A Family Reunion (35 page)

“And if she is?”

“Then we’ll put our plan into action.” Alexia studied her manicured fingernails. “I have another idea which will definitely seal Lorenzo and Jolene’s fate, just in case our plan with the prenuptial backfires.”

“Heaven help us,” Taye groaned, afraid to ask what else Alexia could think of.

Rae’jean didn’t share Taye’s fear and asked, “What’s your idea?”

“Show the tape at the wedding.”

Taye’s eyes widened a hundred degrees. “Are you nuts!”

“No, but I sure as hell want to get even, and showing that videotape at the wedding will be the clincher. Even if Lorenzo’s attorney finds a way to make the prenuptial legal, showing that video will generate such a scandal that the Ballentine family will pay any amount of money to avoid the negative publicity. Something like that could ruin them financially. When Brandy gets a divorce, she’ll get enough of the Ballentines’ millions to live happily for the rest of her life.”

Taye nodded, finally buying into the plan for Brandy’s sake. “After all the stress she’d been through today, she’ll deserve every penny.”

Quinn looked up when he heard a soft knock on his office door. “Yes?”

The door opened and his secretary walked in carrying a vase filled with calla lilies. “These just arrived,” she said, sitting the large vase of flowers on his desk. She was out of the office before a speechless Quinn could say a word. He pulled off the card and read it.

Quinn tightened the card in his hand and closed his eyes. He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night and was forcing himself to work today. He stood and walked over to the window and looked out. Instead of seeing downtown LA, he was remembering Alexia and how she’d looked last night right before he had walked out of her house. The words she had spoken were still very clear in his mind.

You lied to me, Quinn…. You promised you wouldn’t hurt me and that I could trust you. But you are hurting me, Quinn. You’re hurting me by not believing in me and by not trusting me. You asked me to believe in you and to trust you, but you never intended to believe in me and to trust me. And knowing that hurts.

Quinn balled his hands into fists at his sides. Didn’t Alexia know he was hurting as well? No man liked being used, and she had deliberately set out to use him.

He was jolted out of his reverie when the phone rang. Walking quickly back to his desk, he picked it up. “Yes?”

“Your sister Mrs. Norris is on the line, Mr. Masters.”

“Thanks, Rita. Please put her through.” A few moments later his twin sister came on the line. “Quinn?”

He smiled. “Quinece. What’s happening, Sis?”

There was a pause. “I should be asking you that. Are you OK? There’s something bothering you. I can feel it.”

Quinn sat down in his chair. He and Quinece had discovered a long time ago that at certain times they could feel each other’s pain. “And what do you feel, Quinece?”

There was another pause. “Like my heart is breaking.”

Quinn nodded. “You almost got it right. You just forgot to use the past tense. My heart has been broken.”

“Oh, Quinn, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

He smiled gently. As always, he appreciated the closeness he and his sister shared. In fact, he appreciated the closeness that he shared with all his siblings. They were a close-knit family. “Just continue to love me, Que-Two.”

“You know I’ll do that anyway, Que-One.” After a pause, she asked, “Do you want to tell me about it?”

Quinn ran a hand over his face. What man wanted to tell anyone about being made a fool of? But then, he could tell Quinece anything. So he began talking. A few minutes later, after he was finished, he said, “So as you can see, I have good reason to feel the way I do.”

“Do you still love her, Quinn?”

“Of course I do. You don’t stop loving someone overnight.”

He could hear the smile in Quinece’s voice when she said, “No, you don’t.” There was another pause. “I’ve never told you how Kendall and I met, have I?”

Quinn lifted a brow. “I know the two of you actually met at a health spa.”

“Yes, but I never told you that I had watched him a good month or so before I approached him and asked him to take me out.”

Quinn chuckled. He wasn’t surprised that she had been that forward with a guy. His sister was definitely a women’s libber. She always had been.

“The main reason I wanted him to take me out was because, of all the men that I had been checking out, there was something about him that made me know he would be the one.”

Quinn nodded. “The one you would marry?”

“No. The one I would sleep with. I knew he would be the one I would give my virginity to.”

Quinn almost dropped the phone. “Say that again?”

Quinece chuckled. “You heard me right, Que-One. I had put a plan into motion to rid myself of my virginity. Here I was approaching my thirtieth birthday and was still a virgin and decided to do something about it. And Ken was the one I chose.”

“You actually intended to use him that way?”

“Yes. I came on to him like I was a very experienced woman and he found out differently the first time we slept together. To say he was mad as hell would be an understatement. He dropped me after that like a hot potato.”

Quinn nodded. “But he ended up coming back and falling in love with you anyway.”

“Yes, he forgave me after realizing something that even I hadn’t realized at the time.”

“What?”

“That subconsciously, he was the one I had chosen. I had seen something good, something worthwhile in him that I hadn’t seen in all those other men I’d checked out, that made me want him to be the one. My mind knew he was special even if at the time my heart did not.” There was a slight pause. “I’m saying all that to say that there’s a reason Alexia selected you to be the father of her child. Her mind knew you were special even though her heart didn’t at the time. Now her heart has caught up with her mind. Don’t punish her for it. Like you, Kendall felt used initially. But then, after going off for a couple of weeks and thinking about it, he realized just what a lucky man he was to be my first. Just think of what a lucky man you are to have a classy woman like Alexia Bennett admit to loving you and being pregnant with your child.”

Quinn leaned back in his chair as he remembered the look on Alexia’s face moments before he’d walked out. His words to her had been cruel, threatening.

“Well, I’ve said my piece. It’s time for me to go, but I did call you for another reason, too,” Quinece said.

“What reason is that?”

“To tell you that Kendall and I are expecting.”

Quinn smiled. “Quinece, that’s wonderful. I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks. And from the sound of it, me and Alexia will be delivering about the same time.”

He nodded. “Yes, it seems that way, doesn’t it?”

“Momma will be tickled pink to get two grandbabies all at once.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but she’ll be able to handle things.”

“Of course she will. That woman is made of some pretty sturdy stuff. Well, I’d better let you go. I’m sure you have a lot of work to do and a lot to think about.”

“Give Ken my best.”

“I will. Love you, Que-One.”

“Love you, too, Que-Two.” After hanging up the phone, Quinn looked at the flowers Alexia had sent and picked up the card and reread it. Moments later he stood and walked back over to the window to think.

Later that day the four cousins sat around Alexia’s suite and viewed the videotape. After watching a good thirty minutes of it, Brandy commented that she hadn’t known Jolene was so acrobatic. Alexia mentioned that she hadn’t known there were so many positions to make love in and filed a few in the back of her mind to use later when she got Quinn back. Rae’jean, who’d always taken a nonpassionate approach to making love, got to see what she’d been missing and couldn’t wait to see Ryan again. Taye had gotten hot and bothered and wanted to immediately go find Michael and jump his bones.

“Maybe we ought to sell copies. Some people would find it very entertaining,” Rae’jean said, smiling, after the viewing was over.

“Some would even find it educational,” Alexia said.

“And stimulating,” Taye threw in.

“Or disgusting,” Brandy said angrily as she ate a chocolate bar, at the moment not carrying that she’d probably have a zit somewhere on her face tomorrow as a result of it.

Alexia, Rae’jean, and Taye looked at Brandy and immediately felt bad. For a while they had forgotten how she must have felt seeing the man she had loved and planned to marry having sex with another woman, a woman who was supposed to be her best friend.

“Brandy, are you sure you want to go through with showing this at the wedding tomorrow?” Alexia asked with concern in her voice. “You’re being very brave about all of this, and I can’t help but admire that. If it were me, I’d be tempted to murder somebody—namely, Lorenzo and Jolene.”

Brandy nodded with a wry smile. “Yes, I’m positive that I want to do it. My vows tomorrow will be a farce anyway, so I may as well make the most of it. I’m going to play the innocent, wounded bride. I even plan to faint when the videotape starts playing.” She giggled. “Once I’m brought back around, I will become the drama queen, asking for a divorce and demanding to be compensated heavily for my humiliation.”

Rae’jean smiled. She could just imagine Brandy being dramatic. “All the plans are final for tonight?”

Alexia giggled. “Yes, Mr. Gleason doesn’t know what he’s in for. He’s going to find out the hard way, right along with Lorenzo and Jolene, that you don’t mess with a Bennett.”

“Really, Mr. Gleason, I don’t think it’s necessary for us to get undressed to enjoy this glass of wine,” Alexia purred to the old man sitting across from her on the love seat in his suite.

“I watched you on that HBO special five months ago,” the old man crooned. “And I wondered what a man had to do to get a woman like you. You have such a beautiful voice, and I bet you have a beautiful body to go along with it.”

Alexia forced a smile. The man had been trying to get her out of her clothes ever since she had come up to his room. She, however, was trying to get him intoxicated. Unfortunately, he seemed to be able to hold more alcohol than she had counted on. She crossed her legs, deliberately baring her shapely thighs and hoping that would be enough for him, because that was as much as he would get. The thought of his hands on her was beginning to make her ill. She reached over and refilled his glass with more wine.

“You’re not drinking any,” he observed.

She smiled sweetly at him. There was no way she would tell the old coot that she wasn’t drinking because she was pregnant. “Wine doesn’t agree with me. It usually makes me sick.” She sweetened her smile. “And you don’t want me to get sick, do you, Mr. Gleason?” she asked, batting her lashes at him.

“No, of course not. However, if you do feel ill you can always stretch out on my bed to rest.”

Alexia forced another smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.” At that moment they heard a sound coming from the other room.

“Did you hear anything?” Mr. Gleason asked, getting to his feet…but just barely. The alcohol was beginning to work on him, and he couldn’t stand straight.

“No. I didn’t hear anything,” Alexia said quickly, knowing Rae’jean and Taye were now inside the man’s hotel room. To take his mind off what was probably going on beyond the door, in the sitting area, she stood and crossed the room to the window, knowing his eyes had nearly popped out of their sockets at just how short her dress was. She had borrowed the outfit from Brandy, who was the same size as her but shorter. If she were to bend over he’d be able to see next Christmas and well into the New Year. “The ocean is beautiful at night,” she said, looking out the window.

She heard him come up behind her on wobbly legs. The man was about gone. It shouldn’t be long now before he was out like a light. She tried not to stiffen when she felt his hand on her shoulder and felt him come stand directly behind her. She almost got sick when with his drunken breath he whispered in her ear, “Can I take off your dress, Al?”

Alexia inwardly cringed. She hated it when people shortened her name to Al. “Yes, if you really want to,” she whispered silkily, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get the zipper down. Even if he didn’t have drunken fingers, the zipper wouldn’t work. She’d had Taye stitch the zipper in place to make absolutely sure of that.

She inwardly smiled when she felt him trying, without much success, to get the zipper of her dress down.

“It’s stuck,” he finally said.

“It can’t be,” Alexia said smoothly. She heard him release a frustrated breath before trying again without any success. She turned to face him. “I tell you what; why don’t you just go on and get in the bed, under the covers, and wait for me? I’m going into the bathroom and take it off. I’ll be back in a little while.”

“But I want to watch you get naked,” he pouted drunkenly.

Not in this lifetime, old man,
Alexia thought. “I’m much too shy to get undressed in front of you,” she said innocently.

“Sure, honey, I understand,” he said, patting her thigh. “You go on and get undressed in the bathroom. I’ll be in bed waiting for you.”

Alexia deliberately remained in the bathroom for a good twenty minutes. When she opened the door to come out—still fully clothed—she couldn’t help but smile. Mr. Gleason had removed his shirt but hadn’t taken off his pants before passing out on the bed. And he was snoring loudly.

Grabbing her purse, she quickly left the hotel room.

Mission accomplished.

It was nearly two in the morning and Alexia, Brandy, Rae’jean, and Taye were all sitting around Rae’jean’s room recounting what they had done that night. Alexia had had them in stitches while telling them about her episode with Mr. Gleason.

After a while Rae’jean asked Brandy, “Were you able to get your copy of the prenuptial from out of Lorenzo’s room?”

Brandy nodded after taking another sip of wine. “Yes, all copies should be accounted for. I suggest we tear them in tiny bits and flush them down the toilet.”

Alexia laughed. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

Brandy sighed deeply. Today was the longest period she had spent with her cousins in a long time, and she had enjoyed their company. She smiled. She was touched by the way they had rallied around her and had given her their support. She now regretted that she had missed out on their friendship while growing up. “I want to say something to the three of you.”

When the room got completely silent and all eyes were on her, Brandy continued, “I know I haven’t been the nicest person to each of you over the years, and for that I am truly sorry. I let my mother’s resentment at how things didn’t turn out for her and my father influence my relationship with the Bennett family. I see now what I missed out on and what I could have been sharing with you. It will forever be my loss, because the three of you have proven tonight, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that family does matter, and that blood is thicker than water and that when you need them, your family will come through for you.”

Tears misted Brandy’s eyes. “I love Lorenzo. Even now, with everything he’s done, I still love him. But I will get over him and I will make him pay dearly for hurting me this way. But I believe that somewhere there’s a man who will love me as I should be loved.”

She turned to Taye. “He will be like your Michael, Taye, and will be willing to fight heaven and hell, even family if he has to, to be with me.” Her gaze moved next to Alexia. “Or he might be like your Quinn, Alexia, who even now, when you think you may have lost him forever, still brings a sparkle of love and passion to your eyes.” She then turned to Rae’jean. “Or he may be like the new man in your life, Rae’jean, the one you want but are so afraid to have. The one who makes your blood race with just a look. I will have all of that one day, and when I do,” she said, her smile widening, “the three of you won’t just be invited to the wedding; you’ll all be in it.”

Cheers went up in the room and the four women stood and, for the first time ever, they embraced with love in their hearts for one another. Crying all the while and knowing they had accomplished something that was a long time coming.

“Hey, you guys,” Alexia said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I got just the right song to top this off. My agent sent it with me because he wants me to think about doing a remake of it. At first I rebuffed the thought, but now it may not be such a bad idea after all.”

She went over to the CD player and began playing the song, “We Are Family,” by Sister Sledge. Everyone in the room joined in, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs, with Alexia doing the lead. They replaced the word
sisters
in the song with the word
cousins.
After singing it a few times, Taye, Rae’jean, and Brandy concluded that if Alexia ever did a remake of the song, she would need the three of them as her backup.