Just Too Good to Be True by E. Lynn Harris Read Free Book Online Page A

with. I guess she’s so uppity that she doesn’t realize that the governing board for college sports doesn’t give a damn about some black woman and her superstar son.”
    “Then I think we need to come up with a more elaborate plan.”
    “All you need to do is get him in your bed and he will be all ours,” he said.
    “Then consider him your first new client of the season,” Barrett said with a smile.

CHAPTER
6
    Carmyn’s Past Makes a Comeback
    I walked from the laundry room back into the salon, when a woman sitting in Zander’s chair looked up at me and measured me with her eyes. Her lap was filled with pink plastic rollers that she was handing to Zander as he rolled her hair.
    Zander was my most popular stylist. His customers affectionately called him the “Hair Nazi,” because he was known for turning down customers for a myriad of reasons if he didn’t like them or thought they didn’t take care of their hair. If they said things he didn’t like, he would tell them, “Don’t ever try to get on my book again in this lifetime.” I put up with him because he was so good and a percentage of his clientele helped pay off the salon. Besides, he never said anything nasty to me or my clients.
    “Here are some clean towels,” I said to Zander. I could feel the woman’s eyes on me like a high-beam spotlight. I gave her a polite but distant smile. She looked familiar, and I couldn’t remember if I had seen her in the shop before or if she was one of Zander’s out-of-town clients. It was nothing for women to come from Augusta and Columbus to get him to do their hair.
    As I was going back to my office, I heard her say, “Excuse me.”
    “Yes,” I said, turning to face her again. As I tried to study her face without staring, memories from my youth suddenly started to flash before me. I was unable to get the picture of my daddy’s church out of my head. I saw my mother sitting proudly on the front row in one of her fabulous hats and waving a cardboard fan.
    “Aren’t you from Houston?” she asked. I looked at her again. She was a small, brown-skinned woman with bright white teeth and too much hair for her head. She was dressed in an expensive pantsuit.
    “No,” I said firmly.
    “Are you sure?”
    “Positive.”
    “I guess you got a twin that lives in Houston, or used to. You sure your name isn’t Niecey Johnson? Weren’t you in Jack and Jill?”
    “No to both questions,” I said.
    “What about Daphne Mitchell? Do you know her? She was in Jack and Jill and she went to the University of Texas. I think she dated a football player.”
    “I can’t say that I do.”
    “You sure do look like Niecey,” she said as she gave me a wry little smile and looked away.
    “Sorry,” I said as I shot Zander a puzzled glance and walked back into my office. I turned to close the office door, but I left it slightly ajar so I could hear their conversation.
    “What was that about, Ms. Rena?” Zander asked.
    “Who is that woman?”
    “Carmyn Bledsoe. She owns this place.”
    “How long have you known her?”
    “Five years. Why?”
    “She looks like this girl I went to church and high school with. It wasn’t like we were hanging buddies or anything, but Niecey Johnson was Miss Everything at Yates High School, and I think her first name was Carmyn. Her family was big-time in Houston. She was closer to my sister’s age, but I knew her more from church. We’ve all aged a little, but that woman looks just like Niecey.”
    “They say everybody has a twin, but I’ve never heard Carmyn talk about being from Houston. Come to think of it, she never talks about her family at all except for her son,” Zander said.
    “Don’t you find that odd?” Rena asked.
    “Find what odd?”
    “That she doesn’t talk about her family.”
    “Mind your own business, Ms. Rena, or else you gonna have to find somebody in Auburn, Alabama, to do your hair, you hear what I’m saying?”
    I closed the door and pressed my back