To Build a Vow Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One Lisa

  Chapter Two Jeremiah

  Chapter Three Lisa

  Chapter Four Lisa

  Chapter Five Jeremiah

  Chapter Six Lisa

  Chapter Seven Jeremiah

  Chapter Eight Lisa

  Chapter Nine Lisa

  Chapter Ten Jeremiah

  Chapter Eleven Lisa

  Chapter Twelve Jeremiah

  Chapter Thirteen Jeremiah

  Chapter Fourteen Lisa

  Chapter Fifteen Jeremiah

  Other titles by Chencia C. Higgins

  TO BUILD A VOW

  Chencia C. Higgins

  Copyright Chencia C. Higgins © 2018

  www.therealchencia.com

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination, or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locations or organizations is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews. All rights reserved.

  Acknowledgments

  To my IAS family - Your existence alone is invaluable. I’ve grown exponentially since stumbling across you. Thank you.

  To Patrice of Little Pear Editing - I’m so glad I found you. Like Fabolous, “You make me better”. It’s not just your job, you’re a real one and I appreciate that. Thank you!

  To my sister authors who let me slide into their DMs when I have a rant in my spirit - Thank you for entertaining my shenanigans. Good looking out.

  To my Arkansas family - I love y’all. This one’s for you.

  This is #9. Let’s get it.

  Chapter One

  Lisa

  “It must be nice, having a celebrity for a brother-in-law.”

  I tilted my head, causing my black, elbow-length box braids to fall into my face and cut my eyes at the interloper. The four of us had exited the arena minutes earlier and were crossing the busy intersection. Talk about inconsiderate; Fallon’s tone had a hint of sarcasm that I didn’t appreciate.

  “Considering the fact that you just reaped the benefits of it, yeah, I’d say it’s pretty nice.”

  The only thing Fallon should have fixed her mouth to say was “Thank you”. She just saw a professional basketball game without having to come out of pocket for anything. Although I had already planned for me and my girls to catch a Houston Clutch game this weekend, I had no idea that my boyfriend—by way of his baby brother, Jermaine Hawkins, who was the face of the Clutch franchise—was going to upgrade my tickets to a private suite. I’d been more surprised than anyone else when the attendant at the gate told us to take the elevator up to the platinum level. I’d only invited two of my girlfriends along for this weekend trip to Houston. A week after Valentine’s Day, the city was celebrating Creole Fest, which was an homage to Mardi Gras and with all of the events taking place this weekend, I figured it was a great time to take our biannual getaway.

  It was usually just me, my best friend Trisha, and my coworker-turned-friend, Candice, but this time, Candice begged me to let her cousin, Fallon, come along. With the same warm, pink-tinged beige skin, kinky red hair, and green-tinted brown eyes, the two of them could pass as full-blood sisters instead of cousins. Candice had given me a convincing and relatable story about Fallon not having many friends after her recent move from northern Louisiana to southeastern Arkansas where we lived, and as a result, not being able to take trips like me, Candice, and Trisha often did. I could clearly remember arriving in Pine Bluff at the age of eighteen and having to acclimate to life in a different state, and because of that and my self-proclaimed title as an advocate for sisterhood, I relented.

  We’d only been in Houston for a day, and I could clearly see why Fallon didn’t have any friends. She constantly made snide comments about any activity we did, complaining about everything, and for some reason that was lost on me, she kept trying to throw shade on my relationship with Jeremiah. That confused me the most because I didn’t even know her outside of Candice’s introduction yesterday, not to mention, she was tagging along on my trip, so I didn’t get why she was trying to come for me. My level of patience was generally pretty high being that I am a fifth grade teacher; however, I didn’t employ that same level of tolerance when dealing with adults. It was a testament to my strength, but I was trying to keep my anger in check because this was supposed to be a getaway in every sense of the word. I’d purposely left my man and my daughter back in Arkansas for this worry-free weekend.

  Trisha, my best friend since our freshman year at UAPB, threaded her arm through my mine and tugged me away from Fallon. Trisha’s golden brown skin was closer to my own hue, so the four of us looked like two sets of siblings strolling along. The streets surrounding the arena were packed with people in various stages of celebration. Costumed revelers had spilled out of the nearby Recovery Park, laughing and dancing to the live music that could be heard from the stage in the center of the park. A horse-drawn buggy rode past us, carrying a shirtless man with dozens of beads hanging from his neck. He whistled in our direction, and Trisha called out to him.

  “Hey, baby!”

  He blew her a kiss, and the four of us laughed as the buggy turned a corner and he was jerked back into his seat.

  Trisha turned to me. “What’s next on the agenda?”

  I opened my mouth to suggest dinner or the night club that Jermaine had told me about when Fallon tapped me on my shoulder. I gave her my undivided attention and she smiled excitedly.

  “Ooh, I know! Let’s go get our palms read.”

  Even Candice gave Fallon the side-eye when she said that, her almond-shaped, green-tinted irises narrowing suspiciously.

  “Seriously, Fallon?”

  “Yes! It’ll be fun, plus it fits with the theme of this weekend. It is Creole Fest, after all.”

  Trisha snapped her fingers. “Playing with magic is your idea of fun? No wonder you’ve been pissy today; we’ve been engaging in adult activities so you must have been bored as hell.”

  Fallon glared at Trisha, and I couldn’t withhold my laughter. It might have been wrong of Trisha to antagonize the other woman, but she was only saying what I was thinking. Besides, it was funny, too. Candice cringed but I didn’t care. Her cousin had been nothing but a pain in the butt, and I bet everything I owned that Candice knew Fallon would act this way.

  Fallon was pretty animated about her idea and surprisingly, she was smiling for what had to be the first time since we’d landed at the airport. If doing this would get her to stop complaining for the rest of the trip, I would go along with it.

  I cleared the regret from my throat. “Let’s do it.”

  Trisha whipped her head toward me. “Do what?”

  I sucked my teeth. “The palm reading. It’s something new.”

  Candice blinked at me, eyes wide with surprise. “Are you serious, Lisa?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.” I turned to Fallon. “Why not, right?”

  Fallon aimed her smile my way and nodded. “Yeah, why not?”

  Trisha sputtered, “Maybe because some of us don’t want to give demons a map to our front door!”

  I laughed. “Girl, what? Demons?”

  Trisha nodded and Fallon pursed her lips, arms folded across her chest. “If demons come after you, it’s only because you invited them.”

  I cut my eyes at Fallon then at Candice to see her giving her cousin a mortified look.

  Trisha snapped her fingers. “Exactly! I don’t have any invitations to give out for
demon-folk. Me and Jesus don’t even play like that.”

  I held up a hand to interrupt their back and forth. “Wait a minute; I thought palm reading was just when they tell you if you’re going to find love or not.” I looked at all three women. “What’s all this talk about demons?”

  Candice wrung her hands together, her face twisted in distress. “Palm reading is harmless. It’s just interpreting the lines in your hand. Some people call them ‘love lines’, so, you’re right about that. At any rate, there are no demons involved.”

  Fallon rolled her neck. “Well, actually—”

  “Fallon, please stop!” Candice’s screech made all three of us freeze. Even visibly upset, she was still polite. The sweetest person I knew had just screamed at her cousin. Fallon was the only demon as far as I could tell. I shook my head and grabbed Candice’s hand, squeezing gently.

  “If you say it’s harmless, I trust you. Let’s go get it over with so we can go eat because I’m starving.” I waited until she nodded then stared at Trisha expectantly. She stared back for a few seconds before rolling her eyes and releasing a huge sigh.

  “Fine!” She looked like she wanted to say something else, but Candice pinned her with a pleading gaze.

  Fallon rolled her eyes and pulled her cell phone from her pocket. “The place isn’t far from here, less than fifteen minutes according to my GPS. I’ll call a rideshare.”

  With all of the activity going on all around us, I was unsurprised when, two minutes later, Fallon announced that our car was at the corner. The ride was a quiet one as we headed south of downtown but as soon as we exited the SUV, the sounds of celebration surrounded us again. The street we were on was festively illuminated and spilling with pedestrians. Though it was after nine o’clock, almost every businesses on either side of the street had an open sign flashing in their window. Candice, Trisha, and I followed Fallon down the sidewalk to a narrow storefront. The sign hanging from the awning read Zing’s Sweet & Sour with a piece of colorfully swirled wrapped candy underneath the words. My brows met in confusion. Why had Fallon led us to a candy store?

  Trisha voiced my silent question. “What are we doing here?”

  Fallon rolled her eyes. “Didn’t we already go over this?”

  Candice touched her cousin’s arm. “We’re just trying to understand why you brought us to a candy store. Are you sure this is the right place?”

  “Yes!” Fallon damn near hissed. “I got the address from an online group I’m in.”

  “The ‘Bitch, I’m a Witch!’ group?”

  The what? My eyes widened as I tried not to laugh at the genuine confusion in Candice’s voice. Trisha had no such restraint. Fallon’s face flushed and she spoke to her cousin through clenched teeth.

  “Yes, that group. Can we just go in?”

  All three women looked at me and I shrugged.

  “We’re here. We might as well.”

  When we entered the shop, a bell tinkled overhead, and we were greeted by a throaty voice that washed over me in a comforting way, like being enveloped by a warm blanket.

  “Welcome to Zing’s Sweet and Sour.”

  The room was bathed in a warm yellow glow and divided down the center by a narrow aisle that led straight ahead, to a long, glass counter directly across from the entrance. On each side of the aisle were rows and rows of candy-filled shelves. Aside from us, the store was empty. Behind the counter and in front of a seventies-style wall of beads stood a gorgeous mocha-skinned woman with long locs that fell long past her elbows until they were out of sight. As the four of us walked deeper into the store and closer to the counter, her eyes devoured each of us individually, pausing briefly on Fallon longer than they stayed on the rest of us. We stopped in front of her and for a few seconds, there was an awkward silence.

  Then, her lips curved into a small smile and she leaned forward, folding her arms on the counter and peering at us curiously.

  “Peace and blessings, sistahs. What brings you to my little candy shop when none of you want to buy any candy?”

  My eyes widened in surprise at her matter-of-fact tone, and I know my girls’ expressions were the same. How did she know that?

  Fallon stepped forward. “We’re here to get our palms read!” she proclaimed boldly.

  The woman’s left eyebrow quirked up, but her smile never left her face. “That isn’t an advertised service. May I ask what brought you here for that?”

  I watched as Fallon put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side? “So, you saying you don’t do that here? That Mama Sari don’t read palms here?”

  I groaned internally. This girl was so rude. Why would Fallon come in here—a place of business—with a whole attitude? I frowned at Candice, annoyed that her cousin was working my nerves and trying to ruin my weekend.

  Trisha sighed audibly, annoyance coating the sound. “That’s not what she said dumdum. Clean the wax out of your ears and tuck your attitude back into your purse. She asked you the same thing that we asked you: How did you find out about this place?” She narrowed her eyes at Fallon, daring her to say one more stupid thing. The woman behind the counter observed the whole exchanged with that same smile plastered on her face.

  Fallon at least had the nerve to look chagrined. To the woman, she said, “My bad. I didn’t realize that’s what you were asking me. Um, I heard about the readings on…Yelp.”

  I twisted my neck to side-eye her in disbelief. That wasn’t what she’d just told us outside and if the look on the face of the woman behind the counter was any indication, Fallon’s lie wasn’t convincing at all. She stood up straight and placed her hands flat on the counter top.

  The woman quirked an eyebrow. “You do not wear the color orange well at all, my sistah.”

  I looked over at Trisha whose face was painted with a deer-in-headlights expression. Fallon wore a denim jumper and unless the thong that she kept complaining was cutting into her skin was orange, I had no idea what this woman meant. To say I was confused and more than a little freaked out would be an understatement. I was just about to say ‘Screw this!’ and hightail it out of there when the curtain of beads behind the woman parted and a second woman emerged. She looked nearly identical to the first, save for the heavy streaks of gray woven into her locs and slight wrinkles in her skin. She wrapped an arm around the younger woman’s waist and smiled at us.

  “Good evening, friends. How can Mama Sari guide truth and blessings unto you?”

  Candice nudged Fallon, who seemed to have swallowed her tongue. She cleared her throat.

  “Greetings, Mama Sari. We came to see you for palm readings.”

  Mama Sari’s eyes lit up. “Truest? Oh, I’ve not done a reading in quite a while. My dearest Zing has allowed me to lose myself in candy-making, I’m afraid.” She squeezed the younger woman to her side, whose eyes were still trained on Fallon. “I will do it! Let me prepare the room.” Then she disappeared behind the beaded curtain almost as quickly as she had appeared.

  Fallon turned, giving us all a smug smile. “I told you so.”

  Candice shook her head. “Fall, I don’t like this. These women seem very nice.” She quickly glanced at the counter, then back at her cousin, “but this whole thing is making me nervous.”

  “Damn, can you stop being so scared all of the time?!”

  “Hey!” Trisha moved in between Candice and Fallon. “Don’t talk to her like that. I don’t care if you’re her cousin; you don’t get to dismiss her concerns like that!”

  I watched as Fallon rolled her neck and jutted out her hip. This dummy was preparing for a fight. In the middle of a store that she dragged us into. I wasn’t about to let that happen. Not only because we were in a place of business, but we were also on vacation. I stepped forward.

  “No one will be fighting tonight.”

  We all froze. The woman from behind the counter was standing behind me. She placed a hand on my shoulder and touched Trisha’s wrist.

  “Calm yourselves, sistahs.”<
br />
  Immediately, I sucked in a deep breath and when I exhaled, I felt relaxed like I was sunbathing on a beach in front of water as blue as the sky. It was as if I had breathed out all of my anger and frustration and had been left with nothing but good vibes. My wide eyes collided with Trisha’s, and from her astounded expression it was clear that she felt the same. We both turned to the woman, but she was already back behind the counter.

  What. The. Hell?!

  I opened my mouth to ask just what the hell Fallon had brought us into when Mama Sari reappeared. The smile on her face melted into a pout when she observed the scene before her.

  “Oh, no, no, no. This will not do. Come, friends,” she beckoned to us before walking back through the beads and Fallon just about skipped her way behind the counter. Candice started to trail meekly behind her cousin but stopped and turned back to where Trisha and I stood unmoving.

  “You two are coming, right?”

  I wanted to shout “Hell no!” but the pleading note in her voice pulled at my heartstrings. Whatever that Zing-woman did to me was still in effect, and waves of calm were coursing through my body, eroding any worry that I’d previously had. I shrugged. Like I’d said outside, we were already here, so we may as well go through with it.

  “Yeah, we’re coming.” I held my hand out and Trisha grabbed it. The corner of her mouth curled up and she lifted one shoulder.

  “Let’s go.”

  We walked behind the counter, and I hugged Candice to my side, causing her to visibly relax in response. In my peripheral, I saw the woman watching us. Finally able to get a clearer look at her, I turned my head slightly. Up close, her mocha skin was flawless and made me want to step my skincare regime up. Her black locs hung down to her hips with a few of them wrapped in gold thread. She wore a simple v-neck t-shirt, the color of grass, that clung to full breasts that were obviously not encased in a bra. My eyes bucked at the two rod-shaped imprints that couldn’t be anything other than nipple piercings. The shirt was tucked into a full brown skirt that was cinched at a ridiculously small waist then curved dramatically to cover her rounded hips. The skirt stopped at her ankles, displaying her bare feet and purple-painted toenails. To put it plainly, the woman was straight up and down gorgeous. She looked like a live and in color pinup woman in hippy clothing.