Sweet Southern Nights

“Thanks for looking out, but I have a date.”

“Who is he?”

“You’ll see,” she said cryptically as she carefully outlined her lids with a smoky-colored eye pencil.

“Come on, Ang, give me a hint.”

Angela leaned closer, checking her handiwork in the lighted makeup mirror. She smiled. She hadn’t lost her touch. There was a time when she wore makeup every day. But once she began working in the gift shop, her makeup routine was a light dusting of face powder, one coat of mascara and a tinted lip gloss. She still had a standing appointment every week to have her hair and nails done, but shadow and eyeliner were for special occasions.

“Don’t think you’re going to badger me until I tell you. You’re going to have to wait like everyone else to see who I bring. Now, please hang up so I can finish putting on my makeup. I’ll see you and Reggie in about an hour.”

“Should I tell Reggie’s brother that you don’t want him to pick you up?”

Angela shook her head. There were times when she thought Traci played dumb because she didn’t like making men feel insecure, when in fact her cousin was a genius. Two years her junior, Traci had married and divorced not once, but twice—Reggie was her first—and swore she’d never marry again. Nevertheless, her cousin liked being in a relationship.

“Tell him thanks, but no thanks. I have a date.”

“Okay. What are you wearing?”

She smiled. “You’ll have to wait and see that, too.”

“I hope it’s real sexy, Ang, because I want Robert to realize what he lost.”

“Robert Gaskin made his bed, and now he’ll just have to lie in it. Look, cuz, I have to go if I’m going to be ready when Levi gets here.”

“Levi. Now that’s a name you don’t hear too often. Personally I like biblical names. They always sound so strong and masculine.”

Angela exhaled a deep breath. She knew if she didn’t get off the phone with Traci she wouldn’t be ready when Levi arrived. She still had to get dressed. “Bye, Traci. We’ll talk later.”

“Do you know if Yvette put us at the same table?” Traci asked, prolonging the conversation.

“Yes. I told her I wanted us seated together.”

“Okay, then I’ll see you later.”

“Later, Traci.” Angela ended the call, and concentrated on finishing her makeup.

Adjusting the light surrounding the vanity mirror, she surveyed her face under the flattering glow. Her makeup was subtle, and her eyes were dramatic with a smoky look. She turned off the lights, washed her hands and dried them. She walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom to the dressing area where her dress and matching day coat hung from a padded hanger.

Taking off her robe, she slipped into a pair of midnight-blue bikinis, a halter-top bra and sheer pantyhose. She had just put on her dress and slipped her foot into one of the blue-suede, peep-toe pumps when the intercom rang at the same time as the clock on the fireplace mantel chimed on the half hour.

“Levi.”

His name unconsciously slipped past her parted lips. A smile spread across her face as she tried to recall everything about him—the deep, soothing timbre of his voice, the sexy-looking lines that creased his sharp jawline whenever he smiled, and the way he angled his head whenever he’d listened to something she said. He was perfect—perfect enough that she could easily see him as Mr. Right Now.

Pushing the speaker button on the intercom, she said, “This is Ms. Chase.”

“Are you expecting Mr. Eaton?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Thank you, Ms. Chase.”

Angela put on her other shoe and then picked up her lightweight coat and evening purse. She made her way down the staircase, carefully navigating the steps in her four-inch heels. She walked across the living room floor, opened the entry door and stared out the storm door, watching for Levi’s car. The weather had cooperated for her cousin’s wedding. Afternoon temperatures were expected to reach the high sixties without a chance of rain. The sky was bright blue with a few puffy clouds.

She felt something soft brush against her leg and looked down to find Miss Divine sniffing the black silk bow on her shoe. “Not the shoes, Miss Dee. I left you food and water, so I know you’re not hungry.”

Her head popped up when she saw the sunlight reflected off the car as it approached the driveway to her house. She shooed Miss Divine away from the door, activated the alarm system and locked the door. Angela approached Levi’s car as he came to a stop, and got out to meet her. There was no mistaking his surprise when he greeted her.

Angela’s eyelids fluttered. Levi looked strikingly handsome in a dark blue tailored suit that looked as if it had been custom-made for his tall, slender physique. A white shirt with French cuffs, a royal blue Windsor-knotted silk tie, and black wingtip shoes made him look as if he’d stepped off the pages of a men’s fashion magazine. She felt her heartbeat kick into overdrive as he closed the distance between them. Her high heels put the top of her head level with his nose.

She tiptoed and pressed her cheek to his. “How are you?”

Turning his head slightly, Levi pressed his mouth to the column of her scented neck. “Wonderful.” Reaching up, he cradled her face in his hands, his eyes moving slowly over her features. “You look incredible.” He couldn’t disguise the approval in his voice.

Angela Chase was a chameleon. Gone was her natural look and casual attire, and in its place was a stunning femme fatale. The curly hairstyle framed her delicate features, falling a few inches beyond her shoulders. Large, wide-set eyes highlighted in subdued hues of dark-colored eye shadow met his direct gaze. He managed to curb a smile when he noticed mascara had added length and volume to her lashes. False eyelashes had always been his pet peeve with women. He disliked women who were fake-looking, but instead used makeup to enhance their natural beauty. His gaze traveled from her face to the diamond studs in her ears and lower to her legs in sheer stockings that displayed the perfection of shapely calves and slender ankles. His eyebrows lifted when he saw the dark blue, peep-toe heels with a black bow that adorned her delicate feet.

“Thank you,” she said, demurely lowering her gaze. She didn’t know why, but she wanted him to find her attractive. It’d been so long since she’d found herself attracted to a man.

“Are you going to be able to dance in those?”

Angela smiled, bringing his gaze to her parted lips. “Do you dance?” she asked, answering his question with a question.

“Of course I dance.”

She winked at him. “If that’s the case, then we’ll see how well I can dance in my heels.”

Levi leaned closer. “Is that a challenge, Angela?”

“Do you want it to be, Levi?”

Pressing his mouth to her left ear, he breathed a kiss. “I’ve never backed down from a challenge,” he whispered.

Angela laughed softly. “Neither have I.”

Standing back, Levi stared at the woman who unwittingly had captured him in a spell of desire. The few hours they’d spent together the night before had only served to whet his appetite and his curiosity.

He knew her old fiancé would be at the wedding, and that he’d cheated on her, but to Levi there was cheating and then there was cheating. There was having an affair with another woman, and then there was cheating with your partner’s friends and family. The former he could rationalize somewhat, but he drew the line when it came to friends and family.

He knew what it was like to be cheated on. During his junior year at Howard, he learned that the girl he’d been sleeping with was also seeing four or five other guys on campus. Of course, it made him wary of the opposite sex, but it didn’t ruin his social life. The truth was he liked women and they liked him. Yet, he was never one to take advantage of a woman. He readily admitted he wasn’t ready for marriage or to become a father. And most of the women he’d dated appreciated his honesty.

Angela had asked him if he liked a challenge, and he’d said yes because she was a challenge—a very beautiful and complicated challenge. He took her hand in his, and led her around to the passenger side of the car.

“Are you ready for this?” he whispered.

“Only if you have my back, Levi,” Angela answered.

“That’s something you don’t have to worry your beautiful head about, because I have your back and your front.”

“That’s a lot, Levi,” she deadpanned.

“Haven’t you realized yet that you’re a handful, Angela?”

“No.” Angela ducked her head and slid into the black leather seat.

Levi rounded the sedan, slipped in beside her and secured his seat belt. He opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind. They were going to a wedding—a celebration—and he planned to spend the time enjoying her company, not arguing with her.

He’d driven past the gatehouse, heading back to the local road when he took a quick glance at Angela staring out the side window. “You’re going to have to tell me how to get there.”

She turned, staring at the gold monogrammed cufflinks. She met his eyes for a second before he turned his gaze back to the road. “Stay on this road for two miles, then you’ll see marker pointing the way to Manor Oaks. When you come to the stop sign, make a left. The property is about a quarter mile from there.”

Levi glanced at Angela again, this time at her long legs that stretched from the mid-thigh hemline of her dress and ended at her heels. “Are you a guest of the bride or the groom?” he asked, pressing a button on the steering wheel to turn on the radio. He had to say something to avert his attention from the woman sitting inches from him. Levi still couldn’t believe her startling transformation. For a moment he hoped she’d dressed that way for him and not to make her ex jealous. Regardless, he was happy to be her date.

“The bride is my first cousin. She and her fiancé, Craig, are high school sweethearts who’ve broken up and reconciled so many times that when they finally sent out wedding invitations no one believed them.”

“Don’t you think starting out in such a shaky relationship doesn’t bode well for marriage?”

Angela let out an audible sigh. “I hope not. Yvette is such a drama queen. If something doesn’t go her way she resorts to histrionics. Originally I was supposed to be a bridesmaid. Eventually I gave her an ultimatum: either she cooperated or I was out.”

Levi smiled. “Did she change?”

“She was okay for about a week, then she threw a mother of a tantrum and I bowed out. Yvette begged and pleaded, but I refused to give in. There is just so much verbal abuse I’ll take, even if it’s from family. She’d asked my cousin Traci, but she also declined. And knowing Traci she would’ve punched Yvette out. In the end she decided to have her twin sister as her only attendant.”

“What’s Robert’s connection to the groom?”

Angela groaned inwardly. She didn’t want to talk about Robert. Not today. It was enough that she would see him again after five years.

“He’s his cousin.”

Levi took another quick glance at his passenger. Her expression was as neutral as her tone. “What’s up with the women in your family marrying these guys?”

“You don’t understand,” Angela said.

“If it didn’t work out with you and Robert, why would your cousin believe it would work for her and Craig?”

“Craig isn’t a cheater.”

“Cheating isn’t the only thing that can…” Levi’s words trailed off when he spied the stately gleaming white mansion in the distance. Red-jacketed valets were parking cars as wedding guests arrived at the antebellum Greek revival mansion with its massive columns that supported the upper floor.

Slowly, he maneuvered behind a black, late-model Lexus and within seconds a parking attendant raced over to his door as Levi lowered the driver’s side window. Levi got out of the car and gave the valet, who didn’t look old enough to have a driver’s license, his keys. The attendant handed Levi a red ticket, then put another one on the dashboard. “I’ll take it from here, sir.”

Levi opened the back door, reached for his jacket in the backseat, slipped it on, and walked around the BMW to help Angela out of the car. One blue-suede pump touched the ground, then the other, as he gently eased her up.

Curving an arm around her waist, he pulled her close to his side. Lowering his head, he brushed a light kiss over her lips, aware that she’d be shocked by the public display of affection. Her breath caught.

“Are you ready?”

Angela quickly recovered. “I was born ready,” she answered, her voice filled with confidence.

They followed several couples up the stairs and into the expansive entryway of the landmark mansion. The house and surrounding three-hundred-acre estate had once belonged to one of the wealthiest tobacco-growing families in the county. Light from a massive chandelier reflected off the highly polished marble floor. Baskets and vases of white flowers in every variety lined the walls, which were covered in oyster-white silk fabric.

The cocktail hour was scheduled for two, the wedding ceremony for three, immediately followed by a reception that was to take place in another part of the mansion.

An elderly woman dressed in black approached them. “May I please take your coat?” she asked Angela.

She smiled. “Yes.” The word was barely off her tongue when Levi helped her out of her coat, and handed it to the woman who gave him a yellow ticket. With her back to him, Angela felt Levi go completely still when he stared at her dress. “What’s the matter, sweetie?” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder.

Leaning in close, Levi pressed his mouth to her ear. “Sweetie’s wondering where the rest of your dress is.”

Extending her arms, Angela pirouetted on her toes, allowing him to view the front and the back of her dress. The halter dress clung to her body like a second skin, the soft swell of breasts visible above the décolletage whenever she took a breath.

She smiled a sexy moue. “Halters always have a bare back.”

Levi’s fingers splayed at the small of her back as they stood in the foyer. “I couldn’t imagine what you were hiding under your coat, but I wasn’t expecting to see so much of you.”

Angela noticed his strained expression. “It’s not that low cut.” Looping her arm over his, she said, “Didn’t you tell me that you had my back and my front?”

“No comment,” he said under his breath. “Let’s go inside.”

She had got not only his attention, but also that of the men milling around the entryway as they stared, slack jawed at her lithe figure.

Levi escorted her through the throng waiting to enter one of the three ballrooms in the historic mansion. A string quartet played softly, as white-jacketed waiters circulated with trays of hot and cold hors d’oeuvres. Bartenders at portable bars set up at opposite ends of the ballroom were busy mixing and pouring drinks.

The light from half a dozen chandeliers reflected off the precious gems that adorned the ears, necks, wrists and the manicured fingers of the women in attendance. It was as if Louisville’s most prominent African-Americans had come out to see and be seen. Levi saw Duncan standing off to the side next to a pretty, petite, dark-skinned woman with short, curly hair clinging to his arm. He recognized her as one of Maywood Junction’s schoolteachers.

“Come with me, Levi. I want to introduce you to my mom and dad.”

He followed Angela as she led him across the ballroom to where a tall, attractive fashionably dressed couple stood talking quietly to another couple. When the woman turned slightly he smiled, knowing what Angela would look like in three decades. Her mother was stunning!

Levi stood beside her as Angela hugged her mother and kissed her father before she acknowledged the other couple. He forced back a grin when her father raised his eyebrows after looking at the back of Angela’s dress. She whispered something in her father’s ear, and his gaze shifted to Levi.

Angela reached for Levi’s hand. “Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet Levi Eaton. Levi, these are my parents, Benton and Dianne Chase.”

“I’m honored to meet you,” Levi said, shaking Dianne’s hand before repeating the gesture with Benton.

Tall and slender with coppery skin and snow-white thinning hair, Benton narrowed his deep-set dark eyes and stared at Levi. “You’re an Eaton?”

Levi nodded. “Yes, I am,” he said proudly.

The older man squinted slightly behind the lenses of his glasses. “You look a lot like Solomon Eaton.”

He smiled. “He’s my father. Do you know him?”

Resting a hand on Levi’s shoulder, Benton led him away from his wife and daughter. “I met your father a couple of years ago when we got together for a fundraising golf tournament in Palm Springs. I’d heard through the grapevine that the president wanted to appoint him to the federal circuit court. I was sorry to hear Solomon declined. It’s not often someone of your father’s stature turns down a position like that. Forty years ago black judges were as scarce as hen’s teeth—especially in the South.”

“Are you a judge?” he asked Benton.

“Yes.”

Levi managed to mask his surprise behind an impassive expression. “I expected you to talk to me about dating your daughter, not talk about my father.”

Benton waved in a dismissive gesture. “I promised myself I would stop commenting on the men Angela dates. It’s a lost cause. She claims she doesn’t want to be involved with any of them.” He shook his head. “The only thing I can do is hope for the best for my baby girl.”

“Hey, Dad, Levi,” said a familiar voice. Levi turned to find Duncan standing behind them. “I see you’ve met the best pediatrician I’ve ever had the honor of working with.”

Benton’s smile was dazzling. “So, you’re a doctor?” He patted Levi’s shoulder. “How do you like working in Maywood Junction?”

“It’s a lot different from my New York practice.”

“You should see him with the kids, Dad. He’s incredible. I don’t know what we’re going to do when he leaves in a few months.”

Levi felt slightly uncomfortable. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Levi said.

“You’re thinking about…” Duncan was interrupted when Dianne and Angela joined them. His eyes swept over Angela’s revealing dress. “Who are you trying to hurt in that getup?”

Dianne shot her oldest son a stern look. “Duncan, please.”

Levi shifted his position, wrapping an arm around Angela’s waist. “I happen to like what she’s wearing,” he said defensively.

Angela flashed a Cheshire cat grin. Tilting her head, she smiled into Levi’s laughing eyes. “Why thank you, sweetie.”

Duncan wasn’t amused. “I just hope sweetie doesn’t have to bust a few jaws tonight.”

Shaking her head, Dianne managed a brittle smile. “Levi, you’re going to have to excuse my son. There are times when he can be a little overprotective of his sister.” She looped her arm through Duncan’s. “By the way, where’s your pretty little girlfriend?” Her voice changed, becoming syrupy sweet.

Duncan’s dark mood vanished when he smiled. “Myla went to the ladies’ room.”

Resplendent in black silk and brilliant diamonds, Dianne Hitchcock Chase patted her coiffed hair. “Now that the weather is warmer I’d like to have a little something at the house next Sunday. Duncan, I’d like you to bring Myla.” She smiled at Angela. “Of course I’d love for you and Levi to join us.”

Angela met Levi’s gaze. “Levi and I will have to talk about it.”

He shook his head. “I promised Angela I would cook for her next Sunday, but there’s always the following Sunday. We’ll be there, won’t we, darling?”

At that moment Angela wanted to drive the heel of her shoe into his foot, but thought better of it. She was accustomed to making decisions in her relationships, but apparently she’d underestimated her date. He was as good at playing the game as she was.

She gave her mother a plastic smile. “You can count on us being there.” She dug her nails into the palm of Levi’s hand. “Do you mind getting me something to drink?”

A slight frown furrowed his smooth forehead. “What would you like?”

“Surprise me,” she drawled facetiously.

Her eyes narrowed when she glared at his departing figure. Angela felt as if she was losing control, that it was as if Levi could read her mind and had flipped the script. She’d promised to take him to the Derby, but still hadn’t agreed to go to Philadelphia for his family reunion. Now he’d invited himself to Sunday dinner with her family.

Duncan carefully observed the exchange between his sister and Levi, and winked at Angela. “Play with fire and you’ll get burned, Sis,” he whispered in her ear.

“Go find Myla,” she countered.

Grabbing her hand, Duncan led her away from earshot of their parents. “I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to tell me the truth.” Angela nodded. “Do you like Levi?”

“What’s there not to like. He’s perfect but…”

“But what, Ang?”

She averted her gaze. “You know I don’t want to get involved.”

“Neither does Levi.”

“How do you know that?”

Duncan leaned closer. “Levi was seeing someone, but he broke it off when she wanted more than friendship.”

Angela stared at her brother. “Are you saying he’s only interested in a platonic relationship?”

“Look, Sis. Levi and I don’t have detailed conversations about who we do or don’t sleep with. But he’s told me that he doesn’t want a permanent relationship. What I do know is that he’s a good guy and the kids love him, and you’re both looking for the same thing.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “Why are you playing matchmaker?”

“Because I hear that you’re still going out with losers. The best way to get over Robert is to date a decent guy. Excuse me, but I have to look for my woman.”

Angela stared as her brother walked away, her eyes landing on the one person she loathed seeing again standing only a few feet away.

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