Stormy Weather (16 page)

“Just tell us what is really going on here,” Sasha’s voice said behind her. “How could you go from wanting to have sex with Cash last night then him packing his bag and leaving this morning?”

“If you want to know, I’ll tell you.” Rachelle spun around and placed both of her hands on her hips as she confronted her sisters standing behind her. “Cash left because I couldn’t accept his job. I didn’t like the way he made his money and he tried to reason with me, but I wasn’t having it. So, he made a rash decision and quit his job, then left to deal with the fallout from it.”

“Why couldn’t you handle how he made his money?” Sasha asked, taking a step closer to her. “Was he a criminal or drug dealer? It must have been something pretty bad for you to push him away after battling us to further the connection you shared with him.”

“No, he isn’t a drug dealer, Sasha,” she sighed. “You watch way too many of those crime shows on television. They are messing with your mind. Cash is the host of a show called
The
Gossip
. It deals….”

“—With telling fans the in-depth daily coming and goings of their favorite celebrities,” Akisha finished for her. “Wait a minute. I think I know who he is now. I thought Cash looked familiar. I remember seeing his face for a few seconds while flipping through the channels. I might have seen the show, but with so many on I get them mixed up sometimes. Also, he looks different in person than on television which threw me a little. But, why would you care about it so much? His job doesn’t have anything to do with you at all, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Akisha, you know how I feel about gossip. I don’t get involved with gossip of any kind, ever,” Rachelle reminded her little sister.

“How can you not love knowing more about Roman Braxton? Isn’t he your favorite actor at the moment? I know you have seen all of his
Battledome
movies,” Sasha pointed out, ganging up on her with Akisha.

“There is nothing wrong with watching a little juicy gossip show every now and again. It helps relieve the stress of the day. Now that I think about it, I’ve seen Cash’s show once and twice, it isn’t as bad as you think it is. If I’m not mistaken, he used to host a regular news program but it got cancelled and then I saw him on
The Gossip
several months later.”

“Are you two seriously telling me that you don’t have a problem with Cash digging into people’s lives and making money off of it?”

“No,” her sisters answered.

“Akisha wishes her problems with Ethan were so easy to deal with,” Sasha told her. “She got a lecture from him this morning about staying out of his personal life because who he was dating wasn’t any of her business.”

Instantly, all of her problems with Cash went out of the window. Rachelle knew how much Akisha was in love with Ethan and hearing those words from him had to hurt.

“Akisha, why didn’t you tell me about this?” she asked. Coming up to her sister, she placed her hand on her shoulder. “What did you say to him?”

“Don’t.” Her sister sighed, moving back away from her. “I don’t want to talk about Ethan. You are the one who needs our help. We shouldn’t have gotten involved with anything going on between you and Cash.

“Sasha, Genise, and I believed the two of you were moving away too fast, but it wasn’t any of our business to give our opinions the way we did. It was for you to make your own decisions and deal with whatever happened afterwards.

“This is just what I think, but I believe you shouldn’t let what Cash did for a living cloud your judgment about him. If you really like him, then find a way to make things work for the two of you. He might be worth it, but you will never know unless you give it a real try.

“Look, I need to go and take care of some things, but if you need my help call me,” Akisha said. She turned around, went past Genise and Sasha, then walked through the lobby out the front entrance of
Luxury.

“Hmmm…We need to leave, too,” Sasha said, grabbing Genise by the arm. “However, I want to tell you something before I leave.”

“What is it now?” Rachelle sighed, wishing she hadn’t told her sisters anything. She loved them dearly but sometimes getting advice from all of them at once was a little much.

Dealing with her sisters was taxing her, because they were driving her more crazy than usual with their back and forth. She only wanted them to make up their minds about Cash and stick with it. She wouldn’t figure out anything if they kept tossing their cards on the table for her to sort through.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forced Genise and Akisha into agreeing with my doubts about Cash. You’ve done an outstanding job dealing with problems over the years without our help. You will get a handle on this with Cash, but I do agree with Akisha. Don’t force him out of your life over something so small.”

“Genise, do you want to add anything before you go?” she asked. “I know you have your own opinion, there hasn’t been a time in your life that you haven’t.”

“No, I’m good and will stand behind anything you decide to do. You’re my big sister and I love you so much. I only want you to be happy.”

Jerking her arm away from Sasha, Genise came up to her and kissed on the cheek, followed by a hug. “Don’t think too hard and the answers will come to you,” she whispered in her ear. Stepping back, Genise spun around and followed Sasha out of the hotel.

Rachelle eased her hand inside the pocket of her skirt and pulled out the slip of paper Cash gave her before he left. She opened it and her eyes scanned over his bold handwriting. He had left this information with her in hopes that she would come to him. She wanted to be with him more than anything, but it was hard to change her personality that had been a part of her for most of her life.

She was torn, and at the moment she didn’t see any way to resolve the problem soon. She needed to be alone with her thoughts for a little longer before she made any decisions about Cash because she wanted to make the right one.

Chapter Sixteen

Half, California…

“How much longer are you going to keep lying to yourself?”

Cash glanced away from the article he was typing on his laptop. He stared at his younger brother, who was standing in the middle of his study. He hadn’t been doing much since quitting his job at the network, but he didn’t think he had been lying to himself about anything. So, why was his brother calling him a liar? He believed they were starting to rebuild their broken relationship since he had come back home.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“You’re acting like you aren’t hurt Rachelle didn’t get in touch with you after you quit your job. I know you had been rolling the idea around in your head for a while. But you believed it might make her call you and she hasn’t. Why are you pretending you haven’t been thinking about her?”

“I haven’t been lying to myself,” he denied, pushing his chair back from the table. “I just don’t want to get caught back up into something that meant more to me than it did her. I guess the chemistry I felt was one-sided. I need to move on like she has and just think of it as a fond memory.”

“Rachelle was wrong for not at least calling and telling you she wasn’t interested in a relationship with you. I know long distance commitments can be hard for some people, but the way you told me she acted towards you, I was beginning to think the two of you might have something,” his brother said.

“I thought she would be out here on the next flight to see you and it’s almost been two months and nothing. Just give me her phone number and I’ll tell her what a tease I think she is.”

“No!” he shouted, jumping up from his seat. “You won’t ever call Rachelle names again. We both got caught up in the passion that night and it almost led to us having sex. I was as much a part of it as her. She didn’t tease me or offer me something then back out at the last minute.”

“I still don’t see how you can keep defending her, but you aren’t a quitter. You will stick with something until you don’t see anything else that can be done with it. So, when are you going to give up on Rachelle and move on?”

Sitting back down in his chair, Cash slid closer to the desk. “I don’t see any reason to give up on her. Rachelle is a very busy woman and so am I. She might not be able to get away to come and see me, but I haven’t given up hope. “She will come to see me, so I will just have to be patient and wait. In the meantime, I have to finish up this article I’ve been working on and get it submitted to my editor. It’s due today and I can’t miss it. It has taken me too long to get this job and I want to get more assignments from this magazine.”

Sighing, Gerald shook his head at him. “I don’t get you sometimes. You fight so hard for some things in your life and other times you sit back and allow the chips to fall where they may. What happened to the reporter in you? You used to go out and hunt for stories while letting nothing stand in your way. Where did that guy go?”

Cash knew he had changed some since meeting Rachelle and he wasn’t upset by the new him. In fact, he liked this side of himself much more than the other person he had become over the years.

“Gerald, I changed and I believe it was for the better. I like the man I’ve become. The new man is someone I can see with any woman.”

“Don’t you mean Rachelle?”

“Yes, I do. I will never forget how she looked at me like I was something she had found on the bottom of her shoe. I don’t want to see that disappointment in her eyes again.”

“How are you so sure that she is going to come to you?” his brother asked. “She might have moved on with another man by now. You never know.”

He glanced at the computer screen and then back at his brother. “I know that I can get Rachelle to come to me. I walked away from her to become a man. So, it’s up to her to see the new me. If she doesn’t, then I will have to get over her and move on.”

Chapter Seventeen

A month later…

The door eased open as a head peeked around the corner to see the woman staring blindly out the office window. A worried expression was etched across her pretty face as she nibbled at her bottom lip. Sasha thought about going inside the room, but before she could take one step Akisha’s hand wrapped her around her arm and pulled her back into the hallway, then softly closed Rachelle’s office door.

“What are you doing?” Akisha hissed, dragging her sister away from the door so their sister wouldn’t hear them. “I thought all three of us agreed to leave her alone for the next couple of days.”

Sasha jerked her arm away. “How can you think about not talking to her? Have you seen how withdrawn she’s been since Cash left? I mean, she’s like a totally different person. She hasn’t complained about how several guests cancelled their reservations. You know how much Rachelle hates things changing at the last minute.”

“I know, but what can we do about it?” Akisha asked. “We don’t know how to get in touch with Cash. Hell, I didn’t think she would act like this after only knowing him for a day and a half. It’s just isn’t like her at all.”

“You need to give our sister a break. We are both in love with men who want nothing to do with us. Ethan doesn’t want you and Sterling isn’t interested in me at all. At least Rachelle met a man who wanted her after one look. Who are we to say they can’t make something special out of it? Haven’t you heard about people falling in love with each other after only a week of dating?”

“Yeah, a week, but Rachelle and Cash weren’t around each other a week,” her sister pointed out to her.

“I know that, but it doesn’t matter what we think. It’s all about Rachelle. I wasn’t on board with Cash, either, until I got this in the mail today,” Sasha said, holding up a magazine in her hand.

“What is that?” Akisha asked, grabbing the glossy magazine away from her.

“It’s something for Rachelle, but she hasn’t been interested in reading any mail lately so I opened it. Go to the marked page and read the article.”

“Why?”

“God, will you stop being so damn difficult all of the time and just do it?” Sasha snapped.

Glaring at her, Akisha flipped the magazine open to the marked page and read it. After a few minutes, her stunned eyes darted up to her sister’s. “I can’t believe this. Does she even know about this?”

“No, there was a note included with but I didn’t read it. I have it in my pocket to give to her. Do you think I should do it?”

“Yes, give it to her. Rachelle has to know about this.” Akisha handed her the magazine and pushed her towards the closed office door. “Go and give it to her. I’ll take care of the front desk while you’re gone.” Spinning around, her sister hurried around the corner out of sight.

Holding the magazine against her chest, Sasha raised her hand to knock but dropped it. She was worried about what would happen once her sister read the article in this magazine. She didn’t want to make Rachelle feel any worse than she already was, but this might be the push she needed to make a decision about Cash. She couldn’t keep this from her because it wouldn’t be right. Raising her hand, she knocked once and waited for her sister to answer.

****

Rachelle stared out the window but her eyes really weren’t seeing what was in front of her. The memories of her loving mother warmed her heart. Her mama never allowed her to feel any less loved after the triplets were born, but it had been hard for her to understand when she was so young.

God, she wished her mother was here now to talk about this situation concerning Cash, but she wasn’t. She needed all of the comfort her mother’s wonderful advice gave to her.

As they grew up, her mama constantly made sure they got her own special time. She couldn’t believe how fast time had flown by since her little sisters were born. She hadn’t thought about any of this in years.

A tiny smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as she remembered one time her mother had taken care of Akisha’s diaper. She came right back out and shared some quality time with her. They had even gone outside in the backyard and played while her sisters had taken their naps.