The Savvy Sistahs

by Brenda Jackson

  It seemed that everything he’d heard about Brandy Bennett was true. She was tough, tenacious, classy, and beautiful.

  Another thing he’d been told about her was that she was a typical Bennett female, and hell knew no fury like a Bennett woman’s scorn. He couldn’t help but admire her spunk when she’d pulled that much-deserved fast one on her ex-husband. There were some who’d be quick to say she’d been manipulative, vengeful, and devious. And yes, he could probably think the same thing, but considering the circumstances, as far as he was concerned she’d had every right to be those things. Nothing hurt worse than finding out the person you loved had betrayed you. He knew firsthand how painful that could be.

  “I’m ready to go.”

  Her words captured his attention, not that she hadn’t had it already. She was the type of woman who would have that effect on a man the moment she walked into a room.

  He slowly strode across the room to stand in front of her. He couldn’t ignore the warmth that touched his skin, bringing him in full awareness of her. Her scent was a fragrance he wasn’t familiar with, and it was not the same scent she’d worn that morning. This one was soft. Subtle. Woman.

  He wondered, not for the first time since arriving, how her fiancé could have been such a fool to mess up the way he had. Some men were destined not to be trusted.

  But then the same thing held true for some women as well.

  “Do I have to go over our game plan tonight, Brandy?” he asked, deciding to get things back on the track. He didn’t need to get any fanciful ideas regarding this particular Bennett. The one his brother was married to was a handful enough, but then he knew Quinn was enjoying every moment of being married to Alexia.

  “No, that’s not necessary, since you’ve done so already. But like I said, I think it’s a waste. Thomas wouldn’t do anything to hurt me or scare me. Why would he?”

  Grey crossed his arms over his chest. He’d also heard of the Bennett women’s stubbornness. “You did say the two of you had been lovers?”

  Brandy rolled her eyes heavenward. “Not lovers, Grey. When I think of lovers I think of two people engaged in something long-term and definitely more substantial than a one-night stand. That’s all Thomas and I had. He was lonely one night and I was grateful for his friendship. It was something that happened that I later regretted.”

  “And you told him that?”

  “Yes. Thomas and I have an understanding that what happened that night was a mistake and it would never happen again. Since then we’ve accepted that our relationship is based on friendship and nothing else.”

  Grey wondered how she could think a man who’d had a taste of her body could ever think the two of them could just be friends. “Well, if he’s not guilty of anything then you have nothing to worry about.”

  “Well, I don’t like deceiving him,” she said, making a frown form at the corners of her lips.

  “Well, you will deceive him because right now that’s what it’ll take to figure out what’s going on. And since this person has made a threat against me, I’m more determined than ever to find out who he is.” What Grey refused to say was that he was anxious to see the man who had captured Brandy’s interest, even if had been only for a night.

  Brandy sighed deeply as she shoved long tendrils of braids away from her face. Grey Masters was being difficult and if he could be difficult, so could she. “Fine, just don’t expect me to like it.”

  Grey couldn’t stop the smile that touched the corners of his mouth. “I don’t expect you to like it.”

  A sudden, involuntary shudder swept through Brandy with Grey’s smile. It had actually softened the lines of his mouth, making his lips appear more . . . kissable. She’d always had a thing for locking mouths with the right man and admitted to being one of those women who enjoyed kissing as much as she enjoyed the more intimate details of lovemaking. There hadn’t been a “right” man in her life in over two years and tonight her tongue was feeling rather hot and antsy.

  “Do you have everything you need to get before we go?”

  She tried responding to Grey’s question but for some reason her hot and antsy tongue didn’t want to participate. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Yes, I have everything.”

  Moments later the two of them walked out of her suite.

  Amber sat at Carla’s kitchen table waiting for her to return from putting Craig to bed. Being around Craig tonight reminded her of the child she had lost. Had the baby lived, it would have been just a few months older than Craig.

  “How about if I make up a pot of coffee since we can’t hit the wine bottle tonight,” Carla said, reentering the room.

  Amber looked up. “Coffee is fine with me. I’m going home and look through a few cookbooks for a good, simple recipe for cookies. I promised Jennifer and Eileen that I would bake a batch for the anniversary celebration. You are coming, aren’t you?”

  Carla smiled as she went to the sink to prepare the pot of coffee. “Of course I’ll be there. We’ve always made it a point to be there to take a part in each other’s successes, remember?”

  Amber smiled. She would always be grateful for having connected with Brandy and Carla and their support. Getting their lives back in order had not been an overnight thing and they were still working at it, since it was a chipping-away process and not one to bring instant gratification or immediate satisfaction.

  Satisfaction.

  Thinking of that one word brought Amber’s thoughts back to her present problem. She began rubbing her forehead.

  Carla turned from the sink and cast a concerned eye at her friend. “What’s wrong?”

  Amber lifted her head and met Carla’s gaze. “I need my mind stimulated.”

  “Are you sure that’s all you need stimulated?” Carla asked, her voice deceptively light.

  Amber couldn’t help but chuckle. Of the three of them Carla was usually the one who tried being serious-minded most of the time. “Hell, Carla, I won’t lie to you, girl. I could definitely used a good lay just about now.”

  Carla shook her head thinking of a similar conversation she’d had with Sonya some nights ago. Was sex the only thing on everyone’s mind? “A good lay, huh? Can I guess a possible prospect?”

  Amber shrugged, knowing Carla was studying her intently with those big, dark brown eyes of her. Eyes that saw everything but never placed judgment on anything. If she didn’t agree with something she diplomatically told you so. “Well, what do you think?”

  Carla leaned against the sink. “I think you should go back and reread those scriptures that Pastor Thomas gave us at church a couple of months ago.”

  Amber rolled her eyes heavenward. “Pastor Thomas can afford to talk since he has Sister Thomas. They have four kids, all under the age of eight, which means he’s not missing out on anything.”

  Carla bit the corner of her lip to keep from smiling but failed miserably. “Amber, you’re totally awful.”

  Amber blew out a frustrated breath. “That’s not all I am.” She looked up when she felt a touch on her shoulder and met Carla’s eye. She hadn’t known Carla had moved away from the sink. “Hey, will it be so bad for you to finally meet a guy and fall for him? Or for any of us to meet guys we might like and get serious? I think we agreed to be cautious in our next relationships, not turn into women who never want men in their lives again. If he’s a nice guy and you’re attracted to him then why not let yourself become interested in him?”

  Amber frowned. She knew the reason she didn’t want to get involved with another man: fear. Gary had stripped her of so much self-esteem that the thought that she would be setting herself up for the same thing again scared the living daylights out of her. She cleared her throat nervously as she prepared to answer Carla’s question. Before she could do so, Carla’s phone rang.

  “Whatever you were about to say I’d like you to hold that thought until I get back.”

  Moments later when Carla returned Amber immediately noted the troubled look on her
face. “Is anything wrong, Carla?”

  Carla sank down in the chair across from Amber. “I’m not sure. That was Brandy, calling on her cell phone from the ladies room of the Commodore Restaurant. She was leaving the hotel for dinner and happen to pass the check-in desk as this man was registering.”

  Amber lifted an amused brow. “What’s unusual about that? I’m sure plenty of men register at her hotel. What’s so special about this one?”

  Carla met Amber’s curious gaze. “His name is Jesse Devereau.”

  Amber remembered the name immediately. “Aw, hell.”

  Sighing deeply after taking a sip of her wine, Brandy leaned back in her chair and met Grey’s gaze from across the table. “I hope you’re satisfied that this evening was a compete waste of both of our time.”

  Grey shook his head. “If you believe that then you really do have blinders on.”

  Brandy’s cheeks tinted and a degree of fury shone in her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

  “It means Thomas Reynolds is so damn jealous that if looks could kill then I’d be dead. The look on his face when we entered this place was outright rage, although I think he downplayed it rather well.” Grey leaned back in his chair. “He’s old enough to be your father.”

  Brandy took offense at the censure she heard in his voice. “For your information, he’s older than my father and what I do and who I do it with is no concern of yours, Mr. Masters.”

  “Thanks for reminding me of that, Brandy. And you’re right. My only business is finding out who’s sending those notes, and just for the record, your ex-lover stays on the list. In fact, he’s moved up a notch. I can pick up on his anger from across the room.”

  They stared at each other for several long minutes before Brandy released his gaze. “Look, I know you’re doing your job, but don’t you think you’ve gone just a little overboard with your theory about Thomas? For the past two years he and I have been nothing but good friends. If what you think is a possibility, why would he wait until now to do anything?”

  Grey shrugged. “I have no idea, but I do know there’s such a thing as obsessive love and although you may feel nothing but friendship for him, it’s very obvious that he’s kept his feelings in check because he knows that’s what you want. There’s a chance he may have gotten impatient and decided to play his hand. Or,” Grey said, meeting her gaze intently, “he may have come up with the idea that if you were frightened about something enough, he would be the one you would turn to for solace and protection.”

  Brandy lifted a brow. She really hadn’t thought of that, but still what Grey was proposing wasn’t convincing as far as she was concerned. “But don’t you think someone would have noticed Thomas if he had caught the elevator to the administrative floor or to my suite? He’s not an employee and would have stuck out like a sore thumb.”

  “Someone might have assumed that he was coming up to visit you. Have the two of you been seen together often?”

  Brandy frowned. “No, and definitely not in the way you think, Grey. Like I said, my intimate relationship with him was only for one night. And it wasn’t at the hotel but his place. Until you showed up claiming to be my long lost lover there has not been any particular man in my life. I’ve been way too busy to become involved with anyone. If Thomas and I were seen together it was for business and nothing more. Being an alumnus of BCC, Thomas is an important member of the Florida Classic committee. In fact, he’s the one responsible for my involvement and my hotel being selected as a host hotel, which will bring in a lot of money.”

  Grey picked up his wine glass again to take another sip. “So he looks out for you?”

  “Yes.” Brandy leaned back in her chair, glad that Grey was finally getting it. Clearly sooner or later he would see that Thomas could not be “The Man.” But the more he looked at her while slowly twirling the wine glass around in his hand with his penetrating dark eyes on her, the more she was beginning to think he really didn’t see at all. “Why do you try so hard not to trust people, Grey?”

  Her question evidently caught him by surprise, off guard. He placed his wine glass down and his gaze that was already trained on her became even more intense. “And why are you so gullible? You’ve been burned in the past. Didn’t you learn a lesson in that?”

  For the longest moment Brandy didn’t say anything, and she couldn’t help but think back to the time, last week in fact, when she and Grey had had a conversation about trust. It was when she had mentioned what had happened between Lorenzo and Jolene.

  “What they did hurt me, Grey,” she admitted softly now, wondering why she felt comfortable talking to him when he’d just called her gullible, which to her was another word for naive. “No one, not even my cousins, knew the pain I felt finding out I was betrayed that way. And then to go through the part where everyone watched that videotape and saw the man I was to marry and my best friend, the two people I had trusted the most, being deceitful was a very difficult time for me. I got through it because my family was there for support and comfort, and to show me their love. But then when it was time for everyone to return back to their homes and I decided to do the honeymoon without the groom, I found out just how bitter, spiteful, and hateful toward men I’d become. Not only that, I felt that other than Alexia, Rae’jean, and Taye, I couldn’t trust another female to get close to me as a friend.”

  Grey raised a brow. “What changed things?”

  A small smile touched the corners of Brandy’s lips. “A very wise old man by the name of Ethan Allen Bennett. My grandfather. He sat me down and told me that there were two ways to grow and change in life. You could either choose to grow and change or you could be forced to grow and change. He made me see that part of life is growth and everyone will grow because it’s the purpose of us being here. But the big question is how you will grow. Will it be willingly, joyfully, or with pain? I was forced to encounter pain to grow. All through life my mother, my father, and both sets of grandparents had sheltered me. I always thought I was all of that and no one, especially my cousins whom I didn’t get along with for years, had anything on me mainly because I was Valerie Constantine’s daughter, and my mother in her haughty splendor had convinced me I was better than everyone.”

  Brandy took another sip of her wine. “It took growth on my part to realize that I wasn’t. That I was human and susceptible to pain and betrayal just like anyone else. During my forced growth I also learned that although I couldn’t stop the waves from coming in my life, that I could learn to surf. And that’s what I’ve done. I had to learn to let go and move on and not see every man as Lorenzo and every woman as Jolene. I had to learn to trust all over again. I’m cautious but not cynical. It took me over two years to get to this place in my life, Grey. Even if it’s proven that the person who wrote those notes is someone I thought I trusted, that’s fine. I’ll get over it just like I got over what happened in my life almost three years ago. What happened during that time was a lesson in disguise and I learned from it, and this time will be just the same.”

  Brandy stifled a long sigh. It felt good getting all of that out. She’d done so at other times with her cousins as well as with Carla and Amber, but never with a man. A part of her wished Grampa Ethan had lived to see her growth, to see how she had taken the advice he had given her and made changes in her life. Good changes. Some not easy. But changes she’d had to make for peace of mind—to survive.

  Grey took a sip of his wine, saying nothing. Brandy’s words explained a lot. The woman had gone through…and was still going through…a transformation of some kind, which was all well and good with him if that was her thing. But he still needed her to understand that nothing, and he meant nothing, could be accepted at face value. There were things that were meant to be checked out, scrutinized and eventually dealt with…like this mad, crazy person sending those notes.

  And like the sudden heat of desire consuming him yet again.

  He swallowed hard to keep his hormones from getting carried away, but
watching her sit across from him, slowly drinking her wine, was an absolute turn-on. He cleared his throat. “Would you like to order dessert?”

  Brandy shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m ready to leave.” The only thing she wanted to do was to go home and go to bed. She was tired, edgy, and she had noticed Thomas watching her more than usual tonight. And his gaze had seemed angry. Had he forgotten about their agreement to be just friends? Or like Grey had suggested, had Thomas told her what she’d wanted to hear but had inwardly harbored the hope that she would eventually change her mind?

  A short while later Grey had taken care of their bill and was escorting her out of the restaurant.

  After Amber left, Carla went into the kitchen to pour out the cup of coffee they had never gotten around to drinking. A part of her felt awful that she had not concentrated on everything Amber had shared with her like she should have, since her mind was boggled with Brandy’s phone call.

  Could it be true? Was there a possibility that Jesse was in Orlando? And if he was, did it mean anything? She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stay calm, but the man Brandy had described sounded a lot like the Jesse she knew…or at one time thought she knew, at least for a night.

  She stood and began pacing. What if it was him? Why was she nervous? She didn’t owe him any explanation about anything, including Craig. But chances were he wouldn’t want any, since he didn’t know about Craig and she hoped things stayed that way. And she hoped his visit to Orlando would be a short one.

  The last person she wanted to see was Jesse Devereau. And she definitely didn’t want him to find out about their son.

  Grey was busy making the sofa into his bed, tucking in the sheet as best he could, smoothing the comforter and fluffing the pillows. He had to admit that Brandy’s sofa didn’t sleep half bad. In fact, he thought it was rather comfortable. Once she went to her room each night and closed the door, she normally didn’t come out. And usually in the mornings he was awake long before she got up.