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Ivy got up and put on her shoes and coat, grabbing her purse and keys as she walked out the door.

  Chapter 17

  Jonathan couldn’t help but smile as he thought about the blissful two days he’d shared with Ivy. It felt good being with her, sharing a meal, loving her.

  He pulled up to his aunt and uncle’s ranch-style home and spotted his Aunt Bertha’s car.

  His aunts had been meeting every Sunday afternoon to quilt together. They’d been making quilts for cancer patients for the last eight years. It all started as a tribute to Jonathan’s mother Ruth, who died of breast cancer when he was nine years old.

  The quilts had become so popular that they decided to continue making them and donating them to the hospice center that took care of his mother.

  Using his own key to the front door of the ranch-style house, he walked in calling out, “Hey, I’m here.”

  He followed the sound of their voices to the kitchen.

  “You’re late,” Marc said when Jonathan walked into the kitchen.

  “I was tied up.”

  “I heard,” his brother replied.

  “I know you’re not going to come in here and not speak,” a woman yelled out.

  Seeing one of his aunts, he went over to where she sat.

  “Hey, Auntie Anna,” he said, kissing her cheek.

  She pushed him away, saying, “Don’t be trying to get all sweet with me . . . trying to give me some sugah so we won’t work your tongue out today.”

  “Get over here, boy, and give me some if Anna doesn’t want it.”

  “How are you, Auntie?” Jonathan asked, going over to his Aunt Bertha.

  “Auntie’s fine. Just a little pain in this here knee, but I don’t let it keep me down. Gotta keep moving.”

  “I hear ya,” Jonathan said, smiling brightly.

  Jonathan went over to his Aunt Rachel and gave her a kiss.

  Rachel Damon was a tall, thin, chestnut-brown-skinned woman with short salt-and-pepper hair. She and her husband, Isaiah, raised him and Marc after the deaths of their mother and father. He’d always have a special place in his heart for them.

  “I didn’t think you were going to come; you haven’t come to visit in a while.” Rachel looked up at him.

  Before Jonathan could respond, his Aunt Anna piped up.

  “Yeah, must be sniffing around some woman.”

  Jonathan quickly denied the suggestion. “Why would you say that, Auntie?”

  “You should bring her around,” Annie said.

  “Annie, he must be ashamed of us, then,” Bertha chimed in.

  “Sister, he’s not. He’s just been busy,” Rachel said.

  Anna peered over the top of her cat-eye glasses. “When are you going to get married?”

  Rachel continued working with the pink square fabric on her side.

  “Anna, don’t start. He’s got plenty of time to marry.”

  Anna sighed. She looked over in Jonathan’s direction. “I’m sorry, sweetie, I didn’t mean to give you a hard time.”

  “It’s all right, Auntie,” Jonathan said, wishing he could tell them that he was already married.

  Anna paused before continuing. “I must say, though, that I’ll be glad when you do.”

  Bertha teared up. “I know your momma would be proud of both you boys. Marc’s wife is a lovely girl.”

  “Okay, Aunt Rachel, you wanted me to come over to help you.”

  Rachel got up and pressed the button to change the CD on the player that was mounted under one of the kitchen cabinets. The distinct sound of Pastor Shirley Caesar wafted through the room.

  They all fell into a nice rhythm.

  “Sing, Shirley!” Bertha exclaimed, pulling the thread out of the fabric and rocking back and forth to the beat of the music.

  “How did you ladies learn how to quilt?” Jonathan asked.

  “We learned when we were little girls,” the aunts replied in unison.

  “We used to make some of the prettiest quilts. Your momma used to help us, too, God rest her soul,” Anna added.

  Jonathan looked at the boxes on the floor filled with quilts. “How many of these do you guys have to make, Aunt Rachel?” he asked.

  “We are making three for this month. Then we’ll start on new ones for the next month,” Bertha responded.

  “There are so many people who have this dreaded disease; we want to be a blessing to as many as we can.” Rachel said, smoothing out the patch she worked on.

  “You have to know what you’re doing, though, boy,” Anna pointed out.

  “How long have you been here?” Jonathan asked Marc.

  “Twenty minutes before you arrived.”

  “I can’t believe how fast they are,” Jonathan said as he bent down and picked up one of the fancy covers from the box on the floor.

  Jonathan figured out that his aunt really didn’t want anything; she only wanted to see him. “Well, where is Uncle Isaiah?” Jonathan asked.

  “You didn’t see him outside in the garage?” Rachel asked, sounding concerned.

  “No, his car was there, but I didn’t see him,” Jonathan said, he and Marc both seeing the sudden panic in their aunt’s eyes. Marc left immediately, while Jonathan stopped to hug his aunt, saying, “Don’t worry, we’ll check things out.”

  * * *

  Jonathan ran out the side door and around to the back and found Marc trying to open the garage door. “Why didn’t you get the remote control?”

  “Why didn’t you?” Jonathan asked, running back into the house through the side door into the house and pressing the button from the inside.

  When he got back outside, he heard his brother calling him and ran in the direction of his voice to the side of the garage.

  Their uncle was lying on the ground, and Marc was supporting his upper body.

  “Is he hurt? What happened?”

  With a dismissive wave of his hand Isaiah said, “Oh, hell, I’m all right. I just missed a step on the ladder when I was coming down.”

  “I thought Aunt Rachel told you to stay off ladders,” Jonathan said as he and Marc helped to test his reflexes.

  “I was trying fix that gutter. It was trying to come away from the house.”

  “Aunt Rachel has asked us to help you with some things around here, but she didn’t go into any detail,” Jonathan said.

  “Maybe she wanted us to fix the gutter and not you,” Marc speculated.

  “Help me into the garage; I need to rest a minute before we go back inside,” Isaiah said, in effect admitting that he was at least winded.

  When they reached the front of the garage, Jonathan got a folding lawn chair for his uncle.

  “Rachel wanted both you boys close to her.”

  Jonathan and Marc looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

  Pulling himself forward, Isaiah reached over and rubbed his hand over Jonathan’s close-cropped hair. “She feels that you don’t come over to see us as much as you used to. Since sonny boy over here got married, you don’t come over for dinner.”

  Then it hit Jonathan. She was jealous.

  “Don’t tell me Auntie is jealous,” he said, surprised.

  Moving his head vigorously, Isaiah said, “No, she’s not jealous. It’s just sometimes she gets a little emotional when it comes to you two. We never had kids of our own, and after your mother and then my brother died, both of you belonged to us. We got the children we always wanted, but we both lost our siblings. It was a bittersweet experience.”

  The brothers fell silent for several moments, and then Jonathan spoke.

  “Let’s go inside before she comes out here looking for us. She was already concerned because I told her I hadn’t seen you out here when I drove up.”

  When they got inside, Rachel ran over to Isaiah, asking, “Where were you?”

  Isaiah kissed Rachel on the lips in response.

  “Isaiah Damon, you were out there on that ladder again, weren’t you?”

  Isaiah only smiled.
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br />   Rachel rolled her eyes and went back to piecing together the fabric squares without another word. But Marc and Jonathan were not off the hook.

  “Okay, boys, I want you to take these boxes out to Bertha’s car,” she said.

  Jonathan picked up one of the boxes and headed for the door. As he walked down the sidewalk to the car, he thought about the tacit exchange between his aunt and uncle and admired the way his uncle communicated with his wife without words. Clearly, there was a real love between them. He wondered if he and Ivy could ever have that kind of love and understanding.

  Chapter 18

  It only took Ivy ten minutes to arrive at Violet’s house. She turned off the ignition, but didn’t move. She sat staring out of the driver’s side window for a few moments.

  She reached over and lifted her purse from the floor. After pulling her key from the ignition, she got out of the car and walked up to the front door.

  Ringing the bell, she waited for Violet to answer.

  “That was quick,” Violet said, opening the door.

  Violet and Ivy were both the same height. They looked more alike than their other two sisters, with their coffee-colored skin and statuesque frames. The only difference was in their hairstyles: Ivy wore hers pulled back in a chignon most of the time, and Violet sported a short haircut.

  “We need to talk,” Ivy said as she walked past Violet and into the house.

  “I’m making soup, so come on in the kitchen and we can talk there.”

  Violet had just moved into her roomy two-bedroom brick house a year ago. The home had an open floor plan with cathedral ceilings with big windows for a larger appearance.

  “Aren’t you going to take off your coat? Or is this so serious that you think I’m going to kick you out after I hear it?” Violet said, walking into the kitchen behind her.

  “I’m good,” Ivy said as she pulled her purse from her shoulder and sat it on the floor beside her.

  Ivy admired the way Violet had decorated the kitchen. The cranberry-colored walls went perfectly with the custom whitewashed oak wood cabinets, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and tiled center island and floor.

  The large wooden cutting board had a giant knife and lots of celery, carrots and onions cut into little pieces laying on it.

  Ivy sat on the stool at the island and picked up a carrot. Violet sat on the other side across from her.

  “All right, Vee, spit it out. What’s going on with you that’s so serious that you had to rush over to talk?”

  Ivy leaned forward and said, “I want to tell you something, but you have to promise me that you won’t tell another living soul.”

  Violet split open a piece of celery and glanced up at her sister. “You know I won’t say anything, Vee. What do you think I’m going to do, stand out in the middle of the street and tell it to the neighborhood?” Violet chuckled.

  Ivy frowned. “Violet, I’m not joking. This is very serious. We’re talking about my life here.”

  Violet laid the knife down on the cutting board, reached across the island and squeezed her sister’s hand gently. “Okay, Vee. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Not even Rose, and especially not big-mouth Lili.”

  Violet nodded. “I won’t tell Lili, either.” She went back to chopping up the vegetables. “Man, Vee, you act like you’re going to tell me that you have hit the lottery or that you and Jonathan are getting married. You’ve only gone on a couple of dates,” she joked, chopping up an onion now.

  “We’re already married,” Ivy blurted out.

  Violet almost sliced her finger instead of the celery.

  “You are lying to me,” she said in disbelief.

  Ivy merely shook her head from side to side.

  Dropping the utensil, Violet rushed around to the other side of the island and grabbed Ivy.

  “Tell me you’re playing. You’re kidding, right? Vee, what is the matter with you?” She looked Ivy in the eye.

  “Remember, you can’t tell anyone,” Ivy reminded her. She realized that her sister was still in shock by the way she stared at her with her mouth hung open.

  Ivy turned away in embarrassment. “Don’t look at me like that. It was a mistake.”

  “Mistake? Vee, you’re a rational thinker. You help people get married for a living. You know how this goes. You can’t marry someone by mistake, especially when you have to say I do, I will, or something of the sort.”

  “You can if you’re drunk.”

  Violet rolled her eyes. “You were what? What has gotten into you?” Her voice raised an octave.

  “I’m going to get an annulment,” Ivy threw in.

  Violet waved her hands. “Wait, wait. I know I’ve got to be missing something, or there is something you aren’t telling me. I think you need to start from the beginning.” She sat on the stool next to her sister.

  Ivy heard the pot boiling on the stove. “Don’t you think you should see about your pot?”

  Violet ran over to the stove, quickly turning the heat down under the huge stainless steel container. Taking the lid off, she reached for the cutting board, racking all the cut up vegetables into the pot before returning the lid.

  She rushed back over to Ivy. “Okay, spill it, sister. I want to understand exactly what happened.” Violet shook her head before saying, “I can’t believe that you married Jonathan.”

  “At first I couldn’t believe it, either, but now I could see why I would.”

  As she watched the confusion wash over her sister’s face, she realized she needed to fully explain.

  “Let me tell you.” Ivy told Violet the whole story, from her chance meeting Jonathan at the airport to her having a few too many drinks, to her waking up married.

  Once she’d brought her up to speed, Violet, still in amazement, spoke to her.

  “How long do you have before it’s too late to get an annulment?”

  “One year.”

  “But now you’re saying that you’re having second thoughts about the marriage. Is it because you’ve been sleeping with him?”

  Ivy’s mouth flew open and she shook her head vigorously. She was torn between conflicting emotions.

  “It’s not that at all. We’ve been spending a lot of time together and I like who I am when I’m with him. He’s so easy to be with, and I laugh. He is the sweetest guy.”

  “I understand that. I think he’s sweet, too, but enough to marry him?”

  Ivy’s eyes filled with tears. “I love him, Violet.”

  Violet’s eyes widened. “You do? Well then, that’s another story. How does Jonathan feel about being married to you?”

  “He said he didn’t think us getting married was a bad idea.”

  Violet nodded. “Oh. You need to see where the relationship takes you. We all knew he was interested in you, so I think you should give it an honest chance.”

  Ivy nodded. “I have until December.”

  She gave her sister a warning stare. “Remember Violet, you can’t tell anyone.”

  Violet crossed her heart and said, “I promise I won’t breathe a word.”

  Ivy got up. “I needed to get that off my chest.”

  “Why don’t you stay until the soup gets ready? I can show you some of the dress sketches I’ve been working on.”

  “Sure.”

  Violet reached over and hugged Ivy. “You’ll make the right decision. Don’t worry, things are going to work out.”

  * * *

  Several hours later, Ivy went home and prepared to take a hot bubble bath. She sat on the side of the tub, trailing her finger through the thick bubbles that formed from the champagne-and-strawberry-scented bubble bath she had poured under the running water.

  She had taken off her clothes and had put on her silk robe over her pink lacy bra and panties. As she waited for the tub to fill, her mind drifted to Jonathan and the conversation she’d had with Violet.

  Would she make the right decision about him? Will he let her down lik
e Randall did? She didn’t know, but what she did know was that she loved him and it felt good.

  Turning off the water she untied her robe, letting it slip to the floor before removing her panties and bra.

  She stepped into the hot water and sank down until the bubbles reached her collarbone. Lying back against her clam-shaped terry-cloth bath pillow, she relaxed.

  Chapter 19

  Jonathan waited until it was closer to ten o’clock before he went over to Hearts and Flowers. He admitted to himself that he couldn’t wait to meet Randall Holloway. He wanted to look the man who broke Ivy’s heart in the face. He wondered what kind of man would ask a woman whom he supposedly loved to get rid of their child . . . his seed. He had to be a cold-hearted man.

  He recognized the silver SUV parked in the lot as he pulled into the empty space across from it. Lauren Kabins sat on the passenger side. The man driving the automobile had to be Randall.

  Jonathan stared at Randall, watching him and Lauren in conversation. He waited until they got out of their vehicle before exiting his. As soon as she climbed out, Lauren recognized him.

  “Jonathan,” she called out.

  Jonathan turned around and walked toward her. Holding out his hand to her, he said, “Lauren, how have you been?” Jonathan focused on Lauren, but could see Randall walking up next to her.

  “I’m great. I came over for the cake tasting today.” Lauren smiled and asked, “What are you doing over here?”

  This time instead of Jonathan looking at Lauren, he turned and glared at Randall before answering, “I came to help out a friend.”

  Lauren turned to her right. “Jonathan, I’d like you to meet my fiancé, Randall Holloway.”

  Randall extended his hand to Jonathan. “Nice to meet you.”

  Jonathan stared at his hand for a moment and then extended his. “Yeah, nice to meet you, too,” he said coolly.

  Randall gave Jonathan a puzzled stare before taking Lauren by the arm and walking away.

  * * *

  Ivy sat at her desk waiting for Lauren and Randall to show up for their ten o’clock appointment. She reflected on the thoughtful gesture Jonathan made that morning, when he called to remind her that he would be there. Even though she didn’t worry about Randall causing a commotion, she appreciated Jonathan’s support.