Something to Talk About (18 page)

“Dusty, you littl
e ring-tailed baboon, sit down and at least pretend to be civilized,” she said sternly as she left the room.

The dog sighed deeply and hung his head for a second, then seemed to brighten up as he realized he had company. Adopting a winsome grin, he trotted over to Alicia and sat down with his paw out to shake. Alicia laughed and shook his paw before taking a seat as she was bid, although Adam continued to stand. The room was utterly lovely and homey, warm and sweet with the fresh, earthy smell scent of houseplants and potpourri.

There were two side-by-side wing chairs separated by a lovely mahogany table with an antique lamp on its shining surface, a large television, a plump sofa with inviting pillows, and a beautiful wooden bench with ornate scrolling and Florentine-finished leather padding on the back and seat. Two tall bookcases flanked the large window and were filled with family pictures, shelf after shelf of memories. Adam and Alicia could hear the woman’s voice as she left the room, calling to an unseen person.

“Mother, Geneva was right Come here, Mother, I want you to meet someone,” she said, her voice shaking with emotion.

Alicia stared at Adam, who was looking around the charmingly decorated room with an unreadable expression on his face. She was about to say something to him when the woman returned, accompanied by the unmistakable scrape-roll, scrape-roll of a walker. The woman stopped dramatically in the wide doorway of the living room and gestured to the smaller woman at her side. “Adam Bran
tl
ey C
ochran, this is your great-great
-aunt
Emmaline
, your grandmother’s sister. And I’m your great-aunt Reba,” she added. “Welcome home.”

Chapter Twelve

Adam couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d been told that the elderly woman was the Dalai Lama. He tried to cover his shock as Aunt
Emmaline
scrape-rolled across the carpet to stand in front of him. The look on her face was so naked with elation it was hard for him to react, but she made it unnecessary. Clasping her small wrinkled hands together, she stared up at him as though she’d been awaiting his arrival for years.

“Well, bless my soul,” she breathed. “You look just like your daddy did when he was a young man. I thought I’d never see any of my family again and here you are.” She sniffed and wiped away a tear, then turned to Reba. “Let
him
sit down, Reba, him and his wife. My goodness, they must think we have no manners at all,” she fussed.

Reba quickly got Aunt
Emmaline
situated in one of the wing chairs, and Alicia moved to the couch with Adam preparing to follow her.

“Oh, please, sit over here.” Aunt
Emmaline
indicated the other wing chair. “I want to take a good long look at you, son. It’s been so long I thought I would make my transition before I ever saw Andrew or his family and here you are!” The joy in her voice was evident and Adam had no choice but to take the seat she indicated.

Reba sat on the sofa and gave Alicia a comforting look that said she understood their confusion.

“I think an explanation is in order,” was her understatement. “My sister-in-law Francine was Andrew’s mother. Andrew left here years and years ago after a terrible disagreement and he hasn’t been back since. There were three girls and one boy in our family. My brother, Calvin Cochran, married Francine Brantley and had Andrew Bernard. There was another child who died in childhood and so it was as if Andrew was an only child. Francine doted on him so it was a wonder he could breathe,” she said ruefully.

“Anyway, when Andrew came of age, something happened to drive a wedge between him and the family and I’m sorry to say it made him leave town, never to return. He came back only once during all this time. We always heard he had family somewhere in Detroit, but we never knew how to contact them and never knew if we
should,
frankly. A few weeks ago Geneva Williams, a busybody if ever one lived, told us that she’d sold some lake property to a young man named
Cochran, but we thought it was a coincidence. There wasn’t any real resemblance, Geneva said, the man had a long ponytail or some such and we knew he couldn’t be Andrew’s child.”

She paused and took another long look at Adam, who was staring at his aunt
Emmaline
in shock. “But when I saw you in the grocery store today, I knew it had to be you. You look so much like your father
it’s
amazing. There was no way you could be anything but a Cochran, the son of my only brother’s only child.”

She stood up and went to the bookshelf nearest her and took a photograph from the middle shelf, handing it first to Alicia, who gasped aloud. It was Big Benny, taken years and years before, and from the tilt of his head to the rakish grin on his face, the young man in the picture was the very spirit and image of Adam.

“Oh, my goodness.
You really do look just like Big Benny,” Alicia said as she stared at the picture, then at Adam.

“Like who, dear?” asked Reba

Adam finally found his voice. “My father, Big Benny
Cochran,” he
replied
. “No one ever calls him Andrew, he’s known as Benny Cochran. In fact, my sister Benita is also called Bennie as a nickname.”

Emmaline
smiled happily and reached for Adam’s hand, which he extended over the small lamp table. “How many children does he have, dear?”

Adam rubbed his thumb against the delicate warmth of the older woman’s hand. “There are six of us, Aunt
Emmaline
. Benita and Andrew are the
oldest,
they’re twins, just like Alan and Andre, who come next. Then there’s the youngest, my brother Adonis, and me,” he told her. He almost hated to impart the information since it was painfully obvious that until this day he had no idea his father had any relatives.
Emmaline
was delighted with the news, however.

“Six
children?
My goodness, he made up for being an only child, didn’t he? Any grandchildren?” she asked hopefully.

Adam smiled at her eagerness. “He has fourteen grandchildren. Benita and her husband have five children, Andrew has four,
Alan
and Andre each have two, and Adonis and his wife have a six-month-old baby.”

Emmaline’s
old eyes glowed with delight at the news. “And you and your lovely wife, when are you expecting?”

Reba put one hand over her mouth and laughed heartily. “My heavens, your wife is going to think we are true barbarians! Child, forgive us, we’re just so excited at seeing our kin again we forgot ourselves. What is your name, dear?”

Alicia patted the older woman’s arm to show she wasn’t offended in the least. “My name is Alicia Fuentes, but Adam and I aren’t married, we’re, um, business partners,” she finished lamely with a look at Adam, who was enjoying her discomfiture.

He didn’t do anything to help the situation by giving her another blazingly hot smile and caressing her with his eyes. “Alicia and I are architects and we have a firm in Detroit,” he informed his aunts.

Aunt
Emmaline
seemed possessed of the kind of insight that only very elderly women seem to have, for she just nodded and turned her gaze from Adam to Alicia.

“Business partners.
Is that what they’re calling it down state these days?” she asked archly. “Down state” was how people who lived in northern Michigan referred to the rest of the state. She gave Alicia a good look-over and commented that she’d heard the name Fuentes before.

“There was a wonderful ballplayer named Jose Ernesto Fuentes who played for the Detroit Tigers back in the day. My
goodness, that
was a good-looking man!”

Alicia beamed so brightl
y that all thirty-two of her perfectly white teeth showed. “That’s my daddy,” she said proudly.

Reba laughed out loud. “Oh, well, now you’ve started something. Mother loves her some baseball. So you mean those two pretty Fuentes boys that play for the Tigers now, those are your brothers?”

“Yes, ma’am, Raphael and Carlos are my brothers.”

“Well, my goodness, isn’t that something? Please, let me get you all something to eat,” Reba suggested.

“Only if you let me help,” Alicia said quickly. They
rose from the sofa
and Reba led the way to the spacious kitchen followed by Alicia, who heard Aunt
Emmaline
tell Adam that he’d better hurry up and marry Alicia because they were certainly going to have some pretty babies. Given the oddness of the day, it was an entirely appropriate remark.

***

The Saturday brunch
at Donnie and Angelique’s house
was a huge success, as was any meal shared by the Cochrans. All the men loved to eat and were lucky enough to have found wives who loved to cook. Angelique Cochran, the newest bride, was a fine cook, but today she had plenty of help from her sisters-in law and her mother, Lillian, who wa
s visiting from Atl
anta. Working together they had prepared a southern feast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fried chicken, cheese grits,
hash
browns, tossed salad, fried corn, squash casserole, asparagus tips, fruit salad, hot biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and muffins. Everyone ate until they were satisfied and the men cleaned up the kitchen afterward with fulsome praise from the women. The children w
ere playing in the family room and
the smallest children were napping in the bedroom with the
exception of Lily Rose, who was taking a nap on her
uncle
Clay’s shoulder. The adults had assembled in the living room at Big Benny’s request.

He looked at his family scattered around the big living room of the Palmer Park home. He’d always taken great pride in his children, although he had his own ways of showing it when it came to his only daughter, Benita. He’d been too possessive of her, too controlling, and he’d almost lost her as a result Thank God he’d learned that loving meant letting go, and she was the one who’d taught him that. Benita was seated next to her husband, Clayton Deveraux, and it was obvious to anyone who saw them that they were more deeply in love than they were when they met and married. She hardly looked a day older although Clayton had a generous amount of gray hair now, due, he always said, to their lively boys.

He proudly surveyed his other children: Andrew and his wife, Renee; Alan and Andre with their wives, Tina and Faye; and his youngest child, Adonis Cochran, with his bride, Angelique. Everyone was there except Adam, his maverick son. It was annoying that he was a no-show, but that was Adam for you; there was never any use predicting what he was going to do. Benny wanted them all together, but too bad. He had to get it said while the resolve was there. Despite his bombastic and brusque approach to life, this was one announcement he wasn’t looking forward to. It could mean the destruction of his family or signal a new beginning.

In addition to the family, his oldest and best friend, Bill “Bump” Williams, was present
with his wife, Lillian Deveraux
Williams, who was Clay Deveraux’s mother and Benita’s mother-in-law. Bump was one of the five people in the room who shared Benny’s secret; another one was Ruth Bennett, sister to his late first wife, Lil
lian Bennett
Cochran. He was grateful for their presence and only hoped that the repercussions from his words wouldn’t affect them negatively. He glanced at his watch and gathered his thoughts; it was time.
 
Clearing his throat, he went to stand beside the big brick fireplace and smiled when Martha joined him.

“I know you’re wondering what in the world I could possibly have to say that’s so important that I dragged you all in here. I have something to tell you all that’s going to change all of our lives perm
anentl
y. You know me, I’m not good at being diplomatic or saying things in a nice way, so I’m just going to say it outright” He paused and took his wife’s hand.

“A long time ago I did something that to this day I regret because it was something that never should have happened. I loved your mother very, very much, but I wasn’t always the best husband to her. I was not, I regret to say, the kind of husband that my sons are to their wives, the kind of husband that Benita has in Clay. I violated her trust in me by having an affair. And that affair led to a child, a s
on whom I’ve never acknowledged
,
”
he said
solemnly
.

No one moved after he uttered the words, no one said anything. As the full weight of what he was saying began to sink in, the faces of his children reflected shock, surprise, and incredulity.
 
Big Benny looked at each of his children in turn before speaking again.

“I don’t think there’s anything any of you can say that can make me more regretful of my behavior, but I can’t spend time wallowing in guilt. What’s done was done years ago and what I want to do is set the record straight and
try
to make up for the sins of my past
.
My only hope is
that you can forgive me and try to understand why I did what I did, which was keep this a secret for all these years.”