Page 72 of A Smooth Operator

Chapter 27

Remi

My mother stared at me with tears in her eyes. Bless her heart, the woman knew how to tug at my emotions.

"What exactly are you accusin' me of, Remi?" She looked at my father, confused.

I'd asked my parents and Lani to be at my parents' place a day before Thanksgiving.

"Did you or did you not slap Echo around when she was a kid, Mama?"

My father had lost his shit when I told him what I learned from Echo. He'd known that Mama didn't like Echo, but physical abuse was something he didn't tolerate, and he was fuming.

"I never did that, and if she's accusing me—"

"Mama, you did," Lani interjected. "You did it in front of me."

"Lani Drake, hush your mouth with all these lies."

Lani looked weary. "No lies, Mama. You called her all sorts of names. I did, too. I have no excuse, and I own it; you should do the same."

"I don't even know why we're talking about Echo," my mother said haughtily. She leaned back on the sofa in the living room. My father was sitting next to her, but he didn't have his arm around her like he normally did.

Lani was in an armchair across from them, and I was in another.

"Cause I'm dating her." I dropped the bomb.

Lani smiled wanly. She'd already guessed. My father knew. My mother looked like I'd asked her to dance naked at the Germantown Festival.

"This is not funny, Remi. Your joke is in poor taste," Mama snapped.

My father rose and walked to the bar. He poured himself a drink and stayed there with his glass of what I suspected was a Tennessee whiskey.

"Dallas?" my mother protested.

"Honey, I'm having a lot of trouble with you hitting Echo."

"I never—"

"Stop," Dad cut in softly. "I don't know what you have against her. She's a sweet kid. She's nice. She works hard."

Mama flashed angry eyes at my father. "Oh, you don't, do you? You always sided with that little bitch. You think I didn't see how you looked down your nose at Lani; always saying how Echo is so amazing. How dare you? She's the daughter of a whore. She doesn't even know who her father is."

Dad looked confused as hell. "What the hell are you talking about, woman?"

"The first time you met Echo, you said you wished Lani was more like her," Mama threw at him.

"Yeah, because she was a straight-A student with a lot of ambition. I did wish Lani could be more like her. I didn't care about the grades, but if she had goals beyond marrying Tommy Fuckin' Spalding, I'd have liked that."

Lani squirmed. "In the spirit of absolute transparency. Tommy and I are not together anymore. He wants us to pretend through Thanksgiving at his parents' place, but I told him I couldn't do it."

"Congratulations," I said to Lani.

"What? What's goin' on with my children? My son says he's dating some half-black—"

"Stop." I sprang up. "Mama, here are my cards on the table. I asked Echo to come for Thanksgiving dinner so she could meet y'all as my girlfriend. Mind you, as soon as I can convince her, she'll be my wife. But if you, Mama, are going to speak that way about her, whether she's with me or not, I will not bring her over, and I won't come either."

This drew attention from my mother, father, and sister. Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas Eve dinner were sacred; no one missed them unless you were in the hospital with a broken leg. That had happened to me once, and my parents and sister had brought Thanksgiving to my hospital room.

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