Page 10 of Our Promise
“Ooooo. Benny and Elleeeee sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then come marriage, then comes?—”
Lorielle threw a pillow at Jo’s head. Her hair was already all over her head. At this point, she liked her better last night when she was crying her eyes out.
“Don’t be mad at me,” Jo said to her as Lorielle shuffled to completely separate herself from a now conscious Benny. “You’re the one out here all cozied up to my brother.”
“This is all your fault,” she said to Benny as she climbed to her feet, smoothing her hands over her wrinkled skirt. She looked at Jo who still wore a smirk. “You can wipe that look off your face. We fell asleep last night. That was it.”
Benny stood. “You can say what you want, but this was only the beginning, baby.”
“Ohhhhh!” Jo clamped her hands. “Okay, brother! Applying pressure. What’s your next move, sis?”
Lorielle didn’t dignify that with an answer. Instead, she moved down the hall to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
Chapter
Three
Plotting
Benny pulled into the long driveway of his parents’ home. He saw the garage was up when he pulled in, so when he climbed out of the car, he made his way in that direction.
“Hey, old man,” Benny greeted his father. “So, this is what retired men do nowadays?”
He was kneeling on the concrete, sanding an old dresser.
“This was something your mother found and had me pick up.”
Bernard Sr. had enough money to buy Benny’s mother the world. Yet, she still would pick up things on the side of the road if it was vintage. His father had the job of restoring each piece.
“You’re going to get Gavin to help you?”
“I’m just giving it a quick sanding. I’ll do more when we get back, so I don’t need him. Even if I did, that boy in there packing. You know your mother is in there fussing.”
“Don’t tell me y’all got her all riled up. Jo’s attitude was all the attitude I can handle today.I just left her at the coffee shopafter checking on distribution. I want to make sure we’re set to be gone for three days with no interruptions.”
Bernard laughed. “Your sister is bringing hell down on everyone’s head. Your mother’s not that upset. She’s just yelling at Gavin.”
“Okay, I guess I can stay a little longer.”
“What brings you by? We’ll be seeing you tomorrow.”
“I just wanted to stop by, make sure everything was good for tomorrow.” That was his excuse, but he really wanted to test the waters with his mother about him and Lorielle.
“Oh, I thought it was some trouble I needed to know about.”
He shook his head. “No, nothing.”
“Good. We all need to be focusing on getting your sister down the aisle.”
“Even if I have to drag her down that aisle she’s marrying Trey.” Though he doubted he was going to have to do that. Jo was a fool for Trey. That was why she was taking his distance so hard.
Benny moved toward the door of the garage that led into the house.
“Where are you going?” his father asked.
Benny looked over his shoulder. “In the house.”
“You’re not going to help me?”
