When Love Comes Around (Love Conquers All) Page 5

  A smirk on his lips, he shot back, “Who said I was trying to mess with that.”

  Nick chuckled. “Kev, man, it’s me you’re talking to.”

  Feigning offense, he questioned, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Man, I know you’re not that dense. It means you’ll hit it as long as you can, and then when you get bored you’ll be out.”

  No longer in a jesting mood, Kevin’s face became tight. Nick was beginning to piss him off. He was acting as if he wasn’t a playa until Summer came along. They both knew if he wasn’t married and didn’t love his wife be somewhere right now between some woman legs hittin’ it.

  “Like you used to do?” Kevin threw back in a clipped tone.

  Shrugging broad shoulders, what could he say? He mastered the art of hittin’ it. “All I’m saying is Starr is good people. She’s a sweet girl. I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

  “First of all man, she’s a grown woman, not a girl. And you’re making this out to be deeper than it needs to be.” Taking a swig of beer, he set the bottle down. “I don’t plan on hurting anybody.”

  Nodding his head, he gazed directly into the other man’s eyes. “Cool. That’s all I want to hear.” The last thing he wanted or needed was a hysterical Summer ranting and raving when the crap hit the fan if Starr and Kevin were to get involved and things didn’t work out.

  “Are we done Daddy Nick?” Kevin asked as he grinned. Just as quickly as his irritation had come, it vanished. He could never stay upset long with his best friend, his brother.

  Nick chuckled, “Yeah son. Come on let’s go shoot some pool. I haven’t spanked you in a long time.”

  In good nature, Kevin slapped Nick on the back as they left the lounge. “Whatever you say old man.”

  ♥♥♥

  Tiptoeing back into the living room area of the suite in the luxury hotel, Summer plopped down on the soft, plush sofa next to Ava. “Whew, I’m tired. I thought those little rug rats of mine would never go to sleep.” She commented stifling a yawn. It had been a chore getting NJ and Autumn to bed. The tots were still keyed up from the day’s events. Both were still excited about being part of their grandparents’ nuptials.

  Everyone in attendance cheered as NJ, just as handsome he could be, carried the rings down the aisle on the satin ivory pillow. Autumn was just adorable, receiving her fair share of cheers as she dropped one rose petal at a time on the white runner. Because of all of the attention, NJ and Autumn were wearing Summer out with, “We want Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop to get married so we can be in the wedding.” When she tried to explain to them that Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop were already married, Autumn wide-eyed and innocently suggested, “They can get married again like Grandma Joan and Grandpa Henry.”

  Ava smiled. “I know you are. I thought my godchildren would never go to sleep.”

  “Girl, tell me about it.” Starr took a small sip of her white wine spritzer, and then set it down on the coffee table. Now that the children were asleep, she could freely talk. “Do you think Starr is ever going to come out of her funk?”

  Ava shrugged a shoulder. “Don’t know.” Pausing for a second, she let out a small groan. “I think she’s still mad at me.”

  “Av, you know Starr isn’t one to hold a grudge. I just think she’s going through a tough time now and needs her space.”

  “I know, but she has never distance herself like this from us before.”

  Summer put a comforting arm around Ava’s shoulder. “Don’t take it so personal, honey. Maybe it’s hard for her to be around us. She’s not only avoiding us, she hasn’t been calling Karen as often either.”

  Ava screwed up her face as if to say, What? It was no secret the two sisters were tighter than tight. If she was avoiding her own sister then she must be hurting in a bad way. This made Ava feel even more horrible for the words she had so carelessly spoken to her friend. Stupid, stupid, stupid me. I didn’t make matters any better by spouting off at the mouth.

  “Yep, Karen and I talked a few nights ago. Starr finally told her everything the night of the shower. She confided in Karen that it’s hard to be around us because we have kids.”

  This made Ava feel a smidge better. At least it wasn’t just her feeling left out in the cold. “Oh, I’m sorry,” Ava said grabbing Summer’s hand and gently squeezing it.

  Returning the squeeze, “It’s okay. I understand. As much as she loves Autumn and NJ, they are painful reminders of what she wants, just as Alicia and Kyle are.”

  Silence fell over them. A crucial element of the group wasn’t there. It was like a missing arm or leg. As the festivities of Henry and Joan’s nuptials drew to a close, the lovebirds were eager to be alone. Bidding everyone farewell, the honeymooners skipped out to their love nest.

  Everyone else had paired off into their perspective groups. Nita and James made a beeline to the casino. Nita wanted to hit the slots and James the blackjack table. Nick and Kevin wasted no time heading to the nearest bar for a beer. It was naturally assumed that the trio would hang out, laughing, and catching up on the latest like always. However, Starr turned down their offer to “kick back and chill.” Her excuse had been, “I’m tired. I want to get some sleep so I can be ready for our big day of shopping tomorrow.”

  As much as it bothered Ava and Summer, neither wanted to challenge her. It was barely ten o’clock in the evening. So to keep the peace they each gave her a hug and wished her a good night’s sleep.

  “Well, at least she didn’t cancel on us for tomorrow.” Summer offered with a weak smile. Honestly, she wasn’t so sure Starr would show up. She had stood her up for dinner twice last week.

  “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.

  Bringing an end to the silence, not feeling much like company, Ava let out a deep breath. “Summer, I think I’m gonna head back to my room.” Replaying the evening in her mind, she began to feel some kind of way. Was it her imagination, or was Starr talking to everyone else but her? She knew she had overstepped her boundaries with the whole artificial insemination thing. How many times could she apologize for being an insensitive jerkette?

  Sensing Ava’s mood, Summer coaxed, “Come on sweetie, stay just a little longer. There’s no use in you being alone, too. Stop worrying, you’re gonna make yourself sick. Besides, you’re taking this way too personal.”

  Ava let out a deep sigh. Was she taking this too personal? She didn’t think so. Although she and Starr had numerous disagreements over the years, they had never put a strain on the friendship like this one had. She just prayed that they would be able to get over this little snag in their relationship.

  “If it makes you feel any better, we only talk because I call her. It’s not like she’s calling me. And when I do call, half the time, she let the call roll over to voicemail. I know that heifer is home when I call.”

  A small smile touched Ava lips. Maybe she was taking things a little too personal. “Yeah?”

  Summer lightly slapped Ava on the thigh. “Mmm hmm, now stop all this moping. One sad friend is enough!” Getting up, she went over to the wet bar and filled two glasses with white wine and club soda. Picking up the wine glasses Summer made her way back over to the sofa.

  The cool liquid splattered over the rim of the glass as Summer handed it to Ava. “Oops. Girl, take this before I spill it all over you.”

  Ava giggled. “What you trying to do? Get me drunk?

  “Nope I’m trying to get me drunk! Those little monsters wore me out! I need to sleep real good tonight.”

  “Stop calling my babies names! They ain’t gonna be too many more rug rats and little monsters.”

  Laughing, Summer caught the pillow Ava threw at her in mid-air before it could wallop her upside the head. “Fine, godmother of the year, you take them back to your room tonight so they can wake you up at zero-dark thirty.”

  “I don’t think so. You know I need my beauty sleep.”

  Playfully, nudging her friend, she told her, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”r />
  The heavy, oppressive gloom that threatened to cast a heavy shadow was replaced by an air of giddiness as the young women continued to indulge themselves and watch an old Eddie Murphy comedy.

  Somewhere around midnight, lightheaded and tipsy, Ava staggered to her room. The last thought she had before passing out was I miss my buddy Starr.

  .

  Chapter 8

  “Oooh, my head hurts.” Starr moaned from the unrelenting pounding. Had too much to drink.

  Pulling the covers over her head, Starr never wanted to get out of bed. The pouring rain made her want to stay right where she was. In bed all day long.

  Lazily she stretched, rolled over and inhaled deeply, followed by a slow release of air from her mouth. Mmm, that’s strange, sniffing the air, I smell a man’s cologne... A man’s cologne!

  Bolting up into a sitting position, throwing the covers off of her body, she shrieked, “Oh my God! Where are my clothes?”

  To her horror, Starr was booty butt naked as the day she was born.

  “Where are my clothes? Where are my clothes?” She nervously chanted as she leaped from the bed. Spotting her bra, panties, and denim dress haphazardly scattered in various areas on the floor, she nearly twisted her ankle as dizziness overtook her as she stumbled retrieving each discarded item.

  Starr’s body froze as her eyes widen in shock. The pouring rain came to an abrupt end. Not wasting another second, she hurriedly pulled her dress over her head and jetted out the door.

  She ran as fast as her wobbly legs would carry her. There was a man her bathroom!

  ♥♥♥

  Bang! Bang! Bang! ... Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Untangling himself from the warmth of his wife’s petite body, Nick hissed, “Who in the hell is banging on the door like that?”

  “I don’t know.” Summer sleepily purred as she rolled over, pulling a pillow over her head.

  Yanking a pair of jeans from a nearby ottoman and pulling them on, he grumbled, “It’s six-thirty in the damn morning. Whoever it is better not wake up those kids.”

  Taking long strides, he’d already made up in his mind whoever was at the door was about to get a good cussing out. As much as he adored his children, they were quite cranky and evil when sleep deprived. A trait they’d inherited from him.

  Not bothering with looking through the peephole, snatching the door open, Nick growled, “What the―” His annoyance was cut short by the sight before him.

  Hair sticking straight up in the air, smeared makeup, wrinkled dress, panties in one hand, bra in the other, and barefooted, stood Starr Avery. He had never seen such a beautiful woman look so unsightly. Starr was torn up from the floor up! She looked a hot mess!

  Taken aback, Nick just stood there like an idiot staring at her wondering what in the world had happened to her.

  Starr was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. Shifting from barefoot to barefoot, she stammered, “Um, Nick…is Summer here?”

  He wanted to ask her where else would she be at six-thirty in the morning. Instead, he held his tongue. Stepping aside allowing her entry, he had to jump back as the unkempt blur darted past him nearly trampling his bare toes. She didn’t even give him a chance to respond to her question.

  Leaping on the bed, she cried, “Summer…Summer, wake up. I need to talk to you.”

  Summer moaned, “Give me five more minutes.” After a night of drinking white wine spritzers and then later happily indulging her husband, she was beyond exhausted. The man had the stamina of twenty year old.

  Starr pulled the pillow from Summer’s head and shook her more vigorously. “Come on, wake up. There’s a man in my room and I don’t know how he got there.”

  Starr nearly jumped out of her skin. And Summer was like the dead coming back to life at the sound of the deep, baritone roar coming from the doorway. “What the hell do you mean there’s a man in your room and you don’t know how he got there?”

  Neither woman had been aware Nick was standing behind them overhearing Starr’s tearful confession.

  Starr covered her face with her hands and wept from pure embarrassment. Never in her adult life had anything like this happened to her. The last thing she remembered…Oh, no, no, nooo.

  Wrapping her arms around her friend who was in apparent distress, Summer soothed, “It’s okay, honey. Everything’s going to be all right.”

  Shaking her head, sobbing even louder, “No, Summer, I think…I think… I did something stupid.”

  Becoming further irritated, Nick demanded, “I’m still waiting for an answer.”

  How in hell does she not know who’s in her room? I know she has more sense than to have picked up some man off the street.

  Shooting her husband an evil glare, Summer snapped, “Why don’t you go down there and see Nicholas!”

  Nick clenched his jaw. Summer only called him by his full name when she was irritated with him. How had his morning gotten off to such a terrible start? If they hadn’t been interrupted, he probably would have eased himself between the warmth of her legs again, and rode her one last time before the kids woke up. That’s not going to happen... That last thought made him throw his hands up in the air and bark, “Maybe I will!”

  “Well good! Go then!” His once timid wife barked back, rolling her eyes at him.

  Crossing the room, huffing, he snatched his shirt from off the same ottoman his jeans earlier occupied. Throwing on the shirt and shoving his feet into a pair of casual loafers he threw over his shoulder as he left the room, “I’ll be back.”

  Hearing the door slam, Starr apologized. “I’m so sorry. I got you and Nick fighting over me.”

  “Girl, don’t pay him any mind. He’ll get over it. Now tell me what happened.”

  Feeling embarrassed all over again, she admitted, “That’s just it. I don’t know. I can’t remember everything.”

  “Well, tell me what you do remember. Maybe it’ll come back to you.”

  “Okay.”

  Starr started with everything she could remember from the time they’d left each other the evening before.

  After going back to her room, she had taken a shower and dressed for bed. Not really tired she decided to watch some television. Everything on cable she’d seen before. Instead of going up to Summer’s room to hangout with her and Ava, she’d decided to go to the lounge for a drink. As of lately she just wasn’t in the mood to be around anyone. It wasn’t that she no longer cared for her friends she just didn’t want to bring them down. Nor was she in the mood for cheering up. Nothing could cheer her up.

  Sipping on Malibu and pineapple juice, her sadness became even deeper. Before she knew it, an hour had turned into two, that’s when a friendly male voice asked if he could sit with her.

  Everything after that became fuzzy and hazy. Things came in and out, in snapshots. Starr vaguely remembered going to a chapel watching a couple get married, then going to a lounge in another hotel, and then waking up naked in her bed.

  At the end of her story, Summer’s mouth hung wide open in disbelieve. Starr had always been the most leveled headed one. Lord have mercy what in God’s name did Starr do?

  “Don’t look at me like that.” Starr tearfully pleaded, attempting to keep the tears from falling again.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I’m just a little shocked.”

  “I know. I shocked myself. I can’t believe I did something like this.”

  Summer gently asked, “Did you sleep with him?” Just because she woke up naked in bed with a man in her bathroom didn’t mean she had slept with him…right? She prayed that her friend hadn’t. With her past failed relationships, Starr was determined to be celibate until she meant the man of her dreams, her future husband. It would be a crying shame to see years of being celibate go to waste if she’d slept with a man she’d picked up from God knows where, and in Vegas of all places.

  She didn’t even want to bring up getting tested for sexually transmitted disease if she had slept with mystery man. It w
ould have to wait until later, once Starr had gotten herself fully together.

  Hunching her shoulders, she whispered, “I think so.” This was so humiliating admitting to her best friend that overnight she’d become a whore, a slut, a tramp. What would people think once this all got out. It was bad enough that her best friend and her husband knew.

  “You think you did?” Oh no, please no.

  With shame, Starr hung her head. “Yes. I’m a little sore,” lifting her gaze to meet Summer’s, she pointed, “down there.”

  Dropping her face into her hands, she shook her head from side to side. “What am I going to do?” She muffled out to her friend between her fingers.

  This was heavy. One of the people she loved most in this world was hurting so bad she had acted out of character and irresponsible. And as a result, she may have to suffer some very harsh consequences. At a loss for eloquent words, she told Starr the plain truth. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out.”

  Chapter 9

  He was wearing the carpet out, pacing back and forth. Finally, he said, “Let me get this straight, because I’m not understanding something.” He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation. “You picked Starr up last night.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And she’d been drinking...so you brought her back to her room and banged her brains out.” He gritted out between clenched teeth.

  Kevin winced from Nick’s accusing words and the menacing stare he was pinning him down with. It wasn’t exactly like that. He was making it sound as if Kevin had taken advantage of her. As if he’d dragged her by the hair caveman style back to her hotel room.

  “Come on Nick, man, that’s not how it went down. I mean she wasn’t that drunk. Hell, she knew what she was doing. She invited me here!” Kevin shouted in his defense. As a matter of fact, she was the one who had seduced him! But he wasn’t about to tell Nick that. It wasn’t any of his business.

  Lifting a dark brow Nick snipped out, “How in the hell do you explain her showing up at my front door reeking like a damn distillery? I almost got drunk just by standing within five feet of her.