Page 36 of Enough

Adeline looked to her daughter. “That is one fine ass man.” Adeline shook her head slowly. “His daddy still alive?”

Threehourslater

Desiree rushed through the double doors of Mercy Hospital and Medical Center emergency room and ran to the front desk.

“I’m looking for my mother, Adeline Stevens. She was rushed here unconscious.”

Desiree’s nails raked across the desk as she waited impatiently for the nurse to look up the information. Frantic Desiree yelled, “Could you hurry it up!”

The clerk’s eyes shot up bewildered. “She’s in room 2107. It’s through these doors, down the hall to the very end, then to the right.”

Desiree shot down the hall, moving past other doctors and nurses coming out of patient’s rooms.

“Ma’am you can’t run down this hall!” A nurse yelled, but Desiree ignored her and continued her race to 2107. She was almost out of breath when she stumbled upon the room. Entering quickly, Desiree came to a sudden halt at what was before her. Her mother, Adeline, sat perched on the hospital bed with two men; each one on each side giving them goofy grins.

Desiree couldn’t get her argument out quick enough when her eyes drifted to their God given form. Both men were dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt, but the tone in their muscular arms, flat abs, and firm thighs said they were regulars at the gym. Besides that, she’d never seen men so flawlessly beautiful. Creamy smooth skin, one dark brown the other light brown like the sun had barely kissed his skin. Desiree was thinking of ways she could kiss his skin, and her body traitorously yearned for the one on the left. “Jesus,” she whispered.

Adeline glanced up with a fork halfway to her mouth.

“Hey baby, come in!” Adeline lit up. The two men looked to Desiree and Desiree knew that God had no doubt created them to perfection. Damn.

“Hello,” the one on the right said. “I’m Jaden, this is my brother, Julian.”

Julian fixed Desiree with a devastatingly handsome gaze and rose to his feet. “Greetings, would you like to sit here next to your mom?”

His voice ricocheted off her ear drums causing the beat in her heart to surge. Desiree went to respond when the bathroom door opened and out walked Claudia. The sisters came face to face for the first time in six months.

“Desiree,” Claudia said with an air of surprise in her voice.

“Claudia,” Desiree retorted. “You seemed surprised. You did remember I was coming, didn’t you?”

Claudia closed the bathroom door. “How could I forget?”

Three pairs of eyes were on them as they both held back what was on their minds in front of their mother. Jaden noticed the change of emotion that ran across Claudia’s face and the substantial need to hold her tugged at his spirit.

“Come over and give your mother a hug or are you going to stand there staring at your sister,” Adeline spoke to Desiree.

Desiree strutted over to her mom passing Julian on her way. She glanced at him and couldn’t help but get a sniff of his all male scent. Her belly rumbled, and Desiree wasn’t in need of food. Thrown off her game, she turned from him and threw her arms around Adeline.

“Hey, mama.” Desiree caressed the side of Adeline’s face. “How are you, I was so worried when Claudia told me you were unconscious.”

“Yeah, just a slip and fall. But my handsome hero over here came to my rescue, so I’m fine now.” Adeline shrugged like it was nothing.

Desiree’s brow raised. “Your handsome hero?”

“Yeah, Jaden,” Adeline pointed to him and Jaden smirked waving a hand in Desiree’s direction.

“And would you know, he has a brother. Multiple brothers.”

Desiree took her gaze back to Julian who was still standing idly beside her. “So he does,” Desiree said. She took a hand down her hair, self-consciously checking her appearance. “I guess these are Claudia’s friends.”

“They’re my friends now. I mean… too, they’re my friends, too,” Adeline corrected. Julian and Jaden held amused smiles.

“Maybe you could get to know Julian better. Claudia’s already got dibs on Jaden.”

“Mama!” Claudia blushed mortified. Could her mother be more embarrassing? “I don’t have dibs on anyone. Oh my God.” Claudia tried to wipe the humiliation from her face. “We’re going to step out for a minute.” Claudia pivoted on her heels clutching Jaden’s hand in hers.

“I should probably step out, too,” Julian reached over and shook Adeline’s hand. “It was nice to meet you, mom.” He turned his attention to Desiree. “It was nice to meet you, albeit briefly.”

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