Too Little, Too Late (26 page)

H
OSEA DIDN’T KNOW WHAT
he was.

Hurt. Angry. Shocked.

His wife had been married before! For fifteen years. And when he did the math in his head—the years, her age, there was a lot that didn’t add up.

As he swerved through the streets, Hosea tried to recall every conversation they’d had about their pasts. Tried to remember just how many times she said that she’d never been married, how many times she’d lied about her age.

When they met, he’d taken her out for what she said was her thirty-fifth. Maybe she wasn’t lying. It was possible. She could have been married at nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen…

He doubted it.

His wife was a bona fide, straight-up liar.

But why? Why would she deny a first husband? Unless she was still married. Maybe she was a bigamist and he was part of her crime. Maybe she lied about her age to hide her identity. Maybe she was running from the law.

Maybe she wasn’t even Jasmine Larson Bush.

But no, he’d met her sister, Serena. And knew her godbrother, Malik.

Seemed like all of them had kept the truth from him.

Who are you, Jasmine?

He swung into the circular driveway of the Fairmont Hotel, ready to demand answers. Tonight, Jasmine was going to tell him the truth.

He swung the car door open, jumped out, and his cell phone rang. He growled; he didn’t want to talk to anyone—except for his wife.

But the 310 area code made him pause. Maybe it was Alexis. He flipped the cell open. “This is Hosea,” he answered as he tossed the keys to the valet.

“Mr. Bush, you don’t know me,” he heard a woman say as he stomped across the lobby. “My name is Kyla Blake. I’m a friend of Alexis and Brian Lewis.”

Hosea stopped moving. Had something happened to Alexis? He knew he should have taken her home himself.

“This is odd for me,” Kyla continued, “but I’m calling out of concern—”

“Is Alexis all right?”

“Yes, well, no, actually, that’s why I’m calling. Alexis and Brian are having challenges.”

Why is this woman calling me?
“Ms. Blake, I’m not friends with Alexis or Brian,” he said, unable to keep the impatience out of his voice. He moved again, marched toward the elevators. “I don’t even know them, not really.”

“But you know your wife.”

He paused, held the elevator open with his hand.

She said, “Alexis and Brian will never be able to save their marriage if Jasmine doesn’t stay away from Brian.”

Hang up now.
That was the voice he heard, but he pressed the phone closer to his ear. “My wife hasn’t had a thing to do with Brian.”

“If that’s what she’s told you, then she’s lying, because I walked in on her and Brian today.”

His heart beat slowed. “Today?”

“Yes, and I don’t know what was going on, but let’s just say, I’m happy I got to his office when I did.”

Now his heart stopped.

“I’m not trying to start any trouble, Mr. Bush. Just trying to help my friends make it through a tough time, and it won’t happen if
Jasmine
keeps hanging around.”

The way she said his wife’s name—like it was a brand of poison—made him frown.

“Mr. Bush?”

“Yes. Thank you,” was all he said before he hung up.

He backed away from the elevator and sank into the deep pillows of one of the sofas in the lobby.

Jasmine was seeing Brian. Just like he thought.

Even though he’d had those doubts for days, he wanted to believe that he was wrong. That Jasmine could be trusted. But how could a liar be trusted?

He shook his head. Chuckled, because he refused to be a punk and cry. Slowly, he pushed himself up and staggered back across the lobby toward the front door.

He’d been such a fool.

Exhausted, Hosea edged his car to the curb. He’d been driving through the unfamiliar streets for hours, and now he was just too tired to continue. Too tired to even think about this anymore. There were too many secrets, too many lies.

He was so hurt.

He needed someone to talk to. Someone who would just listen.

He was so angry.

But who could he call? It was too late to reach his father. And Triage—though that was his boy, he didn’t know him like that.

He’d spent so much of his time over the last year focused on his family and work. Now, he had no one to confide in.

He was so shocked.

There was Alexis. But she’d left in such bad shape. Could she handle hearing this news tonight?

He revved up the engine and then snaked his SUV through the streets.

He knew just the place to go.

T
HERE WAS THE GUN
. T
HE
barrel pressed hard against her temple. Jasmine couldn’t move, even as Hosea screamed that he wanted her out of his house.

The gun cocked. And then the blast.

Jasmine bolted up in bed like she always did at that moment in her dream.

It took a minute before her heart slowed to its regular beat. For once, she knew why this dream had come.

Because of Brian.

She still couldn’t believe that it had happened. She didn’t even like Brian, so what was that kiss all about?

That man is the devil,
she thought as she replayed the moment in her mind when Brian leaned into her. She had tried to pull away. But he held her and pressed his lips against hers.

At least, that’s the way she remembered it.

Closing her eyes, she squeezed away that memory. She needed Hosea and his arms right now. She reached across the sheets. Felt nothing. Then, patted his side of the bed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Her husband was not there.

She jumped up. Checked the bathroom. Then the living room. And Jacqueline’s room.

A quick glance at the clock. It was after three. Her heart raced.

She dialed his cell phone. It went straight to voice mail.

“Hosea, where are you?” she cried. That was her message.

She hung up. Called again. And again.

Left more messages. Again. And again.

Where is he?
She paced. Tried to think of the last time they’d talked. He’d called to tell her that he was having that dinner meeting he’d mentioned this morning.

“Sorry, Jasmine, I can’t get out of it,” he’d said. “But I shouldn’t be too late.”

She had wanted to demand that he tell her who was going to be at that meeting.

But all she’d said was, “All right,” because not enough hours had passed between Hosea’s call and Brian’s kiss. And she wasn’t ready to talk to her husband. Didn’t want him to hear anything in her voice.

So she’d just hung up, and then prayed that God would put back together what seemed to be falling apart.

Where are you, Hosea?

Surely, he wasn’t still with Alexis. It couldn’t have been that easy for Alexis to get Hosea into bed. But why not? It had only taken her one chance meeting at de Janeiro when she was in L.A. for a business meeting to get Brian. Barely an hour after she ran into him, they were back in her hotel room, messing up the sheets. It had been quite easy to get Alexis’s husband.

She shook her head. Hosea wasn’t like Brian.

So where was he?

Maybe he was stranded. Hurt on some abandoned road. She needed to call the police.

She grabbed the phone, but then her mind told her to dial another number first.

“Brittney.” She tried not to sound frantic when Hosea’s groggy assistant answered. “I’m so sorry to wake you, but do you know who Hosea was meeting with tonight?”

“I’m not exactly sure. He had a dinner meeting. Maybe it was with Natasia. They walked out of the office together.”

Natasia!

Her intuition had been right. This wasn’t about Alexis. This was Natasia.

She hung up and slipped into her bathrobe, then tiptoed into Jacqueline’s room. Her daughter slept the way she lived, with a smile. She kissed her cheek before she returned to the living room.

In the old days, Jasmine would have been in the streets tracking her husband down. And she would have done that tonight, would have wrapped Jacqueline up and strapped her into her car seat. But she didn’t know where to find Hosea and Natasia.

She shouldn’t have banned Natasia from staying at the Fairmont. She should have been smart enough to keep her enemy close.

Grabbing a blanket from the closet, Jasmine turned the oversized chair to face the front door, then she settled into the cushions. She would just sit and wait. Wait for her husband to come home.

I
T HAD BECOME HIS HABIT
.

Brian rolled over, picked up the phone, and dialed the number. It would be his first call of the day. Always around six o’clock. By the time night came, he would have made at least a dozen more calls to her.

The phone on the other end rang. This was the point where he began to count. But not today. Instead, as the phone rang, he prayed that Kyla had kept her word about Jasmine.

He could hardly sleep last night, thinking about that kiss. But he’d given up searching for a reason. It didn’t matter. It was a mistake. It would never happen again.

On the third ring, Brian sighed. After the next one, the machine would pick up and he would leave the same message he left every day, “Alexis, I love you. Please call me.”

But today, on the third ring, she answered, “Brian?”

She was groggy, but just the sound of her made him sit up straight in the bed.

“Alexis.” He didn’t have any other words prepared. “How are you?” was all he could think to say.

“Fine.” Her voice was thick with sleep. “I need to talk to you.”

He searched her tone for any sign that Kyla had betrayed him.

“Do you have time to see me?” she asked.

There was no anger, no hostility. “Definitely.” He jumped from the bed and calculated how fast he could get dressed and get home.

She said, “Can we meet for lunch?”

“I can come over right now.” Plans were already in his head. He had a consultation this morning, but someone would have to cover him. And Dr. Perkins—she would understand when he told her why he had to cancel their session.

“No, lunch would be better for me,” she said, stopping his roll.

“Okay.” His thoughts turned to making this more than a lunch. “I’ll pick up something and bring it to you.”

“No, not here.”

“Okay.” Plan B—take her to her favorite place. “Let’s meet at Heroes.”

She paused. “Let’s meet at Pink’s.”

“All right.” It wasn’t as good as he wanted, but Pink’s wasn’t bad. Another one of their favorite places to just hang out. “Is noon good?” He’d really wanted to ask her to meet him in an hour or two, but he didn’t think she’d agree to an eight o’clock lunch.

“Make it two.”

Two was too late. He needed to see her now. But he agreed and hung up without saying all the other things on his mind. Like how much he loved her, missed her, wanted to come home.

He’d save those words for later.

He couldn’t stop grinning. He could feel it. By the end of this day, he’d be back home with his wife.

J
ASMINE’S EYES FLUTTERED
open. A moment. Then she jumped from the chair. Ran into her bedroom.

At the door, she stood motionless. Stared at the bed that was the way she’d left it. Sheets tossed, pillows thrown.

Not a single sign that Hosea had come home.

She crumbled to the floor. He had spent the entire night away. With Natasia.

It wasn’t until she heard her little girl’s cries that Jasmine pushed herself up.

“What’s wrong, baby?” she said as she rushed to her daughter.

Jacqueline stood in her bed, her arms raised in the air. “Mama,” she cried.

“What’s wrong, baby?” She held her before she lowered herself into the rocking chair. Resting Jacqueline’s head on her chest, she rocked back and forth, trying to bring comfort to them both.

But together, they cried.

“Ssshhh,” Jasmine continued, even though her own tears kept coming. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered again and again to her little girl and herself.

Soon, Jacqueline’s sobs subsided, and she slept, nestled in her mother’s arms. Still, Jasmine rocked, held her daughter, trying to find reassurance in the normalcy of this act. But she couldn’t stop crying.

Her mind was whirling with just a single thought—Hosea had spent the night with another woman. Without a call, without discussion, without explanation, he’d walked away from his family.

No! She wasn’t going out like this. She wasn’t going to just hand Hosea over. Her marriage could be saved—just like before. And she was ready to go to battle with every bit of life within her.

She laid Jacqueline back in the bed and wiped away her own tears.

It was time to fight.

Jasmine slowed her steps as she approached the studio. Calmed herself, then opened the door.

“Hey, Brittney,” she said with a smile.

Brittney looked up, yawned. “Hey.”

Jasmine began, “I’m sorry about that call last night or rather, this morning.” She forced a chuckle. “Hosea and I got our wires crossed. He told me he was going to have a late night with some friends who came in from New York and I forgot.”

“That’s cool. I was worried at first, but when you didn’t call back, I figured he was okay.”

“I’m just gonna go back there—”

Brittney frowned. “Hosea’s not in,” she said, as if Jasmine should know.

Jasmine took a deep breath. Kept her smile. “He’s not?”

“No. Natasia called about an hour ago and canceled all appointments for today, for both of them.”

Jasmine didn’t know how she kept standing, kept breathing, kept talking. Until that moment, she’d still held hope that her suspicions were wrong. “Oh, I forgot,” she lied. “They had a…I’ll just call him on his cell.”

She turned toward the doors, her steps unsteady. She was going to find them. Find them and kill her.

“Brittney.” She turned back, hoping that she wasn’t showing any signs of the heart attack she was having. “Did Hosea tell you that we wanted to send flowers to Natasia?”

“No, but I’ll send them. What’s the occasion?”

“I’ll do it. I have a couple of other gifts I need to send. Where’s Natasia staying?”

“She’s at the Rendezvous, room fourteen eleven. It’s not far from your hotel.”

Jasmine walked toward the elevator, marching to the battle cry in her head. Inside her car, it took a moment for her shaking hands to fit the key into the ignition. She pushed the car into drive and heard Mae Frances’s voice in her head.

“Don’t do anything that could get you in any kind of trouble, Jasmine Larson,” Mae Frances had said when she’d come over to the suite to baby sit Jacqueline. Jasmine had filled her in on Hosea’s night out with Natasia. “I can make a couple of calls and bring in one of my connections to handle that kind of thing.”

Jasmine had turned her down then and was really happy about that now. She wanted to handle this personally.

She punched the accelerator and aimed her car toward the Rendezvous.