Read Online Everybody Say Amen by Reshonda Tate Billingsley - Free Book Online

him as she stopped and started talking to some man she had no interest in.
    She looked out of the corner of her eye and caught Bobby staring at her. He whispered something to the woman he was with and then walked over to Rachel.
    “What’s up, Rachel?” Bobby said.
    Rachel feigned surprise. “Hey, Bobby. How are you?”
    The guy Rachel had been talking to looked back and forth between Rachel and Bobby.
    “Yo, man, can you excuse us for a minute?” Bobby said.
    The man looked like he was about to protest, but Rachel smiled. “I’ll see you around.”
    He frowned before walking off.
    Rachel turned back to Bobby, a big smile plastered across her face. He looked so good in his black leather jacket, black T-shirt, and black slacks. His sandy brown hair and gray eyes, even his cleft chin, were as sexy as ever. It was amazing how much Jordan looked like him.
    “What are you doing here?” Bobby asked. His tone definitely was not what she expected. Usually, it would have been condescending, like she was doing something wrong. But this time he actually sounded pleasantly surprised to see her.
    “The same thing you are, getting my groove on.”
    “Do you really think you should be out in a club?”
    “Now, Bobby, you know me well enough to know I don’t do things the traditional way.”
    “Where’s your husband?”
    “Where’s your wife?” she responded pointedly.
    He ignored her. “You do know the good reverend is going to go off when he finds out his wife went to a club.”
    “You do know I could care less about him going off.”
    A small smile finally crept up on Bobby’s face. “Hmmmm, trouble in paradise?”
    “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” Rachel knew she had put on her flirtatious voice, but she couldn’t help it. Bobby just brought out the bad girl in her.
    “How’s my son?” he asked.
    “You still coming to get him this weekend?”
    “Yeah, I’m taking him to the Rockets game.”
    “Make sure you talk to him again about his behavior. Whatever you said last time didn’t work,” Rachel said as she recalled the two notes that had been sent home from his teacher this week. She’d decided that there was nothing emotionally wrong with Jordan. He was just being bad.
    “I’ll do that. You can drop him off at any time. Shante moved out. She and I are getting a divorce.”
    Rachel didn’t know whether to shout for joy or cry. She had envisioned this day for years. But now that she’d settled into a quiet existence with Lester, it was not the news she wanted to hear.
    Bobby stared at Rachel and she could tell he was taking a trip down memory lane. “Dang, girl, you look good.”
    Rachel blushed. The confidence she’d had just minutes ago was gone. She felt her heart start beating fast.
    Just then Twyla came over to her. “Hey Bobby,” she said, before turning to Rachel. “Can we please go now? These people here are getting on my nerves and all this rap is making my head hurt. You—”
    Twyla stopped talking mid-sentence and looked back and forth between Rachel and Bobby, who were staring at each other like they were the only two people in the room. Twyla cleared her throat. “Excuse me, anybody notice me standing here?”
    Both of them snapped out of their daze. “Oh, what’s up, Twyla, where’s James?” Bobby said, referring to Twyla’s husband and Bobby’s first cousin.
    “He’s at home and he’s going to kill me if I don’t get there soon,” she said, turning her attention back to Rachel.
    “Oh, okay,” Rachel said. “I guess we should be going.” She kept her gaze on Bobby.
    “How’d you all get here?” Bobby asked.
    “I drove,” Twyla said as she shot Rachel another look. “And I’m about to leave, with or without you.”
    “Hey, look here, Twyla, ummm, why don’t you go on home? I’ll drop Rachel off. I wanted to go to IHOP or something ’cause I had some stuff I needed to talk to her about.”
    Twyla looked at him like he was crazy. “Some stuff like