Strong Heat Read online

  Kael laughed as he opened the door, the scent of pine from the fresh wreath on the door filling his nostrils.

  “Merry Christmas, boy,” Logan said, looking tall and strong as he stepped inside the long hall.

  “No, no, you are stepping into the home of a grown-ass man,” Kael said with a wide toothy grin as he extended his hand to his father.

  “I hear you, I hear you,” Logan said, playfully begrudging as he removed his wool coat and newsboy cap to hand to Kael. “Where’s Lisha?”

  Kael smiled at Kelli and her husband, Willie, as they stepped inside the hall as well. “Hey, sis,” he said, kissing her cheek.

  “Where’s Lisha?” Logan asked again, his voice booming in the still near empty house.

  “Please hurry and tell him where he can find his precious Lisha,” Kelli said with a friendly smile as she hugged her brother.

  “She’s in the kitchen,” he said, accepting his sister’s coat as well as extending his hand to his brother-in-law.

  Kelli’s husband, William Thorne, was a man of average height, weight and looks. The perfect friendly-faced attorney and politician. “Merry Christmas, Willie,” he said, accepting his brother-in-law’s coat and feeling his arm dip with the added weight of the heavy wool.

  “Will,” he corrected Kael. “And Merry Christmas.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Your sister made that peach cobbler you like so much,” Will said.

  Kael grimaced a little. “Well, I told her not to bring anything and Lisha made a cobbler but . . . the . . . uh . . . the more the merrier,” he said. “Do me a favor and take it in the kitchen for me, Willie—Will—while I hang these coats up.”

  “No problem.”

  Kael opened the empty hall closet door but then remembered he hadn’t purchased hangers. Closing the door he jogged up the stairs and laid the coats across the bed in one of the other guest bedrooms.

  Ding-dong-deeeeeeng.

  The doorbell. Just one of a hundred other things he still had to get fixed in the house. Kael jogged down the stairs.

  “Son, that sounds like a donkey getting castrated,” Logan said.

  “Yeah, Pops,” he said to pacify him.

  Lisha appeared at his side as he was about to open the door. “Your father won’t give a sermon if my father slips up and and cuss will he?” he asked, deadpan serious.

  She just laughed and swatted away his hand to pull the door open wide. Lisha and Kael stepped back and tilted their heads up to take in the towering thin man accompanying Junie. She barely reached his belly. He had to duck to fit inside the doorway.

  “Lisha and Kael, this is Benny. Benny, this is my cousin, Lisha, and her man, Kael,” she said, bumping her hip against an obviously surprised Lisha.

  “Man, you can dunk on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,” Kael said, shaking the man’s hand.

  “I wish,” Benny said.

  Lisha and Kael shared a look as he closed the door after Junie and her date walked into the den.

  “I better go and make introductions,” she said.

  Kael caught her by the waist and pulled her close to press a kiss to her neck. “You look real good around here playing the lady of the house,” he said, reaching up to lightly press the heart against her chest.

  “Oh, I do?” she asked. “Well, thank you.”

  “I would kiss you, but you have all that goop on your mouth,” he said.

  Lisha raised the edge of her apron and wiped all of the gloss from her lips. “What’s your excuse now, Mr. Strong?” she asked, bringing her hands up to his broad shoulders.

  “Not a damn thing,” he said, leaning in to her.

  Ding-dong-deeeeeeng.

  Lisha broke free and turned to open the door wide, leaving Kael standing there with his bent arm empty and his lips still puckered.

  “Merry Christmas,” she said with plenty of love and warmth.

  Kael stood behind her as first her mother and then her father stepped inside the house. “Mommy and Daddy, this is Kael,” she said, standing in between them with her arms entwined with theirs. “Kael, this is Reverend Rockmon and my mom, whom everyone calls Lady because she’s the first lady.”

  Kael smiled at them as he extended his hand to both. “Merry Christmas. Nice to meet you both,” he said.

  “Merry Christmas,” Rev said, still holding onto Kael’s hand with a strong grip. “Heard a lot about you.”

  Okay. Kael looked down at their hands as the man’s grip tightened even more.

  “Daddy, let him go,” Lisha advised, stepping up to pull their hands apart.

  Rev gave him a smile. “You and I need to have a long talk, son. Don’t you think?” he asked, with a soft expression but hard eyes.

  Kael met his stare. “Whenever you want, sir.”

  With that, Rev nodded and turned away from him. “Do I smell your cornbread stuffing?” he asked his daughter.

  “Yes, sir,” Lisha said. “Come on and meet Kael’s family, y’all.”

  As they preceded Kael and Lisha into the den, she hugged his arm close. “He’s just being a daddy,” she assured him. “Trust me, my mama’s the one to watch.”

  They stepped into the entryway of the den. It was quiet. Eerily quiet. Everyone was settled around the room and all eyes were on them.

  “Ready?” Kael asked her.

  Lisha licked her now-bare lips and nodded as they stepped further into the room.

  “That was delicious, Lisha,” Logan said, wiping his mouth with a paper napkin.

  “Yes, it was,” Rev agreed. “You did real good.”

  Lisha beamed from her seat at the end of the large dining room table. “I’m glad everything turned out so good,” she said.

  “It was delicious,” Will said. “I really liked those yams. Can I get some more?”

  “Sure,” Lisha said, accepting his plate.

  Kelli pulled his arm back and shook her head. “He really can’t. The doctor is watching his sugar and they were a little sweet.”

  Lisha set the spoon back in the bowl of yams. “That’s more than fine, Kelli,” she said, and then turned her head to look down the length of the table to pierce Kael with a hard stare.

  “Well, they were perfect to me and I’ll take some more,” he said.

  She lifted the bowl and passed it to her left to Will who passed it to Kelli who promptly set it down on the table, squeezing it between the serving bowls of collard greens and dressing.

  Logan eyed her hard before he picked the yams up with one hand and passed them to Kael who stared at his sister just as hard.

  Kelli had been throwing jabs at her cooking throughout the entire meal while her husband spoke so much of his career, his opinions and his life that Lisha was tired of both of them. But it wasn’t her home to invite anyone to get the hell out.

  And she hated that Kael appeared to be oblivious to his sister’s bullshit.

  “We’re gonna just leave the dessert in the kitchen and everyone just kind of get what they want when they feel like it,” she said, rising to walk across the dining room to the swinging door leading into the kitchen. “I’ll go make sure everything’s warm.”

  “I would bring everything to the table, Lisha,” Kelli said, setting her napkin atop her barely touched plate of food. “Don’t do your guests that way.”

  “They’re not my guests. They’re Kael’s guests,” she said as Kelli came to stand beside her. “And he decided he wanted dessert served that way. Didn’t you, Kael?”

  Both women looked to him.

  “I sure did, baby,” Kael said in between bites of yams.

  “Baby?” Rev said sternly, his round face lined with disappointment.

  “Uh . . . I mean Lisha,” he said, sounding unsure.

  Logan chuckled at it all.

  Kael fought not to kick him under the table.

  “I’m not ready for dessert. I want another go at this dinner,” Logan said.

  “So do I. My daughter can cook, can’t she?” Rev sai
d.

  “Sure can,” Logan agreed.

  “Me, too,” Benny chimed in.

  “Lisha, you go on ahead and I’ll fix these plates for you,” Junie said. Four empty plates were shoved in her direction at once.

  Kelli reclaimed her seat and Lisha continued on to the kitchen where she kicked the air to keep from screaming out in frustration. “I knew that had to be working a nerve,” Lady said as she strolled into the kitchen.

  Lisha held up her hands.

  “You got to remember that for a long time she was all the woman in the house her brother and her father needed and then here comes you,” Lady said, reaching into her pockets as she looked around the kitchen and then moved straight for the door leading into the mudroom. “And trust me, daughter, you’re a lot to take for a woman not steady in who she is. You know?”

  Lisha leaned against the counter and looked on as her mother pulled a silver cigarette case from the pocket of her deep green suit jacket. “Daddy knows you smoke, Mama,” she said, turning to slide both cobblers and the four sweet potato pies she made back in the oven on low to warm them.

  “I know,” Lady said as she released a stream of smoke. “And he knows that I know. It’s a little game we play. No need to fret.”

  Lisha nodded her head as she pressed her hands to the counter and looked out the window at the frost barely making the ground white. “So she is afraid they won’t need her anymore?” she asked, changing their conversation.

  “Yup,” Lady said, before taking another drag.

  Lisha looked down at the pans of food she cooked from scratch. Ham, turkey, greens, macaroni and cheese, cornbread stuffing, yams and potato salad. Plus four sweet potato pies, a chocolate cake and peach cobbler. “So that’s why she made her famous peach cobbler even though Kael told her not to bring anything?” she asked.

  “Let her lay out her cobbler,” Lady said, walking across the mudroom to drop her cig to the porch before squashing out the ember with her shoe. “It’s not worth it or at least it shouldn’t be worth it to you even if it’s worth it to her.”

  As much as Lisha wanted to take the cobbler and make Kelli sit in it she knew her mother’s wisdom should not be ignored. So she used the mitts and pulled her cobbler out of the oven to slide into the fridge with a roll of her eyes.

  Lady walked back into the kitchen and she laughed at the expression on her daughter’s face. “Now you and I have some other desserts of yours we need to discuss,” she said, picking up a clean fork to scoop some of the stuffing straight from the roaster pan on the stove.

  “What’s that, Mama?” she asked.

  Lady licked her lips and hummed in pleasure. “Almost as good as mine, Ali,” she said, reverting back to Lisha’s childhood nickname.

  “I’ll take that,” she said, accepting the fork her mother handed her, sliding it into the sudsy dishwater in the sink.

  “And what all has Kael taken while you’re running around here looking real comfortable as the lady of the house?” Lady asked.

  Lisha’s cheeks warmed at how close they came to crossing the line. “Not a thing,” she assured her. “I live in my apartment and he lives here. He wanted Christmas at his new house and we wanted to spend it together so I offered to cook. We are not shacking by any means.”

  Lady eyed her for a long time before she nodded. “You guys seem to be moving mighty fast for just three months.”

  “I love him, Mama,” she said, looking away at the look of surprise on her mother’s face.

  “Well, that’s a first,” Lady said, coming over to hug her daughter close.

  “And I hope the last,” Lisha said with a wistful smile.

  Darkness reigned by the time Junie and Benny, the last of their guests, said their good-byes. Kael stepped up behind Lisha and held her from behind with his chin lightly resting atop her head.

  “Your father has a way with words,” he said.

  “What did he say when you two were at the car?” she asked.

  Kael chuckled. “He kept it real short,” he said. “‘Hurt her and your black behind is mine.’”

  Lisha covered her face with her hand. “I’m sorry. He wasn’t always saved,” she explained.

  “I understand,” he said, removing her hands and holding on to her wrists. “I’m going to be the same way with my daughters.”

  “Oh, really?” she asked.

  “I’m a man just like your father and we know what other men want,” Kael explained. “As a father you have to at least try to scare men off from wanting the goodies.”

  “Did it work? Did my father scare you off?” she asked with the hint of a mischievous smile at her lips.

  “Hell, no.”

  Lisha laughed. “Just remember it won’t work for the man you’re trying to keep away from your daughters either,” she reminded him.

  “I got a rifle to help facilitate my conversation though,” Kael assured her.

  They fell silent as they looked out at the acres of land stretched out before them under the moonlight.

  “Our first Christmas,” he said, glancing up at that full moon that seemed close enough to reach out and touch.

  “First of many, I hope,” she admitted, as she massaged his hands where they rested against her body.

  Kael hoped for the same. “If things work out I can see us old and gray with a houseful of kids and grandkids enjoying the holidays together.”

  Lisha turned in his embrace and looked up at him. “How many kids?”

  “Ten,” he said.

  Her eyes widened. “Ten!” she exclaimed. “Maybe five.”

  Kael chuckled. “All boys.”

  “Too messy,” Lisha said, bringing her hands up to rub his back. “All girls.”

  “Too much whining,” Kael countered.

  “You’ll probably spoil them all though.”

  “Daughters? Definitely,” he assured her.

  Lisha tucked her hands into his pockets and leaned back to look at him. “Do you think we’re moving too fast? Are you okay?”

  “I am more than okay.”

  “Good, because that matters to me,” she said.

  “And I believe that.”

  She came back towards him and pressed her head against his chest as Kael hugged her tight. “It feels like your arms were made just to hold me,” she said.

  “Maybe they were,” Kael said. “Maybe God meant to move my ex out of my life to make way for you.”

  Lisha closed her eyes as warmth and happiness spread across her body like melted butter. “You’re talking some mighty deep words right now, Kael Strong,” she said.

  “I like to go deep.”

  She looked up at him.

  “I can go even deeper,” he promised her.

  “Are you talking about sex because—”

  “I’m talking about how I feel for you, Lisha,” Kael said, his voice deep and serious as he brought his hands up to warmly clasp the sides of her face.

  She got lost in his moonlit eyes.

  “I’m talking about how much I love you,” Kael stressed. “Because I do.”

  Lisha’s body froze but her heart thundered. Did I hear him right?

  “I love you,” Kael said again, before dipping his head to taste her mouth, warming them both even as the night winds of winter snapped coldly around them as they stood together on the porch.

  She felt overcome with her love and she had to blink rapidly to keep tears from falling as she reached for one of Kael’s hands and pressed the palm against her heart. “And you have been inside my heart for the longest time, Kael,” Lisha admitted, feeling freed by the truth of her words. “I love you, too.”

  He smiled as he bent his legs to pick her up. “Best Christmas ever,” he said low in his throat, his words feathering against her lips just before he kissed her.

  Lisha nodded, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as Kael turned and pressed her back against the large post of the porch and kissed her with a passion tha
t left no doubt to his words.

  Chapter 15

  The last month had been the happiest of Lisha’s life. Having her dreams of finding a man who accepted her love and returned it was a blessing for which she was thankful. She and Kael had settled into a nice groove over the weeks. Once they both stepped up and revealed their love for one another, they each did a million little things over the days to show that love. Phone calls. Love notes. Flowers. Dates. Laughter. Long looks. Hand holding. Just being together whenever they could. Missing each other whenever they could not. Needing each other. Loving each other.

  Life was good.

  She smiled as she thought of Kael’s attempt to cook dinner for her last night. Nothing but her love for him helped her finish that bowl of chicken and dumplings. Bless his heart, Lisha thought, as she made notes to her client’s chart before clicking her pen and handing the chart to the clerk.

  She turned and walked into a solid wall that was warm and smelled familiar. Her heart instantly pounded harder. Looking up, a smile spread across her face at the sight of Kael. “Hey you,” she said, her surprise and pleasure illuminating her face as she took in all of him looking handsome in all black.

  Kael reached up to lightly tweak her chin as he looked down at her. “I thought I would surprise you and take you out to lunch,” he said.

  She loved how his eyes studied her face. “You drove an hour to take me to lunch?” she asked, reaching to press a hand to his chest.

  Kael’s eyes looked beyond her for a few moments before redirecting his gaze back to her. “I had to come to Charleston to get some supplies and I timed it for lunch with you,” he said, his eyes shifting again as they filled with confusion.

  “Okay,” Lisha said, glancing over her shoulder. She did a double take at the sight of almost every female staff member openly staring at them—or rather him. They did the same thing when he came to the clinic that day and saw her in the pool.

  “Hello, ladies,” Kael said.

  “Hello,” they said in unison. They were almost in perfect harmony.

  “You’re quite the cat’s meow, Mr. Strong,” she teased, as she wrapped her arm through his and steered him out the clinic and into the tunnel connecting it to the hospital.