Читать книгу Give Me Fever - Niobia Bryant - Страница 9

Kaeden was the last of the Strong clan to arrive at Holtsville Baptist Church. He parked as close to the church as he could and dashed inside. He paused in the doorway to the sanctuary to find it as crowded as an Easter Sunday.

The door opened and the sweet scent of the oncoming end of spring wafted in.

A hand touched his arm softly. “I guess you and I better have a little prayerfest right here to get a seat, huh?”

Kaeden’s entire body stiffened as Jade leaned around him to look into the sanctuary. His mouth opened but no words came out, so he just forced a laugh that sounded nervous. His heart was pounding so fast and so hard that he felt like he just ran a marathon.

“Looks like I got lucky too,” she drawled when several single men rose to their feet, waving her over. She smiled at him before she moved past him to walk into the sanctuary to take a seat.

His eyes dipped low to watch the movement of her buttocks in the fuchsia wrap dress she wore.

“Uncle Kaeden,” his niece Kadina whispered loudly.

Kaeden jerked his eyes away guiltily. He looked down as his preteen niece grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her to make room for him on the pew between her and her dad, Kade.

His brother Kaleb turned around on the pew to eye him. “Did you just walk in here with Jade Prince?” he whispered in total shock.

Kaeden accepted the fan Kade passed down to him from the usher, ignoring his sibling.

Kaleb sucked his teeth. “Man, please. What I’m saying? You couldn’t pull that. Hell, you couldn’t handle all that.”

Their burly father popped him in the back of his prematurely gray head. “Turn around,” Kael warned.

As morning worship service began, Kaeden leaned back against the pew to chance a look at Jade. Her eyes were focused forward, but he was able to look at her full on. As much as he hated to admit it, his brother was right. There was no way he could pull a woman like Jade Prince. No way in the world.

“Uncle Kaeden, pay attention,” Kadina admonished him as she lightly patted his hand in a mothering fashion.

Humoring his beloved niece, Kaeden Strong did as he was told.

Jade felt eyes on her.

She turned her head in time to catch one of the Strong brothers turning his head forward. It was the nerdy one. The accountant. The same one who was standing in the vestibule when she arrived to church. She let her eyes rove over his profile.

The other Strong men were a sexy set, with their fine and defined features that were made all the more appealing by their prematurely graying hair. That salt-and-pepper mix perfectly matched their bronzed caramel complexions. Even the nerd was cute with his glasses. He just didn’t have the same swagger as his siblings. Everyone in Holtsville joked that the Strongs had twins separated several years by birth. They said Kaeden looked just like Kahron, but Jade begged to differ.

Kahron was strong in build and Kaeden was very slender.

Kahron was well aware that he was sexy as shit, and Kaeden gave off the impression that he just wanted to be invisible. Well, to her anyway. Even those glasses, though stylish, were not the right size for his slender face.

Jade bit her bottom lip and tilted her head to the side. Maybe with contacts…

“You sure are looking good, Sister Jade.”

Jade made a face at the smell of bad breath barely covered by Listerine. She said a silent thanks that her head was turned or she was sure that her nose hairs would’ve been singed. “Thank you, Mr. Lionel,” she managed to say while holding her breath.

“Man, that’s one fine woman,” Kaleb said in pure appreciation of the thicker female form.

All decked out in their suits, Kaeden, Kahron, and Kade all turned to look in the direction their brother was definitely intently staring. Jade Prince was walking down the brick church steps.

Kaeden couldn’t agree with Kaleb more.

“Do y’all see the hips on that woman?” Kaleb asked as he watched her cross the yard to her Jeep. “Lawd, I could just spread those big legs and—”

“Respect the church ground, man,” Kaeden snapped in irritation, truly more annoyed at his brother speaking that way about Jade than anything else.

Kaleb looked confused. “What?”

Kahron and Kade just shook their heads, laughing at their youngest brother, who was by far the wildest.

“Oh, so y’all wouldn’t tap that?” he asked in disbelief.

In a New York minute, Kaeden thought, finding himself unable to participate in their usual banter on women when Jade was the focus.

Both Kade and Kahron threw their hands up. “We’re married,” they said in unison.

The sound of clapping behind them made all the men swerve around. Bianca was standing there in a pale yellow pantsuit with a smile on her full lips. “Good answer, gentlemen,” she said with a pointed look at her husband and her brother-in-law.

Kahron pulled her tall frame to his side and kissed her cheek. “You’re all the woman for me,” he told her, his voice low in his throat.

“Oh, I know that,” Bianca said with confidence. “But even I can admit that woman is fine.”

The men all laughed.

Kaeden lagged behind as they all turned to head to their vehicles. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks. Through his spectacles he watched Jade’s Wrangler go driving by.

The Strong family Sunday dinners were tradition. Lisha Strong used to prepare the meal alone—with minimal chopping by her daughter Kaitlyn and her granddaughter Kadina. But now that two of her sons had married, she had two daughters-in-law to help lovingly prepare their families’ meal. They laughed. They joked. They shared stories. And they cooked one helluva meal every single Sunday.

Kaeden stood in the entryway to the kitchen, watching them cook and joke around. He smiled as he remembered the Sundays helping his mom while his brothers would ride horses and explore the hundreds of acres of land encompassing the Strong ranch. He probably could cook a macaroni to put any woman to shame—even if he had no clue how to rope a steer.

“Kaeden? Why are you just standing there?” Lisha called out to him.

Suddenly four pairs of eyes were on him. Kaeden shrugged as he pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants and strolled into the kitchen.

Garcelle, Bianca, his sister Kaitlyn, and his niece Kadina all smiled at him.

“Where are the rest of the Strong men?” Bianca asked as she used the side of her wrist to push her riot of curls off her forehead.

“On the porch talking horses and cattle,” he drawled, hating that he wished he knew more about the family business than the financial aspects. Although his brothers were a far cry from the typical cowboy with the tight jeans, plaid shirt, and Stetson, Kaeden had always secretly dreamed of working alongside his brothers on the ranches.

“Kadina, go and tell the men dinner is ready,” Lisha said, wiping her hands on a hand towel. “Ladies, please start to carry the food into the dining room.”

“I’ll help,” Kaeden offered, unbuttoning and rolling up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt.

“No, I need you to help me, Kaeden,” Lisha told him.

Kaeden nodded as he placed his hands on his hips. “What’s up, Ma?” he asked.

“What’s wrong with you, son?” Lisha asked with concern as she watched him closely.

Kaeden shifted his eyes from hers. One thing that made Lisha Strong a good mother was her ability to miss nothing—good or bad. He shrugged.

“One thing that makes us a family to reckon with is the fact that we are all in this together—”

“No matter what role we play,” Kaeden finished for her with a smile.

“You got it.” Lisha picked up a huge dish of her homemade peach cobbler. “Now let’s go eat. Your father has a big announcement.”

Kaeden took the cobbler from his mom’s hands. “This should be interesting,” he said as he followed her into the dining room.

Kaeden sat the cobbler on an available spot in the center of the six-foot wooden table before sitting between Kaitlyn and Kaleb.

“Good food. Good meat. Good Lord. Let’s eat,” Kael said loudly as soon as everyone was seated.

Kaeden’s mother shot him a hard stare.

He winked at her before he grabbed a serving spoon and scooped a heaping portion of macaroni on his plate.

Their father was a churchgoing man but not an overly religious man—thus there would never be sweeping blessings of the food from Kael Strong.

“I am starving,” Kaeden announced as he eyed the heaping bowls of fried chicken, collard greens, candied yams, macaroni and cheese, rice, and the still hot and steaming peach cobbler.

Kaitlyn elbowed him. “So am I, Specs, so…am…I,” she said, reverting to her childhood nickname for him.

“You eat like a man,” Kaeden told her. “One of these days you have got to gain weight.”

“That’s an understatement,” Kahron drawled from across the table.

Bianca rose from her chair to pile a plate high with food. “Only dogs like bones. Real men like meat on them bones,” she said, sitting down and placing the plate in front of her husband. With a sly smile she added, “Like myself, and Garcelle, and Lord knows, Jade Prince. Right, fellas?”

Kaeden choked on the lemonade he just sipped from a frosted glass.

Kahron focused on watching Kadina feeding his two-year-old son KJ.

“Heck yeah,” Kaleb answered in a heartbeat.

“Right, Kade?” Garcelle asked, her Spanish accent as prominent as the voluptuous curves of her frame. There was a twinkle in her bright eyes as she cut her eyes up at her handsome husband.

Kael chuckled as he ate, obviously enjoying his sons being ribbed by their wives.

“Jade is not all that,” Kaitlyn said with attitude, pushing her jet-black dyed hair back from her face.

“Yeah, right,” Kaeden muttered in disbelief.

He looked up to find all eyes on him.

“I thought Felecia was more your speed, big brother,” Kaleb joked.

“Trust and believe…. I am ready, willing, and able to handle whatever woman I have in my life,” Kaeden said firmly, completely fed up with his brother’s teasing.

“All right, now,” Lisha Strong said.

“Since Jade is the center of our Sunday conversation, this is as good a time as any to tell everyone about my surprise,” Kael said.

Kaeden focused his attention on his father, just as curious as everyone appeared to be about the news…and very happy that Jade was no longer the focus.

“Next weekend my sons and I are going camping,” Kael announced.

“We are?” they all asked in unison.

“Y’all are?” the ladies asked as well.

Kaeden was completely disappointed because that surprise had absolutely nothing to do with him. He returned his attention back to his food.

“Don’t worry, Uncle Kaeden, I’ll come stay with you that weekend,” Kadina offered.

“Oh no, Kaeden, you’re going too,” Kael said around a mouthful of food.

Kaeden looked up and his eyes fell directly on his mother, who gave a conspiratorial wink. He knew that his mom had a hand in his addition to the camping trip. The thing was, he wasn’t quite sure if that was truly a good or a bad thing.

Jade stretched her arms high above her head as she walked out onto the wraparound porch of her grandfather’s house. He was sitting on the top step with his elbows on his knees as he looked up at the sky. His naturally wavy jet-black hair was pulled back tightly into a bushy ponytail. Jade smiled softly as she fondly remembered the many hours she’d spent, as a little girl, on this very porch standing behind him brushing his hair as he sat on that same top step.

“Hey, old man,” Jade teased as she walked across the green painted porch to sit down beside him.

Esai Rockwell knocked his bony shoulder against hers in greeting. “Peanut?” he asked, motioning toward the cup of boiled peanuts sitting on the step between them.

“No thanks, Pappy,” Jade said with a shake of her head. “I’m still full of the rabbit stew you cooked.”

“Your favorite,” he said.

“Yup,” Jade agreed, leaning over to rest her head on his bony and broad shoulder in the white long-sleeved T-shirt he wore.

Pappy was a man of very few words. Always had been.

Jade couldn’t imagine anyone she adored more than him. Her father had recently remarried a twenty-year-old, and her mother was a flight attendant who was hardly ever in town. Since she was three years old, spending the weekends at her grandfather’s had been her greatest joy. Although her parents waited until she was eighteen to divorce, the signs of failed marriage had been there long before.

“Heard from your mama?” he asked about his ex-daughter-in-law.

The thought of her mother immediately brought a smile to Jade’s face. “She’s in Los Angeles and then she flies to London.”

“Ms. Jetsetter,” he mused, tilting his head back to toss a peanut into his open mouth.

Jade nodded. She missed her mom but completely understood that after the shock of her father leaving her for a younger woman and divorcing her, Deena was finally enjoying her new freedom and her new job. Her mom married early, had her only child early, and divorced early, but she was trying to catch up on a late start of her independence.

“How’s the business?” he asked.

“It’s going okay. Mostly because of a lot of local support. Like Darren’s taking Mr. Strong and his sons on a camping trip this weekend.”

Esai looked surprised. “Those farmers need a guide to go camping?”

“That’s what I thought, but we’re not looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

As Jade did give in to dig a handful of the moist and salty boiled peanuts into her hand, she suddenly thought of the nerdy one and how she’d caught him staring at her in church.

It was a very odd and random thought.