LT and Phire showered then made their way to the great room. Ms. Natalie Palmer, Granny to LT, was in the kitchen with a full blown breakfast buffet spread out on the island and a visitor waiting for them.
“Good morning,” Ms. Natalie beamed standing in the state of the art kitchen LT had designed for her. Ms. Natalie was in her early seventies, but could still hold her own against any force.
“Good morning, Granny,” LT responded with a kiss to her cheek. “Good morning, Cynthia.”
“Happy Saturday, LT,” Cynthia Lassiter replied as she turned to look at Phire.
Phire gave a perplexed glance towards the woman who had married her oldest brother Samuel. Cynthia Thornton-Lassiter was a beautiful woman even after three babies and twelve years of marriage. “Morning, Ms. Natalie. Hey, Cynthia. How did you know I was here?”
“I told her.”
Phire turned, startled to see her mother walking from the back of the house. “Mother.” Uncertain how to react, Phire glanced around. Yes, she was twenty-three years old, graduated summa cum laude, had a pretty impressive job that she could not talk about, and her own place, but she still had enough respect for her parents, Joe and Sally, not to want to be caught in a compromising position. Yes, and she and LT were engaged to be married, but they weren’t there yet. Seeing her mother, who was in her early sixties but looked as if she was in her late thirties with her ballerina figure, was like being caught doing the nasty by her parents. “How..how did you know I was here?”
Sally sat at the island where a cup of tea was placed, giving Phire the impression she had been there for more than a few minutes.
“It’s where I would be, in the arms of my man, if I did not have children getting married and in need of my guidance.”
“We have wedding plans to review,” Cynthia, who was also their wedding coordinator, replied.
“I know, but I thought we were going to meet at your office later today.” Phire took the cup of tea Granny held out for her.
“And we thought it would be a good idea to discuss some of your ideas before you got carried away,” Sally stated. “Good morning, LT.”
LT kissed her mother’s cheek. “Good morning, Sally.”
Phire glared at him. He should be unnerved by Sally’s appearance too, but he wasn’t. “You’re not surprised to see them here?”
LT looked towards her then at Sally and Cynthia. “No.”
“Then why am I uncomfortable about my mother catching me here this time of morning?”
“Because you are a respectful daughter who still cares what your parents think of you,” Ms. Natalie stated. “But we don’t care that you been doing god knows what behind those closed doors. We could hear you out here.”
Phire gasped. “You could not!”
“Yes, we could,” Cynthia replied as if it meant nothing then handed Phire her tablet. “This needs yours and LT’s approval before I can move forward.”
Phire took the tablet as she kept an eye on her mother. “Is Daddy here too?”
“No, your father is at Matt’s place.” Sally looked at her over her tea cup as she sipped. “Why, do you want me to tell him about our visit today?”
“No,” Phire replied quickly.
LT looked over her shoulder at the tablet. “What is this?”
“Your final invitation list,” Cynthia explained. “There are about 500 guests on the list. Before I finalize the caterer, I need you to review and approve.”
LT pointed. “Numbers eleven through eighteen can be eliminated for me.”
Phire nudged him in the stomach with her elbow. “Those are your siblings. Of course, they will stay on the list to be invited. If they choose not to attend, well, that’s on them.”
“You really should invite them, LT.” Ms. Natalie put a plate in front of him as he sat at the table.
LT bowed his head in prayer, then looked back up. “I don’t know them and not sure I want to.” LT put a fork of food into his mouth. “They were at my swearing in ceremony when I became Mayor. But I did not spent a lot of time with them and only spoke with Gia a few times since them. For all I know they can each create their own special blend of chaos.” He shook his head. “We don’t need that at the wedding.”
“Hey, if Sasha could invite her mother after all the crap she put them through, you can be the bigger man and invite your relatives,” Cynthia chuckled while drinking her coffee.
“Oh...that woman.” Sally shook her head in disgust. “I could have slapped her three days till Sunday, the way she was behaving on that cruise.”
Phire laughed, “All of us wanted to knock her overboard.”
“I heard you tried.” Sally raised an eyebrow.
Phire looked at Cynthia, then LT questioningly.
“It wasn’t me.” LT shook his head. “I did not tell anyone what you did.”
Phire stared at Cynthia.
“Nope, what happened on Luke and Sasha’s wedding cruise stayed on the cruise,” she laughed. “I did not tell.”
“Who told you?” Phire glanced at her mother.
“Adam, of course.” Sally grinned. “You know one way or another one of my children would have eventually told me of the incident.”
“Adam.” Phire shook her head as she sat across from LT at the table. “Does Daddy know?”
Sally tilted her head at her. “I don’t keep secrets from your father.”
“There isn’t a woman alive that don’t keep a few things close to the vest,” Ms. Natalie laughed. “As for your siblings, I agree with the ladies,” Ms. Natalie added as she sat at the island next to Sally with a cup of coffee in her hand. “Over the last year or two they have come to look at you as their leader. The only two you have any issues with are Leanne’s children.”
“Oh, I’m the leader of the bastards of Lawrence Trent. Not the children of the woman he was married to. What an honor.” LT rolled his eyes upwards then shook his head.
“Watch your mouth, young man,” Ms. Natalie chastised. “Your mother would not appreciate you calling her child a bastard.”
“If you are one, you’re a damn fine one.” Phire kissed him as her hand ran over his.
LT brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Thank you, love of my life.”
“Ahh, the look of young love.” Cynthia took her tablet back. “I’ll send this to you. How soon can you get the final list back to me?”
“Give us a few days,” Phire replied.
“You want this big princess Di style wedding with all of your sisters being bridesmaids it’s going to take precise timing. Time being the operative word,” Cynthia emphasized. “The sooner I get this off my plate, I can concentrate on dress fittings.”
Phire beamed. “Yes, I want all my sisters walking with me and I also want my college roommates, Zsa Zsa Ashro, Angela Landers and Deirdre Davison included.”
“What a lovely gesture to include all of your sisters.“ Sally smiled at her daughter.
“Ruby will be my matron of honor and Zsa Zsa my maid of honor,” Phire announced.
Cynthia sat startled. “Now you are talking eight bridesmaids instead of five.”
“Yes, and I need Samantha and Zoey as flower girls and King Arthur and Gabriel as my ring bearers.”
“Well it sounds like this is going to be a big shindig,” Ms. Natalie laughed. “LT, while you are at it you know your mother always mentioned jumping the broom one day.”
“I want that included some way.” LT nodded as he continued to eat.
Cynthia made a note on her tablet. “All right.”
“Oh, and we want Sally and Ms. Natalie to light candles,” Phire added.
“An evening service with jumping of the broom and lighting of the candles,” Cynthia noted. “LT, what about your groomsmen?”
“What about them?” LT glanced up.
“Do you have a list to match all the bridesmaids Phire is having?” she asked.
“I will have whatever you need before the week is out,” he replied. “As long as it ends with me kissing the bride.”
“Be careful what you ask for,” Sally chuckled. “You’re the one who is going to have to live with the antics of Sapphire Josephine Lassiter for the rest of your life.”
LT stood, wiping his mouth. “You mean Sapphire Palmer and I know exactly what I’m wishing for.” He kissed Phire. “We have to be at the HBCU fundraiser by seven tonight. So I’m going to meet with Grant this morning. I’ll see you later.”
“I’ll go over the wedding plans with Cynthia.” Phire smiled up at LT. “As for you, have that conversation with Grant about your re-election.”
“You’re going to run for a second term as Mayor?” Cynthia looked up as she asked.
LT shrugged. “I haven’t decided.”
“Yes, you have.” Ms. Natalie put her hands on her hips. “You can’t get people all excited about the city with the changes you’ve made in the last two years then leave it up to somebody else to finish the job.”
“Granny…”
“Granny nothing. I taught you to finish what you started and that’s what you are going to do.”
Phire glanced at LT with a knowing smile. “I love you, Ms. Natalie. However, for a person to do a good job at anything they have to want to be in that position. If they don’t want to be there, they will do a half-a.. job.”
“Half-ass is the word you were stumbling with,” Sally added.
“Yes.” Phire nodded. “I was trying to respect my elders.”
“Elders?” Cynthia questioned.
Phire looked around. “Um…yes. Everyone in this room is older than I am…much older in some cases. I’m just saying.”
“She’s talking about y’all.” LT grinned as he walked towards the door. “Make no promises about the Trents,” he said over his shoulder then left closing the door behind him.
Phire turned to Cynthia. “Leave every one of them on the list.”
“Hmm, knowing an alley cat like Trent there may be more children out there,” Ms. Natalie said as she picked up the dish towel and began wiping down the island.
“Is it possible there are more children than LT is aware of?” Sally asked.
“We have eight of them on the list,” Phire advised. “If there are more, I don’t know about them.”
“You’re the investigative reporter.” Sally glanced at Phire. “Investigate.”
“You can always call Gia,” Ms. Natalie spoke. “If anybody knows if you missed any it would be her.”
Phire thought about LT’s oldest sister and how she’d impacted his life. If it had not been for her, LT would not have been able to attend college without debt from student loans. It was her generosity and love for her siblings that helped Phire to free LT from the pain of losing his mother at such a young age. However, it almost cost her his love. Did she want to interfere again?
“You know what happened the last time I did that.” Phire raised an eyebrow as she glanced at her mother.
“You ended up healing a broken man,” Sally responded. “I’m going to tell you the same thing Ms. Natalie told LT. Don’t leave a job half finished. He needs to connect with his family, or at least try. That way there will be no regrets later in life.”
“She has a point there.” Cynthia nodded to Phire. “Regret is hell to deal with.”