it on the table between us. Soon, voices flowed from the device’s tiny speakers.

  “Hey, thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it. I got industry connects, but not like you. The people you know? Like…wow! They were really able to get this stuff out there fast.”

  I didn’t recognize that first voice, but the second one was distinct.

  “Oh, the pleasure was all mine!” the second voice gushed. “She deserves everything she gets.”

  Everett dropped my hand, the one he had been clutching under the table. His brows knitted as he peered down at the phone.

  “Yeah. I don’t get what they see in her ass, but maybe the world will now. Nasty bitch.”

  I straightened in my seat. Now, I recognized the first voice, Sid’s side piece turned second wife, ugly-ass Sonya. The hell?

  “I can’t believe he left his phone lying around knowing that footage was on it,” the crisply accented voice returned.

  “Uh…yeah. Me either.” Sonya’s voice was strained, as if she suddenly wanted the conversation to end.

  “Well, let me know if you need me to leak any of the other pictures or videos. I’ll gladly get them to the right people.”

  “I will. Thanks, Esther.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  The recording ended, filling the rectangular room with thick, almost tangible silence until Sid said, “This what I been calling trying to tell you. I didn’t leak that shit, Jo. I’ve done a lot of stuff, but I wouldn’t do nothing like that to my little girl’s mom. Or to the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Everett shake his head. “Motherfucker—” he began.

  “Man, I don’t mean no disrespect. I know she don’t want my ass no more. I know she with you now. You got her. You won. I’m just stating facts. I love her, was dumb as fuck for leaving her and my little girl. Now I gotta divorce Sonya’s ass. Done already left her.”

  My eyes shot over to Sid. “What?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I left her stupid, jealous ass. She knew how we got together, knew I still wanted you from jump because I told her that shit, more than once. She knew me and her was a business arrangement, just tried to act like she didn’t care at first when she really did. Sat there and acted like me wanting you didn’t bother her, then she pulled this shit. So her ass had to go.”

  “Dunn didn’t have nothing to do with this?” Everett asked.

  Dunn? I shot a curious glance at Everett, but his eyes were on Sid, who shook his head.

  “Nah. I don’t think so. Can’t be sure though, because I had to fire his ass a couple of weeks ago for thinking he could talk shit about Jo to me.” He turned to me. “You done made some enemies, bab—Jo.”

  “And I have no idea why. How—how’d you get this recording?”

  “When I figured this shit out, realized she was the only somebody who coulda got ahold of my phone like that, I asked her. She tried to deny it but finally admitted it and spilled all the damn beans, told me she sneaked my phone, found them videos and shit, and asked that England ho’ to help her. Said they been talking for a while behind my back, hating on you. Sonya in the industry pretty deep, so I didn’t believe her when she said ole girl helped her, made her call her right in front of me and taped that shit. Almost messed up and let that pip-pip-cheerio muh-fucker know I was listening when Sonya started tryna talk shit about you during that call.”

  I just sat there. I mean, what was I supposed to say or do in the face of something like this? This was pure insanity! On one side, you have Sonya who screwed my damn husband, then moved in with him after he left me alone and pregnant, and she had the nerve to hate me? What kind of shit is that? Then there was Esther, a woman who lost her man because she couldn’t keep her legs closed to any and everybody, a woman with a sick obsession with said man, a woman who couldn’t fathom how and why he could move on after more than ten years of being divorced from her to the point that she would be a part of this mess. She hated me, literally hated me, and why? Because he loved me? So, that was my fault?

  These fools were seriously touched in the head.

  As Sid’s lawyer explained that they were taking the recording to the DA—who was considering charging Sid with revenge porn, AKA nonconsensual pornography—and anticipated the investigation shifting to Sonya and Esther, I watched Everett. His eyes were glued to the silent cell phone resting on the table, and I could almost see the gears shifting in his mind as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.

  “…and we hope this evidence is also sufficient enough for you to consider dropping your civil suit against my client.” S
id’s lawyer said.

  I had opened my mouth to agree when Everett shot to his feet.

  “Ev?” I asked, getting to my feet next to him.

  “Man, don’t do it. I see that look in your eyes. You do that shit, and I’m moving in on your territory. I want Jo back and I’m about to be a free man again. Just saying,” Sid said. I never thought I’d appreciate anything this fool ever let leave his mouth, and while he made it sound like I had no choice in the matter, his words did make Everett take pause.

  He stared down at Sid, who was still seated. “Look, nigga, don’t make me fuck—”

  Sid held up both hands. “South, man…I’m tryna help you. I know you wanna go kick that fish and chips ho’s ass right now, just like I wanna kick Sonya’s, but I already almost lost my record deal off this revenge porn shit and I ain’t tryna get locked up, either. And ain’t your ass already on probation?”

  “You mean for kicking your ass, the same ass I’m about to come across this table and kick again because it ain’t shit for me to fuck you up?”

  Sid shrugged. “Man, I’m just saying…chill on ole girl. You can’t come back from beating a woman’s ass. Well, unless you’re a light-skinned R&B singer. And Sonya wanna get back in with me so bad, she willing to roll on her Big Ben ass in court. She gonna get hers. So…chill.”

  “Yeah, I’ma chill all right,” Everett said. Then he was moving toward the door, making strides I could barely keep up with.

  38

  I ducked into the first restroom I could find to try and get myself together, because I needed to get myself together before I started randomly kicking asses. I hadn’t used the word bitch when referring to a woman in a long time, not since I overheard Ella rapping along with one of my songs when she was eleven or twelve and I realized I didn’t ever want her to think it was okay for a man to call her that, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of another word to call Esther. She was the damn definition of the word—a female dog, a pit bull with a bone clenched in her jaws that she refused to let go of. I was the bone, a big meaty one she was holding in her mouth like it was a fucking steak.

  And if I never hated her before, I despised her ass now.

  Fuck the restraining order; fuck waiting on a prosecutor to take care of her. I needed to do what I should’ve done years ago—show her I was not playing with her, because evidently, my words weren’t making enough of an impact.

  I had moved to leave the restroom when the door flew open and Jo walked in. “You can’t be in here, baby,” I said, trying not to sound homicidal.

  “I can be wherever you are and what you not gonna do ever again, is ignore me when I’m talking to you!”

  I frowned. “When did I ignore you?”

  “When you left that boardroom and I followed you, asking you what you were getting ready to do. You ignored me, ran up in here, and I want to know what you been in here doing!”

  “Using the got-damn restroom! What else?!”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, making her tiny Chanel bag swing back and forth on her wrist. “Oh, I don’t know…maybe violating your own restraining order by calling that miserable bitch of an ex-wife of yours.”

  I shook my head and slid my hand down my face. “Nah, I ain’t called her yet.”

  “Yet? You’re not calling her at all! You’re not going to see her, either! You ain’t doing shit that involves her! Sid is stupid as hell, but he has a point. She is not worth you getting locked up for.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said, as I eased past her and out the restroom door.

  She flew out of the restroom and grabbed my arm. “Nigga, I know you are not dismissing me!”

  “No, I’m not, but I’m also not having a conversation with you in the damn men’s restroom anymore!”

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “We’re arguing. I don’t want to argue. I just wanna pick Nat up from Ms. Sherry’s and go home and be with you. I don’t care about Esther or what she’s trying to do to us. This? Us fighting? That’s giving her what she wants!”

  “What she wants is us apart. You leaving me, Jo?”

  “For the ten-millionth time, no!”

  “Then that motherfucker ain’t getting what she wants. You can’t talk me out of doing what I know I gotta do, baby. Not after this. She went too far. If it had been me she exposed, I’d let it ride, but it was you, and I’d be less than a man to let this slide.”

  “Ev, please! Leave it alone!”

  “I can’t!” My voice echoed so loudly against the slick floors and white walls of the hallway, it almost startled me.

  Jo’s eyes darted around us before she finally stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. “Please…”

  I closed my eyes and rested a hand on her back. She wasn’t playing fair. She never played fair. “Jo…”

  “Just sleep on it. Let’s leave and go get Nat and go home, and you sleep on it. If you wake up in the morning and still wanna do whatever it is you feel you need to do, I won’t stop you.”

  “Jo—”

  “Please, Everett. I am begging you. Please!”

  I sighed as I pulled her closer to me. “All right.”

  I couldn’t sleep, so I knew when he lifted from the bed. I kept my eyes shut as he quietly moved around our bedroom and eased into his bathroom, softly closing the door behind him. Climbing out of bed, I tipped next door to check on Nat, because that’s what mothers do, returning to our room and quickly slipping out of my nightie into a romper and a pair of flip-flops.

  When he finally emerged from the bathroom, he jumped at the sight of me sitting on his side of the bed waiting for him. “Where you going?” he asked, eyeing me.

  “Wherever you’re going.”

  He shook his head. “You can’t go with me.”

  “I bet the hell I can. You were supposed to sleep on this.”

  “I couldn’t. I can never sleep when I know I got unfinished business.”

  “Okay, then let’s finish it.”

  “Who’s gonna watch Nat?”

  “I was just about to get her up so she can go with us.”

  “You know how crazy you sound right now?”

  “You know how crazy you look right now? What’re you planning on doing? Killing Esther?”

  “Don’t worry about that. Just stay here.”

  “Nope.”

  He sighed. “Whatever.”

  I was on his heels when he left the bedroom, but took a detour into Nat’s room. I was almost to her bed when I heard him behind me. “Jo, don’t you wake that baby up.”

  “But we’re leaving, aren’t we? Can’t leave her alone, and it’s too late to call a sitter—”

  “That’s why your ass is staying here.”

  “No, I am fucking not.”

  Everett grabbed his head and groaned. “Fine! Fuck it! Let’s go back to bed, Jo. Come on!” He wasn’t yelling, but he wasn’t whispering either. So I gave him the eye.

  In response, he lifted his eyebrows, and said, “Come the hell on, then, before I mess around and wake her up!”

  We climbed back into bed fully clothed, lying there in silence. I could feel his rage seeping from his pores. It was eating him up, and that broke my heart.

  “Ev, I understand—”

  “No, you don’t. You can’t. There’s no way you’ll ever understand what I’m feeling right now.”

  “I think I have an idea since it’s me out here sucking dick for the world to see and not you.”

  He tore his eyes from the ceiling and rolled over to face me. “That motherfucker has done everything in her power to ruin my life, and I have sat back and let her. I can’t let this shit go anymore! I’m tired of her making a damn fool of me! I gotta show her I’m not playing with her ass anymore!”

  “And you don’t care if they cancel the restraining order for you contacting her? You don’t care if you do something that gets you arrested? You don’t care if you get put in jail? Away from Ella and me and Nat?”

  “I lov
e you, don’t want to spend a second away from you or the girls, but this is something I’ve got to do. If I don’t make her leave us the fuck alone, she’ll never stop.”

  Silence surrounded us as I let his words and the desperation in his voice sink in. He was angry, but more than that, he was hurting—badly. It had to stop, she had to stop, and maybe he was right. Maybe his words would never be enough.

  “Did you call her when you were in the bathroom?”

  I turned to face him completely, watched as he nodded, his eyes on me.

  “You’re supposed to go to her house? What’d you tell her? That you wanted to talk?”

  He nodded again.

  “She ask about me?”

  “Yeah…I lied, told her you weren’t an issue. Not anymore.”

  I bit my bottom lip for a moment. “Call her back. Tell her to come over here.”

  I watched his serious expression morph into a confused one. “What?”

  “Call her, tell her you need her to come over here instead.”

  “Jo, I—”

  “You’re not skipping out of here in the middle of the night, alone. I mean, you weren’t planning to take Chink or Oba, were you?” I asked, referring to the two members of our security team that were spending the night in the guest house.

  “N-no?”

  “Yeah, so…no, that’s not happening. Esther’s a nut. Whatever you need to do, you do it here. I’ll be your witness.”

  “She thinks—I made her think we broke up, remember?”

  “So? Don’t tell her I’m here. Let her in, and I’ll pop up. Call her, Everett.”

  “Jo…”

  “I love you. I don’t want to lose you over some bullshit. I won’t lose you over some bullshit. You wanna confront this fool? You do it here. Call her.”

  Ten minutes later, we were sitting in the family room staring at each other, waiting for Esther’s arrival. We were quiet, tense, and I could tell Everett wanted to back out of this, but not enough to use the phone in his hand to call and cancel with her.

  “You not itching?” he asked.