Dear Summer Read Online Free Page B

her.
    “Come on, baby. You can tell me. I mean, nobody knows you here anyway.”
“It’s about Tommy.”
“What about him?”
“I think I like him now.”
“Thank God. You need a man.” Tonya smiled.
“Yeah, but it ain’t that easy. I mean, Tommy has some issues.”
“What’s the problem? He looks okay and I’ve seen his Range Rover and the Benz.” Tonya picked up a Marie Claire magazine. “So, I know he has money. By the way, what does he do?”
“I don’t know what he does.”
Tonya’s eyebrows rose. “What do you mean you don’t know? He just bought you that new Benz and you don’t know what he does?”
“I’ve never asked him.” Summer felt stupid for not knowing. She’d been seeing him for six months and never asked; not because she didn’t want to know, but because she didn’t want to seem nosy. She figured he was some kind of hustler or else he would have told her. She’d been with guys like him back in Houston. They were the types that you had fun with. They were cool because they would always have money and they took her and her friends out to eat. Nobody knew what they did for sure, but she knew that type rarely had a job. It didn’t matter to her as long as they were fun—and Tommy was fun.
“He’s never told you?”
“No, why?”
“He’s hustling. Just be careful.”
“Thanks, Mama,” Summer said sarcastically.
“Just trying to protect you.”
“Yeah. Just like you protected yourself when you were dating JJ—right adamant against hustlers until he bought you that diamond bracelet for your birthday.”
“That’s beside the point. I’m not with him.”
“Not because he’s a hustler, but because he decided to get married.”
Tonya playfully stuck out her tongue. “It doesn’t matter why I’m not with him.”
Summer’s face became serious. “Tonya, I want to be with this man.”
“Why don’t you get with him? It’s obvious he likes you.”
“Yeah, but he has a woman.”
“Are they married?”
“No.”
Tonya sucked her teeth and rolled her neck. “Hell, he ain’t got no woman then.”
“He lives with her.”
“What?”
Summer felt dumb again. She avoided Tonya’s eyes, stared into space and thought about her dilemma.
“How does he feel about you?”
Summer picked up an issue of Vogue . Beyonce was on the cover wearing a fitted yellow dress. Skimming through a few pages, she finally said, “He loves me too.”
“The other bitch has to go then.”
“It’s her house.”
“He needs to move into your house.”
“What? We’re not married.”
“Come on, Summer. This is not the seventies. People move in with each other all the time. Get with the program.”
“I don’t know.”
“I think Tommy’s in the game,” Tonya said adamantly.
“No. I don’t think so.”
“I think so. I mean, all the signs are there.”
“But his pops is rich from the settlement with the State of North Carolina for false imprisonment. Remember the man that was with him that day we saw him at the gas station in the Yukon?”
“Yeah, I remember. His father had given me a business card. Said he had some rental properties.”
Summer laughed remembering the day Tommy’s father stared at Tonya’s ass and came up with a lame excuse to give her his business card.
“What’s so funny?”
“Just thinking about the day Tommy’s father had given you his card. He know his old ass has to be at least twentyfive years older than you are.”
Tonya looked away. “J.C. was kind of cool.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said.”
“Girl, you did not fuck Tommy’s father!”
Tonya didn’t respond.
*****
    When Tommy’s father opened the door, he looked worried. J.C., a usually well-groomed man, stood in the doorway with unkempt hair. He looked as if he hadn’t shaved in a week. He let Tommy in and they walked to the kitchen. Tommy sat at the table and J.C. sat at a barstool near the kitchen counter. “Tommy I’m sorry I called you so early, but I had to talk to somebody