Free Admission of Love by Niobia Bryant Page B

well from the few visits she made to Holtsville. The woman had been quick to criticize and even quicker to lift her finely arched brow in reproach. Elissa had not enjoyed her visits, except for the time she wasted trying to change Devon. Nana Lil loved everyone and even she had admitted to Alicia how she had to bite her tongue to keep from telling Elissa to climb off her horse, in less-than-favorable terms.
    Alicia was willing to admit, to herself anyway, that her own reasons for not wanting Elissa around went far beyond the woman’s high saddity ways. Alicia had burned with jealousy of her. Not because she was going to college, nor because she was slender, pretty and well-dressed, but because Elissa had what Alicia wanted most in the world . . . Devon’s love and devotion.
    His distant and aloof manner had attracted Alicia like a moth to a flame. Ever since she was old enough to recognize that boys were good for more than playing hide-and-seek and tag, she had loved Devon.
    Even now as she watched him, her heart ached for his love and her center throbbed for a touch she had never experienced from him. Both he and Deshawn were her very best friends in the world, but she wanted Devon as her lover. She let her eyes caress him, because her hands could not. Secretly, she envisioned the physical loving they could bring each other. She dreamed of him spending the night in her bed, and not her couch, as he had in the past as a friend. They could share passion in her bed, and love in their hearts for each other for the rest of their lives.

 
    Chapter Four
     
    “Chloe, there’s nothing like the Carolinas at night. Ain’t nothing can beat it!”
    “Nothing Mama?”
    "Unh-uhn. Not a thing.”
    “Not even the smell of lilacs?” the little girl asked, knowing it was her mother’s most favorite thing in the world . . . besides her, of course!
    “No, baby girl, not even lilacs.” She smiled down at her daughter, her treasure, with her head resting lightly on her lap as they sat on the fire escape to get away from the heat of their apartment. “Down south the night skies are shades of deep blues and purples with millions of stars that look like fireworks on the Fourth of July."
    The little girl lifted her head from her mother’s lap to look up at the dark New York sky. “More stars than up there, Mama?”
    Adell sucked her teeth. "Baby girl, that up there ain’t nothing compared to a starry Carolina night.”
    She gently pushed her child’s head back down on her lap, using her finger to trace the zig-zag pattern of her tight braids. “At night the air fills up with crickets, frogs croaking and owls hooting —"
    “All that noise?" she giggled.
    Adell laughed, and it resembled the light tinkling of a bell. “Ooh, you city kids are a mess. If you can sleep through the noise of this city, a few crickets and a 'hoot’ ain’t gone block your sleep none.”
    "Naw baby,” Adell sighed. "Ain’t nothing like the Carolinas at night. Not a thing!”
     
    ∞
    “You were so right.” Chloe’s voice was like a husky echo into the night. As she looked up into the sky, the stars reflected and glistened in the depths of her eyes. Feeling near tears, Chloe purposely let her gaze fall down coming to rest on where she parked her car in the garage behind their house. She left the window where she stood and crossed the hardwood floor to climb onto the queen-sized bed. She enjoyed the feel of the cool crisp sheets against her naked skin. Her first night in “the Carolinas.” Not exactly what she expected, but pleasurable nonetheless.
    What a day, she thought, as she shifted to find comfort in the strange bed.
    Nana Lil was a trip. She had kept Chloe and Deshawn laughing all through dinner. She made Chloe feel like a real family member when she called her “baby” and spoke of the close friendship she shared with Tessa.
    And Deshawn was so charming and funny, a real ladies’ man who was a harmless flirt. She thought of the