"No way! The help baked it. You would never want to see me again after eating a pie I baked. It would be a disaster."

"One day you and I will make one together," he promised.

Noelle's voice was as squeaky as a mouse when she asked him, "You can bake a pie?"

"Oh yeah. I wasn't blessed with a silver spoon. I've watched my mother bake up a storm. It rubbed off on me."

"I guess sometimes letting others do for you can make a person like me lose out on doing simple things that may just be fun. I look forward to making pies with you." She smiled.

Sid jumped up out of his seat. He took the remainder of the pie off the table and tossed it in the trashcan.

Noelle watched him with her mouth wide open. He took their plates and dumped them in the sink.

"I can't believe you threw the pie in the trash."

"Oh, yeah. We're going to bake our own pie."

"Right now."

Sid ran around the kitchen and took out all the ingredients to make a sweet potato pie. Noelle stood back and watched him move around the kitchen like a professional chef.

"Come over here. I'll give the instructions and you'll do as I say."

"I think you're going to regret throwing the other pie in the garbage."

"My recipe is better. And your touch is going to make it taste even better."

Noelle did as he said every step of the way. "This is fun," she admitted as she stirred the sweet potato mixture.

She finished his last instruction. She placed the pie in the oven.

"There, the pie is cooking. Wait until Milandra hears that I baked a pie. She's going to think I've truly gone against being a Houston."

"Baking a pie doesn't make you less of a Houston," Sid a.s.sured her as he took some of the leftover pie mix around the bowl and scooped it on his finger.

Holding his finger to her mouth, Noelle licked off the pie filling. "Superb!"

Noelle enjoyed the sweetness of the filling, and then she saw the sink was full of dirty bowls. "The kitchen is so untidy."

"More fun for us."

Sid removed the bowls and filled the sink with soapsuds and water. He washed the dishes. Noelle occasionally checked on the pie as it cooked. She kept the light on in the oven.

"Get away from there," Sid said as he handed her a dishtowel. "You can dry the dishes."

"We should have used the dishwasher. That would have been quicker."

"We're doing it the old-fashioned way-with our own hands."

Noelle wiped over the bowls, half-drying them. She didn't feel like a Houston in the way the world portrayed them. She wished the media could have captured her having fun in the kitchen.

Turning off the oven, Sid gave her orders that the pie was ready.

Noelle covered her hands with oven mitts to avoid burning herself on the hot pie pan. She held her head back from the heat that escaped from the oven. "It smells so good," she said as she placed the golden brown pie on top of the stove.

"We'll let it cool down."

"I'm ready for a bite."

"Set the table."

Noelle got out two small plates. She placed a fork next to each plate and filled two gla.s.ses with cold milk. She waited for Sid to give the okay to slice the pie.

He turned around and smiled at her. "Miss Houston, would you like the honor of cutting your first baked pie?"

Noelle curtsied. "I thought you would never ask."

Sid took the pie over to the table and she cut it into slices. She placed a slice on each plate. Sid went back and got the ice cream out of the freezer.

"One scoop of vanilla for me," Noelle said.

He put two scoops on his plate. They sat down and absorbed the taste of the pie with the ice cream.

"This is magnificent."

"You should be proud, Miss Houston."

"I am...to have you come into my life."

They ate the dessert until their stomachs felt like lead balloons.

"Talk about overeating. I've had my share of pie tonight."

"You made my first night in this house without my sisters one to be remembered."

Sid got up and started to clean the dishes. Noelle went over to him. "Leave it for tomorrow."

She took him by the hand and led him upstairs to her bedroom.

"As always I ask you, are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm a grown woman; you don't ever have to ask me that question again."

Noelle eased her hands up his chest and around his neck. Sid loosened the pins in her hair to let it fall. They kissed pa.s.sionately.

Noelle stepped back and removed her clothes. He stared as she shared her bare flesh with him again. The light from a pole outside glowed through the window to shine on her body.

"Aren't you going to join me?"

Sid removed his clothes. Noelle hungered for him. Once his last piece of clothing exposed his masculine parts, she raced into his arms. He lifted her up and laid her on the bed. He climbed on top of her. There he explored her body.

Noelle moaned from the force as he entered her. She locked her legs around him. He moved like the waves of the ocean and she paddled along with him. She screamed, knowing that her sisters wouldn't have any say-so in her life. This was her paradise-to live her life as she pleased.

Sid rested under the covers with her. He held her in his arms close to him. "I'm not the man you or your father would see as a suitable husband, but I can make you happy. Just give me the time to show you that I'm worthy of you."

Noelle touched his mustache. "My heart tells me you're perfect for me. We'll let things fall into place." She kissed his chest.

Sid looked at his watch. "It's late. I better get going."

Noelle placed her finger on his lips. "No such thing. My heart says you're wanted here for the night. Go to sleep."

They slept in each other's arms.

Chapter 33.

Back at the Houston Estate, Milandra saw to it that the guest bedroom was completely redesigned. The mahogany king-sized bedroom set was given away to the Salvation Army and replaced with a king-sized, cherrywood bedroom set. The bedding matched the newly painted green wall color.

Their parents' bedroom was also redecorated. Milandra decided to move into the master suite, leaving Kenley on the west wing of the house. Her goal was to turn her and Noelle's old bedrooms into more guest rooms.

She hurriedly unpacked as Nolan carried up the last box of clothing. He dropped the box on the floor. Taking a hand towel, he wiped the sweat that dripped down the back of his neck.

"I'm tired. Girl, you Houstons don't play when it comes down to clothes."

Milandra laughed. "We have to stay ladylike at all times."

"I don't know if I can keep up with royalty."

Milandra looked at him, noticing that his face showed no signs of humor.

"Nolan, I don't expect anything extra out of you other than the person you are."

"Thanks, because I can't give you what you want. I don't have the cash to do it."

Milandra knew this would come into play sooner or later. She went up to him. "I'm not looking for the world from you-just your friendship."

"Friendship! Is that it? Milandra, you only want me as a friend? I'm a man who wants a wife and kids one day, but I get the feeling you don't want what I want."

"We come from two different worlds. We could never be man and wife."

"I thought you really dug me. d.a.m.n, I've never been used by a woman."

"I'm doing no such thing. I mean we can be together and have fun, but it wouldn't be appropriate for me to marry someone of your status. You don't have wealth."

Nolan hit his fist against the wall. "You're no better than Aniyah and your father put together. I'm out of here. Take my company off your list for services. I won't be doing business with you anymore," he said as he stormed out.

"Nolan, why are you doing this? You know how things can only be for a Houston," Milandra called.

Kenley overheard them. She saw Nolan leaving, slamming the door behind him, and Milandra running after him, tearfully.

"What's going on between you two?" Kenley asked.

"I have lost Nolan. He couldn't understand that we can only be friends."

"And why can you two only be friends?"

"We're from two different worlds. I can't marry a mover."

"He owns his own company," Kenley said as she sat down on the top step.

"Nolan doesn't have wealth."

"He has love for you. That should be good enough. I hope you didn't tell him he didn't have wealth."

"I had to be honest with him."

"You lost a man who worships you, and you dared to tell him it's because he has less. You can marry a man with lots of money and be miserable."

"Oh, Kenley, Father wouldn't want his fortune going to the common man."

"Mother would want you to be happy. Doesn't she count too, sometimes?"

"Stop making things difficult for me," Milandra said as she left Kenley and went back into her bedroom.

Milandra slouched down on the bed and wept herself to sleep. In her heart, she missed Nolan already but the damage was done. Her outspoken behavior had caused her to lose him.

Kenley went into her sister's bedroom. She saw that Milandra was sound asleep.

Tiptoeing over to a nightstand, she picked up Milandra's cell phone and carried it out into the hallway. She scrolled to find Nolan's number programmed in the phone. She called him. Nolan didn't answer, so Kenley decided to call him from her line. He picked up.

"h.e.l.lo, this is Kenley. Please don't hang up on me. I didn't do a thing to you."

"I'm not going to hang up on you. I hope you're not calling me for your sister."

"She doesn't know I'm calling. The calls you got from her number, I made them."

"Are you trying to get us back together? It won't work. Your sister made it clear about what she wants-and it's not broke me."

Kenley sat on the floor in the hallway. "You have to understand Milandra. Yes, she's stubborn and bossy. She's not used to anyone else taking the lead on things except my parents. You are a new world to her. It's frightening to her that she has actually fallen for someone that doesn't have lots of money. In her head, love and wealth go together."