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“Thewhat?!” another woman questions.
“The internet says it’ll put you in the mood really fast.” Delores speaks with assurance.
“That’s hogwash,” comes a skeptical response from Jace’s grandmother. “How do you even believe all that crap?”
“Look here.” I see Delores stretching her phone across the table.
“OH MY GOD. Is that a dick?” One lady screeches. I get ready to run in there and catch her because she looks like she might fall out of her chair.
But Delores is totally unbothered. “See how hard it is? Just from sniffing the ylang ylang. I told you, it’ll guarantee that your grandson has his full sexual prowess on their big night.”
Grammy puffs up her chest. “Don’t you worry about his sexual prowess. He’s a Westbrook. His sexual prowess is top notch.”
I barely hold back a chuckle. That old lady would defend her family to the end.
Nancy smacks the table. “Okay, it’s settled. We’re going with the ylang ylang.” The women around the table nod their agreement. “Delores, pull up your Amazon account. We have an order to place.”
The women tap around on the phone, scrolling until they find a product to their liking.
Once they’ve placed their order, Nancy turns her attention to Delores. “Now, back to your will. I’m still in it, right? Right?!”
I ease away from the door. Shit—the nosy grannies are scheming.
I may have a problem on my hands.
Or maybe…maybe I’ve just found my biggest allies on my mission to finally make Nadia mine.
14
NADIA
Istare at my reflection in the mirror and suck in a deep breath. Ready or not, this is it.
It’s the evening of the charity gala and I’m struggling to keep my cool.
“Relax,” Nova prods me, pushing at my tense shoulders, snapping me back into the present moment.
“I’m so glad you guys are here,” I say to my little sister, as she finishes lining my eyes in kohl.
“You’d look hot with or without me,” she assures me. “But I’d never miss out on an opportunity to get you all dolled up.”
I’ve got a full house today. Like we discussed a week and a half ago, my sister’s husband is in town to check on a project his construction company is involved with. Nova and the kids tagged along to see Aunt Nadia. Mom and Dad are here, too, and they brought Granny along with them.
My niece and nephew are running around my house like tiny crazy people. It’s noisy and wild and proving to be the perfect distraction to the nerves I woke up with this morning. It’s rare to have kids running around my big, empty home, so it’s a welcome experience today. I don’t even care about the broken lamp and spilled juice. The quiet around here gets old.
Mom sits her butt on the edge of my bathroom vanity and nabs a lipstick tube from my makeup kit. “And I wouldn’t mind getting a look at the football player who’ll be eating up my daughter’s cookies tonight,” she says, winking and applying a coat of the berry red shade to her lips.
Granny ambles into the room, dousing me in a long spritz of a funny-smelling perfume from an unlabeled bottle.
I gasp so hard I end up choking on the mystery perfume. “Mom! This is a work function.” I say between coughs. “There will be no cookie-eating tonight.”
“We’ll see about that…” Granny chuckles sneakily to herself, stealthily strolling out of the room just the way she strolled in.
My mother blows a raspberry. “Yeah, yeah. It’s a ‘work function’.” She makes air-quotes. “Remember those words when you’re queefing on his chin in the backseat of his car in the parking lot. Take it from a gal who’s been there.”
Instead of defending me—like a real sister would—Nova starts snort-laughing and I have to jerk my face backward so she doesn’t take out my eye with the tip of the mascara wand in her hand.
Moments later, my sister is helping me tame my curls when my phone buzzes on the bathroom vanity where we’ve taken over with our beauty supplies. My stomach does a flip when I see who it is.
