Page 41 of Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Book
“We both knew it was bound to happen.”
Taylor shook her head and leaned toward the mirror to touch up her eyeliner. “Nothing we can do about it right now,” she said. “We’re booked up here in Florida till the end of the week.”
“You know what she’s capable of,” Talia warned. “She’s ruined people’s lives. We should have been keeping a closer eye on her.”
“Don’t act like we’ve been spending all our time at the beauty salon,” Taylor argued. “We’ve been busy doing the Lord’s work. The people down here need us, too.”
“Yeah but—”
“But what?” Taylor demanded.
“I feel like she’s our responsibility,” Talia said.
“After everything she did? Why is that bitch our burden to bear?”
“Because we’re the only ones who can stop her.”
Taylor stood up and checked herself in the mirror. Her diadem gleamed and ebony curls spilled over her shoulders. A golden lasso of truth hung from her spandex-clad hips. In her knee-high red boots, she towered over her sister.
“How am I supposed to help you with your cape when you put on your boots first?” Talia asked.
“Sorry.” Taylor plopped back down in her seat.
Talia attached the cape to Taylor’s uniform and used a steamer to rid the garment of wrinkles.
“Alright, let’s see it,” Talia said.
It always felt like a sacred moment. That first glimpse of her full uniformnever failed to remind Taylor why she’d squeezed into it in the first place. Her mission was to fight back the darkness and act as a force for good in the universe.
As Taylor rose from her seat, the white satin cape unfurled down the full length of her back. Written in cursive in sparkling golden sequins wasMOXIE!
Talia may have been dressed in her usual jeans and T-shirt, but the two of them shared the same mission. They had always been a team.
“Alright,” Taylor said. “As soon as we’re finished here in Tallahassee, let’s go home and take care of Mama.”
Chapter 17
Gone with the Wind
“Did I tell you I saw your brother readingRivals and Loversin Jackson Square the other day?” Bella Cummings asked her best friend.
“Rivals and Lovers?” For a moment, Isaac Wright couldn’t quite place the title.
Bella grinned at him from her grandma’s front porch swing. “It’s about a gay couple in New York. I remember you checked it out from the library a while back.”
“Right.” Isaac returned to his work. “Unusual choice for Elijah, don’t you think?”
“He was reading it because your parents think that’s the book that turned you gay.”
Isaac looked back up at her. “You’re pulling my leg.”
“Nope,” Bella said and burst out laughing.
For more than a minute, Isaac couldn’t catch his breath he was howling so loud. Finally he rolled up in a ball on the porch, clutching his aching stomach. Of all the books Isaac had read that year—including the gorgeousAll Boys Aren’t BlueandGiovanni’s Roomby James Baldwin—his family had decided a silly romance between two bougie Brown boys had lured him to the gay side.
“Elijah read every word of that book, and he did it for you,” Bella said once Isaac dragged himself off the floor and resumed his work. “Have you ever heard of anything so sweet? He was worried you might be going to hell. I thinkRivals and Loversreally helped him.”
Isaac chuckled. “Then I’m glad he found it. I love that kid. I don’t know what I’d do without him.” He finished the last few letters on his banner and sat back on his haunches to let the paint dry. “What do you think?”
