Unconditionally Single by Mary B. Morrison

Author:Mary B. Morrison
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2009-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

Grant

Alone, I sat in my living room.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I asked myself, then answered, “You’re too damn generous. That or you’re fucking stupid!” I yelled, punching the air. I knew I wasn’t stupid. I just felt that way. “You can’t save Benito’s trifling ass. You can’t find Honey. And you’re about to lose Jada’s friendship.”

I had to hear a voice of reason. I went into my study, where the mail was piled six inches high. The mail could wait. Talking with my mother couldn’t. Pressing the speaker button, I dialed Mom’s number.

“Hi, sweetheart,” she answered. “Your father and I are worried about you. You took off out of the driveway like a madman. You hadn’t answered or returned our calls. Benito had to—”

“I love you, Ma.”

“Oh, baby, what’s wrong? What’s bothering you? I can hear it in your voice.”

I forced back my tears, took a deep breath. My chest tightened. I took another deep breath, rubbed my aching shoulder. “I’m good. Just had to hear your voice.”

“Don’t you give me that, Grant Hill. You either tell me what’s troubling you or…honey,” she called out, “Come here, please.”

“No, Ma, I don’t want to talk to Dad. Maybe later. Right now I want to talk to you.”

“You gon’ talk to both of us,” she insisted. “It’s Grant, baby, go get the other phone.”

The next voice I heard was my father’s. “Son, where are you? What’s got your mother all upset? I done told you don’t stress your mother out. I can’t do without her by my side.”

My mother said, “We’re listening, baby.”

My lips tightened. I tugged at the left side of my chest. I was a grown-ass man. I…I…“Mama, it’s Honey. She’s been kidnapped.”

Both of my parents replied at the same time, “Kidnapped!”

“And how do you fit into this equation?” my mother asked. “That girl has been trouble every since you met her.”

“He doesn’t,” my father said, answering my mother’s question.

I exhaled. “I love her so much I transferred the money to pay her ransom.”

“Put it back,” Mom said.

“How much?” my dad asked.

“Fifty.”

“Fifty dollars? Fifty thousand?” my mother asked.

I mumbled, “Million.”

“Oh, hell, no,” my mother, who never swears, said. “Lord, forgive me. Grant Hill the second, you come home right this minute.”

My parents couldn’t solve my problems. They reared me to make decisions and I had. “I’m not a child, Mama. I can handle this.”

“You’re my child until you die, if you don’t kill me first,” she retorted.

“Honey, calm down. Let me handle my son.”

“Just hear me out, y’all. I can handle this.”

I told my parents about putting Benito up in one of my condos. They knew I didn’t like my brother and were pleased I cared enough to keep him off the streets. I told them about Valentino and how he’d allegedly kidnapped Honey but didn’t say he was living with Benito. And I told them about Sapphire and how she was pretending Valentino had Honey in his custody. And finally, I told my parents about Jada. Of course they approved of her when my dad learned Jada was Darius’s mom.

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