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  Kaitlyn’s eyes widened and her mouth opened as he grunted and raised the hem of Anola’s short sequined skirt with his broad hand.

  “I would tell y’all to get a room, but since he got you hemmed up against the damn door, obviously y’all ain’t about that life,” Kaitlyn quipped, flashing a comedic frown, before turning to head to her own room. She didn’t do or watch soft porn on any DVD or in real life.

  “Au revoir, Marques.”

  “Jusqu’à ce que nous nous reverrons, Anola.”

  Kaitlyn paused at her door at the sound of their breathy good-byes. She had no clue what he said, but it was enough to make Anola push out a dramatic sigh as she pressed her fingers to her lips and blew him a kiss before he turned to walk to the elevator.

  Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “Anola, that was so The Young and the Restless. Like . . . really? Really?” she asked jokingly as her friend’s boo-thang stepped into the elevator.

  Anola fanned herself before raising her index fingers in the air to mark off well over eleven inches of length in front of her heart-shaped pretty face.

  Kaitlyn arched a brow. “Ooh. Was it like that?”

  “Oui, oui, on the wee-wee,” Anola joked as she pulled her room key from her purse and unlocked her door.

  Kaitlyn couldn’t do a thing but laugh before they both entered their rooms.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Charleston International Airport. Local time is eleven twenty-five A.M., and the temperature is seventy-six degrees.. . .”

  Kaitlyn allowed herself one final stretch before she removed her silk eye mask and looked out the window at the airport. Home, sweet home, she thought, feeling truly excited to see her family even as her five-ten frame ached and cried out from having been trapped in an airplane seat all night during their nine-hour flight from Paris.

  First class or not, Kaitlyn decided, there was nothing better than sleeping in a bed.

  “Glad that’s over,” Anola grumbled as they gathered their totes and prepared to deplane. “I’m going straight home and straight to my bed.”

  “Ditto,” Tandy agreed.

  Kaitlyn said nothing. That reminds me, I gotta talk to Daddy, she thought, remembering the eviction notice she received just before she left for Paris. Her landlord wanted her out of her place because of the three months of rent she was behind.

  She knew admitting to her father that she used her rent money for her beautiful two-bedroom town house on other things wasn’t going to sit well with him, but she had no doubt he would catch it up, like always. She would go on enjoying the upscale lifestyle of the James Island Village in Charleston.

  There was nothing better than sitting on her private balcony and sipping wine as she watched the sun set over the lakes surrounding the island town. It was the only moment of serenity and calmness that she allowed herself . . . and she wasn’t about to give it up. Not that, or the ten-foot ceilings and walk-in closets.

  Yes, Daddy will straighten it out. No worries.

  Kaitlyn slid on her aviator shades and reached for a stick of gum from her crocodile tote. She was regretting her decision to leave her convertible Volvo parked at the airport, instead of asking someone to pick her up. As soon as they entered the terminal, retrieved their luggage, and made their good-byes before climbing into their cars, Kaitlyn grabbed her iPhone.

  She pouted as she tapped her iPhone against her thigh as she steered her vehicle along the empty road with her free hand. As soon as she pulled to a red light, she dialed her parents’ landline number.

  “Circle S Ranch.”

  The coolness of her mother’s voice made Kaitlyn pause . . . for a second.

  “Guess who’s back? Hey, hey, hey,” she sang into the phone, setting it into the cradle and making the call hands free.

  “Welcome back. Your father wants to see you ASAP,” Lisha Strong said.

  Kaitlyn paused again and frowned a little bit. “Is something wrong, Ma?” she asked, checking the rear-view mirror before she eased down on the brakes and pulled off the highway. “You sound really weird.”

  “Just come straight to the ranch, Kaitlyn.”

  “Where’s the joy for seeing your baby girl back home?” Kaitlyn asked, feeling offended.

  “Oh, trust me, Kaitlyn Marie Strong, I want nothing more than to see you.”

  Kaitlyn sat up straight behind the wheel as she furrowed her brows at the use of her full name. “Uhm . . . okay, Ma. I . . . uh . . . should be there in, like, twenty minutes.”

  “Drive safe,” Lisha said.

  Click.

  “Well, if that ain’t ’bout a hot-ass mess,” Kaitlyn said softly in surprise as her mother ended the call.

  Still parked with her foot on the brake, Kaitlyn snatched up her phone and called her oldest brother, Kade. His phone rang endlessly before going to voice mail. Same with her calls to Kahron, Kaleb, and Kaeden. She didn’t even bother with her sisters-in-law.

  Something was up.

  Kaitlyn sat there, tapping her fingertips against the steering wheel, mulling over her mother’s coolness and her brothers not answering her call. One of them? Cool. Two of them? Iffy. All four? Impossible.

  She wouldn’t be surprised that as much as her sisters-in-law adored her, it had to irk them that her brothers always answered her call, no matter the time of day. Anytime. Always.

  “A surprise party,” she said, suddenly feeling clever as she started to dance in the driver’s seat and snapped her fingers. “It has to be a surprise party.”

  Nothing else made sense.

  Kaitlyn turned up her satellite radio and accelerated off the side of the road. The screech of tires and the blaring of a horn made her look over her shoulder just as a car skidded off the road to avoid hitting her.

  Oh shit!

  “Sorry,” she hollered out the window, with a pained expression, before she accelerated forward, leaving the near calamity—and all thoughts of it—behind her.

  She was anxious to get to her celebration. “Should I change first?” she wondered out loud.

  The short-sleeved linen jumpsuit she wore was perfect for the end of summer travel, but to be the spotlight of a party? Hmmm . . .

  Kaitlyn continued to mull it over as she sped like a race car through the Charleston traffic toward Summerville and then into Holtsville. When she thought she spotted a police car coming toward her in the distance, she slowed down, not wanting to risk yet another speeding ticket. Her father and brothers had said something about it raising the rates of her insurance.

  Kaitlyn shrugged. She had family to see and a party to spotlight. She pressed her foot to the gas.

  In no time she was crossing the bridge from Dorchester County into Colleton County and whizzing past a small and faded sign that read:

  WELCOME TO HOLTSVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA.

  It was the picture of small-town America—small-town down South America. The number of people inhabiting the small town kept things real interesting.. . . And depending on which way the wind blew, that could be a good or a bad thing. Always a friendly smile and a wave? Good. People leeching onto everyone else’s business for amusement and entertainment? Bad. Real bad.

  As much as Kaitlyn had enjoyed growing up in the country, she had yearned to see and do and explore beyond the charm of the small Main Street area. She craved more than the star-filled skies and creatures serenading the night.

  Still, it was nice to come home to South Carolina. And although she hightailed it to Charleston when she looked for her first place to live, it was nice coming home to Holtsville—especially with her family waiting there to be blessed with her smile.

  Kaitlyn turned off the main highway and onto the asphalt-paved road that led to her parents’ home and ranch. She stopped midway and put it in park before jumping out of the car to open the trunk and open her garment bag. She picked the least wrinkled item—a peach, ivory, and khaki color-blocked bandage pencil skirt and an ivory Lycra tank top.

  Looking up and down the road for any
on-coming vehicles , she quickly raced around the side of the car and changed clothes, hoping no one happened upon her in her sheer bra and panties.

  Embarrassing!

  She felt relieved when she finally slam-dunked her old outfit into the trunk. Back in the car she dug out her compact to check her reflection as she freshened up her makeup and finger-combed her pixie cut.

  “I will pose for my big surprise and then beg off to run upstairs and get fresh,” she told herself as she snapped her compact closed. Her old bedroom at her parents’ was exactly as she had left it, and she had clothes there for the nights she didn’t feel like making the nearly hour-long drive home.

  Putting the car back in drive, Kaitlyn finished easing her car down the long and curving road. Soon the sizeable brick two-story structure came into view in front of her. As a little girl she would pretend it was a castle built for an ebony princess. And the home suited her fantasies with its countless windows and shutters. The landscaping of manicured lawns with topiaries, bushes, and flowers galore made her think of the homes of the wealthy that she saw on television.

  Kaitlyn’s memories faded as she parked her car in between her brother Kade’s Tahoe and Kaeden’s BMW. She did frown a bit at only seeing the vehicles of close family.

  Maybe they all parked in the back or down by the farm to throw me off, she thought, climbing from the car and easily jogging up the stairs in her six-inch heels that brought her height to over six feet.

  “‘We like to party.’” Kaitlyn sang the Beyoncé hook as she slid her key into the lock.

  It didn’t turn.

  Pouting, she tried it again.

  Nothing but resistance.

  “Well, what is the devil up to now?” Kaitlyn asked, stomping her foot.

  Suddenly the door opened and she tilted her head up. Her eyes became confused at the empty foyer, since she was expecting to see a room filled with people.

  Still frowning, Kaitlyn walked into the house and closed the door behind her just as she heard tiny feet pounding the hardwood floors as someone ran away from the door. And the steps echoed because the house was quiet.

  Not surprise party quiet. . . . More like there ain’t no surprise party or any other kind of party quiet!

  Kaitlyn dropped her keychain onto the half table by the door before she headed in the direction where she heard the little feet. And then she heard voices.

  “Are you sure about this?” a female voice asked.

  “It’s for her own good,” her mother stressed.

  Kaitlyn’s steps paused before she forged ahead and stepped into the doorway of the family room. And there was the Strong clan assembled: her parents, Kael and Lisha; her eldest brother, Kade, with his wife, Garcelle, sitting beside him on the leather love seat, feeding animal crackers to little Karlos; Kahron, with his forever-present aviator shades pushed up onto his head, and his wife, Bianca, who was taking their four-year-old son, KJ, from his lap.

  Her other brother Kaeden was sitting at the table in the connected dining room, with folders spread out before him. With the contacts he now wore, she barely knew the difference between him and Kahron. His wife, Jade, was sitting at the table with him, but she looked away when Kaitlyn rested her eyes on her.

  “Did somebody die?” Kaitlyn asked, shifting her eyes to her brother Kaleb, who was tapping the remote of the television against his thigh as his wife, Zaria, rose to her feet with their one-year-old son, Kasi, in her arms.

  Kade’s daughter from his first marriage, Kadina, came running up to her, reminding Kaitlyn of herself when she was in her early teens.

  “Hey, Auntie Kat,” Kadina said, hugging her close.

  Kaitlyn hugged her back as she continued to eye the adults of the family over her niece’s head. She looked down to find KJ patting her against her leg with one of his pudgy hands.

  Releasing her niece, she squatted down. “Hey, handsome. You miss Auntie?” she asked as he leaned in to grab her cheeks with his hands before he kissed her on the lips. “I think you two are the only ones happy to see me,” Kaitlyn said, perturbed, as she rose to her full height.

  She looked at her father and was completely and physically taken aback when he released a heavy breath and looked away from her.

  “What the hell is this . . . a wack intervention?” Kaitlyn snapped, feeling all her patience run out the door—the door that she now wished she had never walked through.

  “Kadina, let’s take the kids upstairs,” Zaria offered, in jean leggings, heels, and fitted T-shirt looking nowhere near being in her early forties with twin daughters in their early twenties.

  “Okay, Aunt Zee,” Kadina agreed, scooping KJ up onto her hip. He instantly tugged at her sleek ponytail.

  “Actually, I’m going to join y’all,” Garcelle said, her Spanish accent just as strong as ever.

  Kaitlyn frowned as she watched her brother Kade reach out for Garcelle’s wrist, and her sister-in-law deftly avoided him to follow the other women out of the room. Jade and Bianca also rose and scurried out, behaving like the shit was about to hit the fan.

  “Have a seat, Kaitlyn,” her father, Kael, said, looking and sounding older than his sixty-odd years.

  That touched her. “What’s wrong, Daddy?” she asked, her face filling with worry.

  He covered his mouth with his hand.

  “What are your plans for the future, Kaitlyn?”

  She shifted an eye to her mother. “Huh?” Kaitlyn answered.

  “What are your plans?” Lisha asked, settling back in her chair and crossing her legs in the navy cotton dress she wore. “Do you have more in store for your life than shopping away your future ?”

  That made Kaitlyn’s back stiffen as she looked around at her brothers and then back to her parents. “What is this all about? Because it’s really feeling like an intervention.”

  “Kaitlyn, we’re just worried that we’ve spoiled you so much that you’re not at all prepared to handle the real world if you were on your own,” Kahron inserted calmly into the silence.

  “Spoiled?” she said with attitude as her heart hammered in her chest.

  “Privileged,” Kaeden stressed, rising from the dining-room table to walk into the family room with his hands pushed into the pockets of his tailored slacks.

  “Kaitlyn, why would you spend over forty thousand dollars in Paris while we’re back here busting our ass to make sure you can enjoy all your little trips and shopping sprees?” Kade suddenly snapped, his square jaw tight.

  Kaitlyn’s eyes widened in surprise as she leaned back and pressed her hand to her chest. “All of that, Kade. Really?”

  “Yes, all of that,” he shot back.

  “Kade,” her father said in stern reprimand.

  “Excuse me for thinking that was my card to buy what I please,” Kaitlyn stressed. The anger that flashed in her eyes hid the hurt that she felt at her eldest brother talking to her in such a harsh tone. It was his first time doing that . . . ever.

  “Kat, it’s your card that Mama and Daddy pay the bill on,” Kaeden added.

  “You have to know that was just crazy irresponsible,” Kaleb said, shaking his head as he looked at her with serious eyes—eyes that were usually filled with laughter.

  “I was in Hermès in Paris . . . not the Dollar Store in town!” she exclaimed with a shrug. “And I wasn’t aware of a budget.”

  Lisha threw up her hands. “See what y’all have done?”

  Kaitlyn’s face filled with surprise and confusion. “What?”

  Lisha fanned herself. “Kaitlyn, you have got to grow up. Your father and I aren’t getting any younger, and you have no clue, little girl, of how to do anything but shop and travel.”

  Little girl? she fumed internally.

  “Well, this ain’t the surprise I was looking for,” Kaitlyn then muttered under her breath as she finally plopped down onto one of the club chairs.

  Kaleb reached over and patted her knee. “Kat, you have to understand that spending that amount
of money in one whop when Pops pays for all your living expenses is crazy.” Was it? Kaitlyn wondered, shifting her eyes over to her father.

  “That money is your living expenses for the year, Kat,” Kaeden said. “You just took a trip to France and blew forty grand on shopping, and now you need a check for two grand to cover your rent.”

  He would know. After all, he cut her checks to pay her bills.

  Kaitlyn bit the tip of her nail and made her eyes wide. “Actually, I need six grand . . . because I’m a little behind in my rent . . . and I got an eviction notice,” she admitted, giving them all her most brilliant smile.

  The brothers all groaned in unison and her mother swore.

  That was seconds before the room erupted and everyone started chastising her . . . at once.

  Kaeden: “You spent forty grand and you knew you were behind in your rent?”

  And Kade: “That’s the ranch’s profits for two months.”

  And Kaleb: “Are you crazy?”

  And Kahron: “It might be time for your first ass cutting, Kaitlyn.”

  And her mother: “What do you have to say now, Kael Strong? Huh?”

  Kaitlyn’s face filled with mock horror. “The Devil is a lie about y’all ganging up on me!” she snapped.

  “Enough!”

  The room instantly quieted at that one spoken word from Kael Strong, their father and the undisputed leader of their clan.

  Kaitlyn turned in her chair to face him. “My goodness, Daddy, are you going broke and y’all not telling me?” she asked.

  Everyone muttered beneath his or her breath at that.

  “I thought by giving you everything you wanted that I was doing right by you,” Kael began, his eyes locked on Kaitlyn’s face. “But I was wrong.”

  Kaitlyn frowned.

  “And so things have to change, Kat, for your own good,” Kael said solemnly.

  Kaitlyn’s frown deepened.

  “Yes, Kat, yes,” her mother agreed.