Love Like Hallelujah Read Online Free PDF Page A

the car. Kathy, Chris’s mom, was just running by, at the end of her afternoon jog. Chris ran up and showed her his namesake Chris Brown CD.
    “Yes, Kathy, you can thank me for the noise you’ll hear later,” Vivian said as her neighbor trotted up the drive. “It’s the radio-edit version, but you still might want to have a listen.”
    “Gee, Viv, thanks a lot. I really needed to hear more hippity-hop in my house.”
    “Hip-hop, Mom,” Chris groaned, the expected reaction and exact reason his mother had mispronounced the term.
    “Hey, man, let’s ball,” D-2 suggested, inviting himself over to the half-court basketball asphalt in Chris’s backyard. He and Chris began walking toward the Winters’ home.
    “Derrick, don’t lose that CD I just bought you,” Vivian directed at his back.
    “You can lose yours, Chris,” Kathy added. Both women laughed. “See you later, Viv.”
    Vivian ejected the Kem CD, placed it in its case, and retrieved the shopping bags. Once inside her home, she put down her purchases and quickly looked through the mail on the foyer table. “Change your clothes before going out to play, Elisia,” she said to her daughter, who was headed up the stairs. “I need to make an important call. Only disturb if it’s an emergency, okay?”
    “Yes, Mama,” Elisia answered.
    Vivian watched her rapidly growing daughter bounce up the stairs. Lord, please help her not grow up too soon . She lay down the mail, walked into the kitchen, and took marinating chicken breast fillets out of the refrigerator. After placing them in the oven and setting the other dinner preparations on the counter, she headed to her office and called Kansas City.
    Tai picked up on the second ring. “I thought you said you’d call right back.”
    “This is right back. I had to start dinner. So what’s up with Tootie being back in town? How long has it been, ten, fifteen years?”
    Tai’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Janeé, she goes by Janeé now.”
    “Tootie is Ja-nay?” Sometimes an upset Tai was hard to follow.
    “Yeah, I guess the name Tootie didn’t look so good in lights. Remember she moved to Germany, did some recording? She was pretty popular from what I hear, starred in musicals, recorded a couple albums. What was that one hit song of hers? ‘Heat’ or ‘Hot’ or something? Anyway, I haven’t heard anything about her in a minute….” Tai’s voice trailed off.
    “So what is she doing back in Kansas City?”
    “Her mother’s sick. In the back of my mind I just knew that would bring Tootie’s ass back here. I prayed it wouldn’t, but I just knew…”
    Vivian was all too aware of how Tootie used to be Tai’s nemesis, continuing to see King while he and Tai were dating, and having an affair with him after they married. She remembered how relieved Tai had been when right after her second child, Princess, was born, Tootie moved from the Midwest, swearing never to return. But that was a long time ago. Everyone was older, wiser, and Tai and King’s marriage was on solid ground. Vivian wasn’t going to make a mountain out of a molehill.
    “Okay, wait a minute, Tai. Why are we going here? Why are you making a big deal of this? Of course she’d come back to care for her mother.”
    Vivian continued, determined to make Tai focus on what was really important. “You and King are back on track, tighter than ever. He loves you. He’s committed to you. So, Tootie’s back in town—Tootie, Janay, whatever her name is. So what? What has that got to do with you?”
    “Everything. One of the first people she asked about was King. That’s how I found out she was back.”
    “Well, good. He told you.”
    “That’s the other thing. King didn’t tell me. Mama Max did.”
    Vivian wished it had been King instead of his mother, but she still wasn’t going to help her friend trip.
    “When did Mama Max tell you?”
    “Earlier today. Sistah Stokes ran into Tootie at the store. Tootie asked about King. Sistah