Another Woman's Man by Shelly Ellis

Author:Shelly Ellis [Ellis, Shelly]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: United States, Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Literary, Literary Fiction, African American, Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction
Amazon: B00G9ABXB0
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2014-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

“Do you remember the song, hon?”

Xavier sighed as everyone at the dinner table began to laugh. “Yes, Mom, I remember the song.”

“You can’t sing a few bars for us?” his mother pleaded.

“No, I can’t.”

“Why?” she whined. “It was so adorable! You used to sing it every night to me and your dad before you went to bed.”

“Because I’m thirty years old now, not three,” he answered succinctly.

“Thirty years old as of two hours ago.” She sipped from her wineglass and grinned. “Oh, come on! I’ll pay you!”

“There ain’t enough money in the world,” he said, making almost everyone break out into uproarious laughter.

The dinner had gone well with easy conversation among his guests. Xavier had felt a little tension when Herb, Constance, and Raquel arrived and the two women saw that Dawn was there. He wasn’t sure why. He thought Constance knew that Dawn also had been invited. She was family now, after all. But after about an hour, the tension seemed to dissolve and everyone settled into the meal.

His mother had helped him cook her usual smorgasbord of food and even had brought along a few extra casseroles. “Just in case we run out,” she had said. By the time they sliced his chocolate ganache birthday cake, half of the casserole dishes hadn’t even been touched and everyone looked stuffed.

Xavier now surveyed the half-eaten bounty in front of them, then looked across the table. Through the glow of the fading tapered candles between them, he locked eyes with Dawn, who was slowly shaking her head at him. He smiled. She smiled back. He started to feel the electric charge between them again, but it was abruptly cut off when Constance dropped her head to his shoulder, landing with a thump that caught him by surprise.

“I bet you had a cute singing voice, pumpkin,” Constance said, gazing up at him lovingly.

He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. “Probably not as cute as you would think.” He glanced around the table again. “But let’s change the subject. I’ll talk about anything but my childhood rendition of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’ I mean it, absolutely anything: the basketball season, the tax code, work . . .”

“Speaking of work, I’d like to say thank you for resolving that Spencer issue,” Herb said, holding up his wineglass in praise. “I know it was ugly and it wasn’t easy. But I’m glad it’s finally been resolved . . . for the most part.”

Raquel leaned back in her chair and frowned. “How could you possibly say it was resolved, darling? The Lattisaws’ lives will be ripped apart! I heard Byron’s wife is considering a divorce. I spoke with his mother, Jackie, just the other day and she is so embarrassed . . . totally horrified. She doesn’t know how she could possibly show her face at the country club now that everyone knows you fired Byron for sexual harassment,” she said accusingly.

Herb lowered his wineglass back to the table and pursed his lips. “Well, I’m sorry, dear, but to be frank, Byron brought this upon himself.

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