Devilish Details Read Online Free Page A

her living room. Jazz picked up a couple of serving
platters and trailed after her sister from the dining room to the
spacious kitchen. Once saucers of cake and a silver pot of hot
coffee were loaded on a wheeled tray, the kids went off to serve
their elders. The sound of their voices in spirited discussion
floated in. When they were alone, Willa faced Jazz.
    “You know Aunt Ametrine is just... being
herself. She doesn’t mean any harm.” Willa shrugged at the look
Jazz gave her. Then she finished loading the dishwasher.
    “Yeah, she’s holier than everybody to let
her tell it. But Mr. Elton got her good though.” Jazz barked a
laugh. “He was about to yank some skeletons out her closet, and
them bones still had meat on ‘em.”
    Willa suppressed a giggle by pursing her
lips. “Mama Ruby is going to get on him I bet.”
    “I don’t think so. Miss Ruby didn’t say a
peep. She was trying too hard not to laugh. I’m getting a picture
of Sister Ametrine getting funky on the dance floor.” Jazz grabbed
a dish towel and waved it in the air as she shook her hips. She did
her imitation of Aunt Ametrine’s generous butt sticking out as she
moved.
    “You got Aunt Ametrine down. Like Papa Elton
said, bet she got loose and real funky,” Anthony said from the
archway that led to the dining room. He cut a couple of moves too
while making the sounds of a beat.
    “Stop it, Anthony. Show some respect for
your great-aunt,” Willa said, forcing a stern expression.
    “Yes, ma’am.” Anthony stopped dancing. He
shot a glance at Jazz and grinned.
    “What did you come in here for anyway?”
Willa asked.
    “Grandmamma wants ice cream.” Anthony
cleared his throat and shifted from one foot to the other.
    “Okay, then get busy.” Willa got out a tray
and piled bowls on it with spoons. Anthony got a container of ice
cream from the freezer and left with the tray. “You see what you
started? He’ll be imitating his Aunt Ametrine for days.”
    “You mean like this?” Jazz struck another
pose with her butt in the air and shimmied across the tile
floor.
    “Stop it,” Willa said. She lost the battle
to be disapproving and burst into loud laughter until tears came
down her nut brown cheeks. She got control. “Girl, you too
crazy.”
    “Hey, somebody gotta lighten up these
Sunday-come-to meetings,” Jazz wisecracked. “Anyway, thanks for
including me.”
    “Of course you’re included. Always,” Willa
said and gave Jazz a hug.
    Jazz cleared her throat and moved away.
Sentimental moments had been few and far between in her life. Willa
had more experience with that sort of thing. Somehow Willa had come
out with fewer scars from Vivienne and a succession of foster
homes. But then, she hadn’t suffered the same kind of trauma Jazz
had gone through. The memory of abuse tried to push through Jazz’s
defenses. Sometimes a touch or a scent set off flashbacks to that
night and... Jazz started to get a cigarillo from her purse in the
pantry, then she remembered Willa’s strict no smoking policy. Do
something with your hands, move. Jazz strode back to the dining
room with the dish towel. She gathered up the table cloth, put the
lovely centerpiece back on the polished wood table, and went to the
laundry room. Once she’d started the wash cycle, Jazz went back to
the kitchen and started cleaning the granite countertops.
    “Hey, you don’t have to do all that,” Willa
said over her shoulder as she scrubbed a ceramic serving bowl she
didn’t want to put in the dishwasher.
    “You don’t want stains to set in the
tablecloth.” Jazz kept moving around the kitchen, looking for other
things to do.
    “Hey, hey. Slow it down, girl. Remember I’ve
got household help. Why else would anybody have kids, right?” Willa
quipped. Her smile faded as she looked at Jazz. “You okay? I mean
the other night...”
    “Yeah, oh right. The cop thing at my club.
That was nothin’. Unless...” Jazz felt the anxiety ease its grip on
her chest.