Brothers and Wives by Cydney Rax Read Free Book Online

its stomach. Both Dani and Scottie erupt in laughter when Elmo makes squeaking sounds and shouts, “That tickles!”
    “You’re amazing! Elmo dolls aren’t cheap, either. Thanks, Scottie!”
    “Just looking out for … for my nephew,” he says in a whisper. When he hears himself say these words out loud, he feels awkward. It’s the first time he realizes that the woman he’s trying to get with is the mother of his relative. It feels sobering to acknowledge that the baby he almost had with LaNecia would have been his son and his cousin. He tentativelylooks up at the photos of Dani and Brax. It pains him to see that Brax shares many of Neil’s facial features.
If things between me and her go the way I want, how will I handle the child issue?
Instantly he feels himself getting stressed; this isn’t what he wants to think about. The most important thing he’s concerned with is trying to make an impression.
    “Brax is going to have so much fun playing with Elmo. How’d you know he loves …?”
    “That’s classified info. Don’t you listen?” he says, trying to keep his mood light.
    He and Dani fiddle with the toy a little longer until she sets it aside and looks expectantly at him.
    Then she excuses herself to put her gifts in the bedroom. The second she leaves, Scottie starts snooping around. He wanders into her contemporary kitchen filled with black appliances and tall oak cabinets. He opens the refrigerator door and checks out the groceries and thoroughly investigates the cupboards. When she returns to the living room and notices him standing in the kitchen, she puts her hands on her hips. She watches him wrap a tan apron around his waist. It barely fits.
    “Mister Meadows, what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
    “Just call me the gangster chef,” he says, pointing at the black bandanna wrapped around his head.
    “The who?”
    “I’m acting like the type of man that I hope to be.”
    “You’re a great actor,” she teases and goes to take a seat at the breakfast bar.
    Scottie enjoys taking over her kitchen, acting as if he’s cooked meals on her stove for years.
    “Need any help?” she asks.
    “No, Mariah.”
    “I’m not … never mind. The onion powder and lemon pepper …”
    “Shhh. I know where everything is.”
    “Scottie, you’re scaring me.”
    “You won’t stay scared if you have faith in me.”
    He prepares double-decker cheeseburgers and a garden salad with all the works. A half hour later he sets the table for her, scolding her for getting up for even a second when she offers to help.
    “This is all on me. You sit. I work. You watch. You learn.”
    “Yes, sir,” she says, smirking.
    When Scottie is done cooking, he cuts off the burner, carefully fixes her a plate and brings it to the dining room table, where she goes to take a seat.
    “Here ya go,” he says and hands her a can of Coca-Cola Zero. “I popped the top for you so you won’t have to break one of those pretty fingernails.”
    “Scottie, you don’t have to go that far. I can do these things for myself, ya know.”
    “I know, but I don’t want you to. I got you!”
    Scottie’s as anxious as he would be on an all-day job interview.
    In some ways, Scottie believes he can handle Dani. He’s dated enough women to know what they like and want. But what if he goes all out to impress her and she gets bored with his ways and accuses him of trying to buy her? How can he also show her that he simply enjoys being around her, too?
    Scottie decides he needs to calm himself down and take a seat.
    “How’s it taste?”
    “Not half bad.”
    Immediately after she finishes her meal, he sets the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, takes her by the hand into the living room to sit on the sofa, props her feet on top of the coffee table, removes her sexy little sandals from her feet, and sticks a throw pillow behind her back.
    He looks around the living room until he locates the remote control for the cable, hands it over