When Wyatt parked on the driveway behind a sports Mercedes, Don hopped out and opened the back passenger side door of the big Tahoe SUV.
Edmund got out, buttoning his suit coat, but when he turned to assist Maude out, assuming she would have slid across the seat and got out on his side too, she was already getting out on the opposite side. It was as if she wanted nothing to do with him.
Don glanced at the boss when he saw it too. He could see the hurt in the boss’s eyes. But he brought it on himself. Don was convinced of it. He knew righteous sisters. He knew the kind of sisters that were never going to be one of many women in any man’s stable. Including a man like Edmund Keating. And Maude, in Don’s eyes, was definitely that kind of sister.
Edmund waited for her to walk around to his side and then they walked together toward Natasha’s front door.
“Come on in!” Natasha yelled out before either of them could ring her bell, and Edmund placed his hand on Maude’s lower back and ushered her in first.
He could feel her muscles tense up when he touched her, as if she didn’t appreciate his touch the way she previously had. But she didn’t make a scene. Because Maude was a grownup. She was younger than any of the women he’d been with in years, and his first impression of her was that she held no elegance or sophistication of any kind. But he now knew he was wrong. Maude was, in his estimation, the most sophisticated womanhe’d ever known. Because she seemed to have learned long ago the unmitigated bullshit of trying to eat your cake and have it too.
When they walked into the home, they both could see that Natasha was no housekeeper. Although a nice home, it lacked any consistent level of upkeep. Clothes were thrown about. Old food was still in plates on the coffee table. Cigarette butts were everywhere. Natasha, in fact, was seated in a chair in her living room pulling a pack of cigarettes out of her bra when they walked in.
She smiled when she saw Maude. “Well hello there, Miss Maudetta Drayton. How are you doing today?”
“I’m good.” Maude sat down on the sofa. “How are you is the real question?”
“Thankful to you for getting in touch with my brother. Donnell said you went all the way to Baltimore to get him. That true?”
Maude glanced at Edmund. For some reason, she didn’t want him to appear in any bad light. Even in the eyes of his sister. “It was no biggie,” she said instead. “I’m just glad his lawyers were able to get you out.”
“I don’t know about any lawyers. But I do know he paid off the DA to drop the charges. I know that.” Then she looked at her brother. “Didn’t you, Eddie?”
Edmund ignored her as he sat beside Maude on the sofa. He sat so close to her that their arms overlapped. There was no daylight between them. Although they both knew it was. He crossed his legs.
“Want one?” Natasha asked Maude as she offered her a cigarette.
“No thanks.”
“Still vaping hun?”
Edmund looked at Maude. “You vape?”
Maude hated to admit it. “Only when I have a lot going on.”
“Which is always,” said Natasha with a grin.
“It’s not always,” Maude said. She hadn’t vaped since the day her car was repossessed.
But one time was too many times for Edmund. “Stop it at once,” he said. “It’s as bad as those cancer sticks she’s got all over this place.”
“Oh, Eddie please,” said Natasha. “Vaping is harmless. It’s just water vapor she’s inhaling.”
“That’s not true. There are plenty of toxic aerosols she’s inhaling, including formaldehyde. That shit damages the lungs and causes irreparable cardiovascular disease. It is by no means harmless.”
“I know that,” Maude said. “That’s why I hardly ever do it.”
“Stop at once,” Edmund ordered.
He ordered her in that domineering,my way or the highwaytone she hated, but she knew it was coming from a good place. “Yes sir,” she said.
Natasha was shocked. “Yes sir? Don’t you listen to him. He’s been like that his whole life. Lecturing people. Correcting people. Ordering people about. I don’t know why he was never a college professor, because that’s all he does. People change. People grow. But not my brother.”
She was about to light up, but Edmund stopped her. “Wait until we leave. I don’t want Maude inhaling that shit.”
Natasha rolled her eyes. But she put the cigarette back in the pack. “So answer my question,” she said to her brother. “The only reason I’m out is because you paid off the DA. Isn’t it?”
But Maude was offended. “Why would you ask him something like that?”
