Read Online Love Like Hallelujah by Lutishia Lovely - Free Book Online

Is the man German German?”
    “He’s white, if that’s what you’re asking,” King replied. “Supposed to have money, runs some financial company or something.”
    “How old are their kids?”
    “I didn’t ask all that. But you know, me and Tootie had a couple of close calls. I even thought she had an abortion right before me and Tai got married. She denied it, but to this day I don’t know for sure if at one time she didn’t carry my child. We were, uh, very active let’s say, but then again, she was active with a lot of dudes.” King looked pointedly at Derrick.
    “Guilty as charged,” Derrick said, a bit of macho mixed in with guilt. Tootie had been a favorite notch on a young man’s belt. “All of us were fortunate to not make a baby. I wasn’t even thinking about protection back then.”
    “Nobody was, man, you kidding? I never liked putting the raincoat on. I’m pretty sure she was on the pill anyway, all the action she was getting.”
    “I know one thing, we better shift this conversation. All this talk of Tootie is messing up my swing, not to mention my trying to let old things that have passed away, stay away.” Derrick swung his iron just over the ball, lining up with the hole, now barely five feet away. Taking a deep breath and settling into his stance, he lined up once more, swung, and sank the ball. He looked at King smugly. “Now, that’s what I’m talking ’bout.”
    The conversation shifted to church matters, and their co-officiating plan for Hope’s wedding ceremony. Both were glad the wedding would be short and simple. They joked about Cy’s few remaining hours as a free man, but agreed he was a blessed man, too. King liked Hope, liked her spirit. Plus, she was fine. Cy had done alright for himself. An hour later, they neared the eighteenth hole. They finished without tallying scores; the game had been for the fun of it all.
    Once in the parking lot, Derrick lifted his bag into the trunk of his pearl Jaguar. King followed suit. Derrick easily navigated the midday LA traffic as the two longtime friends enjoyed a companionable silence.
    “I don’t know about you,” King said after a bit, “but all that walking worked up my appetite. I’m about ready for that steak place you’ve been bragging about.” King’s stomach growled as if to underscore the statement.
    Derrick smiled, but said nothing. He was thinking about Tootie being back in Kansas, hoping King’s passion for his old flame had truly burned out. Little did he know, but King was thinking about Tootie, too, about how on fire their sex was back in the day. But King knew the lesson of fire better than anyone: if you played with it, you could get burned.

9
Worth the Wait
    It had arrived, February 14, Hope’s wedding day. She lay staring at the ceiling, hardly able to believe that the moment was here. She yawned, stretched, ran her hand over Cy’s empty pillow. Cy, his father, and her father had spent the night in Cy’s cousin’s suite at the Ritz-Carlton. They, along with a couple of Cy’s business partners and classmates from Howard University, had held a bachelor party. She could only imagine what that crazy group had put together for him. Knowing the wild shenanigans that often took place, she’d had only one thing to say to him about it: “What happens at the bachelor party stays at the bachelor party.” Cy had assured her nothing would happen that he couldn’t share with her, or her mother for that matter. That had elicited a smile from the bride-to-be. Hope, her mother, Mrs. Jones, Frieda, Frieda’s mother, and four of Hope’s longtime friends from Oklahoma had enjoyed a bridal shower in the penthouse. They’d had it catered by P. F. Chang’s, Hope’s new Chinese food favorite, and amid great food and goofy presents, had laughed, cried, played games, and basked in Hope’s contagious happiness.
    Hope rolled over and gazed out the floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows. With no nearby building as tall,