Chapter 18
“What an amazing turnout!”
Lexi glanced up at the heavyset, middle-aged woman who had appeared at her table as the last customer left, armed with an autographed copy of Lexi’s debut cookbook.
“I think it went pretty well,” Lexi agreed.
“Pretty well?” the bookstore manager echoed incredulously. “You had a line wrapped around the corner and you sold out in an hour!”
Lexi smiled, undeniably pleased by the successful outcome of her book signing. Yesterday’s event, the first of her two-week book tour, had gone just as well. Not only that, but her cookbook had debuted on a major bestseller list and was already headed for a second printing, according to her editor.
As if those weren’t reasons enough to celebrate, she was in love. Deeply, madly in love with a wonderful man who also happened to be her best friend in the world. For the first time in years, Lexi could honestly say that life was good.
“Can I get you anything, Ms. Austin?” the bookstore manager asked, eager to accommodate. “More Perrier? Hors d’oeuvres?”
Lexi smiled, rising from the table. “No, thank you. I’m meeting some friends for lunch—”
“The ones who were here earlier with cameras and big signs?”
Lexi chuckled. “Yes. And one of them is pregnant,” she said, referencing Samara, “so I’d better not keep her waiting much longer.” She shook the woman’s hand. “Thanks so much for your hospitality.”
“Thank you. It was a real pleasure to meet you, Ms. Austin. I wish you the best with your cookbook.”
“Thank you! I appreciate that.”
As Lexi headed from the large chain bookstore, she pulled out her cell phone and felt a pang of disappointment when she saw that there were no missed calls.
She’d hoped to hear from Quentin by now.
After attending her book signing yesterday, he’d left for Washington, D.C.
, to tend to some business matters at the law firm’s other office.
Since becoming Marcus’s partner, he’d had to take on even more responsibility, which meant more travel.
He’d be gone for a week, and Lexi honestly didn’t know how she’d make it that long without him.
Last night she’d slept in one of his T-shirts, which was so big on her it could have been a muumuu.
She’d buried her face in it, inhaling the wonderful, familiar scent that clung to the fabric.
Smiling, she sent him a text message. I miss you.
“Alexis?”
She glanced up. A man had appeared directly in her path. Medium height and build, with stooped shoulders and deep lines carved into his pockmarked brown skin. Sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes rimmed with heavy bags hinted at a life of hard drinking.
As recognition dawned, the ground tilted beneath Lexi’s feet and she staggered back a step, staring in shock.
It can’t be.
But she knew it was.
Ray Austin. Her long-lost father.
“How ya doing, baby girl?” he said, greeting her as though they’d just spoken the week before. “Looks like I’m too late for your book signing. Real sorry about that. I’d hoped to—”
“What are you doing here?” Lexi whispered, the words forced out through dry lips.
Her father frowned. “I just told you. I came for your book signing. I saw you on TV last week—”
“You saw me,” she repeated scornfully. “You haven’t seen me in over thirty years!”
Ray grimaced. “Well, now, I can explain—”
“You don’t need to explain anything. I have no interest in anything you have to say.”
He took a step forward and she instinctively retreated, heart knocking painfully against her ribs. Glancing around the busy bookstore, she met the curious stares of several onlookers and realized that she was causing a scene.
“Excuse me.” With a curt nod at her father, she sidestepped him and hurried from the bookstore. Once outside, she sucked in deep lungfuls of air. She felt as if she were suffocating, having one of her panic attacks.
Ray followed her out of the store. “I know I haven’t been there for you like I shoulda. But—”
She whirled around. “But what? All these years without so much as a birthday card or a phone call. And you show up here out of the clear blue, expecting me to—what? Welcome you with open arms? Call you Daddy?” She raked him with a look of scathing contempt. “You wasted your time coming here.”
He had the nerve to scowl. “Don’t I have a right to be proud of my daughter’s accomplishments?”
“You gave up that right when you walked out on us! And I think we both know that pride has nothing to do with why you’re here today.”
His eyes shifted guiltily from hers.
Lexi felt sick to her stomach. “Just as I thought,” she mocked bitterly. “You saw me on TV, and now you think you can weasel your way back into my life to cash in on my newfound success. But you’re sadly mistaken. If you think you’re getting one red cent out of me, think again!”
“Baby girl—”
“Don’t you dare call me that! I’m not your baby girl. And if you ever try to contact me again, I’ll take out a restraining order against you. Stay the hell away from me!”
As she spun around and hurried across the parking lot toward her car, he called after her, “Ask your mama why I left. She knows!”
Lexi hurled herself into her car and slammed the door. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought it would explode. She was supposed to meet her friends for lunch, but as she raced out of the parking lot, she had only one destination in mind.
She found her mother sitting in her favorite armchair in the living room, surrounded by a thick, noxious cloud of smoke as she puffed away on a cigarette.
On the television, a rerun of The Golden Girls blared loudly.
As Blanche launched into a spirited discussion of one of her sexual escapades, Carlene cackled and slapped her thigh.
Lexi strode purposefully into the room and shut off the television.
Carlene protested, “Hey, I was watching—”
“We need to talk, Ma.” Brimming with fury, Lexi paced up and down the floor.
Her mother watched her for a moment, then took a long drag on her cigarette and shot a stream of smoke from the corner of her mouth. “How’d your book signing go?”
“Great,” Lexi snapped. “By the way, so nice of you to show up.”
Carlene arched a brow. “Why should I go to your book signing? I don’t need an autographed book from you—you’re my daughter.”
“Exactly! I’m your daughter, and just once it would be nice if you could show a little support.”
“Is that what’s got you so upset? Because I didn’t come to your damn book signing?”
“No, Ma,” Lexi jeered. “I didn’t expect you to come, so how can I be upset that you didn’t?”
Carlene’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t take that tone with—”
“However,” Lexi rudely cut her off, “it might interest you to know that while you couldn’t be bothered to show up, someone else did.”
“Who?”
Lexi looked her in the eye. “My father.”
She watched as the color slowly leached out of her mother’s face. Carlene’s hand trembled as she tapped her cigarette into an ashtray on the table beside her, muttering darkly, “What did he want?”
“What do you think, Ma? He wanted money. He saw me on Michael’s show, so he figured he’d come hit me up for cash now that I’m supposedly rich and famous.
” A nasty, mocking smile twisted her mouth.
“Isn’t that what he used to do, Ma? Wait until me, Colby and Summer were at school, and then sneak over and hit you up for money? ”
Carlene was toking furiously on her cigarette. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“Oh, yes, I do!” Lexi shouted angrily. “I knew every time he’d been at the apartment.
The cash in our rainy day jar would be gone, and you were always in an especially foul mood after you’d seen him.
” She shook her head in grim disgust. “I used to wonder why he never stuck around long enough to see his own children. And I used to wonder why on earth you’d give him money after everything he’d done to you.
It was almost like he was blackmailing you. ”
“You need to leave this alone,” Carlene warned in a strained voice.
“Leave what alone? The dark secret that’s been eating away at you for as long as I can remember? Is that what I should leave alone? Well, I can’t!”
“Don’t you have better things to worry about?” Carlene sneered. “Like keeping that man of yours in check?”
Taken aback, Lexi stared at her. She hadn’t told her mother about Quentin because she hadn’t wanted to subject herself to a bitter diatribe about cheating men.
“You thought I wouldn’t find out?” Carlene taunted, a mocking gleam in her eyes.
“Last Sunday in church I overheard Quentin’s mama telling the pastor’s wife that her prayers had been answered, because Quentin had finally realized he was in love with his best friend from college.
” Carlene smirked. “Obviously she wasn’t talking about Michael, so the only other best friend she could be referring to was you.
I left before they caught me eavesdropping, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re already planning your damn wedding. ”
Lexi swallowed hard, but said nothing. She didn’t expect her mother to understand the powerful connection she and Quentin shared. She didn’t expect Carlene to admit that maybe, just maybe, Lexi had lucked out and found the real deal: a man who truly loved her and wanted to be with her.
Because deep down inside, her conscience whispered, you don’t completely believe it either. Not yet.
“I thought you were smarter than that,” Carlene muttered, crushing out her cigarette in the ashtray. “After everything Adam put you through, I can’t believe you’d be foolish enough to get involved with yet another man who has a wandering eye. I guess some chicks just never learn.”
“You’re one to talk,” Lexi shot back.
When her mother flinched, she felt a stab of guilt.
She should have known the retaliation would be swift.
“I don’t know how long you and Quentin have been dating,” Carlene said with malicious satisfaction, “but I should tell you that I saw him going into Wolf’s Soul with another woman two weeks ago.”