A Merry Little Christmas

by Melanie Schuster

  Paris’s matchmaking instincts, never far from the surface, surged to the fore. “So it’s an age thing,” she mused, twirling a strand of her thick hair around her finger. “Well, all we have to do is show him that age is nothing but a number and you’ll be on your way.”

  Angelique held up her hand and pointed a spray bottle of Windex at her dearly loved cousin. “Paris, don’t even think about it,” she said evenly. “A.J. is my best friend and nothing else. I don’t want to change that; we’re both very happy with our relationship the way it is, thank you very much. And if you’re so geeked up about matching folks up, why don’t you do something about your own crush?” The pink flush on Paris’s cheeks let Angelique know she’d made her point. With a mischievous smile, Angelique sauntered off to dust and polish the living room furniture.

  Once the heat in her face had subsided, Paris followed her into the living room. She sat down in one of the armchairs and curled up her legs. “Um, what do you mean, my ‘crush’? What makes you think I have a crush on someone?” she asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner.

  “Paris, please. Does the name Titus Argonne ring any bells with you? You and I both know you have a thing for the man, not that I blame you. But do you do anything about it, like try to talk to him? No, you jump and run like a scared rabbit every time you see him, don’t you?”

  This time the flush surged up Paris’s neck like a wildfire and she turned as bright as one of the pillows. It was true: she was mightily attracted to Titus Argonne, a friend of Angelique’s brother Martin. She’d met him on several occasions and for some reason her ability to speak deserted her whenever he was around.

  “Okay, okay, you win. You’re right, I have no right getting all up in your business when I can’t handle my own,” she admitted. “I have no idea why I get so tongue-tied around that man, but so help me, I turn into a stammering nitwit every time he’s in the room.”

  Angelique gave a final buffing to the coffee table and replaced the decorative object that adorned it. “Well, we’re just going to have to work on that, aren’t we? You’d like him even more if you ever talked to him. He’s very smart, he has a good personality and he’s a good conversationalist He’s not boring at all and he’s not a lech, either. You’d probably make a nice couple,” she finished.

  Paris brightened considerably when Angelique finished speaking. “Well, now, that sounds pretty promising, actually. I think I’ll put him on my list of New Year’s resolutions,” she said thoughtfully. Paris had an ingrained habit of making a list of resolutions each January. “In fact let’s both resolve that we’re going to have real boyfriends in the New Year. Tall, handsome and rich, if possible. Let’s put our order in now, there’s only a few more days left in this year.”

  Angelique gathered up the cleaning supplies and headed for the dining room to divest it of dust. “You make all the resolutions you want sweetie, but leave me out of it A boyfriend is the last thing I need or want in this life. No, thank you. But if you fix us something to eat I’ll unpack for you. No resolution needed. How’s that?”

  Paris was so taken aback by her cousin’s emphatic rejection of a man in her life, she simply nodded. Slowly rising to her feet she made a silent vow to find out why Angelique was so opposed to being part of a couple. Everybody needs somebody, cuz, and that includes you.

  ***

  The last person Donnie expected or hoped to see was inexplicably standing at his brother’s door. Donnie was nursing his still-hurt feelings over Aneesah’s rejection at his brother Adam’s loft when the chimes that substituted for a doorbell rang. Telling Adam that he would get the door, Donnie crossed the vast open area that served as a living room and looked out the peephole of the huge double door. Aww, dang, what’s she doing here? was Donnie’s first thought. He opened the door a crack and said in a high-pitched voice, “My daddy said go away, I can’t have any company.”

  Angelique burst out laughing and replied, “Well, it’s a good thing I’m not here to see you, isn’t it? Open the door, Adonis, I’m in a hurry.”

  By now Jordan and Pippen, Donnie’s Golden Retrievers, who accompanied him almost everywhere, had detected Angelique’s presence and were barking frantically for her to gain access. Sighing in defeat, he finally opened the door.

  Angelique ignored him and turned all her attention to the two pretty dogs leaping around her in joy. It galled Donnie to no end that his dogs, his pets and companions, found this irritating woman irresistible. It made him think back to the first time they had encountered her. Back when she’d first moved to Detroit, she was staying in the garage apartment behind Andrew and Renee’s house while she secured a more permanent place for herself and Paris. The apartment was known as the Outhouse and served as a guest cottage from time to time. It was a rainy evening in late spring and Donnie had left the dogs on the back porch of the house as their feet were good and muddy from running through every puddle they could find. Renee had no sooner reminded him that their feet needed to be cleaned when a loud shriek sounded from the back.

  He had dashed into the kitchen and pulled open the back door to find Angelique with big muddy footprints all over her chic raincoat. Her chic parchment-colored raincoat, which showed off the mud really well. He braced himself for the screaming and epithets that were sure to follow, and was totally stunned by what was taking place. Instead of pitching a side-door fit, Angelique was kneeling down and giggling like a little girl as Jordan and Pippen gave her wet sloppy kisses and generally showed her the kind of affection they normally gave only their master. And the love affair continued to this day; as usual, the two dogs were all over her with yelps of happiness. He took a moment to give her a good once-over while she was ignoring him.

  . Despite not being his type at all, she was darned cute. No, not cute, beautiful, in the fresh, natural way of Halle Berry. Her hair was a lot longer than it used to be; it came nearly to her shoulders in a blunt-cut style. Her bangs, which made a lot of women look silly, looked adorable on her pretty face. She was too short, only about five-seven, and way too skinny; she was as slender as a ballerina But still, there was something sexy and appealing about her, even though he didn’t like her one bit She was wearing a classic navy pea coat, impeccably pressed jeans and a red turtleneck sweater and managed to look like she had just strolled off a runway. Even after the dogs had jumped and slobbered all over her, she didn’t have a speck of their golden hair anywhere. For some reason, this small observation contributed to his irritation and it came out in his question to her.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked without a hint of warmth. Before he could register his quick shame at being so abrupt she responded.

  “Hello, Adonis. Happy holidays to you, too. I’m delivering something to Adam from Benita, if that’s all right with you,” she said evenly.

  Just then, Adam emerged from the work area of the loft with a welcoming smile on his face. “Hello, Angel! Benita told me she’d loaded you down with stuff—thanks for bringing it by. Come on in and get warm, my brother has apparently forgotten his manners entirely,” he said with a sidelong look at his sibling.

  Angelique took the hand Adam offered and entered the big loft In her other hand was a big, colorful shopping bag that she handed to him. “Here you go. And this is for you, too,” she said as she stood on tiptoe to give Adam a big kiss on the cheek. “Bennie said to make sure to give you a kiss from her and the babies.”

  Adam smiled wickedly and returned the kiss with enjoyment. While Donnie might be considered the most handsome of the Cochran men, it was usually conceded that Adam was the sexiest. He was broad-shouldered, well muscled and wore his wavy hair long in a thick braid down his back. With his piercing eyes and thick, glossy mustache, he was pretty irresistible. And charming as well when he chose to be, as he did now. “You really are an angel, Angelique. Thanks for taking the time to bring this over. Come sit down and let me fix you some tea or some hot chocolate or something,” he coaxed, pulling her farther into the big
open space that led into a restaurant-quality kitchen.

  “Oh, I can’t stay,” she demurred, “I have to go by your dad’s house, and the twins ... umm, did you say hot chocolate?” A thick, rich cup of hot cocoa was a weakness of hers and the longing on her face made it plain that she wanted some.

  Adam sensed her desire and gleefully divested her of her jacket. Tossing it at Donnie, he ordered him to hang it up. “Now you come with me, cutie, and I’m going to make you the best cup of chocolat you ever consumed in your life.” The two of them went off to the kitchen, leaving Donnie standing in the entrance area with Angelique’s jacket in his hand and a vacant look on his face. Like an automaton, he drew the thick wool garment to his nose and inhaled deeply. The rich essence of her fragrance cut through him like a knife. His entire body reacted quickly and passionately to this stimulus, much to his dismay. For some unknown reason, he felt a stirring in parts of his body that should have known better and he didn’t like it one bit. After taking one more forbidden whiff of the coat he hung it neatly in the closet and then scowled at the slight tremor that surged through him. Wasn’t anything going to cooperate with him? Glaring at the zipper in the front of his pants, he whispered, “Cut that out. We don’t like her, remember?”

  Praying that his body wouldn’t continue to betray him, he went into the kitchen to see what witchery Angelique was up to now. Sure enough, she sat on a stool at the long work counter with Jordan and Pippen lolling at her feet and Adam making a huge show of concocting some kind of hot-chocolate confection from scratch. None of this should have bothered Donnie in the least, but for some reason it was eating him up. That little woman had gotten under his skin from the first moment they’d met, and things showed no signs of improving. The most annoying part of the whole situation was that she seemed to be completely unaware of him. He could have been one of the pots Adam had hanging from the ceiling, for all the attention she paid him. Something was definitely wrong with this scenario, and he was going to fix it and quick. He wasn’t much for New Year’s resolutions, but he was making one this year. Angelique was a thorn and he was getting her out of his side and soon.

  ***

  Donnie would have been stunned to know that he was causing Angelique as much discomfort as he was suffering. Despite her appearance of nonchalance, she was more than aware of Donnie, and this awareness made her feel unsettled and uneasy more often than she liked. She tried not to think about him at all, but since her brother Clay was married to his sister Bennie, it wasn’t as if she could ignore his existence altogether. Besides the marriage and babies that bound the families together, the Cochrans and the Deverauxes were now in business together.

  With the merger of the companies, the two clans were inextricably tied to each other for all time. It was inevitable that she and Donnie would meet regularly. And try as she might to act with total indifference, it was difficult. Adonis Bennett Cochran was not a man who could be overlooked For one thing, he was tall, more than six-six, yet the height alone wasn’t what did it. All of Angelique’s brothers were extremely blessed in the height department, too. He was also physically blessed, like her handsome brothers; even a sightless person would have recognized the fact that he had exceptional looks.

  Angelique pulled into her home’s shared driveway. She’d been listening to one of her many audio books as she drove, but had been daydreaming more than listening. Ever since encountering Donnie at his brother’s loft, she’d been thinking about him. She tried to tell herself he just reminded her of her brothers: tall, handsome and charming. But even more than that, he was very smart and savvy when it came to business. He was recognized as a genius in broadcasting and had taken his family’s string of small urban radio stations and parlayed them into a network that now spanned the country. And he’d added television stations, as well. Brilliant, bold and innovative, those were the words usually used to describe him, and that was why he reminded her of her brothers. But the things causing her mind to go into overdrive were the characteristics that didn’t excite a brotherly reaction in the least.

  As she got out of the car and took a deep lungful of the cold, crisp evening air, she had to smile when she thought about Donnie’s legendary charm, although charming was a relative term, since Donnie was a perfect gentleman to everyone but her. He was extremely kind and perfectly mannered to all he encountered, but he rubbed her the wrong way and had since the first day they met They fought and argued and generally treated each other with the gentility reserved for known terrorists. It was bad enough when she lived in Atlanta and only saw him a couple times a year, now that she was on his turf they seemed to trip over each other. She reached the back door and used her key to open it finding the kitchen warm and bright with appetizing smells all around her. She closed her eyes and sniffed as she took off her coat Paris, bless her heart, was making dinner, and whatever it was would be divine. She walked through the house to hang up her coat in the closet calling Paris as she did so.

  “Hey, girl, I’m home! What are you cooking? It smells wonderful.”

  Paris ran lightly down the stairs and dashed into the kitchen to give the pot a stir. “Thanks for the compliment, cuz, but I can’t take credit for this, it’s your recipe. I made that white-bean chicken chili everyone loves so much, and some jalapeno com-bread muffins and fruit salad. Very filling, full of fiber, and low-fat,” she said.

  Paris was, like all the Deverauxes, tall and good-looking, but she was very conscious of everything she ate. She’d battled a weight problem all her life and had managed, in the past few years, to lose weight through careful eating and lots of exercise. Her friend Aidan Sinclair, who lived in Atlanta and also worked for TDG, as the Deveraux Group was commonly known, liked to take credit for her transformation as he’d forced her to diet and work out with him. Regardless of who was responsible, there was no denying that Paris was a changed person. She was five-ten and fair-skinned with long, wavy black hair she no longer kept in a ponytail twenty-four-seven, but wore in a becomingly layered style. Her figure was still bountiful, but she was a firm size sixteen instead of a fluffy size twenty, and she now wore trim, fitted clothes instead of the baggy things she once used to camouflage her figure faults. Tonight she was wearing a comfortable-looking outfit of cotton cashmere in a pretty coral color. The knit pants fit properly and the scoop-necked top showed off her collarbone as well as the dramatic line of her shoulders.

  Paris turned off the burner under the chili and said they could eat in five minutes if Angelique would set the table. “Where’ve you been all afternoon? I thought about calling you on your cell phone, but I figured you were busy with A. J. or something,” she said.

  Angelique sighed as she dried her hands on a paper towel. Turning to the cupboard, she got down the colorful Fiestaware that had been a housewarming gift from Vera and Marcus. “I was delivering those packages for Bennie. I went to see Renee and Andrew, and Andre and Alan, and Mr. C and Miss Martha,” she recited. “Mr. C” was how she referred to Big Bennie Cochran, the patriarch of the family and father to Benita and her brothers. Miss Martha was his wife, the woman he’d married so many years after his first wife, the mother of his children, had passed away.

  Working quickly, Angelique set two places with plates, soup bowls, bread plates, water goblets and silverware and turned back to the cupboard to get footed dessert dishes for the fruit salad. Casually she added, “I also went to Adam’s loft, and he had company. Adonis was there.”

  Paris stopped in the middle of serving the piping-hot chili. “Uh-oh. Did y’all get into it?” she asked with a smile.

  Angelique finished the table settings with big, soft cotton napkins and took a pitcher of Crystal Light peach-flavored iced tea out of the refrigerator; both she and Paris were addicted to the beverage. Taking a seat, she shook her head no. “Actually, he was pretty well behaved today.”

  The two women reached out and took each other’s hands and said grace, as was their habit. Then Angelique placed her napkin in her lap and
daintily dug into the aromatic and very tasty chili. Paris followed suit, but she couldn’t leave well enough alone. She had to go there again, just to satisfy her curiosity.

  “You know, y’all don’t fight nearly as much as you used to. What happened? Did you declare a truce or something?”

  Angelique took her time answering as she had just taken a mouthful of a flavorful muffin. “Mmm, that’s delicious! A truce? No, 1 don’t think we declared a truce, exactly, but ever since he took me to the dentist, it’s been awfully hard to be mean to him. He was too nice to me that day,” she said reflectively.

  Paris smiled broadly. “So does that mean you won’t call him SpongeBob anymore?”

  “Oh, no, girl. As long as he calls me Evilene, he’s gonna be SpongeBob SquarePants. But that doesn’t negate the fact that he was really nice to me when I needed him.”

  Paris thought back to that fateful day and had to agree that Donnie had come through like a champ. Angelique was never one to complain about physical ailments. In fact, she was something of a Spartan when it came to matters of health. She was rarely ill, and when she did get a touch of something, she’d soldier on until it was over. However, what had started as a mild headache had worked its way into horrifying proportions that left Angelique almost delirious with pain. In her usual fashion, she hadn’t mentioned the pain to anyone, just tried her best to cope with it. Paris finally found her curled up on her bed, sobbing like a child. This alone alarmed Paris, as she’d never seen her cousin in tears before, but the fact that her right cheek was also swollen to three times its normal size was terrifying.

  Angelique obviously had an infection or abscess of some kind and needed immediate attention, so Paris had called the first person she could think of, Renee, and luckily Donnie answered the phone. Almost before she’d hung up the phone, he was at their place. He had a good friend who was an endodontist and was able to work Angelique in as an emergency. The only problem was that Angelique was terrified of dentists and refused to go.