LITMIR.BIZ

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flying back right after the wedding.”

      “You know King is trying not to miss a service,” Tai answered, buckling her seatbelt. “At least he got a guest minister for the morning message. We’ll take a morning flight out and be home by five.”

      King and Tai had arrived Friday, a little after nine A.M., to a sunny, warm day in Los Angeles. A car had picked them up and whisked them to Derrick and Vivian’s, where Vivian had prepared a sumptuous breakfast of homemade waffles, fluffy scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, fresh fruit, coffee, and juice. They’d spent a couple hours relaxing by the pool, and then the boys had headed off to their newfound passion, the golf course. Derrick had taken it up a year ago with some men at KCCC, and had soon thrown down the “you-can’t-play-golf-it’s-a-thinking-man’s-game” gauntlet to King. King had hit the greens shortly thereafter with the most unlikely of partners, his dad, the Reverend Doctor Pastor Bishop Overseer Mister Stanley Obadiah Meshach Brook Jr. Now, in between King’s love of golf and his dad’s love of fishing, they were spending more time together than ever before in their lives. Both Tai and Mama Max were glad for that.

      “I can understand his being anxious to get back,” Vivian said, as she turned onto Olympic Boulevard and drove away from the crowded downtown area, “especially with the success of your broadcast ministry. I know it’s only been a month, and you guys are still working out the kinks, but it really is good, Tai. King’s charisma comes right through the TV screen, and he always was an awesome orator. You guys may not get that five-year reprieve you wanted between major building projects.”

      “Tell me about it. We’re already seeing the increase in attendance at services. Just slightly right now, thank God, but as the network opens up in more markets, and the word gets around Kansas City and the surrounding towns,” Tai sighed, “I think things are really going to blow up.”

      Tai’s sigh had not gone unnoticed. Vivian glanced over. “I understand, sistah, mega-congregations are a lot of work. Any size congregation is a lot of work, for that matter, but once they get over a thousand, and then two thousand, and on and on…no joke.”

      “Yeah, King’s already talking about adding a second morning service, and I never dreamed we’d have to do that.”

      “Can you believe it, Tai? Did you have any idea when you were in high school and declared to me that King was going to be your husband, that your life would be anything like this?”

      “Be careful what you pray for, is all I can say,” Tai said drily.

      Vivian knew that Tai’s concerns were not limited to the size of the congregation. She herself had had to deal with more than one overly zealous churchgoing female trying to get her hands on her husband. “I’m glad the air cleared about Tootie being back,” Vivian segued smoothly.

      “I am, too,” Tai agreed.

      “You still haven’t seen her?”

      “No, and honestly, that’s fine with me.” Tai no longer felt threatened but there was no love lost for the ex-girlfriend; the farther the distance between them, the better.

      “According to Mama Max, she’s at the hospital mostly. You know Mama and Miss Smith have known each other forever. She’s been to see her quite a bit.” Tai looked at the foreign signs as they passed through Koreatown. “Mama Max says she looks good, says Germany must agree with her.”

      “Speaking of Germany, you and King still going on that second honeymoon for your twentieth anniversary?” Vivian segued again, flowing as easily as her Escalade through traffic.

      Tai blushed. The past two months had felt like a honeymoon. “That’s the plan. Don’t know where, though.”

      “There are so many beautiful places: the islands, Hawaii, Mexico, Europe. I saw a brochure on Madagascar the other day. It’s beautiful.”

      “Mada-who? I’m not going any place I can’t spell or pronounce, trust.”

      Vivian laughed. “Don’t put off the planning too long. You know how time flies. And I didn’t miss that blush, sistah. King must be, uh, taking care of business.”

      Tai’s smile was proof enough that King was being quite the businessman.

      “Aw, man, that shot wasn’t nothin’ but luck.” King shook his head as he walked over and got a different iron. “Ain’t no way you’d make that shot again.”

      Derrick smiled broadly and then agreed. “You’re probably right.”

      King and Derrick had chosen a rather easy course, not far from Derrick’s home. Their camaraderie was the main enjoyment, the golf was gravy.

      “So man, I know you’ve seen Tootie a few times. How’s she look?” Vivian had told Derrick about this thorn returning to Tai’s side.

      “Fine as ever.” King putted.

      Derrick eyed his friend a moment. King and Tootie had been quite the item back in the day. But that was a long time ago. “Tootie, Tootie, with the big—”

      “Booty, booty,” they both finished together.

      “You’re crazy, man.” King laughed even as a clear memory of Tootie’s young, tight, upturned rear end floated into his mind’s eye. “That’s the first thing I thought, too, when Von told me she was in town.”

      “How’s her mother doing?”

      “A little better, according to Mama. I went to see her right before she had the operation, and again just before I came here.” King watched Derrick choose an iron, practice swing, and then choose another. “You know Deacon Nash is a good friend of the family. He’s been there regularly on the church’s behalf.”

      Probably best, is what Derrick thought. “It’s good Miss Smith has someone to lean on,” is what he said, and then continued. “Where’s Tootie’s husband? Although I guess I should try and call her. What’s her new name, Janet? Wonder where she got that name, anyway.”

      “Home, in Germany. And it’s Janeé.”

      “Huh?”

      “Tootie is using her middle name now. Her name is Rita Janeé. You don’t remember?” King asked.

      “I don’t think I ever knew that.”

      “You knew her pretty well not to know that.”

      They picked up their clubs and walked to the next hole.

      “You know she’s got kids,” King said.

      Derrick paused in midstroke. “Kids? Tootie?”

      “Yeah, she’s got three.”

      Derrick shook his head. “I never imagined Tootie as a mother.” He swung his club and frowned at the less than stellar shot. As King was getting ready to swing, Derrick commented, “Big booty Tootie.”

      King laughed again. “Man, will you cut that out! It’s like you’re seventeen again.” He carefully lined up his club, shadowed the ball several times, and then hit it directly into a sand trap. “Ah, man!”

      Derrick laughed, commiserating with his friend. Golf definitely wasn’t as easy as it looked. They both reached for their water bottles.

      “Life is full of surprises,” Derrick said. “What’s it been, fifteen, twenty years since you’ve seen her? Guess she finally realized she couldn’t have you and moved on.”

      “Humph. Hear you tell it. Remember how she used to drive everybody crazy singing Whitney?”

      “And Donna, Natalie, Aretha, Chaka—anybody who can blow.”

      “That girl was wild though, wasn’t she?” King asked, capping his bottle and picking up his bag. He’d thought of their wild times more than once since he’d seen her. He and Tootie were careful not to bring up the past, but one look in her eyes, and he knew Tootie had been thinking about it, too.

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