No One in the World (23 page)

“Wow, I still can't believe that,” Julia said, sipping from a can of Diet Sprite. “Feels like my civil liberties have been violated or something. That just ain't right.”

“Who you telling,” Austen said. After a moment, her eyes wandered up to the ceiling. A smile appeared on her face.

“Okay, someone's having a pleasant thought. Fill me in.”

“It's nothing.”

“Nonsense, it's nothing. What are you thinking about?” Julia said.

“Guess who I saw again last night?”

“Eric?”

“Right.”

“The one you saw naked.”

“Yes.”

“The one with the great body and the big—”

“Dick. Yes.”

“Okay, just confirming.” Julia laughed. “Go on.”

“It was late, and I wandered down to the kitchen for a glass of water,
and he was there eating a sandwich. I was still pissed about what his sister did and my situation, so I just vented.”

“And what did he say?”

“Nothing. He just sat there very calmly and let me speak. Oh, and then he gave me half of his sandwich. Wasn't that sweet?” Austen said, smiling wider.

Julia stared at Austen oddly, shaking her head.

“What?”

“Do you hear yourself? You're thirteen again, and you have a crush on your boyfriend's best friend.”

“Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about,” Austen said, trying to force the smile from her face. She wasn't successful.

“I don't?” Julia said, scooting to the edge of her seat and staring right into Austen's face. “I can see some red in your cheeks, girl. You're blushing!”

“I'm not!” Austen said, covering her cheeks with her hands. “Okay, the man is fine. Well, both of them are, but Eric happens to be straight, and sexy, and brooding, and . . .”

Julia said nothing.

“What, J?”

“You're about to marry Cobi. You're going to be living in his house, living on his money, money that will pay your mother's mortgage, that will get your home out of hock, and you're daydreaming about his brother. Austen, please, if you've never heard a single word I've said in the past, hear this. Leave Eric and his big dick alone.”

I
had been waiting an hour on the edge of the king-size bed, in a beautiful room, with a view facing Lake Michigan, anticipating our meeting.

Yesterday, I had made a reservation at the W Hotel on North Lake Shore Drive to spend some much needed intimate time with Tyler.

I texted him after it was made and immediately got a response text, letting me know that he would meet me here and that he was looking forward to seeing me.

I had called him four times today just to confirm, but he hadn't picked up his phone or called me back. I left messages, making sure to leave the time, the address, and the room number, but still there was no Tyler.

Tyler wasn't the sort of man to be tardy. Something was going on. Maybe he was still paranoid, or no longer wanted to continue our relationship, or both. Either way, I needed to find out.

I stood from the bed, grabbed my keys from the nightstand, and left the room.

Half an hour later, I pulled up in front of Tyler's northwest suburban home. I gazed up at the beautiful brick, four-bedroom house with the manicured lawn, surrounded by the white picket fence. It was a dream—the house and the family inside it—something Tyler had said he had always wanted.

But if it was a dream,
I thought, pulling the key from the ignition of the Mercedes,
couldn't that also mean it wasn't real?

I rang the doorbell, wanting to confront him. He needed to know how I'd been feeling regarding his absence in my life.

His wife, Kennedi, answered. She was a tall, beautiful, fair-skinned woman with dark, shoulder-length hair that looked as though she had just stepped out of the stylist's chair.

I had dropped by unannounced. I knew I wasn't to do that, even though Tyler had no problem just popping up at my place anytime he saw fit. But I didn't realize just how wrong I was till I was leaning in to give Kennedi a hug and a peck on the cheek. “Is he home?” I asked.

“Sure, Cobi. Come on in. He's out grilling dinner with the girls. Go on back. He'll be glad to see you.”

I told myself I didn't think so.

I walked through the kitchen, slid the patio glass door back, and stepped out into the backyard. Tyler's back was to me. He was working over a smoking grill. He wore an apron, walking shorts, T-shirt, tennis shoes, and a baseball cap—the traditional dad costume.

“Look who's playing chef today,” I said.

“Hey, Uncle Cobi,” Tyler's daughters said in unison, turning from the grill and skipping over to me. Konni and Kara were six and eight years old. They were tall for their ages, and both had heads full of thick brown hair, parted down the middle and tied into pigtails.

I wrapped my arms around them and kissed their foreheads. When I looked up, Tyler was holding a meat fork in his fist, giving me a vicious glare.

“Girls, why don't you go inside for a while and give me and Uncle Cobi a few minutes to talk about work stuff, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy,” the girls said, playfully bounding into the house.

Tyler waited till he saw the patio door close. “What the hell are you doing here? I told you never to come here unannounced.”

“How could I announce my visit, if you don't pick up the phone?” I said. “I mean, what's going on? Are you dumping me?”

Tyler looked down at the smoking meat on the grill and poked a couple of the steaks.

I stepped closer to him. “You know that I love—”

“Shut up!” He whispered harshly at me, alarm in his eyes. “I'm at
home, Cobi. My family is just inside the house, and you're talking that shit. That's the problem with you lately. It's like you've forgotten just how much is at stake here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The thing with the kid who blackmailed you, your brother walking in on us—that stuff could blow up in your face. And now you have a chance to do something that could actually help your situation, but you don't want to do it. And you wonder why I'm distant.”

“I told you, I'm going to marry her. I told you that, so you can stop ignoring me. Everything is going to be fine. Just come back to me. I miss you,” I said, wishing I could touch him.

He looked down again, the bill from the baseball cap shading his eyes. “I don't think I can do that. Not right now. I think we ought to take a break from this for a little while.”

“No. You told me you loved me, that you would consider leaving your wife—”

“Cobi!” Tyler said, grabbing me by the lapel of my jacket, yanking me into his face. He glanced at the house to make sure no one was watching. “Really, how much of a chance do you think there is of that actually happening? Do you think I would ever leave Kennedi and the girls?”

“You lied to me?” I slapped his hand off me and stepped back.

“I said what I wanted to have happen, but I knew it never could—know it never can. This is the way things are, the way they need to be, and you'll know that once you get married. We can talk about getting back together then.”

“You cowardly motherfucker,” I said, my voice low. I was boiling with anger. “You're man enough to meet me in hotel rooms, but not man enough to take ownership of who you really are.”

“I am owning it,” Tyler said. “This is who I am.” He pulled at his T-shirt that read “Greatest Dad in the World.”

“You are sorry and selfish.” I laughed sadly. “Fine. Since you can't man-up, why don't I just go in there and tell your wife what you and I have been up to? Maybe she'll have something to say about that.” I was expecting Tyler to jump me, try to poke me with that fork like he was stabbing those steaks.

“Whatever you want to do, Cobi,” he said, and continued fussing
with the meat. “But I know you love me, and despite how angry you are, you'd never want me to lose my family.”

“I'm going to go in there and tell your wife,” I said, pointing at the house with a trembling finger. “I swear. I'm going to do it.”

“Don't let me stop you.”

I turned and marched inside the house. I glanced at the girls in the kitchen, playing at the sink in some dishwater. “Where is your mother?” I asked, managing to sound calm.

“In the living room, I think,” one of the girls said.

I made a beeline for the room. I let her finish her phone conversation before I ruined her life with what I had to tell her.

Kennedi smiled at me, and into the phone said, “Okay, girl. Well, I'll talk to you later, okay? Bye bye.”

She punched a button on the phone, set it on the coffee table, and said, “Hey, Cobi, what's up?”

All that I had to say was on the tip of my tongue. It could bring down this entire house, shatter Kennedi's make-believe reality, kill the girls' futures. All I had to do was tell this woman the truth. But Tyler was right. I did love him too much to want him to lose his family. I became the coward Tyler knew I was and simply said, “Just wanted to give you a hug before I left. See you next time.”

I rushed out to my car, trying to hold my emotions until I climbed in and shut myself inside. I buried my face in my hands and tried not to cry.

Moments later, I pulled myself together, sniffled, took a deep breath in, released it, then pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and dialed a number.

When the phone was answered, I said, “Blac, I have a room reserved. I want to see you tonight.”

E
ric stood just outside the living room doorway. Austen was in there watching television. As he waited, he wondered why Cobi was keeping the terms of his marriage a secret. He thought about asking his brother but wasn't sure if Cobi would tell him the whole truth and told himself, who better to ask about this than Austen.

Eric stepped into the living room, catching Austen's attention. She looked up at him and smiled.

“What you watching?” Eric asked.

“Evening news.”

“You mind if I watch, too?”

“'Course not.” Austen scooted over on the sofa. Eric sat beside her and silently watched the TV. “The stuff you told me the other night, I didn't know any of it.”

“What stuff?”

“About the contract, about you and my brother getting married, any of it.”

Austen shifted her body around to Eric, a suspicious smile on her face. “How could you not know? You're his brother. You live in this—”

“I just moved in.” Eric hesitated a moment, then told himself it made no sense to continue to hide who he was. “I just got out of prison. Three
years ago I needed money to take care of my new baby daughter and my girlfriend, and I foolishly went out there and tried to steal a car.”

“And you got caught,” Austen said.

“Yeah.”

“Me and Cobi haven't seen each other in thirty years. My mother put us up for adoption, and by some miracle or something, Cobi was walking through the jail and just bumped into me.”

There was an uncertain look on Austen's face Eric could not read. “Why you looking at me like that? You think different of me now because I was in prison, right? I guess I can understand.”

“No. I made my share of mistakes, too. Not putting away enough money, not planning for what's going on right now. So I'm broke, and I'm marrying your brother so I can save my house and have somewhere to live. But this is tougher than I thought it would be, and we aren't even married yet. I keep saying I don't feel like I have control of my own life.”

“I feel the same way,” Eric said.

“How is your daughter?”

Eric lowered his head. “Haven't seen her in two years. Her mother is trying to get my rights taken away. But Cobi is helping me do everything I can to get her back.”

“I'm sorry,” Austen said sincerely, placing a comforting hand on Eric's shoulder. “Why would she do that?”

“I don't know. I loved my daughter, treated her as best I could, and . . . I don't know. Maybe it was because I'm a bad person and she doesn't want her around me no more.”

Austen gave Eric a sympathetic look and moved her hand to his arm. “I don't think you're a bad person, and I think you'll be able to see your daughter again.”

“You're sweet for saying that.”

“I'm a sweet person,” Austen said, smiling.

“You are.” Eric smiled and looked away.

“So is your girlfriend—”

“She's not my girlfriend anymore,” Eric said, turning back to Austen. “Whatever we had ain't there anymore.”

“I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better.”

Eric didn't know how to take what Austen just said. It was suggestive as hell, but he knew she couldn't have meant what he wanted her to
mean. He wanted nothing more than to grab Austen and kiss her. Hell, lean her back on that sofa and make love to her. That would've made no sense. She was to marry Cobi, so he put the thought out of his mind. “I guess I should go up to my room,” Eric said, forcing himself to stand.

Austen unexpectedly stood with him. She stared in his eyes. Eric believed the look asked him to kiss her, but he knew he had to be wrong. “So I'm gonna go on up,” Eric said. “Can I give you a hug . . . for . . . you know, listening to me?”

“I would like that,” Austen said.

Eric slowly wrapped his arms around her. He felt her arms move around his waist. She pulled him close to her, and although he tried, he could not stop himself from being excited and growing in his pants. He was embarrassed, knowing that she felt him throbbing against her belly. He backed away slightly, but felt her pull him closer still as if she wanted to feel him.

“I'm sorry about that,” Eric said. “It's been a long time.”