Sugar

by S. L. Jennings

  Zach tried not to let that little piece of information or that kiss knock him off his feet. “Mama’s going to kill you.”

  “Why? I haven’t been married to Monique in over twenty years.”

  “She hates Jackie, and you know it,” Zach warned, moving further into the living room where James had made himself quite comfortable—house slippers, plaid robe and everything.

  Jackie, Monique, and James had known each other since high school.

  “Monique hates everybody,” he said, putting his feet up on the ottoman and shrugging. “I know that, too. Makes me no never mind.”

  Zach moved further into the room.

  “Your mother slept with me that first time, not because she really wanted me, she just didn’t want me to be with Jackie,” James confessed. “I didn’t know that then, but I learned it soon enough when your older brother came along, and she promptly invoked the fact that I was off the market.” James grabbed the remote and switched to ABC News Nightline, though he kept the sound on mute. “So, she can kick pebbles because rocks are too strong for her.” He laced his hands with Jackie’s and brought her hand to his lips. “We’re grown folks and I don’t have to answer to her or you.”

  “She’s the reason you left us,” he accused, glaring at Jackie. “You’ve been tipping around with her all this time.”

  “I left the minute I could, because I’d had enough,” James said, sliding over to make room for Jackie to sit next to him. “Truthfully, I was ready to leave after child number two. Those others were conceived when I was three sheets to the wind. Your mother snuck into the guest room and made sure to extend my prison sentence by extracting a pound of flesh—literally.”

  Zach grimaced. This conversation quickly devolved beyond his comfort level.

  “Things got to a point that I had to stop coming home at night so I could be certain that she wouldn’t get pregnant again.” James aimed the remote at the screen and switched to Queen Sugar. “She was livid and turned all of you against me. I did what was right and fair by all of you. Sent those child support checks like clockwork so you wouldn’t suffer from my stupidity.

  “She told us that we didn’t get child support. That you didn’t—”

  “I have proof. Lots of it. And I made sure to pay through the court so there was a record and she couldn’t keep hauling me in for minor things. They set the amount, I paid it and then some.”

  James kept his focus on Zach, his eyes as clear and devoid of guilt as Zach could remember.

  “I don’t understand. Where did the money go?”

  “Your mother is a career criminal,” James explained. He didn’t want to share that news. “She used my—actually your—money to open a bookstore and event planning business. Then to keep it open, she ripped off so many people—hundreds of authors—that it became a class action lawsuit. She couldn’t use that money for you or your brothers. She needed it to pay off legal bills. She had good lawyers and lenient judges.” He placed a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “You boys are the reason she didn’t serve any time. The judge was reluctant to put her in jail for forgery, passing bad checks and defrauding people. She has so many mugshots—last count was twenty-two—they stopped putting her pictures next to her arrest records.”

  Zach dropped on the ottoman, nearly sitting on his father’s feet before the man could sweep them out of the way. Now, so many things were clear. They hadn’t been poor because their father abandoned them, they’d been on empty because his mother had been draining him and them to cover her own ass. “So why didn’t you reach out to us when we got older?”

  “Are you kidding me?” James sat up, head tilting to one side as he peered at Zach. “I tried, you all were so much like her. You were too afraid to piss her off, and made it clear you wanted nothing to do with me. I respected that, not because I wanted to, but because I had to.”

  “We’re not like her.”

  “Negro, please.” James scoffed, and Jackie averted her gaze as she tried to keep a straight face. “Your mother still has your nuts in a sling. I tried to raise five good men, she preferred to groom five idiots.”

  “I’m no idiot,” he snapped. “I have a career. I have a family.

  “About to lose your wife, though,” he quipped. “A damn good wife. Not because you want to, but because misery, and you know who I’m talking about, is going to make sure everyone is miserable. Monique ran your brother’s wives off so she could have her sons all to herself. And the minute she realized you weren’t shaking Shannan loose, she chose another way. Guess where your wife is? On the other side of your marriage bed. And she’s going to stay there if you don’t get your act together.”

  Zach felt as if he’d been hit by a sledgehammer.

  “Be the smart one in this because there’s some things your wife can do that your brothers and your mother can’t.” James grinned and wiggled an eyebrow. “Try cuddling up next to them to get a little late-night boogie.”

  “Whoop,” Jackie said, nudging James in his side and he gave her a smile.

  Arec tipped down the stairs with London and Kriss right behind him. “You’d better realize that a wife is your companion and not your slave.”

  “Dad, I messed up so bad. She’s not coming back.” Zach moved from the ottoman and slumped on the sofa. “She doesn’t want counseling or anything. She wants to be free.”

  “That’s what she saying?” James asked with a look at Jackie who nodded, then shifted her gaze to the silent screen.

  “Yes sir, that’s exactly what she’s saying.”

  Arec’s focus was on his cell between glances at Zach and James.

  “That means you’ve got a bigger fight on your hands,” James admitted. “Give her the time she asked for. And work on yourself. You have to change, and not for her.” He slid a gaze to Arec who glared openly at the grandfather he’d never known before today. “Get those little knuckleheads in order too. All the way in order. They have to know you mean business. Set the stage for you and your wife as a team. That you have everything ready for the captain to return to a tight ship and the lieutenant is on board with the new program.”

  “Grandma’s on the way,” Arec announced, getting up from his seat on the stairs. His smile was wider than Lake Michigan.

  Zach shifted his gaze to his son, wondering if he’d been dropped on his head or something. “Right, tell us something we don’t know.”

  “I mean my other grandmother. Monique.” His lips shaped into a smirk that matched his mischievous expression. “You know the career criminal with all the mug shots. That Monique.”

  “Aw, hell,” Zach mumbled, and James tried to hold in a laugh.

  Arec’s lips drew upward in a face-splitting grin.

  Zach resisted the urge to pop him upside the head.

  Chapter 7

  “Nothing to be worried about,” Jackie said a few minutes later, peering out of her bay window as Monique slid out of the passenger side of Zach’s brother, Victor’s SUV. “I don’t know why she’s coming anyway. She’s not welcome in my house.”

  “We just won’t let her in,” James said with a pointed look at Zach who nodded.

  Arec grinned, then broke away from his father’s grasp, ran to the door and unlocked it before anyone could stop him.

  Monique Hallerin and her sour expression were over the threshold in the time it took to draw a single breath. “You fat bitch,” she snarled, hand snaking out and landing on Jackie’s cheek causing her to reel and stumble back.

  Jackie recovered quicker than anyone could imagine. In three swift moves—a right hook, a left jab, and an upper cut—Monique was promptly introduced to the carpet. Face first.

  “How the hell are you calling me fat,” Jackie said, leaning down so she was eye to eye with Monique. “When you’re two biscuits away from being on My 600-lb Life.”

  Monique struggled to get to her feet. She wiped the blood from her upper lip as Zach stood in front of Jackie while Arec ran over to help Monique from the gr
ound. He gave Jackie a wary look and inched backward.

  “Been after my husband all these years,” she accused, dabbing the blood with her sleeve as she finally made it on her feet. “Low down, no man-having, conniving bi—”

  “First of all, he’s not your husband,” Jackie shot back, motioning for London and Kriss to go back upstairs. They reluctantly complied. She put a hard focus on a grinning Arec and his smile quickly disappeared as he did a Chicago two-step trying to make it up the stairs before she laid into him too.

  “You’ve been divorced long enough for him to be back on the market several times.” Jackie moved in and Zach stiffened, waiting for his mother-in-law to finish what she started. “Second—and this is important, so listen real close. You’re in my house, so you don’t get to come in here and call me out of my name and keep that one tooth that’s actually yours.”

  Monique moved backward, almost managing that two-step much better than Arec.

  “There’s an apology in my future,” Jackie said through her teeth as though she was barely holding on to her temper. “Whether you give it now or after I stomp a new opening in your ass is entirely up to you.”

  Monique’s head snapped to Zach as though he should step in. This fight was a long time coming. He quirked an eyebrow; and though he wanted to move back to give Jackie free range to tap dance on that ass, Monique was still his mother. A mother who had lied to him and his brothers all this time, but his mother all the same.

  Instead, he glared at Monique, waiting for her to comply.

  “I’m sorry,” Monique said through gritted teeth.

  Zach took the stairs two by two, yanked his son by the shirt and down the stairs, dragging him to the foyer. “That was messy. I know you called her because there was no reason for her to be here.”

  Arec shrugged. “Grandma had a right to know.”

  “Stay out of grown folks’ business.”

  He gave a sly glance over his shoulder at James, then looked back at Zach. “And just so you know, all the bullshit that old man was talking ain’t gonna work in our house.”

  Zach resisted the urge to give Arec the ancestral backhand slap he deserved.

  Jackie had no such reservations and went right upside his head.

  “Ouch.”

  Zach thought over his son’s words for a second, realizing just how far to the left things were with his son. Youngblood had laid down a challenge. Zach needed to make one of his own. “Sure it will. Or I will ship every last one of you little noncompliant Negroes off to military school.” Zach grinned, adding, “And watch your language.”

  That wiped the smile from Arec’s face. Now, his oldest son looked worried—as he should be.

  Zach leaned in to whisper. “A few months there and you’ll be begging to come home. Trust and believe that.”

  He took in his son’s scowl and all of the things his father had said clicked. Arec had called his grandmother simply to start the kind of mess that brought people to blows. Since Jackie was packing and her aim was pretty damn good—things could’ve came to a bullet in the ass; all so Arec could sit back and laugh.

  Zach looked at his son, who glared back at him. His two youngest sat next to his father, laughing at some story he was telling.

  The changes Zach had in mind meant the people in his family were not going to be happy campers for a while.

  “They’ll be alright,” he whispered to no one in particular.

  Chapter 8

  The next day, a month into Shannan’s defection, Zach scanned the elegant décor of the penthouse hotel suite, taking in the serving tray with the remains of a scrumptious breakfast that made his stomach grumble in protest of missing the awesome home-cooked meals she provided. The setting was for one person and for a moment relief swept through him. “So, you’re going to just live here?”

  She shook her head. “I’m signing a lease for a three-bedroom apartment in a few days. I saw it last week along with a few others.”

  Zach’s heart sank. “That’s going to be kind of tight,” he said, pushing aside the churning in his gut. “You have seven kids.”

  “Actually, I’m only taking London and Kriss with me. The others are all yours. You and your family have more influence over them than I ever did.”

  “You would split up our family that way?” he asked, taking a seat on a chair near the window.

  “This family’s been split a long time,” she countered, and her tone was resolute. “It’s been y’all against me. They see how you treat me and believe it’s acceptable. I want peace, and I’d like to have the children who are most disrespected to have some semblance of a normal life.”

  Zach, who had been in contact with his father, gaining strength and advice, thought about that for a long while before saying, “What do I need to do?”

  “Sign the divorce papers when they arrive.” Her eyes were devoid of all the love that made her so beautiful. The woman was so serious, it hurt. “I’ll take my name off all the joint credit cards. I don’t even want alimony or child support, Just London and Kriss and it’ll be fine.”

  “No, I mean what do I need to do so there isn’t a divorce?”

  “Nothing.” She crossed one leg over the other, her robe opened to give him a glimpse of her creamy thigh. His mouth nearly watered at the sight. His need for her physically was so profound, the ache almost dropped him to his knees. He missed being with her that way, but he missed the way she believed in him even more.

  “Baby, are you sure we can’t go to counseling?”

  Shannan laughed, and the bitter sound rankled his nerves. “Now that it’s too late you’re throwing it out there because it suits you.” She stretched out on the sofa, and it took everything inside him not to gather her up in his arms and hold her, tell her how much he needed her. He’d been so busy trying to become an award-winning inventor—and he was damn close—that he’d let the world’s greatest creation slip through his fingers. So busy trying to make life bearable for children and adults who were born without or, suddenly through tragic circumstances, found themselves missing a vital part.

  “I haven’t had this kind of peace in years. I want more of this. I don’t mind a little hard work, but I do mind being in a relationship that is so one-sided.” She sighed, and there was a world of weariness in that sound. “Now I need to slant things in my favor.”

  “You’d be so cold to leave your other children like that?”

  “Your children,” she corrected. An unfamiliar malice in her tone put him on notice. This right here was a whole new Shannan.

  “What?”

  “Your children. As you remind me from time to time. Your sons. Your little princess. I was just a womb, a way to get what you wanted. I wanted two children, just two because I knew that’s what I could handle and still be able to do what needed to be done for my life.”

  “It’s not my fault that fate conspired against you,” he said, then kicked himself because that was as heartless to say, as it had been for him to do. Listening to the wrong people, trying to make sure he had a solid family and his wife could never leave him the way his four brothers’ significant others had, was an ill-fated plan.

  “I know. It’s my fault for not changing doctors again and again until I found one who would tie my tubes without needing your consent.” She leaned back on the sofa, curling her feet up under her. “But that’s all done now. I feel like a totally different person. I couldn’t remember what smiling felt like. Now I do.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way,” Zach said and crossing the distance between them. “I’m just going to ask you for one last thing …”

  Chapter 9

  One more chance. Baby, give me one last chance.

  “Let me prove to you that I’m not the man who has failed to love you the way you deserve to be loved,” Zach implored. “That I can change and be the husband I should’ve always been. Let me show you how much I need you; how much I love you.”

  “Be honest,” she challenged. �
�You’re just afraid to raise those Nubian Nuggets all by yourself.”

  Zach smiled and shook his head. “No, I can do that. Took some threats, but I’m getting that under control.” He moved in, cupped her face in his hands. “What I don’t have is the woman who always believed in me, the woman I believed in.” He moved closer so there was no space between them as he whispered, “The woman who made me feel like a million when my own family didn’t think I’d be worth fifty cents. The woman I already knew was worth every ounce in solid gold, but somehow I let others take her shine.”

  He pressed a kiss to her temple, went to the foyer, snatched open the door and walked out, leaving a swirl of emotions in her heart and mind.

  Over the last month, she’d taken a leave of absence from her job. She’d pampered herself with body treatments, manicures, pedicures, films, theatre, cooking classes, the museums, sometimes quiet walks on the beach. Each day was a clean slate to do whatever she wanted without having to check in with anyone. Jackie was on point to contact her if anything needed attention. Taking time for herself was something she hadn’t had the luxury to afford.

  Shannan stretched out on the bed, tossing the novel she’d been trying to read to the side. Zach’s visit unnerved her, but not for the reasons she believed it would.

  She still loved him. Everything inside screamed stop being such a hard-ass and keep loving that man, but she couldn’t. Giving in right now meant risking being sucked into the vortex.

  Fifteen years ago, Zach had faced his family, disregarding every single one of their objections, and boldly told them he was making Shannan his wife.

  “Wow,” Vincent shook his head in disbelief. “Must be some mighty good snatch to make you turn on us this way.”

  Curtis chuckled and nudged Victor in the side. He laughed too, but it was a hollow sound. Monique simply glowered, too puffed up with anger to say anything.

  “You never have to wonder if it’s what’s between her thighs that holds the power.” Zach put his focus on Shannan, who smiled at him and laced her hand with his. “It’s what’s between her ears that’s most amazing about her.”