Before You

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

A/N: I’ve had lots of questions about the character, Naddy. Her purpose, presence, and in equal portions of positive and negative. Because I go through life collecting people without regard for gender, politics or religion, I forget it might raise questions in a novel for any number of reasons. Even something so simple as a sort of “Why?”. To me, Naddy is just one of those happily crossed paths that will make both people better for it. Roth gets as much or more from her because she tickles him with her bluntness and lack of being impressed by him.

Hope this clears up some questions.

Reviews are gold and you make the work a labor of love, whether you contact me privately, post publicly, complain or compliment.

Just … thanks for letting me know you’re there.

Now, on to importanty non-cerebral smut.

KD

#

“This looks like a through-and-through to me,” Roth commented casually as possible as he cleaned what he knew a gunshot wound through a man’s bicep.

“Naw, doc. Some punk stabbed me, straight yo.”

Naddy murmured, “Mm-hm. Did the urban elves come out and shoot little arrows that poked all those holes in your arms, straight yo?”

Roth squelched his humor. “Naddy, could you please get me an irrigation kit?” The best he could do for the uncooperative man fell under sanitation.

Later in the day, Roth propositioned his assistant. “I have an invitation to my parents’ place for dinner. Adam’s not ready. Will you come?”

“It’s not gonna be some sad snooty scene of air-puffed whiff of caviar with breeze of Yak pituitary under truffle dust, is it?”

Roth’s almost fell down laughing. His humor ceased as he saw she’d changed her bright pink hair to a more natural dark brown. “Forgive my dumb ass for not noticing sooner, Naddy. The new hair is very flattering.”

She did not look up from her paperwork. “There’s a beauty school close that trolls for victims. I volunteered.”

“It’s much more suited to your personality. You’re very beautiful.”

“Oh my God,” she replied, filling in those forms. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna flatter me to get me to go to this debacle?”

“Sometime, you have to tell me where you earned that vocabulary. But, will you?”

She turned to him, briefly fixing him with those sharp, dark chocolate eyes. “Some starched-ass butler calls me ‘Miss Trueman’, I’m out.”

“How about ‘honey-child’ or ‘sweet cheeks’?” He couldn’t help playing with her. Her prickly exterior made it too entertaining.

“How about I see if I can figure out using a speculum on you?”

Roth smiled as his sire greeted them. It always made him warm inside that his big, badass Papa reached out so quickly to any friend he dragged through. Roth recalled the first time he’d brought a boyfriend here. The poor kid nearly stroked out when Roth’s dad walked in on them kissing in the kitchen. Papa had excused himself, taken a Perrier from the fridge and departed without so much as a batted lash.

“Naddy, I’m Seth.” His sire extended his hand. “My wife is Lia. Please consider yourself our child while you’re under our roof.”

Naddy gave his sire the once-over. “What is this? A male clone clinic? Same size, muscle, facial hair, and nearly coloring?”

“Maman,” Roth greeted, seeing his mother, “Meet Naddy, my friend. She’s my right arm at the new clinic, and professionally my better half.”

She rushed to embrace Naddy. “We love guests. Welcome, Naddy” His mother turned and hugged him so tightly he thought he heard a rib crack. “Hello, baby boy.”

Holding her in return, he pressed his face to the crown of her head and dragged the scent of her hair down into his lungs. “Hello, Maman.” In moments like this he could recall his early childhood in fleeting sensory snippets: impromptu picnics on the lawn, her voice humming to him at night, softness of her hands, her gentle firmness in correcting his behavior.

As they parted, Luc arrived drying his hands on a black kitchen towel. “Roth, if you weren’t my favorite cousin before, you would be now for bringing this beauty.”

Naddy replied, “I did not come here to get heckled by a bullshit artist.” When everyone laughed, she glanced around, that laser scrutiny settling on him. “Is everyone in your clan this crazy?”

“Yes.”

Luc had cooked. He served the meal family style: jerk pork, coconut shrimp, curried plantains, rice and beans, a salad of fresh baby greens under a homemade vinaigrette, and the crowning glory so far as Roth considered, the familial recipe for corn cakes with crab.

Naddy rebuffed any attempt at gentlemanly courtesy from Luc, while sucking it up from Roth’s father. She smiled at him as he reached for her hand or smiled, making Roth think about a flower unfurling beneath the sun’s warmth.

Roth considered his cousin with a new perspective. Luc possessed the strong, handsome African heritage handed down from his relatives, while boasting a certain sophistication that came across as all current. He kept his head shaved, wore the traditional tattoos of the black Garretts, as well as sporting the ear piercings. The abundance of muscle on a T-shaped, tapered frame certainly would turn heads. Plus, Luc just had the extreme charisma held by the black branch of their beloved family. From centuries back, they charmed.

If Luc had settled the Garrett homing beacon of intention upon Naddy, not even her porcupine impression would save her.

“I kinda understand now,” Naddy allowed, reluctance clear in her voice as they made the drive to her place.

“What?” He flipped on his turn signal, checked his mirrors and shifted into the turn lane.

“Why you’re so crazy.”

“Naddy, acceptance does not commute to insanity.”

“For the rest of us, yes, Roth, we can’t understand.”

He parked and hurried around to open her door. “My cousin is going to launch a campaign to win you.”

Naddy stepped out and fished in her purse for keys. “That joker just met me. He’ll run off to play Happily-Negro Ken with Barbie with some other bitch.”

Roth took her keys, ascended the steps and opened the door to her apartment. Seeing a few accessories gracing the hospitable space, he grinned. “No, he’s got you in his cross hairs. You seem to have some racial barriers in place.”

“I’m caring enough thinking about bringing a new life into this world from a white man.” Naddy walked into the high-ceilinged efficiency. “He, your cousin, won’t give me another thought.”

Roth made his exit. “Keep telling yourself that.”

Less than a block from his house, his cell rang. Seeing his home number, he answered, “Yeah?”

Joseph half-yelled, “Nathan and Adam are about to fight. Hurry!”

“Shit.” He slid into the driveway, hitting the garage door opening, and then shutting off the car.

Joseph spilled out from the laundry room. “Roth, hurry!”

He ran through to find Nathan and Adam grappling on the living room floor. “Stop this shit!” He used his family’s time-honored techniques to bust them apart. “What the fuck?”

Adam got in a sly thumb strike sending Nathan back to the floor. Filled with combat glee, Adam leaned down and taunted, “You might outweigh me by eighty pounds, but I’m a trained killer.”

“Yeah, and I fight dirty,” Nathan growled. His hand closed over the Achilles’ tendon on Adam’s leg, bringing him to a thudding landing.