Free Fortune & Fame: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray, Reshonda Tate Billingsley Page B

masked with innocence when she said, “Yeah, I was telling Preacher Man how that Melinda VP lady kept asking about him.”
    “Yeah, I told you that, honey,” Jasmine said to Hosea. “But I told her that you were quite busy with the church and probably wouldn’t have time—”
    “I won’t have time. I’m not going to be on the show, but I would’ve gone down there with you today to check it out,” Hosea said, making Jasmine hold her breath. “If I didn’t have to watch the kids.”
    She exhaled. “That’s right, the children,” Jasmine said, not able to recall a time when she loved her children more. “Someone has to stay with them. Speaking of that, Mrs. Sloss’s plane lands at seven in the morning.”
    Hosea chuckled. “I know that’s way too early for you, but don’t worry. I’ll be there to pick her up.”
    “I was just going to send a car.”
    Before Hosea could respond, his cell phone rang. Picking it up from the side table, he glanced at the screen, then said, “I’ve gotta take this.” Kissing Jasmine on the cheek, he added, “Have a good time and don’t hurt nobody. Between this house and our place in New York I don’t have a dollar left for bail, so behave yourself.”
    When Hosea strutted out of the room, Jasmine whipped around to face Mae Frances. With her hands on her hips, she hissed, “You were trying to get Hosea to come to therestaurant?” She didn’t give her friend time to answer. “You know he can’t be there.”
    Mae Frances pushed herself up from the chair. “Why? ’Cause you haven’t told him about Natasia?” She grabbed the lapels of her mink and pulled the coat tighter around her.
    Jasmine rolled her eyes, grabbed the chained straps of her purse, and stomped from the room. She had a few things to say to Mae Frances, but Jasmine didn’t say another word as they passed through the hall, to the kitchen, and then out the back door to the garage. She didn’t open her mouth until they were both seated in her rented BMW and she’d driven several streets away from her home.
    Only then did Jasmine say, “You know I haven’t said a word about Natasia being on the show. So, why would you invite Hosea? If he saw her—”
    “Jasmine Larson, when are you going to learn the rules of deception.” Mae Frances shook her head and sighed. “I’ve been trying to teach you all these years, but you always operate on emotions.” She leaned forward, pressed the button for the air conditioner, then blasted it on high.
    The air conditioning made Jasmine shiver right away since it was a cool sixty-two degrees outside. In her mind, Jasmine screamed, If you’d take off that daggone mink . . . it’s June, for God’s sake. But she said nothing. Saying something about the coat that her friend loved so much would set Mae Frances off and right now, she needed Mae Frances’s help.
    When the temperature in the car was probably about fifty, Mae Frances said, “Okay, that’s better.” She leaned back in her seat and continued, “So, about Preacher Man. First of all, I knew he had to stay home with Jacquie and Zaya today, and I also knew that if you weren’t bugging him to come, he would get suspicious. He would think you didn’t want him at the restaurant.”
    “I don’t.”
    “But if he knows that you don’t want him there, he’ll wonder why. And if he wonders why, he’s gonna ask questions, and if he asks questions . . .”
    “Okay,” Jasmine relented. “Good point.”
    “But you’re gonna have to say something about Natasia sooner or later.”
    Jasmine was shaking her head before Mae Frances had even finished her sentence. “My plan is to have her fired before Hosea finds out anything.”
    Mae Frances raised one of her penciled-on eyebrows. “And you think that’s gonna keep her away? How do you know she hasn’t tried to call Hosea again?”
    Jasmine had to admit there was always that chance and that was always her fear.
    The day she’d seen Natasia at the