So Different (26 page)

“Did your ex-fiancée dye her hair? ” she asked instead of answering his question.

“No, she didn’t. But she didn’t like Mexicans, either, so maybe dying her hair would have been a better option.”

“She was just one woman. I’m sure you dated others—some nice ones that you didn’t ask to marry you. Did you ever date anyone like me before?”

“What? Nice, kind, funny, giving, entertaining in bed?” he said.

“No,” she said, “different.”

“No. I usually went for this one type.”

“That’s changed?” she asked.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe? Did you love her a lot?”

“Who?”

“You know who,” she said, punching him. He grabbed her fist, held on to it.

He was quiet for a second or two. “I thought I did, but now I’m not so sure that it was love anymore.”

“Still want to get married?” she asked.

“To someone in particular, or in general?” he asked.

“General,” she said.

“I think so, but back to your hair. I could help you color it,” he said.

“You would help me color my hair?”

“Yep, or I could do it for you. It can’t be that hard.”

“Okay. I ought to let you try, see if it’s as easy as you think. What color would you like?” she asked.

“I am partial to blondes, but I’ll let you surprise me.”

“Okay, I will then,” she said, leaning back into his body, quiet, staring out into the yard, hand still in his, mind still on that conversation and what to make of it. Here she’d been worried about being too different now, a first for her. She’d always been aware of other’s reactions to her, but it had not affected her enough to change. One male and she was changing; she was not sure if she liked that about herself. It was a first, for sure. Hair color she could change, and she could get rid of her tattoos, but inside she was still the same outsider questioning the status quo. As long as she kept that she would be okay. Or she thought so, anyway.

* * *

The last week of September

“So you think you want to try to get married again?” Adam Sr. asked his son over lunch at the Taco Post down the street from his office.

“I do. I love her, and it’s different from before, with Jamie,” Adam Jr. said.

“And you want to take over the shop,” Adam Sr. said, confirming his son’s other request.

“I do. We can work together or I can go it alone,” he said.

“Go it alone. I’ll be around if you need me, but I like being retired. I’ve been wanting to golf, to see the world, and having you come back and take over the family business has been a dream of mine. Your mother and I want to see you happy and settled.”

“I think I will be. I’m going down to Houston Saturday, meeting a real estate agent to put the house up for sale. Mariah’s going to let me store some stuff in her garage out back.”

“What about your apartment?”

“Don’t know yet, I’m never there, but I don’t want Mariah to feel like I’m moving in, in case it’s not what she wants,” he said.

“Got to talk to her soon.”

“I know, although I’m pretty confident that she loves me,” he said, smiling at his dad.

“What’s not to love?” he said, smiling at his son, happy with his decision to live in Austin and, most importantly, proud of his choice in his potential wife, so much better for him than before. Sometimes differences worked. What Adam hadn’t realized, or maybe he had, since he was considering marriage to Mariah, was they were alike in the ways that mattered, the wanting someone to share your life with, the commitment to helping their families, to helping out a friend in need, helping those who had less, to loving people. They were two peas in a pod in that regard. Mariah’s choice of hair color and her tattoos had nothing to do with anything important. All that was superficial; what was important was underneath, and luckily his son had learned that in time.

He was over the moon that he’d get the chance to watch his grandchildren grow up around him, and looked forward to the day when he and Gloria could spoil them.

* * *

Adam entered Joshua’s Place later on that evening. He wanted to pass on his future plans regarding Mariah. Not that he needed Joshua’s approval. He didn’t. He wanted it anyway. Joshua was an important component of Mariah’s life, the most important part so far.

The past month spent with Mariah had been perfect, her dislocated arm notwithstanding. Being with her at her home was the closest he’d come to being married, and it felt like permanence. Whatever he’d thought he felt for Jamie, it hadn’t been anywhere near this.

He scanned the room, no sign of Joshua. He headed to the back; Joshua was likely there. Adam greeted Jacob as he passed by the kitchen.

Joshua was sitting at his desk. Adam knocked. “You got a moment?”

“Yeah, come on in,” Joshua said, and then waited until Adam was seated.

“What’s up?”

“I would like to marry your sister.”

“Huh,” Joshua said, sitting back in his chair, listening to Adam lay out his plans to live in Austin, his plans to leave Houston, to put his home on the market, and finally his plans for Mariah.

It was quiet for a while.

“So you want to marry Mariah.”

“Yes,” Adam said.

“Mariah’s something special, and means the world to me. I’ve always wanted to see her happy, and wasn’t sure she would put me aside enough to find that for herself. It seems she was just waiting for the right man to come along,” Joshua said. He stood up and extended his hand to Adam. “Welcome to the family.”

“Hey, my parents are stopping by this afternoon,” Adam said to her. They were seated on the back porch. She was reading while he surfed the web on his laptop.

“Oh, really,” she said, glancing at him. “Just stopping by?”

“Yep. My mother wants to meet you, and Yvette might tag along, too.”

“Okay,” she said, not sure what his mother wanting to meet her meant, if anything. But maybe it meant what she thought it might mean.

Two hours later she opened the door. There stood Adam’s father, Dr. Barnett Sr.

“Hey, Mariah,” he said, leaning over and giving her a kiss. “How’s the arm?”

“Fine.”

“I’m here, along with Yvette. I hear you two have met already,” he said, and Yvette appeared at his shoulder.

“Hi, Mariah,” she said, pushing her father aside and striding into the house, hands filled with this huge pot of something that smelled great.

“This is my wife, Gloria,” Dr. Barnett Sr. said, introducing her to a very pretty black-haired, brown-skinned woman.

“Hello,” Gloria said, stepping inside and handing her pot of something over to Adam.

“Adam has told me so much about you. Seems like I’ve known you forever. I’ve got to get by and see you play derby. Adam says you’re really good.” She pulled Mariah into a hug.

“Hey, Mom, Pops, Yvette,” Adam Jr. said, returning to them, kissing his mom’s cheek and coming to stand behind Mariah.

“We didn’t know if you’d eaten, and I’d already cooked dinner, so I brought it along in case you hadn’t. There is a container of sangria in the car. Adam, would you bring it in?” Gloria asked.

“Sure,” he said, turning and heading outside.

“How are you feeling?” Gloria said, Mariah still in the circle of her arms.

“I’m good,” she said.

“We can stay and eat with you, or, if you’re tired, we’ll leave this and come back another time to visit.”

“No, this is great,” she said, not even going to consider what having them here meant. She’d think about it later. She, Gloria, and Yvette set the table on her screened-in porch, and they were now looking through her cabinets for glasses.

“Found the sangria,” Adam said, and all eyes turned to him. “Look who I found coming up the sidewalk,” Adam said, pointing to Joshua, who stood behind him.

“Hi, everyone, I’m Mariah’s brother, Joshua,” he said.

“Hi, Joshua,” they all replied.

“Something smells good,” Joshua said, moving over to the kitchen.

“Where do you want the sangria, Mom?” Adam asked, avoiding Mariah’s gaze.

“Mariah, do you have a pitcher?” Gloria asked.

“Sure. Adam, would you help me find it? I think it’s in the closet down the hall,” Mariah said.

“Sure,” he said and trailed behind her into the hallway.

“You set this up, didn’t you?” she said, opening the hall closet.

“Set what up?”

“This dinner.”

He smiled. “Maybe. My mother wanted to meet you and I invited your brother. Just thought we should all get together,” he said.

“Right,” she said, and grabbed the pitcher and went back into the kitchen.

They all made their way to the enclosed porch. It was a nice early October day. Austin was enjoying cool weather courtesy of an earlier-than-normal cold front.

“How much longer in the sling?”

“This is the last week and then it’s on to physical therapy,” Mariah said.

“How is the restaurant business? Do you enjoy it?” Adam Sr. asked Joshua.

“It’s fine, sir, and I do,” Joshua said.

“You would think that a man of your situation would be more thoughtful to his workers,” Yvette said, and her comment startled them all.

“Excuse me?” Joshua said.

“I said, you’d think that a man—”

“I heard you,” Joshua said, smiling. “Your sister has a problem with the way I manage my waitresses, as she pointed out to me on another occasion.”

“If you were only nicer,” Yvette said.

“I’ll keep that in mind. So Gloria, how does a retiree keep herself busy?” Joshua asked, moving the conversation away from Yvette.

They spent the remainder of the evening talking politely at first and then with more passion as the topics moved on to politics. Joshua and Yvette bumped heads more as the evening wore on. All and all a very nice evening, Mariah thought as she sat back and listened. She’d been surprised but hopeful that this impromptu family gathering meant that Adam…what? She didn’t know the answer, but it was nice having his folks here. His mother was both lovely and welcoming. His dad she’d always liked. She thought back to their initial conspiratorial plot to teach Adam a lesson. Yvette had been a surprise, giving her brother a hard time. Having her brother here meant the world to her, too.

Sitting in her grandmother’s home surrounded by friends and one male she was sure she was in love with. Yes, all in all a very nice day.

* * *

Mariah lay on her bed later on that evening, after everyone had gone. She lay across the bed, flipping though her magazine, waiting for Adam to finish in the shower. He was going out with Michael, who he hadn’t seen in a while.

She loved so many things about him. They had more than a few things in common: pitching in and helping others, this love of family. He’d done that for her brother when she’d become unable to help him, and was now doing it for her. She was happy with her life, with him in it, wasn’t going to push for more. Not yet, anyway.

“What are you smiling about?” he asked, walking into the room to sit on the bed next to her, a towel around his waist, another towel in his hand drying his hair.

“Nothing. Your mom’s nice,” she said.

“I know.”

“Thanks for including Joshua,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

“He and Yvette don’t get along.”

“I don’t think she dislikes him as much as she pretends to, but who knows with Yvette. I doubt she’ll be able to push him around,” he said.

“He likes her, too. I can tell. He wouldn’t come out and tell me that, but I know Joshua. He likes that she’s not afraid of him,” she said. “I wonder sometimes if we all would be better off blind.”

“What?” he said, glancing over at her, his expression confused.

“I don’t mean that really. One of the things I like most about my job is that none of my students realize what color my hair is, or that I’m black. They can’t see anything external, so it doesn’t matter, doesn’t factor into their acceptance of me. All they have to go on is my voice, my spirit, the way I treat them.

“Have you ever talked to a stranger over the phone, someone helping you with something. You have no knowledge about that person beyond their voice, and sometimes you just click, get each other’s humor. But then you see them, and everything changes. Either you or they are disappointed because what you had in mind doesn’t match with what you’d heard in their voice over the phone.

“For someone blind, there are no preconceptions, at least not based on sight. There is nothing like color to rule a person out. Size you can feel, but would that mean as much if you’ve not been inundated with images on TV about what is the perfect size and what is beautiful?” She looked over at him and smiled. “Sorry, I can get way carried away and way off topic sometimes.”

“Would you marry me?” he said, leaning over to kiss her.

“Not will I, but would I marry you?”

“Would you,” he said.

“Honestly, I’ve not given it much thought.”
Right, Mariah
, she said to herself.

“Give it some,” he said, looking down at her.

“Okay, I will,” she said, a smile at her lips now. They were quiet for a while.

“Was that a proposal?” she said.

“Do you want me to propose?” he asked.

“Yes, I would,” she said.

“Thought you were going to give it some thought?”

“I am, but my initial reaction is favorable,” she said.

“So that means you might love me?”

“Do you think you might love me?” she asked.

“I do.”

“Oh…” she said, surprised. “When did you decide this?”

“It’s been sneaking up on me, but it was before you read my text from Tiff,” he said smiling.

“Oh…” she said again, surprised. “Okay, then, I love you, too.” She smiled. “You sure what you feel for me is not some kind of a rebound thing?”

“You started out that way, I’ll admit, but somehow you turned into the right one for me.” He stood up and removed his towel, getting back into bed with her. He pushed her onto her back, divesting her of her t-shirt and underwear before he lay on top of her. He loved her body underneath his, smooth and pliable.

“I thought you had somewhere to go,” she said, pulling her lips from his a few minutes later.

“It can keep for a few,” he said, moving in to capture her lips again, pushing her legs open with his.

“Open for me,” she whispered against his mouth, catching him off guard. His smile blossomed and he kissed her again. She felt his smile against her lips.

“Since you asked me so nicely,” he said before he pushed into her, in that slow way that was all Adam, like he didn’t want it to ever end. She moaned. “You like that, do you?” he whispered softly.

“I love you,” she said with another moan, happy to say it out loud, her hands in his hair, holding on to his head, her mouth worshiping at his.

“Don’t feel like my normal slow tonight. What do you think?” he said, pulling out and thrusting in again. She moaned, wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her face into the crook of his shoulder. He smiled; it meant she was ready for whatever he brought, was going to hold on tight no matter what.

He smiled again and turned over onto his back, wanting the fast and furious Mariah tonight.

His eyes opened to find her looking down at him. He watched as she bent down to kiss his lips. He started to move, slow at first, but that soon gave way to fast, her usual mode of travel, up and down. Breathing heavily, his hands went to her hips to keep her from flying off and he thrust upward hard for every downward push of her hips, fast and furious, staring into each other’s eyes, hers filled with challenge, daring him to keep up, his with an answering challenge. He would keep up and ask for more as he flipped her onto her back, pushing hard enough to move her up a few feet on the bed.

Mariah was nothing if not competitive, and she dug her heels into the bed and gave back. He had a hard time holding on, not that she’d know it, no way would he let her know that. They pushed and shoved at each other until they came together, a few minutes later, sounds loud enough to wake up the neighbors, breathing like they just finished the hundred-meter dash.

She lay next to him, trying to catch her breath, her head on the pillow, her hair wet, clinging to her forehead, she turned to look at him. Beautiful black hair stood in tufts on his head and his dark eyes stared back at her.

“I love you,” he said and smiled. Like some kind of wine she’d heard about that started out smooth but finished well, his smile was all love and satisfied sex.

“I love you, too.”

* * *

“So, my girl’s in love,” Casper said, smiling.

“I am,” she said, still processing Adam’s proposal. She called Casper after Adam had gone to meet Michael and asked her to meet at Joshua’s Place; she needed to talk. So here they sat at her brother’s restaurant. It was near closing time, Joshua was locking the door now.

“He asked me to consider marriage,” Mariah said.

“And are you?”

“I am,” she said. She spent the next hour cataloging all of Adam’s fine points, the things he’d done for her, and what he meant to her.

* * *

Adam arrived at the restaurant early. He was eager; they’d all promised to meet him here. It was the restaurant where they’d gone on their first date, all twelve of them.

He’d reserved the room in the back, wanted to make sure everything was in order. He’d called Casper early this week and she had given him the numbers of Mariah’s team members, who had all promised to be here within the next five minutes. He’d kept the reason he wanted to meet with them to himself, all but Casper. He had told her. She laughed for at least ten minutes, but then had agreed to help.

“Lisa, it’s good to see you again. Miss the derby?” he asked, smiling as she entered the room first. Casper and Delusional arrived next, followed by Sally, who he’d spent over an hour on the phone with the night before. He didn’t know what had happened to put her off men so, he was just glad she sort of liked him now. She’d told him that, before she agreed to attend tonight.

He stood by the door, dressed in a suit and tie, looking good enough to eat. Those were Good & Plenty’s words, not his. He wasn’t frightened of most things, but she worried him more than most.

When all of the Brass Knuckles’ team members had arrived, taken their seats, and placed their dinner orders, he stood up at the head of the table. The room went quiet.

“I bet you’re all wondering why I asked you here tonight,” he said, looking at each of them. “First, I wanted to thank you for taking me out that other time on Mariah’s behalf, for taking such good care of me that night, and for making sure I was put to bed safe and sound. Love the picture of me you left behind.”

They laughed.

“I want to ask Mariah to marry me,” he said, serious and sincere, before he laughed at the surprised looks on their faces. “And I don’t want to just ask her. I wanted it to be special, and I thought, more like hoped, you would help me. I’ve come up with a plan, something that involves all of you. Here’s what I’d like to do,” he said and laid out his plans for his proposal to Mariah. When he was done, he looked around the table. Sally held her head in her hands, shaking it from side to side, while Lisa tried to cover her look of despondency.

“We can do this, ladies,” he said, catching Casper’s grin and offering one of his own.

* * *

“Come on, Mariah, when is the last time you’ve been skating with me?” Casper asked, looking over her shoulder as Mariah followed her to the door of the Skate-o-torium.

“It’s been a while, I know,” she said.

“You’re in love, can’t leave your boy alone now. How many times do I have to tell you, he’s not going anywhere?”