Summer, Karen and Starr suspiciously eyed each other. Before the sisters could deny it was either of them, Summer blurted out, “Okay, it’s me! I’m the other one.” Turning on Karen, she playfully accused, “It’s all your fault.”
“My fault!” Laughing, she said, “You better talk to your husband.”
Summer waved her hand. She gave Nick a demur smile. “Oh, it’s his fault, too.”
“You wasn’t saying that when—”
The room erupted in laughter as Summer dashed across the room, jumped in Nick’s lap, and slapped her hand across his mouth. “As I was saying Karen, it’s your fault,” eying Dom, “and your fault, too. I’m due in December, so that means I probably got pregnant in March. The night of your wedding.” Removing her hand from her husband’s mouth, she gave him a peck on his full lips. “That was the most romantic wedding. I just couldn’t help myself.”
Ava smirked. “Yeah, I bet you couldn’t. Everybody knows you and Nick hump like rabbits.”
Summer flushed with embarrassment. “Do not!”
Nick flashed a devilish grin. Burying his head in the crook of her neck, he whispered for her ears only, “Yes, we do. Girl, you know you love it.”
Giggling, Summer swatted his arm. Hopping off his lap, she scolded, “Stop being so fresh!”
Smoothing the invisible wrinkles from her navy dress, Summer beamed, “So Ava, when are we going shopping for maternity clothes?”
Kevin slapped Nick and Langston on the back. “Better you than me,” he barked with laughter. He and Starr had decided that twenty-three-month-old Sydney, Kalvin and Shayla were a handful. If another baby was in their future, it would have to wait until the tots were at least four years old.
Starr lifted an amused brow. Putting her hands on full, curvy hips, she cocked her head to the side, grinning at her husband. “Sucker, I know you ain’t even trying to play me up in here.”
“Baby—” Kevin nervously chuckled. The gleam in his wife’s eyes told him she was about to put him on full blast. He didn’t have time to plead his case.
All the women in the room snickered when Starr cut him off with the universal talk to the hand cause I ain’t trying to hear it sign. “Um… wasn’t it you just last night bragging, ‘damn girl, I’m ‘bout to make a baby up in here.’”
This time all the men roared. It was Kevin’s best friend Nick who ribbed, “Man, you got the woman why you still using those corny ass player lines.”
Another roar of laughter went up when Kevin flipped his middle finger at Nick.
Dom slapped Kevin on the back. “Come on man, let’s go in the kitchen and grab a beer.”
Standing, Kevin rolled his eyes at Nick. “At least somebody got my back.”
Nick grabbed his chest as he and the other men followed Dom, “Brother, you wound me.”
Donna waited until the men exited the room. She had news she had been busting at the seams for months to share with her daughters and new sisterhood. What she had to tell them, she and Patrick didn’t want to disclose until there was absolute proof.
“Alright ladies, I have something I’ve been dying to tell you.”
Nita reached forward from her place on the sofa. Picking up a napkin from the coffee table, she dropped two petite spring rolls in the center. “Ooh, this sounds good.”
Donna winked at her. “It is.”
Karen gestured with her hand to hurry the story long. “Mommy, please.”
“For real,” Starr cosigned. She and Karen talked amongst themselves about the many mysterious trips Patrick had taken back and forth to New Orleans. When they questioned their mother, her lips were superglue sealed.
“Don’t you two start on me. I’ll take my own good time.”
“Donna, would you please just spit it out,” Janet sighed. The suspense was killing her like everyone else in the room.
Donna chuckled. “Oh, alright. But y’all are not going to believe me.”
Beverly leaned over to Joan who was sitting to her right. “If this child don’t hurry up I’m going to strangle her.”
Beatrice, who sat to her left, snickered. She immediately stopped when Donna frowned at her. She didn’t take offense though. She soon learned this was how the close knit group, of which she was slowly becoming a part, interacted.
Satisfying the ladies’ curiosity, Donna told them her big secret. “Patrick and his siblings are black.”
“What!” everyone yelled with the exception of Joan.