I can tell Tee is ready for an intense discussion, but after today, I simply haven’t the patience or stamina for it. What I want to do is what she suggested before Quentin called—finish what I started before. Luckily, Tee is quick to read my mood, and once more she climbs astride me, this time sitting on my thighs so she can use her hands first.

“Any more silly white-boy questions before we resume?” she asks with a teasing smile.

“I learned my lesson.”

“Good.”

She reaches between us to slide me into her, then freezes.

“Penn?” says my mother. “I couldn’t sleep for thinking about—”

At that moment I realize Mom isn’t outside the door, but inside the room with us. Whipping my head left, I see her standing motionless with one hand on the doorknob, her mouth hanging slack, her eyes glassy. All three of us seem transfixed by some external force. The first person to move is Serenity, who reaches down and raises the comforter to cover her gently swaying breasts.

“I should have knocked,” Mom cries, snapping out of her trance like someone hit her with heart paddles.

“Mom, it’s okay!” I call, but the door closes on my words.

Cursing under my breath, I lift Serenity off my midsection, roll out of bed, and grab for my pants, but she catches hold of my arm and says, “Penn, don’t do it.”

“Don’t what?”

I look back angrily, but Tee’s face holds only sadness and warning.

“Your mama didn’t see us just then,” she says softly. “She saw your father and Viola.”

Her words suck the breath out of my chest. Thinking about the pain my mother must be enduring right now is almost impossible to bear. On top of the trial and the gossip and all the rest of it—

“Don’t,” Tee whispers. “Don’t do that to yourself. You can’t change their past. You can only change the future. Your future. Come back to bed.”

“I don’t think I—”

“Yes, you can.” Her dark eyes are no longer trying to pull something from me. They are pouring something into me. She reaches out and takes my hand, pulls me back onto the mattress. “Remember how we started?”

“How?”

“No talking.”

After a few seconds I nod, not at all certain that we want or need the same things in this moment. But she pulls me to her, threading one leg around mine and running her fingers through my hair, her eyes never leaving my face. “Tonight let’s try something new,” she says, softly kissing my shoulder. “Tonight, you talk all you want.”

She pulls the covers up to our necks, then over our heads.

Thursday
Chapter 49