A Family Reunion (6 page)

“We’re moving to Atlanta.”

At first after he’d said those words Kennedy just stared at him like he had suddenly grown two heads. Then she quietly shrugged, met his gaze, and said, “I’m not moving anywhere.”

“You don’t have a choice, young lady.”

When she saw that he was dead serious the crying and screaming began, putting the tantrum in full swing. “How can you think about forcing me to leave? My friends are here. What about Faith and Grace? What about my school? What about—”

“What about putting a lid on it, Kennedy? Being dramatic won’t do you any good. We’re moving. As far as I’m concerned, none of those things you named makes a bit of difference to me, especially Faith and Grace. What type of friends would encourage you to pull a stunt like you did last night? All of you could have gotten killed.”

“We didn’t,” she countered.

“But you could have and that’s all that matters to me.”

“Well, that’s not all that matters to me. My friends matter to me. You’re never here. I need someone I can relate to.”

Michael took a deep breath. “And that’s why we’re moving. I’m taking this job that was offered to me a month ago. I’ll still be flying, but for a private corporation with flights only in the Southeast. That way I’ll be home more.” The decision had come to him last night after much soul-searching and prayer. He would take only a small cut from his current salary, but in a few years he’d be right back on top of his range again. But at the moment that didn’t matter. What he cared about most was his daughter and trying to coast her through these turbulent teenage years with as much ease as possible and without him losing his sanity in the process.

He had known he made the right decision when he went through his mail at breakfast and came across the letter from Cousin Agnes. There would be a Bennett family reunion in July. It was time for him to stop carrying that chip on his shoulder about being adopted. Donnel and Zoe Lee Bennett had given him a loving home for the first twelve years of his life. After their deaths his grandfather, Grampa Henry, had raised him and the rest of the Bennett family had given him a strong sense of values to live by. The close relationships he’d shared with all of his cousins, especially Taye, Rae’jean, and Alexia, had always given him a feeling of belonging.

He wanted Kennedy to have that same feeling of belonging as well.

It takes a village.
That very thought had suddenly struck him last night, and he realized the importance of a strong, loving family system. Lynda was gone, but he still had a loving family he knew was there for him. All he had to do was reach out. Stephanie had tried to make him see that many times, but he had refused. If anything happened to him Kennedy would be completely alone, and he didn’t want that. Lynda’s parents had died years ago, and she’d been the only child. The only relative she’d known about was an elderly aunt who’d died the year before she had. Therefore, his family would be the only one Kennedy had, and except for his grandfather, she didn’t know any of them. Living in Atlanta would put them within an hour’s drive of Macon, where most of the Bennetts lived.

“I won’t go. I’ll run away first.”

Kennedy’s threat interrupted his thoughts. “Yeah, sweetheart, you do that. Think of all the money you’ll be saving me on food, clothes, hair, and nails.”

The tears and the screaming started again. “I hate you!”

He tried to let her words, spoken in anger, roll off him. But they hurt nonetheless and his heart skipped a painful beat. “That may be the case, Kennedy, but I do love you.”

He then turned and walked out of the room.

Three weeks later and his plans had been finalized. He and Kennedy would be moving to Atlanta at the end of her school term. Kennedy was still pouting and was beginning to be a sheer test of his patience and control, but he was determined to ignore her antics. Her negative mood and attitude would not change a thing. In fact, they only reinforced his belief that he was doing the best thing for the both of them.

With the help of a realtor Michael had located a very nice home for him and Kennedy close to the school she would be attending. If everything worked out as planned, he would be settled in his home a few weeks before the family reunion, which was something he was beginning to look forward to. He had been gone away from home too long. After high school he had immediately joined the air force to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot. His travels had taken him just about everywhere, but it was when he was sent to Japan that he met Lynda. She’d been a nurse working at the base where he’d been assigned.

“Hi, Captain.”

Michael looked up and smiled. Stephanie was leaning her shoulder against the wall just inside the door of the employees’ lounge. “Steph, I didn’t know you’d be flying today. I thought you were off this week.”

She returned his smile. “I am. I came by especially to see you. Is there a place we can go and talk?”

He lifted a brow, noticing the serious look behind her smile. “Sure. My flight doesn’t leave until three, and I was about to go grab lunch at Larry’s. Would you like to join me or do you prefer that we go somewhere more private?”

“Larry’s will be fine.”

Due to the lunch crowd, Larry’s Seafood Grill was loud when Michael and Stephanie stepped through the doors. As he led Stephanie to an empty table he couldn’t help notice a number of familiar faces in the place. Because it was located in the airport, a number of other pilots and flight attendants ate there on a regular basis in between flights.

When the waiter left after taking their order Stephanie asked him, “How’s Kennedy?”

Michael released a frustrated sigh. “As well as can be expected for someone who claims her world is going to fall apart with the move to Atlanta.” He had called Stephanie the day after returning home like he’d promised her he would do. She had been concerned about Kennedy and wanted to make sure she was all right when he got there. It was then that he had told Stephanie about his decision to quit his job with the airline and go work as a pilot for a private company. She had understood his decision. She’d also understood that his decision had virtually meant the end to their four-year relationship, unless either of them wanted for it to continue.

“But I’m sure you didn’t want to have lunch with me just to talk about Kennedy. What is it, Steph?”

Stephanie glanced up at him. “I’ve met someone. I know we’ve pretty much decided to end things between us anyway, because of your move, but still I wanted you to know.”

Michael leaned back in his chair and tipped his head back and studied Stephanie. She had come to mean a lot to him over the past four years. She had been everything he had needed to help get over losing Lynda. Stephanie was a woman with a giving heart who had never made any demands on him. She had been a special lover, and even more important, she had been a good friend. “This sounds serious, Steph. Is it?”

She met his gaze. “It could be. I met him two weeks ago on one of my flights. He’s a rancher from Montana. We’ve been communicating a lot by phone, and a few days ago he invited me to spend a week at his ranch. I just wanted to make sure things were completely over between us before I accepted his invitation.”

Michael nodded. When he and Stephanie had decided just to date exclusively four years ago, they had done just that, dated exclusively. But they’d also agreed that if either one or the other met someone, then it would be just a matter of letting the other know.

He had enjoyed her companionship. He was definitely going to miss her, but she deserved more than what he would ever be able to offer her. “Are you having second thoughts about your decision to never marry again?”

“Yes.”

He paused from drinking his water. A small smile touched his lips. “I’m glad. I think you have a lot to offer someone. You’re a special woman, Steph.”

“And you’re a special man, Michael. You helped me get over some rough times in my life.”

The rough times she was referring to were the years she’d been married to an abusive husband. After three years of enduring constant beatings and ridicule she had ended the marriage. She had been divorced less than a year when she and Michael had met. “My involvement with you helped rebuild my self-confidence, Michael. It also showed me that a physical relationship with a man didn’t always end up brutal. I’ll always appreciate you for doing that.”

“You helped me as well, Steph.”

She smiled up at him. “That’s something else I want to talk to you about. I care for you a lot, Michael; you know that. You are a warm, caring person. You’re a person any woman could easily fall in love with. I know how much you loved Lynda and the idea of another woman ever taking her place in your life right now is unthinkable to you. But I believe there is a special woman out there for you. And although she won’t ever take Lynda’s place, I think she’ll be able to carve her own special place in your heart if you let her. Promise me that when you do meet her you’ll give her a chance and that you won’t let anything come between you. You will need her and Kennedy will, too.”

Michael considered her words for a moment. He doubted another woman would ever be able to carve a place in his heart. If Stephanie hadn’t been able to do it in the four years they had been together, he doubted any other woman would even venture close.

“Promise me, Michael, that you won’t give up on love and that one day you’ll give it a second chance…just like I plan on doing.”

She had breathed out the words in a low whisper. It was a heartfelt plea, and Michael knew she would continue to go at it until he said what she wanted to hear. Although in his heart he doubted there would ever be another woman for him, he owed it to Stephanie to let her believe there was hope not only for her but for him as well. She deserved believing that, as much as he believed in his heart that she was also deserving of some man’s complete love and devotion.

He met her intense gaze and reached across the table and captured her hand in his. “I promise.”

Alexia

Men. Who could understand them? And what woman wanted to waste her time trying?

Alexia Bennett shook her head and returned to what she was doing, trying to dismiss from her thoughts the empty doorway and the man who had angrily walked out of it. She gritted her teeth. Franklin Devine had really rubbed her the wrong way. What was his problem? Why couldn’t he understand that when the affair was over, then it was over? Finished. Final.

She shook her head, sending the long mass of hair that cascaded down her back flying wildly. She stood, walked to the window, and watched as Franklin got into his BMW and drove away. Unfortunately, he hadn’t taken her news very well.

Why did some men make ending a relationship so damned difficult? Why couldn’t they understand that there were some women who actually wanted nothing more than a “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am”? Men had been resisting serious relationships for years. Why did they get pissed when a woman did it?

Why couldn’t Franklin accept and understand what she’d explained to him up front at the beginning of their relationship? She wanted intensity and not intimacy. At least not the level of intimacy some men wanted. To her, intensity did include an element of mind-blowing sex that resulted after a hot look, a sudden connection, a series of dates, and maybe even a little infatuation thrown in for good measure.

But to men like Franklin that wasn’t enough. They always wanted more. They wanted the depth of intimacy that involved a willingness to let someone else know who you really were, what you were made of, and what made you tick. It was the level of intimacy that revealed yourself and everything about you. The kind that exposed your flaws as well as any hidden secrets.

That level of intimacy also meant letting your guard down, which was something she had done with her first husband and would never do again.

It was the kind that could lead to being trapped in a relationship and afraid of the pain if things didn’t work out. It was the kind that also led to the fear of rejection. That’s why her motto was
Reject them before they can reject you.

Taking a deep breath, Alexia dragged her thoughts away from the scene she’d had with Franklin and forced them on the party she was attending that night. It was a party for D’Angelo and would be held at some extravagant club in the heart of LA. Everyone who was somebody in the music industry was expected to be there. She had a lot to do to get ready. The first thing she would do was call her hairstylist, Naomi. She needed something done to her hair. She had so much weaved hair on her head that she was beginning to feel like Diana Ross’s kid sister. She smiled. That wouldn’t be so bad, since Diana was her idol, her number-one diva, and had been since Alexia was a teenager living in Macon, Georgia. The highlight of her day had been pulling out her mother’s old Supremes albums and singing along with Diana, Mary, and Flo to her heart’s content.

As she crossed the room to her bedroom she concluded that she and Diana were a lot alike in a number of ways. One day Diana had made the decision to cut loose from the Supremes and go out on her own. Few people knew that Alexia had that same goal. She had been with Body and Soul for ten years, but now she wanted more. It was time to move on to bigger and better things—alone. She wanted to go solo, and she had big plans to do just that.

There was only one way to handle her agent, Alexia decided as she stepped off the elevator two days later. And that was by using scare tactics. Abbott Bodie needed to know that she would find a replacement for him and find one fast if he didn’t work on cutting a deal with her and Dunning Records. If she had to endure another rehearsal like she had today, she would go bonkers. Raisa and Chloe had been in rare form, snapping at each other like two mad dogs, and when she had tried to intervene to bring about a semblance of peace, they had both turned on her. How the three of them, opposites in every way you could name, had remained together as Body and Soul and in the process had become one of the biggest-selling female groups of all time was beyond her.

She and Chloe were the two original members. Raisa Forbes had joined the group three years ago after founding member Mia Combs got married and decided the group’s grueling cross-country tours weren’t worth the time spent away from her new husband. When Mia had been a part of the group everyone had mainly gotten along, since the three of them had a history. They’d been friends attending Tuskegee University in Alabama when the same man who had discovered the Commodores at their college years before had offered them a chance of a lifetime. Since they’d all been seniors at the time, they were able to finish school before the group cut their first record. When they had emerged onto the scene they had done so in a big way. With Alexia singing lead, their first single, “Some Like It Hot,” went platinum and their debut album,
Test of Time,
had held the number-one spot for more than six months. Mia had been the peacemaker in the group. Whenever tempers flared she knew how to soothe them by reminding everyone that the main focus was the success of the group and not individual egos.

Raisa’s take on things was altogether different. She enjoyed being a hell-raiser and kept mess going all the time among the three of them. Her philosophy was to give the newspapers something to print, whether it was good or bad, and for some reason she preferred bad. She didn’t care that any negativity about her was a bad reflection on the group as well. And Raisa couldn’t be trusted. Chloe had discovered that the hard way when she found out a couple of days ago that Raisa had hit on her boyfriend one night at a party Chloe had not attended. There were some who even claimed Raisa left the party with him. Chloe had broken things off with Myron and had come within two feet of giving Raisa a good behind whipping today at the recording studio.

Alexia took a deep breath. She was too old for this. Most of the new all-girl groups hitting the scene were in their early twenties. She and Chloe would turn thirty-one later this year, and Raisa, the youngest member of the group, was twenty-seven, which probably accounted for her lack of maturity. It may account for it, but it didn’t excuse it. As far as Alexia was concerned, there was no excuse for one sistah betraying another by coming on to her man. How low could you go?

She shook her head in disgust and walked over to the secretary’s desk and spoke to the young woman sitting behind it. “I believe Mr. Bodie is expecting me.”

The girl smiled up at her. “Yes, he is, Ms. Bennett; however, he’s with someone. As soon as he’s free I’ll let him know you’ve arrived.”

Alexia had not yet taken a seat when the door to Abbott Bodie’s office opened and he walked out with a very good-looking man at his side. She immediately began checking the brother out, breaking her long-standing rule of not showing interest in another man any sooner than three months after ending a relationship with one.

The man was well over six feet tall, with broad, muscle-layered shoulders that were covered in an expertly tailored suit. Another thing she noticed about him was his features. In one scope she’d taken in the richness of his medium brown skin, his straight nose, and his firm, sensual lips. He had close-cropped black hair and a dimple displayed in his chin when he smiled, like he was doing now while talking to Abbott.

He happened to glance up and their eyes met. Alexia suddenly felt goose bumps rise on the skin of her arms and legs. Then, on the flip side of that, she felt heat pool in the bottom of her stomach. Actually, it was a little lower than her stomach, she thought, as the heat intensified and settled between her thighs. She shifted her weight from her left foot to her right, then back again. Nothing worked. The heat was still there and was getting hotter by the second.

She couldn’t help it. The man was drop-dead gorgeous.

“Alexia, you’re early,” Abbott Bodie said the instant he saw her. He walked over to her with Mr. Drop-Dead-Gorgeous by his side.

“Abbott.” She may have greeted her agent, but her full attention was on the man with him.

“Alexia, may I introduce Quinn Masters. Quinn is my new attorney.”

Then to Quinn he said, “This is Alexia Bennett, both the body and the soul behind the singing group Body and Soul.”

Alexia smiled as she held her hand out to Quinn. “Mr. Masters.”

He took her hand in his in a firm handshake. “Ms. Bennett.”

With the feel of his hand on hers, Alexia almost forgot to breathe. And when she noticed his eyes inspecting her from beneath dark brows, every feminine hormone in her body went on alert. She even thought she heard the sound of music in her ears.

Impossible.

But when she looked into his eyes and saw the intensity there, she thought that maybe she did hear a symphony after all.

“Alexia?”

Seemingly from a distance she heard Abbott Bodie call her name, and that immediately grabbed her attention. She swallowed several times to get rid of the sudden dryness in her throat before answering. “Yes?”

“I’m ready to meet with you in my office now.”

“Oh. Yes, of course.” She then looked down at her hand. Quinn Masters was still holding it. He released it and she felt an acute sense of loss.

“Be sure to get back with me, Quinn, on that issue we were discussing,” Abbott was saying.

Quinn smiled as he nodded his head. “Sure thing.” He then turned his attention back to Alexia. And when he did, a sudden, undeniable wave of acute passion swept over her. Her mind reeled in confusion and she knew she had to put as much distance between her and Quinn Masters as possible.

“It was nice meeting you, Mr. Masters.”

His smile widened. “The pleasure, Ms. Bennett, was all mine.”

“Hmm, and he looked that good?” Ivana Perkins asked as she sat at the desk with a pair of eyeglasses perched on her nose.

“He looked even better,” was Alexia’s reply. Ivana, who was old enough to be Alexia’s mother and didn’t have a problem with reminding Alexia of that fact, served as her secretary, handling all the numerous correspondence she received as well as organizing her social calendar. She had just finished telling Ivana about Mr. Drop-Dead-Gorgeous. To say the man had been a tempting sight would be an understatement. Although Alexia was definitely one who believed that there was more to a person than just great looks, she had to hand it to the brother for being able to send a tremor of excitement down her spine. She’d been attracted to other men before but never this sudden and this intense. And definitely never to the point where they dominated her thoughts like Quinn Masters was now doing. Besides that, the man had somehow set off a deep dormant longing within her. She had never encountered the promise of such raw passion the way she had during the few brief minutes of their introduction. The center between her legs still throbbed just at the thought of it. The dark intensity of his eyes had held invitations to things she didn’t know if she was quite ready for.

Get a grip, Alexia,
she said to herself.
Of course you aren’t ready for it, nor will you ever be. The last thing you need is to get involved with a man who seems to have an overabundant supply of take-charge genes.
There was also something about the way he had looked at her, alerting her to the fact that with any relationship he was involved in, he would be the one calling the shots and in total control. Those were the types of men she tried avoiding at all costs.

“Here’s a letter you might want to answer yourself,” Ivana said, interrupting her thoughts. “It’s from one of your family members.”

Alexia’s lips tilted in a smile as she moved across the room to get the letter from Ivana. She looked the envelope over. “It’s from my cousin Agnes. I wonder why she’s writing me.”

Moments later, after Alexia opened the envelope and read the letter, the smile on her face widened. “The Bennetts are planning a family reunion the second weekend in July.”

“I hope you’re not contemplating going.”

Alexia raised her brow as she looked at the other woman. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

Ivana took off her glasses and looked at her intently. “You may have to. That’s the same weekend you’re scheduled to do that concert in D.C.”

A frown marred Alexia’s features. That concert had been Raisa’s idea, and she hadn’t discussed things with her and Chloe before she’d committed them to it. “The details of that concert haven’t been finalized yet. I’ll just let Chloe and Raisa know I won’t be able to make it. This is far more important. My family hasn’t had a family reunion in fifteen years, and this is one I don’t plan to miss. I want all those fuddy-duddy Bennetts, the ones who thought I’d never amount to anything, to eat their hearts out.”

Alexia took a sip of wine as she enjoyed a luxurious soak in her Jacuzzi. Leaning back, she couldn’t help but feel giddy at the thought of seeing the majority of her family again. Because of her hectic tour schedule she hadn’t been home in almost a year, and then the visit had been so quick, she hadn’t a chance to see anyone other than her parents and Poppa Ethan.

Poppa Ethan.

She smiled as she remembered her grandfather and the impact he and her grandmother had had on her life. When others thought she couldn’t or wouldn’t make it, her grandparents had always known that she would. “You’re a special child, Alexia Idella Bennett. And don’t let anyone tell you differently,” her grandmother Idella used to tell her all the time.