the biggest events of the season. And every year she’d be grilled by her mother, grandmother, two sisters and maternal aunts about when she was going to settle down with a good man and have some babies.
“When I’m ready,” she’d say, stirring the pot of seasoned collard greens. She’d drop in pieces of smoked turkey for some added flavor.
“Well, you need to hurry up and get ready,” her aunt Mae, her mother’s oldest sister would say. “In a minute all your good years will be behind you.”
“A woman needs to have a family of her own to feel like a real woman,” her mother would say.
“Amen.” This from Aunt Pearl, the youngest of the trio of sisters. “Children are the glue that holds a man and woman together.”
“That may have been true when you and Ma were coming up, Aunt Pearl, but women have so many more options now,” Desiree would say in her own defense.
“I have no desire to try to make it in a man’s world,” her sister Kim would say, rubbing her hand across her eight-month, protruding belly. “Kevin loves taking care of me and the kids and I love letting him.”
“There’s nothing to compare to being a mother,” Denise, Desiree’s baby sister, would say. “You feel complete, full of a kind of power that is indescribable. Women bring life into the world. You can’t get any better than that. Even men for all their bravado are brought to their knees when their wife has a baby.”
“Go forth and multiply is what the Good Book says,” her mother would add.
Up against that kind of relentless firepower, Desiree didn’t stand a chance. And after… She could never bring herself to tell her family about the doctor’s dire prognosis. She didn’t want their pity or to hear any old wives’ tales about barren women.
She’d never told anyone, not even Rachel, what the doctors told her during her follow-up visit. It was too painful, too humiliating.
Lincoln deserved a woman who could have children, someone he could have a family with. She loved him enough to let him go. And that’s what she’d done. Stepped out of his life so that he could find someone else, even though it was slowly killing her inside.
She was a fool to think that even for a minute there could ever be anything between them again. She’d let her emotions and her fantasies and her smoldering desire for him cloud her reason.
It wouldn’t happen again. At least that was her plan. But as her favorite R&B crooner, Luther Vandross, sang… if only for one night.
Chapter 11
“I ’m going into the city,” Lincoln announced the following morning.
“Everything is under control, so take your time,” Terri said. “We have a guest arriving later this afternoon, but that’s about it.”
“Fine.” He turned to leave. “You can reach me on my cell if anything urgent comes up,” he tossed over his shoulder.
“Are you okay, Mr. D.? You look a little tired around your eyes.”
“Rough night, but I’ll be fine. See you later.”
Lincoln strode out, hopped into his Navigator, gunned the engine and took off. He put on a pair of dark shades to dim the glare from the sun that bounced off the water. It was an incredible day, he thought absently. A day that brought visitors from all over to Sag Harbor.
Historically, Sag Harbor was one of the original enclaves for free blacks who had never been slaves. This group, the black whalers and their families, European immigrants, Native Americans and other people of color thrived in Sag Harbor, living in Eastville. In the early 1900s African-Americans began to summer in Sag Harbor, and it was at that point that many black professionals began to move there, their descendants continuing to live and own property there. At that time blacks were restricted to the waterfront because it was deemed less desirable. Today, homes on the beachfront property often sold in excess of a million dollars. Talk about irony.
It was one of the main reasons why Lincoln chose to buy there.
“When I’m ready,” she’d say, stirring the pot of seasoned collard greens. She’d drop in pieces of smoked turkey for some added flavor.
“Well, you need to hurry up and get ready,” her aunt Mae, her mother’s oldest sister would say. “In a minute all your good years will be behind you.”
“A woman needs to have a family of her own to feel like a real woman,” her mother would say.
“Amen.” This from Aunt Pearl, the youngest of the trio of sisters. “Children are the glue that holds a man and woman together.”
“That may have been true when you and Ma were coming up, Aunt Pearl, but women have so many more options now,” Desiree would say in her own defense.
“I have no desire to try to make it in a man’s world,” her sister Kim would say, rubbing her hand across her eight-month, protruding belly. “Kevin loves taking care of me and the kids and I love letting him.”
“There’s nothing to compare to being a mother,” Denise, Desiree’s baby sister, would say. “You feel complete, full of a kind of power that is indescribable. Women bring life into the world. You can’t get any better than that. Even men for all their bravado are brought to their knees when their wife has a baby.”
“Go forth and multiply is what the Good Book says,” her mother would add.
Up against that kind of relentless firepower, Desiree didn’t stand a chance. And after… She could never bring herself to tell her family about the doctor’s dire prognosis. She didn’t want their pity or to hear any old wives’ tales about barren women.
She’d never told anyone, not even Rachel, what the doctors told her during her follow-up visit. It was too painful, too humiliating.
Lincoln deserved a woman who could have children, someone he could have a family with. She loved him enough to let him go. And that’s what she’d done. Stepped out of his life so that he could find someone else, even though it was slowly killing her inside.
She was a fool to think that even for a minute there could ever be anything between them again. She’d let her emotions and her fantasies and her smoldering desire for him cloud her reason.
It wouldn’t happen again. At least that was her plan. But as her favorite R&B crooner, Luther Vandross, sang… if only for one night.
Chapter 11
“I ’m going into the city,” Lincoln announced the following morning.
“Everything is under control, so take your time,” Terri said. “We have a guest arriving later this afternoon, but that’s about it.”
“Fine.” He turned to leave. “You can reach me on my cell if anything urgent comes up,” he tossed over his shoulder.
“Are you okay, Mr. D.? You look a little tired around your eyes.”
“Rough night, but I’ll be fine. See you later.”
Lincoln strode out, hopped into his Navigator, gunned the engine and took off. He put on a pair of dark shades to dim the glare from the sun that bounced off the water. It was an incredible day, he thought absently. A day that brought visitors from all over to Sag Harbor.
Historically, Sag Harbor was one of the original enclaves for free blacks who had never been slaves. This group, the black whalers and their families, European immigrants, Native Americans and other people of color thrived in Sag Harbor, living in Eastville. In the early 1900s African-Americans began to summer in Sag Harbor, and it was at that point that many black professionals began to move there, their descendants continuing to live and own property there. At that time blacks were restricted to the waterfront because it was deemed less desirable. Today, homes on the beachfront property often sold in excess of a million dollars. Talk about irony.
It was one of the main reasons why Lincoln chose to buy there.
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