Let Me Hold You Read online

  “Yeah, Unc! Them ribs was on fire!” Big South agreed.

  “They sure were!” That was Jo.

  “The best I’ve had in a long time,” I added.

  “Thank you! Thank you!” He fell into the folding chair next to mine, snatched the towel from around his neck, wiped his sweaty face, sucked his teeth, stuck a toothpick in his mouth, and smiled. “Leland! Where you find Kimmy here at?” His voice was so loud next to me that I actually jumped.

  Kimmy?

  “She’s the director of a community center I volunteered at,” Leland replied.

  “Oh, yeah? She a pretty one. Chocolate like my Lou. I ain’t know you liked ‘em like I like ‘em, Nephew! Ha-ha-haaaaaaa!”

  Leland reached across me and slapped hands with his uncle. “Shiiiid, ain’t nothing like some chocolate, Unc!”

  “I-know-that’s-right!” Uncle Lee Chester shouted, releasing a long wheezing laugh, then tilted his head to the side. “Oh, hell. Got a call. Probably Lou’s crazy ass.” After pressing the button on his earpiece, he said, “What-up-there-now?!”

  I turned and eyed Leland, who shrugged. Across the table, I could see Big South whispering something in Jo’s ear while she tried unsuccessfully to stifle a giggle.

  “Got damn, woman! Shit! I just got off the grill! I ain’t leaving yet!”

  My eyes widened. If that was his wife, they must’ve had a crazy relationship, because judging from the reactions of everyone at the table, this wasn’t unusual.

  “Lou, look now…I’ma be home after we through celebrating! You coulda brought your ass over here instead of sitting up in that house watching got-damn Murder, She Wrote! Hell!” he shouted, then tapped the button on his Bluetooth earpiece, returning his attention to me. The toothpick bounced up and down as he asked, “My nephew treating you right? You know he spoiled as hell. That’s Ever and Tick’s fault. They always gave him everything he wanted.”

  I laughed. “He is spoiled, but he’s good to me.”

  “Oh, shit! We gotta dance to this one, baby,” Leland said, hopping up and reaching for my hand. “We’ll be back, y’all.”

  “All right, Nephew! Who the DJ? I wanna hear some Rufus Thomas. I’m tryna walk the dog! Ha-haaaa!!!!” Uncle Lee Chester called after us as I followed Leland a few feet from the table to where some of his other relatives were already swaying to a song I had never heard before but knew was old because all of the music that had been pouring from those high-quality speakers had been old.

  As he pulled me into his arms, I said, “What you know about this song?”

  “A lot. The Whispers were my mom’s favorite group. She used to play this nasty-ass song, In the Mood, all the time.”

  I laughed as I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes. This man…he was just everything, and being in his arms was like being home. It was like I’d always wanted and needed him in my life but had been so wrapped up in the misery of my past that I didn’t know it. In that moment, as we moved in perfect rhythm with one another to the music, I fully realized that God created Leland McClain for me and me for him. It was the best feeling, a feeling of completeness I didn’t know was possible. I hadn’t known him long, but what I felt for him, what he gave to me, seemed to transcend time.

  He released me enough to cup my face in his hands and lean down to gently kiss me before resuming the dance. I was so full of emotion by the time the song ended, I was near tears. But I managed to fight them off and was wearing a smile when we returned to the table.

  “Damn, Leland…I thought you was gonna molest her out here in front of everyone for a minute,” Big South quipped.

  His adorable little stepdaughter lifted her sleepy head from his shoulder, and muttered, “Damn,” softly.

  I stifled a giggle, while Ella, Big South’s older daughter, let hers rip. Jo rolled her eyes. Big South looked like he wanted to disappear, and Leland fell out laughing.

  “Dang, she stay repeating you, man!” he said.

  “Only when I curse, though. Man…” Big South shook his head.

  “I told you to watch your mouth around her,” Jo reminded him.

  “I know. I know.”

  “She is too cute, though,” I said. “Both of you all’s girls are beautiful.”

  “Thanks,” Jo and Big South said in unison.

  “Yeah, them girls pretty as hell. So Kimmy, where you from?” Uncle Lee Chester queried.

  “Lee! You harassing Leland’s friend?” Aunt Ever said before I could answer. She was tall and wide, a sturdy but attractive woman I’d only met briefly almost two hours earlier as the yard began filling with Leland’s family.

  “I ain’t doing shit but talking to the girl. You too damn sensitive about this boy!” Uncle Lee Chester responded.

  “Oh, hush.” The frown she wore for her brother eased into a smile as her eyes slid over to me. With an outstretched hand, she added, “Kim, honey. Come sit with me.”

  I swallowed and looked at Leland who gave me a little nod. “Go ahead. Ella here owes me a dance.”

  Ella, who’d been quiet most of the day, grinned at her uncle.

  I smiled as Leland leaned in to kiss me, then he hopped up and rounded the table, grabbing Ella’s hand and leading her to the designated dancefloor area.

  Leland’s aunt was basically like a mother to him, and from talking to him, I’d gathered they were close. So I expected an interrogation at some point, just not in the middle of her party. Nevertheless, I took her hand and let her lead me to a round resin table where she dropped into a large white matching chair with a grunt. On the table was a paper plate that held rib bones and barbecue sauce, a half-empty bottle of beer, and a pile of dirty napkins that stirred in the light wind.

  “Barbie,” Aunt Ever said to a younger version of herself who had been introduced to me as her daughter. “Can you give me and Kim here a few minutes alone?”

  Barbie stood from her seat, chirped, “Yes, ma’am! I’ma go get some more cake,” and bounced her voluptuous frame away. All the women on Leland’s mother’s side of the family were full-figured from his aunts to his cousins. No wonder he wanted my big ass.

  “Have a seat, baby,” Aunt Ever offered.

  I was sure I looked as nervous as I felt as I took Barbie’s vacated chair.

  “I’m glad you and my Leland could make it. When Barbie told me she was planning this party, the first thing I told her was to make sure to plan it so that he could come. That boy…” She shook her head and sighed. “I love my kids and all my nieces and nephews, but Leland? He’s got a special place in my heart.”

  I smiled. “I believe you have a special place in his, too.”

  She nodded. “We have a special bond.” As she leaned back in her chair, I watched her eyes scan the area around us. “He was so broken right after my sister died, so sad. Such a sad child.” Her eyes were back on me. “Tick—Everett wanted to take him and raise him, but he was young, had just married that foreign girl, so I stepped up, moved into their mother’s house and raised him so he wouldn’t have to move away from here. All my kids was grown, so it was just me and him and Kat—his sister. Kat was sixteen, really a grown woman. She handled their mother’s death better than Leland did. That baby was an orphan at eleven, both parents gone. He loved his mother so much and Lord knows she loved him. Losing her, it broke something inside of him that it took a long time to get fixed. When I got him, he cried all the time, was so sad for so long. Everett paid for his counseling, took him with him on tour, put him in a lot of activities. Leland had seen the world by the time he was eighteen. I did my best to love him and raise him right, but I think Everett made him the man he is today. A good man.”

  I nodded. “He is good, very sweet to me. Spoiled, but sweet, kind. I don’t think he’d ever do anything to intentionally hurt me.”

  “I know he wouldn’t. I hope you wouldn’t do anything to hurt him, either.”

  “No, ma’am. Never. I-uh-I care deeply for him. Never felt like this for any other man.
”

  “He’s young. Got to be younger than you, because I know that boy. All he wants is an older woman.”

  My heart skipped five beats. “Um…yes, ma’am. I had a problem with that at first, but although I’m older, Leland is much more mature than I am in a lot of ways. He lives with a sense of freedom I wish I possessed.”

  “Hmm, probably because life made him grow up real early, made him take control of things before he should’ve had to.”

  I nodded in agreement.

  “Your son…he doesn’t like my Leland, does he?”

  She knows about Armand?

  Of course she does. Leland had to have told her. “My son doesn’t like a lot of people. But I think he’ll like Leland if he gets to know him.”

  “I’m sure he will. Well, I like you, and I can tell Leland is crazy about you. Never seen him like this with a woman before. But, can you do me a favor, sugar?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Anything.”

  “I don’t want him hurt. He’s already lived through enough pain to last him two lifetimes.”

  “I just want to be with him and try to return the happiness he’s given me since I’ve known him.”

  She nodded and we kind of just sat there in a mutual, peaceful silence.

  “He still having those headaches?” she asked.

  I frowned. “Heada—”

  Loud voices, what sounded like an argument, interrupted me. I turned to see Leland and his brothers—all of them—running…somewhere. Aunt Ever got to her feet and was rushing in the same direction as literally everyone else. So of course, being that I’m black, I followed the crowd.

  When I met Kat, Leland’s big sister, shortly after we arrived, all I could think was that she had to be the tallest, prettiest woman I’d ever laid eyes on. She closely resembled Leland, who was gorgeous by any standards. And her style was impeccable, makeup was flawless. But now, with a crowd of family members surrounding her, she looked disheveled. She’d been fighting, and from the looks of her husband, her very handsome husband, the battle had been a fierce one.

  Big South had ahold of her arm, attempting to pull her toward his house, but she was trying to get to her husband, obviously to do more damage.

  Leland was holding him back as he heaved breaths and shook his head. “She’s crazy! She’s fucking crazy!” her husband—I think Leland called him Wayne—shouted.

  “I’m crazy?! I’m crazy because I’m tired of you screwing anything with half a pussy?!”

  There was a collective gasp, and I think she must’ve really shocked Big South, because he let her go. With lightning speed, she was on her husband again, pummeling him mercilessly. Leland tried to pull her husband out of her reach. Nolan pulled on Kat until Big South finally lifted her off her feet. She writhed and kicked at her husband, while yelling, “That motherfucker gave me a VD! I’ma kill him! I’ma kill him!”

  Big South carried her to his house. Jo was on his heels with her little girl, who somehow managed not to wake up from her long nap, on her hip. Ella was right behind them.

  I turned back to Kat’s husband in time to see Leland let him go, mumble, “Man…” and then punch the hell out of his brother-in-law, knocking him out cold.

  *****

  “You a’ight in there? You been in there a minute,” Leland asked through the bathroom door.

  I was so glad we had our own bathroom in his brother’s house, because I had been in and out of it nearly every hour on the hour since the party ended. Had to decline drinks in the living room with Big South just so I could stay close to the toilet, and that broke my heart because Lord knows I loved me some Big South! I was a fan, a huge one, and had been trying unsuccessfully not to appear star-struck since he arrived.

  “I’m fine, just…like I told you, I haven’t had this much pork in a while, years. Those ribs tore my stomach up.”

  “I know they did since you ate a whole damn slab by yourself.”

  I rolled my eyes. “No, I didn’t!” I lied, because I probably did eat a whole slab. Shit, I lost count of how many ribs I ate.

  “And you ate about three of them grilled pig feet. You country as hell.”

  “No, your uncle is some kind of grill sorcerer. I’ve never liked pig feet, period, but those grilled ones were…oooh, my stomach! They were fire!”

  “Yeah, they were. Uh, you sure you don’t need anything? Some milk of magnesia, Pepto Bismol, ice water, Glade, a whole pack of incense, a box of matches, a new ass?”

  “Fuck you, Leland.”

  “Hell, I had plans of fucking you, but now? I don’t think so…”

  “Whatever. I bet if I come out there and strip, you won’t turn me down.”

  “You damn right. Hey…”

  “What, baby? I’m tryna get finished and you bugging me is not helping the process.”

  “I’ma leave you alone, but uh…you ain’t tryna shit your way out of brunch in the morning, are you?”

  I rolled my eyes again. “No, Leland. I ate too much. That’s all this is. I am not trying to get out of going to this business brunch with you. You said it’s at the guy’s house, right? And it’s not like we’ll be taking selfies for Instagram. I’m fine with going.”

  “A’ight. I’ma go back to bed. I’m tired as fuck.”

  “Okay. Hey, are you okay after all that with your sister and her husband?”

  “Kat’s okay, so I’m okay.”

  His sister was spending the night at his brother’s house, too. I had no idea where her husband and his black eye had gone, just knew that he’d left after he regained consciousness. “Good. You think he’ll sue you for hitting him or press charges or anything?”

  “Naw, not unless he wants me to collect on the money I loaned his ass to start that car detailing business of his.”

  “Oh, okay. So you didn’t know they were having problems?”

  “No one did. I mean, I knew they weren’t all that happy, but I didn’t know dude was cheating on her. They been together since high school. This is just all messed up.”

  “Yeah, it is. Hey, go on to bed. I’ll be out as soon as I can.”

  “A’ight.”

  About ten minutes later, I was climbing back in bed with him. It was after midnight, I was exhausted, and I hoped and prayed my disgruntled stomach was now empty.

  Leland flipped over, throwing an arm over my waist and pulling me to him. He snuggled close, kissed my neck, and murmured, “I hope you’re done.”

  “You can’t want that any more than I do.”

  “Hmm, I’m glad you came with me. It’s been a good day despite that stuff with Kat.”

  I smiled in the darkness, turning to face him and press my lips against his full ones. “It has, and I’m glad I came, too. Your family is so nice. Everyone made me feel really welcome.”

  “Especially Everett, huh?”

  It was so strange hearing him refer to his brother by his government name that for a second, I had to wonder who he was talking about. Finally, I replied with, “Yeah, it was great meeting him. He’s super cool.”

  “You got a crush on him, don’t you?”

  “A crush? How could I possibly have a crush on him when I got a rich man with a big dick and a long tongue sharing my bed every night?” So, yeah, I actually did have a crush on him, an innocent one, but I wasn’t going to tell my man, who happened to be his brother, that.

  “Damn straight. Do you know how lucky you are?”

  I smacked my hand against his hard chest. “You are such an arrogant asshole.”

  “But you love it.”

  “Actually, I love your uncle. He is too funny.”

  “He loves you, too, Kimmy. Gon’ fuck around and get his old ass kicked.”

  “You need to quit! He was just being friendly.”

  “Naw, I saw that look in his eye. He was probably ready to break out his Viagra for you.”

  I laughed so hard at that, my stomach cramped up.

  “That shit ain’t funny. Hey, what was you a
nd Jo talking about when I walked up on y’all after all that stuff went down with Kat and Wayne?”

  “Me and Jo? Oh! She told me why you’ve been feeding me pineapples.”

  “For real? Good, then I expect you to add them to your grocery list permanently. Ev said it’s important for you to keep your levels up.”

  “Levels? Pineapple levels?”

  “Yeah.”

  Before I could reply again, my phone buzzed, damn near making me jump straight to my feet. Who the hell was calling me so late? No one ever called me at that hour—oh, shit…was it Armand?

  Panic shot through me as I swiftly untangled myself from his legs and arms, flipped over, and grabbed my phone. Seeing that it was Elrich and not Armand sent me into a different type of panic. Had something happened to or at the center?

  “It’s work,” I said, as I accepted the call. “Hello? Elrich? Is everything okay?”

  “Uh, no. There was a break-in at the center. Someone broke one of the front windows, but the alarm went off. They didn’t get much before they ran off. The broken window was the only physical damage to the building, and I managed to board it up.”

  “They didn’t get much? Well, what did they get?”

  “Just the laptop at the front desk. They didn’t mess with the desktop up there. So they were probably on foot and just took what they could carry. I got the call from the alarm company since you’re out of town this weekend, and I met the police up there, filed the report and everything. I hate to disturb you but wanted to keep you in the loop.”

  My hand was on my chest as relief flooded me. At least they didn’t tear the place up or steal more than that one computer. “It’s fine. I’m glad you called. I’d hate to walk into that mess unaware on Monday morning. Thank you.”

  “No problem. So…are you enjoying your trip to…where was it?”

  I hadn’t told him or anyone else, including Zabrina since she could no longer be trusted to hold water, where I was spending the weekend, so he was fishing, which was odd for him. Yeah, we used to have sex with each other, but he never seemed interested in my life all that much. I’d always liked that about him, because I preferred to talk about myself and my life as little as possible.