Читать книгу Twelve Days of Pleasure - Deborah Mello Fletcher - Страница 14
Оглавление“So what do you know about her?” Tarah Boudreaux asked her sister. She lifted her legs onto the mattress top, tucking them beneath her bottom.
Maitlyn shrugged her shoulders as their sister Kamaya pulled a brush through the length of her hair. “All I know is what Kendrick told me. She’s a friend and she just stopped by to say hello to him. He’s going to drop her off at the airport when he takes me and Zak to our plane.”
“Since when does my twin bring a friend home?” Kamaya questioned, her eyebrows raised. She twisted a strand of Maitlyn’s hair around a large-barreled curling iron.
“A friend with a baby,” Tarah added.
Maitlyn shook her head. “It’s not Kendrick’s baby, so does it matter?”
Tarah pursed her lips in annoyance. “Are we sure about that?”
Maitlyn blew a deep sigh. “Tarah, you know good and well Kendrick is not that baby’s father. Vanessa’s not her mother. It’s her cousin’s baby or something. I don’t know why you even want to go there.”
“I’m just saying,” Tarah intoned. “They both look a little too comfortable together if you ask me.”
“Actually I think they’re kind of cute together,” Maitlyn mused. “I like her.”
“I just find it strange that the first time he brings a friend home for us to meet it’s at your wedding. This can’t be casual,” Kamaya said before standing back to stare at Maitlyn’s head.
The three were interrupted by their mother, who peeked her head into the bedroom. “You girls need to stop gossiping about our company. Your daddy and I taught you better than that.”
“We weren’t gossiping,” Tarah replied. “We just had some questions.”
Katherine changed the subject. “Don’t do her curls too tight, Kamaya. Maitlyn doesn’t look right with tight curls.”
“I know, Mama. They’re going to fall some.”
Katherine smiled. She moved to Maitlyn’s side and leaned to kiss her daughter’s cheek. “You were a beautiful bride today. Zakaria is a very lucky man.”
Maitlyn nodded. “I think I might keep him,” she said, joy glowing across her face.
“Mama, you don’t think it’s odd that Kendrick suddenly shows up with a woman and a baby we don’t know anything about?”
“Tarah, you’re about to work my last nerve,” Katherine admonished. “Leave them two alone. If there was something Kendrick wanted us to know he would have told us.”
Tarah crossed her arms over her chest. “You sure about that? ’Cause Kendrick is always keeping secrets!”
“Yes, I am.” Katherine gave Tarah a light smack against her right thigh. “Now, mind your own business. If you spent as much time sweeping off your own porch you wouldn’t have time to be sweeping off anyone else’s.”
“Ouch!” Taryn muttered, rubbing at the offending spot.
Maitlyn laughed. “Like she’s ever listened before!”
“Tell me again why you got married before sunrise to hang out with your family all day afterward?” Tarah snapped.
Maitlyn laughed. “Tell me why you think everyone should do everything by the book? I had my dream wedding and there were some things I needed to get done before my husband and I disappear for a few days. It’s all worked out perfectly.”
Kamaya laughed. “Maitlyn took Senior’s ‘work before pleasure’ rule literally!”
* * *
In the guest bedroom, Vanessa pulled her knees to her chest, curling her body around Gabi’s. They had both been sleeping soundly when the sound of laughter pulled Vanessa from her sleep. Noise and laughter never seemed to stop ringing throughout the family’s home and she couldn’t miss hearing her name being spoken a time or two.
Kendrick had forewarned her about his sisters. Maitlyn being clued in had helped, the woman running interference when the other two had bombarded her with questions. Vanessa smiled.
She and Tarah were the same age, twenty-seven. They liked the same music, had shoe fetishes, dressed similarly, and both were in school working on advanced degrees. She imagined that if she were closer to her two brothers she would probably be the same way. But there was a considerable age difference between her and her siblings. It didn’t help that both men had stayed in Mexico when their father was named ambassador to the United States, choosing not to move to Washington, DC, with the rest of the family. She didn’t know enough about her brothers to be in their business that way. Tarah had the advantage there. Vanessa thought they could be good friends if things were different.
