Laid Bear by Eve Vaughn (e books for reading .TXT) 📕

“Sorry about that,” Gavin said once he clicked back over.

“That was Zora’s cousin.”

Heath frowned. “Her cousin? The one who left her homeless and jobless?”

“The very one.”

“What’s she doing calling you and how did she get our number?”

“It’s the last number Zora contacted her from. She wanted to speak to Zora. Said it didn’t work out with her last tenant and was wondering if Zora was still at a loose end.”

“Nice cousin.” Heath snorted. With family like Zora’s, it was no wonder their woman had so many insecurities.

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I just gave her Zora’s new cell number. I figured Zora would want to deal with her cousin herself. Although I was tempted to just hang up.”

“You’re much nicer than me because I sure as hell would have hung up on that bitch,” Heath growled.

“Like I said, I was tempted. But I don’t think Zora would have appreciated it when I told her.”

“You probably didn’t have to tell her.”

“We agreed no secrets. It’s bad enough we haven’t told her about the Dale situation yet. Hopefully she’ll understand when we tell her. Anyway, I have to go, but I’ll touch base with you later.”

“Okay, I’ll see you when I get home.” Heath hung up.

Damn. Now what?

Zora was surprised when Gavin told her Bernice had called and there was indeed a message from her cousin when she’d checked her phone. She ate something and took a walk around the estate before returning her cousin’s call.

Bernice picked up after the third ring. “Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Zora. I got your message. What’s up?”

“Who was that dude who answered the phone when I called?”

Zora paused, not quite liking the way her cousin asked the question as if she had the right to know. “My boyfriend,” she finally answered giving the safe response. And while she wasn’t ashamed of her men, it was a lot less complicated to call him that. Besides, it was none of Bernice’s business.

“Mmm, he sounds hot. Sounds like you landed on your feet just fine, cuz, so I’m not sure if it’ll matter to you or not.”

“What are you talking about, Bernice?”

“Well, I, uh… that damn tenant I let stay in my rental property got arrested for selling dope, and on top of that he and his junky friends trashed my damn house. It’s going to take a long time to get the house back to the way it was.”

“Your tenant did that in a month?”

“Yeah, the dirty ass bastard. I wish I would have waited for you to get in contact with me, but I figured since he was willing to pay in cash and you were MIA, I might as well rent the place out.”

Zora was still puzzled about why her cousin was calling. If it was to apologize, she bore no ill will. “Oh, that’s too bad.

Sorry to hear you’ve had bad luck with your renter.”

“Well, even though you have a boyfriend, I was wondering if you still need a place to stay. I mean since I have an opening, you can move in right away.”

“But didn’t you say the house was a wreck?”

“Yes, but I figured if you had nowhere to go, you wouldn’t mind the mess.”

Zora bit her tongue to hold back a sarcastic retort. “Bernice, I’ve found other accommodations. I wish you luck in finding another tenant.”

There was another pregnant pause on the other end of the phone before Bernice spoke again. “Okay. Well, do you plan on coming to the family reunion this weekend?”

“Umm, no. This is the first I’ve heard about it, so probably not.”

“Oh well, I hear Uncle Darren and Aunt Rayna aren’t coming either. Not that we’re surprised. They haven’t been to any family events in a while, not since they got all religious.”

Zora froze at the mention of her parents. “They’ve always been religious.”

“No, they’ve gotten really weird from what I hear. They don’t really keep in contact with anyone. My dad calls Uncle Darren sometimes just to make sure he’s still alive. Dad thinks they’ve joined some kind of cult or something.”

This sounded strange, even for her parents. “Cult?”

“I don’t know if it was a cult per se, but from the little bit my father got out of Uncle Darren, it’s one of those really strict churches where the women have to walk two steps behind the man. Your mom is a better person than me because I wouldn’t put up with that mess from any man. Anyway, I’m really sorry about the way things happened. Things haven’t been going too well at the