Page 42 of The Brooklyn Way

Before he could finish he was interrupted. I hadn’t seen her in the vicinity before, but now she was standing in the midst of our circle.

“Are we doing introductions?” Tiara’s smile was bright and her string bikini was itty bitty. She had the body for it. I had to admit that while she was annoying, she looked good.

“Uh, yeah,” Cameron continued. “This is Tiara. Brooklyn and Tiara, this is Antonio, and this is Yusef.”

I gave both men a sweet smile and a small wave. “Hey, nice to meet you.”

While I was doing that, Tiara was doing her.

“Uhm, I’m a hugger.” She was so petite that when she went to hug Yusef she basically caught him around the waist and pressed her face into his stomach area. Antonio was clearly more ready for action. He bent down to meet her hug.

Cameron snagged one more piece of fruit from my bowl and popped it into his mouth. Tiara’s focus stayed on the fruit until it disappeared down his throat. She turned to me with a scowl.

Antonio chuckled. “Okay, my boy. I get it. This is whose fruit you’re eating and this is who wishes you were eating her fruit.”

I didn’t hang around to see how that conversation went. Instead, I made my way over to where Carrington and Nyrah were standing.

I ate so much food, laughed until my sides ached and posed for picture after picture after picture. I even partnered up with one of the twins’ cousins and won three rounds of rise-and-fly at the spades table. As far as I was concerned, Cameron and Carrington’s birthday party finale didn’t owe me nothing.

I was headed for the bar to request a bottle of water, when behind me a hand reached out and caught me by the bicep. I turned around and saw the cousin I’d just been playing spades with, Isaac.

“Ay, you ain’t bad on the table, lil mama.”

He caught up to me and matched my stride as I continued toward the bar.

I shrugged playfully and smirked. “Well, I’m from Chicago… the south side. You won’t survive on the block if you can’t at least play spades.”

“Oh, so you’re from Chicago? How’d you end up on Jackson Island?”

“Carrington. We were college roommates.”

We made it to the bar. There was a galvanized steel tub sitting on top of it filled with both ice and several varieties of bottled water—everything from sparkling to alkaline, to enhanced, to regular flat. I grabbed a bottle of basic water, twisted off the cap, and took a long guzzle. I could feel Isaac watching me, but I couldn’t imagine what would interest him about my drinking water. It wasn’t like I was deep throating a popsicle or munching on a banana.

“What are you doing on the island to pass time? It can be boring as hell out here in the sticks if you don’t know the right people.”

A small chortle escaped from me. “Then I must know the right people, because I’ve been having a good time.”

“What do you do?” He made himself comfortable leaning next to me up against the bar.

“I’m a seamstress; formal gowns are my specialty. Right now, I’m working on Carrington’s wedding gown.”

“What do you do when you’re not doing that? You should let me show you the sights. I’ll take you out to Charleston where I stay. I’ll take you out on my boat at night.” He looked me up and down with interest. “You seem like the type who likes romantic shit. Nothing’s more romantic than the water at night.”

Shit, he ain’t never lied. I thought to myself as images of what Cameron and I liked to do on his deck overlooking the water or being pelted by water at night played in my mind.

“My nights tend to be tied up.”

Isaac leaned into me taking one of my hands into his. “Free one up for me, shug. Come on, now. Don’t be stingy.”

I chuckled in spite of myself. Give up a night of letting Cameron knock the lining out of my coochie, possibly with big fat rain drops pelting our bare skin for the opportunity to see Charleston at night with Isaac? I didn’t think so.

Before I was able to restate my position about my nights being tied up, Cameron was there with Tiara, Carrington, and Nyrah in tow.

“Ay, fall back off her, cousin. If she says she ain’t interested… then she ain’t interested.”

“She didn’t say she wasn’t interested, twin.” Isaac smiled at his cousin. “She said her nights are tied up. I don’t need all of them. I just need one… for now.”

“Trust me, her nights are tied up. Tightly.”

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