Boom Town by Stone Nic

Author:Stone,Nic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2025-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

The thing about LaBrettney that repeatedly caught me off guard: she was nothing at all like Thomas described. I’d shown up for my interview at their home nervous as hell—she’d insisted that I come there since it was the place I’d be working alongside her. The house was big and modern and brick, painted the color of a well-sharpened No. 2 pencil point. Perhaps her life would be my “too much giving unattainable goals” the way Dr. Chamblee and her husband had been for Micah, I thought as I lifted my fist to knock on the front door.

My knuckles never made contact. The door flew open and there before me stood the woman I’d seen in the park.

Her face was even more stunning up close: flawless (peanut) buttery skin, eyes the bright copper of a new penny, immaculate cheekbones, absurdly plump and pouty lips . . .

The first thing she said to me? “Oh my god, you’re Black!”

Had no clue how to respond to that. So, I didn’t.

“Damn, you’re also fine as hell,” she went on. (Definitely no clue what to do with that.) “Totally inappropriate, I know . . . but humor me and do a slow three-sixty?”

Shocked—and flattered—I did as she asked. When I was facing her again, she was gazing at me like I’d just shown her something she’d never seen before.

Made me real self-conscious. I had no idea how to read her.

Within a few minutes, though, I was sitting at the McIntyres’ reclaimed, raw-edged and partially petrified wood dining table while LaBrettney (“Isn’t that name ridiculous? I thank my Black mama for it every chance I get!”) bustled around the kitchen making coffee to go with the vegan pimento cheese and avocado sandwiches on warm pita bread. And the woman I was interacting with wasn’t only incredibly attractive . . . she was also a whole antonym for the gnatty, griping shrew Thomas had made her out to be.

We clicked fast, and right inside the house where Thomas Jefferson McIntyre laid his head to rest most nights, LaBrettney—Brett—and I became really good friends. It was uncomfortable as shit at first considering my little womb occupant, but then our chemistry would take over. Was there some crackly tension between us as women who undeniably found each other attractive? Without question. But we never crossed the line. And she consulted me on everything—like flat-out refused to make any decisions for her business without running them by me first—and though it initially made me uncomfortable when she’d refer to me as her “business partner” when talking to people and pitching for consulting contracts, I came to realize she meant it.

And even though T (“TJ” to Brett) never came up in our discussions—their marriage was the one thing she stayed mum on, which made things easier: most of the time, I could forget they belonged to each other—it went without saying that he could never find out how close we’d gotten. So, despite never having discussed it, we’d fall right into employer/employee mode any time he happened to be around.

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