You're the One I Want Read online

  Thank you for downloading this Strebor Books eBook.

  * * *

  Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Strebor Books and Simon & Schuster.

  CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

  or visit us online to sign up at

  eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

  Dear Reader:

  Welcome to the world of Shane Allison, whose debut novel, You’re The One I Want, will surely create fans for the talented author. His engaging style of writing and storyteller skills will keep readers on task turning pages to the end.

  Meet Bree and Tangela, two best friends, who are competing for the same man although Bree is unaware of Tangela’s yearnings for her doctor husband, Kashawn. His twin brother, Deanthony, arrives back in town and has his sights set on his brother’s wife, Bree. This mix of feening for another one’s lover and the attempt to destroy a marriage makes for scandalous drama.

  Throw in others such as the twins’ Mama Liz and a stripper, Katiesha, who is used as a pawn to make the love triangles even more twisted, and you have a tale of deception and suspense.

  As always, thanks for supporting myself and the Strebor Books family. We strive to bring you the most cutting-edge, out-of-the-box material on the market. You can find me on Facebook @AuthorZane or you can email me at [email protected].

  Blessings,

  Publisher

  Strebor Books

  www.simonandschuster.com

  1

  BREE

  What the fuck is he doing here?

  I thought I was going to lose my shit when I saw Deanthony walk through the door of Mama Liz’s house. Deanthony’s skin glowed under the living room lights. He was wearing a red durag, a black tank top, and black, baggy jean shorts. A trace of red from his boxers was showing from the waistband. I’m not going to lie, he looked good, but still, what the hell was he doing here? It took everything in me to keep from dropping the cup of punch that Tangela had spiked with vodka when nobody was looking. Suddenly, my heart was pounding like a drum in my chest. I gawked at Deanthony like the devil himself had walked in Mama Liz’s house, and as far as I was concerned, the devil was exactly who Deanthony was, a demon spawn. Tangela startled me when she crept up behind me, grazing my arm.

  “Girl, did you see who just walked up in here?”

  Deanthony looked dead at me as he shook hands, gave dap and half-hugs to friends and family. You would think he was some famous athlete or some shit, the way everybody gathered around him.

  “I didn’t think he was going to come.”

  “He looks good,” Tangela said. “Damn good.”

  “You’re not helping,” I said, annoyed by Tangela stating the obvious.

  I watched Kashawn from the kitchen window where he and Tyrique stood on the deck, nursing on beers.

  “Hey, baby, you came,” Mama Liz shouted, damn near knocking me down to get to her son. She wiped her hands dry from dish water on the apron that was draped around her, and gave Deanthony a big, mama bear hug.

  “Hey, Mama. Of course I came. It’s only my brother’s birthday.”

  “You look so skinny. What, you don’t eat up there in Hollywood Land?”

  “I can’t believe he’s got the balls to show his face here, yet I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

  “You want me to get rid of him?” Tangela asked.

  “No, forget it. It’s all good. I don’t know why I was stupid enough to think that he wouldn’t have the guts to show up for Kashawn’s birthday party.”

  Everyone but me was happier than flies on shit to see Deanthony, especially since he didn’t come around that much. You would think he had just returned from some space mission from Mars the way everyone was hovered around him like he was some golden child they needed to protect. I noticed Yvonne, Kashawn, and Deanthony’s cousin staring at me from across the room. I knew right then and there that she must have had something to do with getting Deanthony to show up at the party, just so she could see my reaction. That nosey bitch needed to get herself some business.

  “You’re going to be all right, girl?” Tangela asked.

  “Shit, girl, you know me. Calm, cool, and collected.” I could tell by the look Tangela gave me, she didn’t believe a word that tumbled past my lips.

  I made my way out to the deck where Kashawn, Tyrique, and friends were talking, drinking, and playing spades. I ran to Kashawn’s side like there was some evil thing hungry on my red-bottom, fuchsia Christian Louboutins.

  I leaned in and whispered, “Deanthony’s here.”

  Kashawn gawked at me as if I’d just told him I had six weeks to live.

  “He just arrived. He’s in the living room with your mama.”

  “Where my brother at?” Deanthony hollered.

  Always gotta be the ham, I thought.

  He stood in the doorway that divided the deck from the house. The rest of the birthday party guests gathered around him like he was Tallahassee royalty.

  Kashawn started toward him. I was scared shitless, not sure what Deanthony was going to say or do. My nerves settled when Kashawn greeted Deanthony with a grizzly bear hug of warmth and affection after three years of being away from the family. I couldn’t help but wonder what brought Deanthony back to Tallahassee other than to ring in his thirtieth birthday.

  “Man, where the hell have you been?”

  “Bro, you know how I do. Still out here on this grind.”

  I nervously sipped spiked fruit punch from my red Dixie cup.

  “What’s up, Bree?” Deanthony asked, looking at me as if nothing happened.

  He wrapped an arm around my waist, hugging me. I could feel his hand on my ass and prayed to God that Kashawn hadn’t noticed the advance he made.

  “You look good, girl, damn!” he said, shouting loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.

  My plan was simple: avoid his ass like an STD. I could feel pearls of sweat dripping from the roof of my armpits. I knew damn well that Deanthony didn’t have the balls to put what we did on blast at the fish fry birthday party here in front of all his friends and family. I learned the hard way not to put anything past Deanthony’s sneaky ass. He might have had Mama Liz, Kashawn, and everybody else fooled, but I knew firsthand what a sinister bastard he could be, especially when he wanted something he couldn’t have.

  “All right, y’all come on and get it. The food’s ready!” Uncle Ray-Ray, Kashawn and Deanthony’s uncle, yelled while forking mullet, bream, hushpuppies, and fried oysters in an aluminum pan. The smell of fresh fried fish infiltrated the hot June air. Uncle Ray-Ray was known around Tallahassee for serving up the best of everything when it came down to food. The best fish, the best barbecue, the best banana pudding, the best pork chops, the best chittlins, not to mention being the go-to guy for installing stereo systems.

  Everyone started to line up along the table, grabbing paper plates. Tyrique’s big ass was the first in line, of course, forking what had to be five pieces of bream and mullet on his plate, followed by a mess of cole slaw and cheese grits. No matter where he was—restaurant, party, fish fry—Tyrique always ate like every meal was his last. I grinned, watching his wife, Ebonya, nudge him, scolding him to save some fish for everyone else. Tyrique had always been kind of this big, dumb jock, teddy bear of a man. Kashawn got him on as an orderly at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

  “Baby, you hungry? You want me to fix you a plate?” I asked.

  “Um, yeah, baby, would you please? You know what I like.”

  “You still eat them fried oysters like that?” Deanthony asked.

  “Hell yeah, with some hot sauce. That ain’t nothin’ but good eatin’.’ ”

  Kashawn gr
abbed another beer from the wash basin filled with ice and an assortment of beer and Chek sodas. Deanthony would nonchalantly look off in my direction, smiling, knowing something only he and I knew. If the truth ever came to light, it would kill Kashawn.

  After seeing Deanthony, I had lost my appetite. The smell of fish and fried oysters was making me nauseous as I plated the seafood on a paper plate for Kashawn. Shit, I wish I could blame it on fish. Seeing Deanthony was the real reason behind my queasy stomach. Kashawn and Deanthony sat at one of the patio tables, drinking beer.

  “There you go.”

  “You’re not going to eat anything, baby?” Kashawn asked, roping his arm around my waist, resting his hand on my booty.

  I looked over at Deanthony and said, “I’m not really hungry.” With laughter in those big penny-brown eyes of his, he took another swig from a Corona. “I left my cigarettes in the car. I’ll be back.”

  “You all right?” Kashawn asked.

  “Yeah, baby, I’m fine. Stomach bothering me, that’s all.”

  “It’s that cheap Winn-Dixie liquor Tangela put in the punch that’s got you sick. I told you about drinking that stuff.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” I gave Kashawn a kiss on the forehead. “I’m going to the car to relax.”

  “Okay. Feel better.”

  “Thank you, baby.”

  I ignored Deanthony as I walked off, easing my way through the crowd of guests armed with plates of food.

  Tangela made her way over to me, sensing that I was in need of her best friend forever benefits. “Girl, what happened?”

  “Come outside. I need a cigarette, bad.”

  Tangela’s black Mustang was parked behind a row of cars in Mama Liz’s pine-needle-strewn driveway.

  “I got something better than cigs,” she said, pulling a plastic sandwich bag of weed out of the glove box.

  “Damn, bitch, you ride around with this in your car?”

  “No, I just brought it today in case my best friend had to sneak out of her man’s birthday party to get away from his brother whom she fucked around with.” Tangela laughed, but I didn’t find what she said the least bit funny.

  “Whatever, bitch. Light that shit up.”

  Tangela was a slightly plumper version of me with apple butter-brown skin, hazel eyes that made her look like a vampire, and a weave that flowed luxuriously down her back. The low-cut red blouse she wore barely held in her round, cantaloupe breasts she loved showing off every chance she got. Tangela lit the end of the joint and took a couple of puffs and passed it to me.

  “Hold on, let me crack the windows,” she said. “Mama Liz isn’t going to run out here cursing and screaming for smoking weed in her yard, is she?”

  “Hell, she would probably join in. Kashawn told me she smokes weed herself. Medicinal marijuana, he said. Something about her bad knees or some shit.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Tangela said, taking her joint back. “So I saw you over there with Kashawn and Deanthony. I’m surprised you still keeping it together with him being here.”

  “Shit, barely. If I didn’t get away from him, I was going to lose it.”

  “I thought he was on the grind in L.A., trying to do that acting thing?”

  “That’s what Kashawn told me. Deanthony said he had too much going on to come home. You saw that I was as surprised as anyone to see him bust up in here like that.” When Tangela passed the blunt back to me, I took a long drag, letting the weed infiltrate my lungs.

  “Damn, ma, slow down. That’s about all I have until I get back to the house.”

  “Girl, you would think that out of respect for my marriage, he would have stayed away. That’s what I get for taking the word of a high-yellow, Denzel Washington wannabe brother like him. Did you see Yvonne looking at me when Deanthony walked in? That busy bitch wanted to see my reaction and I fell right into that shit. I know she’s the one who convinced him to come home.”

  “Bree, come on, now. Yvonne is family.”

  “Family, hell. She’s had it out for me since the day I said, ‘I do.’ ”

  “Why would she mess with you like that, though?”

  “Because ever since I told the family that I used to strip at Risqué, she hasn’t liked me. I can’t stand how she prances around here like she shits potpourri.”

  “She’s so damn uppity since she got sanctified,” Tangela added.

  “And Akaisha at Radiance Salon, who went to Rickard’s High School with her, told me she used to spread those hippo thighs for every dick that swung in her face.”

  Tangela bucked with laughter as she took a toke from the weed. “Damn, girl, you wrong for that.”

  “I’m just telling you what I heard. I’m sick of her giving me the stink eye every time she sees me. Matter of fact, I’m going to go in here right now and tell her to back the fuck off. I don’t care whose first, second, or third cousin she is.”

  Tangela grabbed my arm as I opened the car door. “The last thing you need to do is go up in there, making a scene at Kashawn’s birthday party of all places. Forget her. Leave it alone.”

  I sat there, feeling the effects from the weed. “Yeah, you right. Forget that heifer. I’m too high anyway.”

  “What she needs is some dick,” Tangela said. “Some big Mandingo to fuck her cross-eyed.” Tangela had me laughing my ass off when she said that.

  As the two of us continued getting high, Mama Liz peeked her head out of the screen door.

  “Oh shit.”

  “What are y’all doing out here? Come on inside. We’re about to cut the cake.”

  “Okay, Mama Liz, we coming.”

  She stared at us, puzzled, like she was trying to make out what we were doing. “I mean it. Come on now.”

  “Are you going back in?” Tangela asked.

  “I’m too fucked up and I don’t want to go back in there smelling like weed.”

  “You wanna get out of here?”

  “Yeah. Kashawn will understand. I told him that I don’t feel good no way. I don’t think I can go through the rest of the afternoon having to make idle chatter with Deanthony in there.”

  Tangela drove me home where we mellowed out to Beyoncé’s “Sasha Fierce” CD.

  “Damn, ma, you did your thing on the remodeling.”

  “You like it? You know I love that Afrocentric shit. Kashawn gave me his credit card and told me to have fun. You know, with his long hours at the hospital, he doesn’t always have time. I damn near furnished the whole house in a day.”

  “I like these tables and the sectional. All this must have set y’all back a couple of stacks.”

  “Girl, you know I don’t look at the price tag. If I like it, I get it.”

  “That painting of you is cute.”

  “It’s all right. The artist is from Atlanta. I think he made me look too old. I want this artist Fullalove to do it.”

  “Who?”

  “Fullalove. He paints these portraits of athletes and rappers. I’m going to New York in November so he can paint me. It’ll be a nice Christmas gift for Kashawn.” I walked over to the bar in front of the kitchen. “Hey, you want a drink?”

  “Yeah, I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

  Tangela continued looking around in awe at all the new furniture like she was in a museum while I poured two glasses of Chardonnay.

  “So girl, what are you going to do about Deanthony?” she asked as I handed her a glass of wine.

  “No clue. I guess this is what they mean by making your bed and lying in it.”

  “You don’t think he will say anything to Kashawn, do you? Came back to clear his conscience?”

  “Deanthony doesn’t have a conscience. Family or no family, he doesn’t care who he hurts. Just like he showed up at the party without any thought for me. The best thing he can do is stay the hell away from me and Kashawn.”

  “Well, baby girl, you know I got you if you need anything. He’ll have to go through me first if he’s thinking about messing shit up
with you and Kashawn.”

  “Thanks, Tange, but I don’t think he’ll be a problem. I plan on staying away from him.” I was about to take another swig from my drink when my cell phone rang. I pulled it out of my clutch. I studied the number on the screen. “Oh, this brother’s got brass fucking balls, girl.”

  “Who is it?”

  I showed Tangela Deanthony’s number on my phone.

  “Don’t answer it.”

  Against Tangela’s advice, I pressed the green icon on my phone. “Why are you calling me?”

  “I told you, didn’t I? I told you I was coming back for you.”

  “Stay the hell away from me, Deanthony.”

  “Or what?”

  “Or I’ll make you wish you had.” I pressed END CALL before he could utter another syllable.

  “What did he say?”

  “He ain’t here for the cake. I gotta do something, ’cause if I don’t, I’m going to lose Kashawn.”

  2

  BREE

  Three years seemed like a lifetime ago the night I was unfaithful to Kashawn. It was one of the worst thunderstorms ever that year in August. I was headed home from Cheeks and my legs were killing me after dancing my ass off all night. All I wanted to do was soak in a warm bubble bath, a treat Kashawn often had waiting for me. On my way home in the rain, I caught a flat. It was the front-left tire on the driver’s side. The one I had been on Kashawn’s bubble butt about changing for months.

  “I told him a million times to take the tire off, that I didn’t want to be driving down some dark road and I mess around and catch a flat.”

  I was coming from my girl’s Latasha’s baby shower. I couldn’t really enjoy myself with him blowing up my cell every five minutes.

  “What are you doing?”

  “The same thing I was doing when you called me ten minutes ago. I’m still at Latasha’s.”

  The only way I was going to have any semblance of fun was if I switched off my phone. When I switched it back on as I was leaving the shower, there were, like, eleven messages in my voicemail. All of them were from Kashawn. If I didn’t call him back, I knew he would show up at Latasha’s.