by Iris Bolling
“Who would have ever thought Pearl would get married before me?” Ruby stood at the sink looking out the kitchen window watching the snow fall lightly outside.
“It isn’t your time,” Sally said as she squeezed her oldest daughter’s shoulder.
“I’ll be thirty-six years old next month.” Ruby washed her hands. “No man and no prospects in sight.” She pulled a dishcloth from the rack and dried her hands. “Diamond is married, and now Pearl. Next it will be Opal and Jade and I will be spending another Christmas alone.”
Sally wondered why her strong willed daughter was feeling this way. “Ruby.” Sally took the towel from her, put it across her shoulder then held her child in her hands. “You are a beautiful woman. Any man is not worthy of you. He has to be someone who is gifted in the art of loving a woman as special as you.” Sally held her daughter a moment longer than necessary.
“I love you, Mom. You’re good.”
Sally laughed and held her daughter at arm’s length. “You will do the same for your daughter one day.”
“Ha.” Ruby took the towel from her mother’s shoulder. “I’ll handle the rolls, you get to clean the greens for that lie.”
“What lie?” Cynthia asked as she burst through the back door with her arms loaded.
“Nothing important,” Ruby replied as she took the box from Cynthia.
“What else do you have?” Sally asked.
“More decorations,” Cynthia replied. “We need more hands.”
“I’ll get the girls.” Sally left the room.
“Oh, Ruby, I have something I think you would be interested in.” Cynthia pulled off her gloves and reached into her pocket. “My friend Ashley Brooks, she’s married to Pearl’s old boss James Brooks. Well, a friend of theirs is looking for someone to be the director of some kind of family services agency they are setting up. I know how you like to work with the homeless and thought you might be interested. The only thing is they are looking for someone to start right away. I told them you would call after Christmas.” She gave Ruby the card. Ruby slid the card in her pocket as Opal, Jade and Phire ran in the room with pajamas on under their coats and boots on their feet.
“What do you need help with?”
Everyone turned to see Pearl standing behind her mother. Sally jumped into action. “You go back upstairs, young lady. I want to have a word about the dress with you.”
“I think it’s sexy.” Phire walked out the back door.
“You think everything is sexy.” Jade walked behind Phire.
“Sexy is in the eye of the beholder,” Opal said as four gentlemen in black suits walked in the back door. “Now, that’s what you call sexy.”
“Opal, let the men in.” She turned to see four more men in black behind Samuel. She stepped aside. “This way, guys.”
Along with her sisters, they stared as the men walked through the house. “Ho, ho, ho and a Merry Christmas to me,” Jade commented.
“Mmm hmm, and amen for the men in black,” Ruby added.
“Why are they here?” Jade asked as she watched them move throughout the house.
“President-elect Harrison and his wife are coming to the wedding,” Ruby replied.
“What?” Phire huffed. “Man, that means I have to be nice to him. I’m still pissed about what he did to Joshua.”
“Girl, he did Joshua a favor.” Cynthia put her box on the table. “Can we get the rest of the things from the van? You will have a whole new crop of men to gawk at later.”
“Really?” Opal swung around.
“For real?” Phire asked.
“Cool.” Jade smiled.
By nine the guys had arrived to move the furniture from the living room and set up chairs for the ceremony. The family room, which had been enlarged a few years ago, was set up with two long dinner tables that sat thirty comfortably. Mathew, Timothy, Adam and Samuel worked diligently getting those tables and chairs positioned just right, they thought. Luke walked in and decided the tables should be arranged in a circle so everyone could face each other. An argument broke out until Theo stepped into the room with Joe.
“Quiet down,” Joe said in a very low voice, yet everyone seemed to hear him. “Theo, how do you want the room?”
Luke walked over to him. “You’ve been waiting for this moment for six years. Make the right decision.”
“Or?”
“You’ll have to deal with me.”
“If you don’t get those tables and chairs set up in the next ten minutes every last one of you will have to deal with me.” She pointed. “Two long rows, one here and one over there, with a center aisle. One table for two in front of the fireplace,” Cynthia yelled from the doorway. Everyone started moving tables and chairs. She turned to Theo. “Where’s your mother?”
“She’s running a little behind.”
Cynthia glared at him. “I’m not taking any mess off of Leonora. If she’s not here at six-fifteen I’m starting without her.”
Diamond overheard the conversation. She waited until Cynthia was in the kitchen then spoke to Theo. “Is everything okay with your mother?”
“She’s had six years to get used to the idea. I’m with Cynthia. If my mother isn’t here at the time indicated, we get married without her.”
Diamond watched as Theo walked away. The atmosphere did not feel right.
Sally sat in the sunroom watching the children. She laughed as Samantha was bossing her little brother around and he was paying her no mind at all.
“Mom.” Diamond entered the room. Her daughter ran to her with her arms raised. Diamond picked her up and kissed her on the cheek. “I think Theo’s mother is going to be an issue.”
Sally looked sideways at her daughter. “In what way?”
“I don’t think she’s coming.”
Sally stood. “Watch the children.”
Diamond watched her mother run out of the room.
“Adam, come with me.”
Adam looked at Diamond in the doorway.
“Now, Adam.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Adam met his mother at the door as the catering staff arrived.
“I wouldn’t go out if I were you,” Roz, Cynthia’s business partner, warned. “They have begun blocking the street off for the President’s arrival.”
“Mom,” Phire called from the top of the stairs. “Pearl is asking for you. She’s freaking out. I think she’s going to faint…again.”
Sally looked up the steps, then out the door and exhaled. “Adam.” She took her coat off. “Go to Theo’s parents’ house. You bring his mother here and I don’t care what you have to do to make it happen. You understand me?”
“I’ll take care of it.” He nodded.
“Do not come back without her.”
“Okay.” Adam shrugged his shoulders.
Sally approached Pearl’s room and could hear her before she reached the door.
“What do you mean, she’s not here?”
“It’s only noon, Pearl,” Opal tried to calm her sister.
“We are supposed to do a walk through at one.”
“Theo is here and you’re here,” Sally said as she walked through the door. “Anyone else is secondary.”
“Joshua isn’t here,” Pearl sighed.
“I know.” Sally hugged her daughter. “You know your brother loves you. He’s dealing with some demons since that Akande woman.” She took Pearl’s hands. “But I feel him. His presence is with us.” Sally smiled through her sadness about Joshua and the urge to whip Theo’s mother’s behind. “Joe,” she called down the hallway. “Will you ask all the girls to come upstairs and bring a few bottles of champagne?”
“You’re getting drunk for the wedding?”
Sally sat down on the bed with the girls. “Of course.”
Joe shrugged his shoulders. “Okay.”
Adam had just closed the door to his SUV when a man appeared in the backseat.
“Hello, little brother.”
The face in the mir
ror was almost unrecognizable. “Joshua.” Adam frowned then smiled. “Mom is going to be ecstatic.”
“Where are you headed?”
“I’ve been ordered to bring Theo’s mother to the wedding, willingly or not.”
“I’ll ride with you.”
The passenger door to the vehicle opened. Monique Day, Joshua’s trainee, slid inside. “Let’s take a ride.”
Adam stared at Monique then looked at Joshua through the rearview mirror. “You know I’ve been approached by the Agency.”
“Drive.”
An hour later, Sally, Pearl, Ruby, Diamond, Opal, Jade, Phire, and Cynthia were on the bed, the floor, and in chairs all in one room laughing.
“I can’t believe you turned the man down three times and he is still around. Now that’s love.” Cynthia smiled as she downed her fourth glass of champagne.
“Okay, I know about the first and this last one, but when was the second one?” Sally asked.
Pearl, who was on her third glass, sat up against the headboard and laughed. “When Brian was shot.”
Cynthia sat up with a gasp. “I remember that. I still cry when I think about it.”
“That was a crazy time.” Pearl closed her eyes at the memory.
“What happened?” Jade asked.
“Girl, someone shot up JD Harrison’s house.” Phire sat up in excitement. “Then Brian, who Pearl was sleeping with…”
“You slept with Brian Thompson, the President’s body man?” Opal asked, surprised at the news.
“It was before he got married and before Theo,” Pearl explained. “And my business.” She frowned at Phire.
“Hey, that man was fine, still is even though he is old now.”
“I don’t care how old he is the man is fineeeeee,” Opal huffed.
“Anyway…back to the proposal.” Pearl rolled her eyes at Phire. “Theo was his surgeon.”
“It was touch and go for days,” Cynthia stated. “We didn’t know if he was going to make it or not.”
“Who shot him?” Jade asked.
“A police officer under order of the Police Chief. See they were trying to take out JD and his family,” Phire explained. “But Brian had gotten them out of the house and went back for the little boy. That’s when he got shot in the back.”
“I missed all of this.” Opal shook her head. “So where did the proposal come in?”
“After Brian was released from the hospital, Pearl acted like she was his personal care giver.” Cynthia laughed. “She wouldn’t let anybody in to see him without going through her first. She spent twenty-four-seven, taking care of him, including baths and things.”
“I would have bathed him, too,” Phire said. Everyone turned to her in surprise. “What? The man is fine. Theo is nobody’s fool.”
“I have to agree with Phire on that one, the man is fine,” Diamond added. They all looked at her. “I love my Zack, but the truth is the light and Brian Thompson with that face, that body and the way he takes people out. Oh yeah, he’s the truth.”
“Are you going to let me tell this story?”
“Yes, Pearl, go ahead and tell your story,” Sally urged.
“One day Theo came over to check him out. Just to ensure he was not over doing it.”
“Theo was checking to make sure you weren’t over doing it,” Sally laughed.
“Hey.” The girls gave high fives around the room.
Pearl had to laugh. “You’re right on that one, Mommy. He was hot when found me dressing Brian. That’s what he pays nurses to do,” Pearl imitated Theo. “He was hot about that thing. Anyway, when I went home that night, he asked me about my relationship with Brian.” She thought for a moment. “I think that was the first time I knew for sure I loved Theo. He asked if Brian was the reason I wouldn’t marry him. I told him no.”
“Why did you wait so long to marry Theo?” Ruby asked.
All eyes turned to Pearl. She finished off another glass of champagne and inhaled. “Honestly?” Everyone nodded and the room took on a serious mood. “At first I wanted to establish my career. Theo is a doctor. I did not believe he would stay with me. I thought one day he would find another doctor or lawyer and leave. I wanted to build my career to try to make him proud of me. Then he started talking about having children and I wasn’t sure I could do that after what happened in high school. But the most important reason was because I did not want to disappoint all of you again, especially you.” She looked at Ruby.
Ruby sat up. “Me?”
“You took care of me every day after I lost the baby. You literally put your life on hold to help me through that time.”
“She did that with me too,” Diamond added with a smile. “Ruby always made sure I understood my body and how boys looked at me.”
“I will never forget when you told me to keep my legs crossed unless I met someone worth having my precious gem.” Jade smiled.
Opal sat up. “You told me, love is the ultimate gift you can give a man. Don’t give it to anyone who is not worthy of you.”
“Ruby didn’t tell me any of that,” Phire laughed. “She told me I didn’t have to worry cause my mouth would keep the boys away.”
“True,” the other sisters laughed.
Sally smiled as the girls praised Ruby. She glanced at Pearl, who sent her a wink. It was at that moment that Sally knew Pearl’s game and realized just how much love her daughter had inside. This was her day, yet she shared this moment with Ruby.
“I wouldn’t be marrying Theo today if Ruby hadn’t taken the time to help me through the trauma of losing a man and a baby.”
Ruby finished her glass, sat it down, then threw a pillow at Pearl.
“Pillow fight,” Phire screamed and all the girls jumped in.
“What’s going on upstairs?” Theo asked as he sat at the table with the men drinking.
“They are getting drunk and talking about you,” Joe replied.
“So, what do you suppose Adam is doing to your mother?” Mathew asked.
Theo spit his drink out. “Adam? What are you talking about?”
Samuel gave Mathew a murderous look. “He is helping her do the right thing.”
“I have to go get my mother.” Theo stood.
Adam appeared in the doorway. “No need.”
“What do you mean, no need, Adam? Where is she? Did you hurt her?”
“No, he didn’t, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.” Monique appeared from behind him. “Afternoon everyone. Where’s Pearl?”
“Upstairs,” Luke replied as he stood. “I’ll show you.”
They reached the room to find feathers from pillows all over the place, in hair, on faces and inside mouths. “What in the hell is going on in here?” Luke asked from the doorway.
“Football,” Phire screamed.
All the girls rushed to the door and tackled Luke. Sally and Cynthia sat back and laughed at the scene.
Monique reached down and pulled Pearl from the pile by the back of her sweater. “I need you for a moment.” She then looked at Cynthia. “Roz needs you downstairs.”
Cynthia squeezed by the pile in the hallway just as Mathew and Timothy came running up the stairs. “It’s on now. Let’s get out of here.”
Pearl was taken out to the gazebo in the back of the yard to find Adam there with Leonora. “You kidnapped Theo’s mother?” Pearl rushed over to check on the woman.
“We did not,” Adam answered. “She came on her own accord.” He looked down at Leonora. “Isn’t that right, Mrs. Prentiss?”
“That’s correct.”
Pearl frowned, then glanced at Monique.
“Hey, it was not my idea. I came for the wedding.”
Then Pearl looked at Adam. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Nothing, she’s just a little hypnotized.”
“You did what!”
“Mother said to get her here and that’s what I did.”
“Fix her.” Adam started to say something. “NOW,” Pearl yelled.
>
“I suggest you two talk first, then I will take her in the house, sit her beside her husband and she will think she came to the wedding with him.”
“What are you doing, becoming a mini Joshua?”
“Hey, that’s not a bad thing,” Monique stated.
“Depends on who you ask.”
“Either way,” Monique chimed in. “Adam is right. It’s best she come to next to her husband. For now you have a unique opportunity to find out why she is so opposed to you.”
“I don’t want to find out this way.”
“Have you found out in the last six years?” Adam asked. Pearl stared at them. “That’s what I thought. Take five minutes, ask the question then we’ll take her in the house.” Adam ran back to the gazebo. “You have to say her name for her to respond.” Then he walked back out.
They walked into the yard as Pearl bent down in front of the woman who was about to become her mother-in-law. She did not want to deal with Leonora this way. Pearl only wanted the woman to give her a chance.
“Leonora, I love Theo very much. I am going to be a good wife to him and mother to any children we are blessed with. I will never keep Theo or our children away from you. I want you to be a part of our life.” Pearl stood, kissed the woman on her cheek then motioned for Adam to come back in.
“Well?” Adam asked.
“Take her in the house to Edward. And Adam, if you ever do anything like this again I will beat the living crap out of you.”
“But Pearl…”
“But nothing. Take her inside.”
“All right,” Adam huffed. “Leonora, we are going to walk into the house, sit next to Edward and forget everything that happened since noon.”
“I need her to remember what I said,” Pearl corrected.
“Leonora, I need you to remember your conversation with Pearl.” He nodded at Pearl who did not look sure of all of this. “Leonora, I’m going to escort you in the house.” He put his arm out as she stood and obediently walked with him inside the house with Pearl following closely behind.
Monique climbed into the SUV parked near the other Agents’ vehicles. “Can he do that at will?” Monique asked Joshua.
“Yep.” He nodded.
“The Agency could use someone with his talents.”
Joshua stared off in the distance. “I don’t know if I want this life for my little brother.”
