Her smile was wide. “I was able to get those cigars that he wanted from Havanna. Oh, they were not cheap at all, and I low-key think I got them illegally.” Her shoulders lifted to her ears like it was no big deal that the chief of police and mayor’s wife might have done something that was illegal.Wait! What the hell am I saying?
My daddy, Nedrick Summerson, Sr. and his son were damn drug dealers.Oh, that sounds bad.Yeah, it sounded bad, but it was what it was. My husband killed people for a living at one time. Well, all of our husbands did, except my daddy and Pop Samuel.
“Oh, he’s going to love that! Now I can send Samuel over there. He’s been talking about those damn cigars,” Mama Goldie said as she clapped her hands twice.
I shook my head. Between Samuel and Nedrick Senior, I wasn’t sure who loved cigars more. My daddy had a smoke shack in the backyard of their house. Samuel’s smoke room was his man cave that was in the finished attic of their home. I wasn’t sure I should even call it an attic because it was massive.
Croya giggled. “G’ma Goldie, you act like you can’t stand that man with his cigars, but you’re the one that buys most of them. You sound like me when it comes to Trevor’s music equipment, but a lot of it I bought for him as a gift.”
Mama Goldie’s nose turned up. I knew she was about to say something that was out of the way. Thank God Megan and Stormie were at a separate table in their own world. They didn’t see each other often because Whimsy and Riker lived in Charleston. Megan was a year younger than Stormie at six. When they did get together, they were proclaimed best friends. It was the cutest thing.
“I swear these young ones start getting peter wacker and they think they’re grown. Listen to your young ass comparing yourmarried ass to mine. Just think she’s grown now,” Mama Goldie jested. We all knew she meant no harm.
Croya and Trevor had been married for almost two years now. In the true nature of who Croy was, he didn’t want his daughters far. It didn’t matter if they got married or not. As a wedding gift to them, he built them a house on land that he bought in Coreland. Trevor was hired as the high school band director at the insistence of the mayor to the principal. The band was much to be desired before Trevor arrived, but now they were mentioned in rooms with other bands that mattered.
Croya handed Gracie a fry to keep her busy. At two, Gracie was her daddy’s little drummer girl. She was a presence during band practices and had her own drumsticks. She marched around everywhere with those drumsticks and even had a little Coreland High School’s band uniform. After Croya had Gracie settled for the moment, she slightly tilted her head to the side.
“Well, G’ma Goldie, I got that peter wacker all the way to the altar to commit to it in front of God as well as my closest friends and relatives. I take care of my man, my child, and our house, so I guess I am grown now.” Croya’s words were light as a rock.
Sadie chuckled. “Get her together, Sis! They don’t want to recognize that we are grown. We both get earned income credit.”
She was right. Sadie and Shaun were now twenty-five and living on their own. Shaun was a linebacker for the Carolina Cougars. He was meant to live the best life, and it showed. He worked his ass off on the field, and we all had season tickets to make sure that we were there to see it. We went to all home games. All of the men went in on a box that was next to the Christianson’s family box. As much as we were in and out of each other’s boxes, we should have gotten a really big box.
Sadie worked at the hospital as a registered nurse. She made it clear that she didn’t want to be a doctor, but she did want to bea registered nurse and a midwife. Her home was on her family’s land as well.
Fiona’s head snapped in Sadie’s direction. “As long as your ass is getting that earned income credit because of your age and not because you about to have a child. That’s what I do recognize. I’m just getting over this one making me a grandmama before my time. Give me my baby. Come here, Gracie.”
Oh, Gracie didn’t need to be told twice to come to her Geegee. Her little ass climbed across me to get to her grandma. “Well, dang, Gracie. You just gonna climb over me like I’m nothing.”
Her little body stopped halfway between me and her grandma. She turned her pretty face around to face me. “Sawey, Roof.”
She caught hell at two with certain words, and Ruth was one of them. It was still the cutest thing when she said her little words. After her little apology, Gracie was on her way to her grandma’s lap. Fiona as a grandmother was an experience. It was almost as interesting as Galiana as a mother. Two of the deadliest women that I knew became mush when it came to their children, and in Fiona’s case, grandchild.
“Galiana, is Jamal coming to the resort? I know you said that he wanted to stay with Jacob’s parents.” Jamal was her and Jacob’s sixteen-year-old son. That boy was his mother and father wrapped up into one big ball of young, disciplined crazy. He’d made it clear that he wanted to be next in line to run Christianson Enterprises after Mont retired.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kellie tune into the conversation. When Galiana confirmed that he would be at the resort, a small smile broke through her lips before she lowered her head. My eyes scanned over to my best friend to see if she noticed. When our eyes connected, I knew that she did. We found out that Kellie had a crush on Jamal via a conversationthat I ear hustled. I gave Shan thewe’ll talk about that latereyes.
There was a knock at the door to the private room. Seconds later, the door opened, and a cart was rolled in. We all smiled when the person who pushed the cart was revealed. “A little birdy called me and told me that a special group of ladies were going to be here for lunch. I had to make sure they had their favorite treats.”
“Miss Love!” Maggie greeted her before she shot up out of her seat to rush to her for a hug. Kellie wasn’t too far behind.
When Megan and Stormie realized she was in the room, they were out of their seats as well. I hadn’t met a child that didn’t love Lovina Carson. Her story was amazing, and I loved it when she told it.
“Do I smell cinnamon rolls?” I said before I got up. “Please tell me that there’s a banana pudding one on there. Mega wouldn’t let me come down earlier in the week because he knew that we were coming here today.”
I had it bad forSweetgrass and Sugar High.I heard of the bakery but had never ventured into it until after we all met Lovina and her now husband, Erygon, at Croy and Fiona’s vow renewal. She was the sweetest woman I’d ever met. Mega made the comment that she might have been an ounce sweeter than me. I hated that, at this point in my life, I could admit that.
Lovina laughed. “Tell Megatron to stop messing with my family’s profit margin. I don’t say anything when he comes in randomly for Mama Beauvia’s red velvet cake. I never see him leave with a roll for you.”
Mama Goldie snickered. “Not Lovina dry snitching on my baby boy. I know that’s right though. My son is sneaky.”
I laughed because I knew about his sneak trips to get his red velvet cake slices. That man couldn’t go anywhere without my knowledge. Hell, I couldn’t go anywhere without his knowledgeeither. We had multiple trackers on each other. “Mega’s not sneaky. He just doesn’t care.”
Audacity is High and my Patience is Low
“So,you didn’t have anything else to do today, young man? Don’t you have training or something for baseball?” I was annoyed as hell that Travis was here.
I already had to deal with him at my house when he came over and at baseball games. Now I had to go shopping with his ass too. The adults decided to split up to do our shopping for each other. Croy, TJ, Riker, Shaun, Jacob, Ned Jr., Pop Ned, Pop Samuel, Trevor, Matthew, Joseph, and Jamal were all planned attendees. I was excited that Shaun was able to spend the day with us. Football had him busy as hell.
