Read A Wrong Turn Towards Love Online
Authors: Pepper Pace
Tags: #Romance, #multicultural, #Fiction, #United States, #interracial, #Erotica, #African American, #Literature & Fiction
A Wrong Turn Towards Love (10 page)
The bootleg joint had the same old crowd that was always there each night and they made room for Bodie. Laura came over to stand beside him. He hid a grimace when she tried picking up on him.
To her credit she was what all the good ol’ boys wanted, but Bodie’s flavor had changed.
Over the months, all he could seem to think about were full brown breasts and a certain someone’s succulent lips. None of the girls that had ever interested him before could do so much as to cause him to raise an eyebrow anymore.
Weeks after Shaun’s unceremonious departure from the mountain a half angry Bodie had gone down to Richmond and bought a porno; Black chicks that love white dicks. He watched it until his balls were chaffed. A month later he had charged into the Sherriff’s office and demanded that Lloyd run Shaun’s plates to find out where she lived. He’d sat on the information that came back for another month before he finally tried contacting her.
He wrote a letter and it was the first time that he had ever told any woman that he dreamed of her constantly…
The letter was returned; Undeliverable. No forwarding address found. Yeah, maybe that was a good thing. You don’t write in a letter that you were scared…You don’t admit to a sheet of paper that you had fucked up because it had been so long since you had felt anything…
“Bodie?” Laura called. “Earth to Bodie?”
“Huh?” He looked at the pretty redhead with the striking green eyes that generally captivated any man that she set them on. “I’m sorry. My mind must have wandered.”
She gave him an incredulous look. “Most men don’t say that when I’m around.”
He didn’t have a polite come back to that so he just stayed quiet and after a moment Laura stormed away. Bodie ordered another beer and contemplated the nature of his life on this mountain.
“Well will you look at that…”Merle said from his place behind the bar. JD turned in his stool to look at what had Merle so dumbfounded.
“Fuck me with a stick.” JD said in shock. Then he looked at Bodie. As a matter of fact everyone in the bar was looking at Bodie. Bodie pulled himself out of his reverie at the sudden quiet, he turned and looked over his shoulder at the entrance to the bar.
Standing in the doorway was a very pretty, petite black woman with a very large, very pregnant belly.
Bodie’s jaw dropped.
“Bodie, you better go see about your business.” Merle chuckled. And then everyone was good-naturedly razing him.
Of course everybody on the mountain had heard about the two of them tooling around town together and when Bodie’s temper soured they had all speculated on the reason--had even made jokes at his expense, which soured him even more. But now the focus of that speculation was standing right there in the doorway of a redneck joint, in exactly the spot she had stood over eight months ago.
The petite black woman placed her hands on top of the swell of her belly and sighed as she stared pointedly at Bodie. He scrambled to stand on legs that were now as shaky as Jello. He thought he was going to hit the floor with his first step but somehow he was standing before her.
Her eyes narrowed. “Bodie…whatever your last name is, I just want to know whether or not you’re going to take care of your responsibilities.”
A few people hooted and he shot them a look filled with fire, which quieted the room again.
“Shaun…you’re…” he gestured to her belly.
“Having a baby,” she completed his sentence.
“How many months—oh…I guess I should know that right? It is-?”
“Yours? Yes,” she concluded for him.
He felt faint. “Okay.” With hands that shook slightly he helped her inside and got her seated at a table far away from his friends at the bar. Once they were seated he didn’t remove his hand from hers and the stern look on her face suddenly shattered and her eyes softened as she gripped his big hand.
“Oh Bodie, I’m so sorry! I was really scared,” she said rapidly, not caring about the audience that watched in rapt interest. “I wanted to come so many times-“
“Shaun-“
“I know that being scared was no reason to act the way I did but I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you-”
“Shaun.” She quieted and looked at him with teary eyes. “I missed you so damn much. I tried to find you. I sent you letters and they all came back undeliverable-”
She quickly perked. “That’s because Craig and I found a bigger place because of the baby. You…tried to find me, Bodie?”
“Yes.” He took her other hand and leaned in close to her, staring deeply into her dark eyes. “Shaun I wanted to tell you how sorry I was that I didn’t wake up that morning and take you in my arms and tell you how wonderful I thought you were-”
“Bodie,” she whispered as she stared deep into his hazel eyes.
“I wanted to but I didn’t,” he continued, “and it wasn’t because you’re black…I thought later that you might think that, but that wasn’t it. It was just because I’ve been by myself for so long and I truly don’t know how…how to be with you.”
“Oh Bodie! I’m sorry. Every single night since I’ve left I am haunted by how horrible I was. I was scared and I…I was just lashing out!”
“I am so sorry I let you go off like that alone. I knew you were scared, honey. I should have never let you go like that-”
“I was a bitch to you-”
He gave her a stern look. “Hey, don’t call my baby’s mama a bitch. She is a remarkably brave woman.” His frown deepened. “Who makes some crazy decisions—like driving up in these mountains after dark.” He shuddered at the thought of her navigating some of the dangerous turns and sudden drop-offs on those dark winding roads.
She smiled. “One thing about your baby’s mama is that she is very impulsive. Sometimes she will get a crazy idea in her head and nothing can change her mind.”
“What crazy idea did she get in her head this time?”
“That Chicago isn’t the best place to raise a baby.”
His heart was beating like crazy but his frown deepened. “There ain’t no place to raise my baby but right here on Cobb Hill with his daddy and Mama.”
She looked down, smile broadening. “Her.”
“Huh?” he asked.
“We having a baby girl.”
Bodie sputtered and then stood up. “I’m having a baby girl!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Most everyone laughed and those who didn’t shook their head in secret envy.
People came up to congratulate them. JD suddenly appeared, all smiles.
“I’m Jimmy Dean Jones, ma’am. JD to my friends.” He reached out offering his hand to her and Bodie struck like a snake and gripped his wrist before it could approach his family.
JD gave him a surprised look and then he looked down in shame. But then he felt a small warm hand in his palm. He looked up and Shaun was shaking his hand. Bodie released his grip but he stood by tensely.
“Pleasure to meet you Jimmy Dean-”
He met Bodie’s eyes. “I told you, JD to my friends. I’d be mighty obliged if you call me JD.” He looked back at the pretty black woman and gave her a sincere smile.
“JD it is,” she said, returning it.
She placed her hand on Bodie’s arm. “Honey, lighten up. If we’re going to live up on this mountain together than I’m going to have to get to know these folks.
Other books
Tandem of Terror by Eric S. Brown
Cowboy Valentine by Mia Hopkins
Days of Redemption (The Firsts Book 6) by C.L. Quinn
One Perfect Pirouette by Sherryl Clark
Against the Fire by Kat Martin
Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost
The Widows of Wichita County by Jodi Thomas
Strife: Hidden Book Four by Colleen Vanderlinden
Winter's Child by Cameron Dokey
A Child of a Crackhead by Shameek Speight
