Secrets Read Online Free Page B

sat
watching her. Did those boys do something? He hadn’t heard anyone
else in the house.
    She chuckled without humor and glanced at
him. “I’m old. That’s what happened. I can’t move like I used to
and when I try, these old bones remind me they’re tired.”
    He looked at her, hard. She’d been here some
thirty years. He’d never thought about it before, but she looked to
be in her sixties. “Ms. Cook, sixty is not old.”
    “Darn right it aint. But eighty-one is
pushing it.” She moved to the side while he snapped his mouth
shut.
    “No way. You’re not in your eighties.” He
stared at the gray strands and moderately lined skin, and wondered
if she had Indian in her lineage.
    “Then I guess my mama's a liar and my daddy
a cheat.” She eyed him from the chair, hers crinkling at the
corners.
    “No, no, that’s not what I’m saying. You,
you just don’t look that old.” He paused as she squinted at him.
“Not old. I mean that age. You don’t look like you’re in your
eighties.”
    “Yep, God’s been good. I was here with
Janine, your uncle’s wife. I moved here to help her.”
    Well, that explained it. Aunt Janine had
died before he was born. Too much had happened over the years
between his mom and Aunt Janine for him to head in that direction.
Instead, he asked, “Where’s Chastity?”
    “Chastity?”
    “Yeah.” He figured she needed a minute to
change directions from Janine to Chasity.
    “She’s in Philadelphia. Some type of
mediation.” The look she sent said he should know that.
    “Mediation?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Is it about my uncle?” He was puzzled. No
one had mentioned any of this to him. If he was going to be
involved in cleaning up his uncle’s estate, shouldn’t they have at
least notified him if they couldn’t wait?
    “Most definitely.” She twisted her lips and
rubbed her leg.
    “Do you know what the mediation is
about?”
    “You just said it, your uncle. Anything
more, you’ll have to ask her when she gets back. Should be in the
morning.”
    Not the morning, he planned to leave soon
and meet up with Renee for some stress release. Ruthlessly, he
tamped down feelings of guilt that arose. He wanted Chas, but he
had Renee. Besides, celibacy wasn’t a good look on him and he
intended to shed it within the next few hours.
    After visiting with Ms. Cook for an hour or
so, he stood and glanced at his watch. “Well, I hadn’t planned to
stay tonight. I have a dinner date in the city. Tell Chas and Sven
I’ll talk to them tomorrow.” He leaned forward and kissed her
cheek. “Be good, I'll see you in the morning.”
    She smiled. “ You be good, I know what
kind of evening you have planned. Big handsome, dark eyed man like
you, I’m sure it’s long overdue.”
    His neck and face warmed at her knowing
look. There was no need denying it, so he walked outside toward his
car. The boys raced nearby. He returned their wave, thought for
another minute, and returned to the house.
    “Whose boys are those?” he asked Ms. Cook,
who’d moved to the recliner.
    “Boys?”
    “Yeah, the two who were in here earlier?”
Sometimes he’d grit his teeth at her asking questions in response
to his questions.
    “Jonah and Micah.”
    “Yes, you introduced them already. Who are
their parents? Do they live here?”
    She waved his questions away. “Of course,
they live here with their mama. Chastity. Where else would they
live?” Once again, her look said he should know that. He couldn’t
think past the gut punch at the news.
    “Chastity has boys? How old are they? Who’s
their father?” Numbly, he returned to the living room couch and
sat. Her words bowled him over like an out-of-control Mack truck.
His chest lurched at the thought of her married with a family. The
devastating news shredded his calm and destroyed his lifelong
plans.
    “I think they’re seven or eight. Maybe nine.
I don’t know for sure, you can ask them. I don’t rightly know who
the father is, she won’t say.