Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [67]
Justin smiled. Because he loved his uncle and because he knew this power play of woman versus man could last the rest of the day, Justin took a deep breath and decided to intervene, taking on his role of peacemaker in the family. “Give it up, Jake, and give in. You may as well because you’re fighting a losing battle. Give them what they want, and come join us. The game’s getting pretty interesting over here.”
Jake sent Justin, as well as the other men who were seated across the room at the card table, a hard glare. “It wouldn’t be a losing battle if all of you put more effort into controlling your wives.”
“Our wives are your nieces,” Daniel Green reminded Jake, not bothering to look up from his close study of the cards he held in his hands. “Surely you can get them to do something simple like going along with your way of thinking. That should be easy enough for you since you had a hand in raising Felicia, and everyone knows how controlled she was before Trask married her.”
Felicia Madaris Maxwell rolled her eyes upward. “Thanks a lot, Dan.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Felicia looked at her uncle, who was only a few years older than she was. “Really, Jake, all we’re asking for is one night, a girls’ night at the cabin, not an entire week’s leave of absence. You’ve had Diamond for eighteen months, surely you can miss her presence for one night.”
Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “Why can’t you do this girls’ thing right here? This house is plenty big enough. Why do you want to spend a night at the cabin?”
“For privacy,” Caitlin Madaris said.
“For bonding,” Traci Madaris Green added.
“To cultivate sisterhood,” Lorren Madaris threw in.
“To get Diamond away from you for one night to give her body a rest.”
Jake frowned. Not surprisingly the last statement was made by Clayton’s wife Syneda. She was known to not bite her tongue about anything. She wouldn’t hesitate to lay her cards on the table and play what she thought was a winning hand, something her husband was probably doing across the room at that very moment. Jake had a feeling she had been the one to share that information with Diamond about the Madaris men constantly being in heat.
Jake cleared his throat. “I don’t have a problem with the privacy, the bonding, the cultivating of sisterhood or,” looking pointedly at Syneda he said, “giving my wife a night of rest, but I still don’t understand why you need to do it at the cabin and not here.”
“Come on, Uncle Jake, a girls’ night at the cabin won’t hurt anything. Then you guys can play poker all night,” his niece Kattie said.
Jake almost told her it was their plan to do that anyway. He let out a sigh and had to admit Syneda was right. His wife did need a break from him. She deserved at least one restful night. Right now she was upstairs sleeping off the exhaustion from their full morning of lovemaking. But still, he wasn’t ready to give up his fight.
“Don’t you ladies have children to take care of?”
“No,” Caitlin answered quickly. “Mama Marilyn and Poppa Jonathan took the kids back to Houston with them, so all of us are children-free.”
“And I don’t have a child to worry about yet,” Syneda added, smiling.
Jake lifted a brow. “Maybe that’s your problem. Maybe you need a child to worry about so you can settle down and stop being everybody’s advocate.” He glanced across the room at his nephew. “Clayton, you need to work on getting your wife pregnant.”
To Jake’s surprise, and to the annoyance of the men at the card table who were intent on finishing the game, Clayton placed his cards down and stood up. He held out his arms and Syneda walked across the room into them. He wrapped her in his arms and lovingly kissed her on her lips. “My wife is pregnant. She found out this morning.”
At first shocked silence, then earth-shattering elation followed Clayton’s surprise announcement. The women raced over and pulled Syneda from Clayton’s arms.
“Oh, Syneda, that’s wonderful,