danced around and started singing the chorus to Lil’ Kim’s “Crush on You.”
One. Two. Three. Four. Fi—Aw, hell!
“Carla, leave us alone! Go do something with yourself.”
“Why you gotta be all—”
“Go!”
“Fine!” Carla turned to Jason. “You see what I have to—”
Penny put her hands on her hips and snarled, “Carla!”
“Fine, Brat!” Carla went stomping off up the stairs. A white slip hung clearly visible under the black dress Carla wore, and her pink house shoes scraped across the wood steps.
Penny watched her walk all the way up and sucked her teeth when one of the family photos fell from the wall as Carla stormed past. Penny would have to pick it up later, after she got rid of Jason.
She let out a sigh. “We can talk in the living room.” She turned and he followed her.
Too late to ask himself why he’d bothered coming back to Big Mama’s that evening. He was here now. Time to get his much-needed closure, once and for all.
Sitting in the room where he’d sipped on iced tea and talked with Big Mama each time he’d visited her, hoping she’d mention something about Penny, Jason started to wonder if he wasn’t just a little bit touched in the head. If the stony hostility bouncing off of Penny like shock waves was any indication, she probably wouldn’t be offering up what he needed.
If her taking him into the fancy formal living room with the floral, plastic-covered furniture offered any hint, then she had no desire to make him feel as comfortable as he felt when they were teenagers, hanging out in the den with the pleather sofas she hated.
She had her guard up. But what she didn’t know was that, as a detective, he’d become a pro at breaking down people’s barriers and getting them to tell the truth. It was time for her walls to come tumbling down.
“So, what do I have to do to get you to leave me alone, Jason?” Penny sat down on the sofa, and the plastic squeaked.
He sat next to her and got a strong whiff of her perfume. She still wore Beautiful. He remembered the Christmas during their junior year of high school when he’d given her the perfume for the first time, and his gut clenched. Gritting his teeth, he firmed his resolve.
“You could start by telling me the truth, telling me what really happened fifteen years ago. One minute we were having a baby and planning to get married. The next minute you had a miscarriage and I’m being told you’re in love with Terrill. You even went so far as to say the baby wasn’t mine.”
He felt his voice crack as a sharp pain laced his chest. The raw pain threatening to bubble up in his chest had to be squelched.
Penny’s copper eyes looked away and her stony gaze soon found a lot of interest in the shaking hands folded on her lap. “That’s pretty much what happened back then. So, again I ask you. What do you want from me?”
“I want you to look me in the eye and tell me what we had was a lie. I want you to look at me and tell me you had sex with my best friend. I want you to tell me the child wasn’t mine, that it wasn’t our baby. I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you never loved me.”
Her hand moved to the tiny scar at the side of her right eye.
Jason knew that she always worried the scar whenever she felt under pressure or up against a wall. His eyes narrowed.
She was definitely hiding something.
Her lower lip trembled slightly, and she let out a soft sigh. “Are you a glutton for punishment or something? Why this sudden need to revisit and relive the past? We’ve been there and done that. I’ve told you all of this before. I don’t see the point in the constant repeating. So why don’t you just—”
He couldn’t let her finish, had to cut her off. “Why can’t you do it, Penny? Look at me while you cut my heart out. You owe me that. You didn’t look at me then. You kept your face buried in Terrill’s chest. I was too angry to think there was a reason why you couldn’t look at
One. Two. Three. Four. Fi—Aw, hell!
“Carla, leave us alone! Go do something with yourself.”
“Why you gotta be all—”
“Go!”
“Fine!” Carla turned to Jason. “You see what I have to—”
Penny put her hands on her hips and snarled, “Carla!”
“Fine, Brat!” Carla went stomping off up the stairs. A white slip hung clearly visible under the black dress Carla wore, and her pink house shoes scraped across the wood steps.
Penny watched her walk all the way up and sucked her teeth when one of the family photos fell from the wall as Carla stormed past. Penny would have to pick it up later, after she got rid of Jason.
She let out a sigh. “We can talk in the living room.” She turned and he followed her.
Too late to ask himself why he’d bothered coming back to Big Mama’s that evening. He was here now. Time to get his much-needed closure, once and for all.
Sitting in the room where he’d sipped on iced tea and talked with Big Mama each time he’d visited her, hoping she’d mention something about Penny, Jason started to wonder if he wasn’t just a little bit touched in the head. If the stony hostility bouncing off of Penny like shock waves was any indication, she probably wouldn’t be offering up what he needed.
If her taking him into the fancy formal living room with the floral, plastic-covered furniture offered any hint, then she had no desire to make him feel as comfortable as he felt when they were teenagers, hanging out in the den with the pleather sofas she hated.
She had her guard up. But what she didn’t know was that, as a detective, he’d become a pro at breaking down people’s barriers and getting them to tell the truth. It was time for her walls to come tumbling down.
“So, what do I have to do to get you to leave me alone, Jason?” Penny sat down on the sofa, and the plastic squeaked.
He sat next to her and got a strong whiff of her perfume. She still wore Beautiful. He remembered the Christmas during their junior year of high school when he’d given her the perfume for the first time, and his gut clenched. Gritting his teeth, he firmed his resolve.
“You could start by telling me the truth, telling me what really happened fifteen years ago. One minute we were having a baby and planning to get married. The next minute you had a miscarriage and I’m being told you’re in love with Terrill. You even went so far as to say the baby wasn’t mine.”
He felt his voice crack as a sharp pain laced his chest. The raw pain threatening to bubble up in his chest had to be squelched.
Penny’s copper eyes looked away and her stony gaze soon found a lot of interest in the shaking hands folded on her lap. “That’s pretty much what happened back then. So, again I ask you. What do you want from me?”
“I want you to look me in the eye and tell me what we had was a lie. I want you to look at me and tell me you had sex with my best friend. I want you to tell me the child wasn’t mine, that it wasn’t our baby. I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you never loved me.”
Her hand moved to the tiny scar at the side of her right eye.
Jason knew that she always worried the scar whenever she felt under pressure or up against a wall. His eyes narrowed.
She was definitely hiding something.
Her lower lip trembled slightly, and she let out a soft sigh. “Are you a glutton for punishment or something? Why this sudden need to revisit and relive the past? We’ve been there and done that. I’ve told you all of this before. I don’t see the point in the constant repeating. So why don’t you just—”
He couldn’t let her finish, had to cut her off. “Why can’t you do it, Penny? Look at me while you cut my heart out. You owe me that. You didn’t look at me then. You kept your face buried in Terrill’s chest. I was too angry to think there was a reason why you couldn’t look at
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