Second Chance at Love (Love Conquers All) (27 page)

“I know she had a fit. That’s a sore subject for her, and my dad just keeps picking at it every chance he gets.”

Karen gingerly lifted the baking sheet and placed it in the pre-heated oven. Wiping her hands on her apron, she said, “I could tell. She rolled her eyes so hard at him when she came in the kitchen I thought they were going to get stuck in the back of her head.”

Seeing she was finished, Dom patted his sturdy, muscular thigh. “Come here, I have to talk to you.”

Uh-oh, this sounds serious. Karen untied the apron, lifted it over her head, and slung it over the back of a chair before taking a seat in Dom’s lap. “What’s up?”

Wrapping his arms around her slender waist, he kissed the spot on her cheek where her dimple popped out. “I need to talk to you about Ashley.”

Concerned, she shifted in his lap so she could look in his face. What could be wrong with her daughter? Had someone done something to her that she was afraid to talk to her about? Her voice was strained with worry when she asked, “Did someone hurt her?”

He pulled her closer and kissed her brow. “No baby, nothing like that,” he promised as he shared with her what Ashley told him at lunch. He knew this was something he couldn’t keep from Karen; he knew this was something she needed to know.

Covering her face, she moaned. “Oh my God. I didn’t mean for her to hear any of that.” Karen wanted to kick herself. How many times had she and Starr snooped and listened to what their mother thought was a private conversation with one of her girlfriends about their father running off again? This was something kids did. Nevertheless, she remembered what she now knows was the shame of having a deadbeat for a father. She’d always been careful not to say anything negative in front of the children about Gregory. So she thought.

Removing her hands, Dom kissed each one of them. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up.”

“I’m not. It’s just that I know she doesn’t have any memories of Gregory and I don’t want her to think badly of him.” She tilted her head to the side to gauge if he understood where she was coming from. “Know what I mean?”

No. The twitching in his jaw was a dead giveaway.

Dom selected his words carefully. “I suppose because he was her father you don’t want her to have any ill feelings. But babe, sooner or later she was going to find out about how things really were between you and Gregory.”

Karen took a deep breath. He was right. Just like she and Starr had found out about all of their father’s dirt, Kyle and Ashley were bound to find out about Gregory’s many secrets. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess I just wanted to keep her protected as long as possible.”

“I understand. But to be honest she was more concerned about my love and commitment to you.” Dom flashed a sexy grin. “Don’t worry, I assured her you were never getting rid of me.”

Karen chuckled. “You are so crazy.”

Shaking his head, he laughed. “No, this is crazy.”

Karen’s mouth hung open in disbelief as he replayed Kyle’s interrogation of the flirty waitress. “Shut up! No my child did not ask that woman that?”

She could feel Dom’s chest vibrate as he laughed. “I took care of it. I had a little chat with them both about respecting adults regardless of their behavior.”

“Good,” Karen said wrapping her arms around his neck. “Enough of that. Now tell me how much you missed me.”

And that’s exactly what he did.

Morning of the Wedding

Karen’s home was a flurry of activity as she and her girls excitedly buzzed about preparing for her big day. Their pampering had begun before sunrise. Lisa, Karen’s longtime manicurist, had opened her nail salon at five forty-five to accommodate the bridal party.

Thank goodness she didn’t have to deal with cranky children this morning. Donna had picked them up after school the day before. She and Ashley had gone to have their manicures and pedicures done yesterday. Patrick had taken Kyle to the barber for a cut.

Karen was completely blown away when they arrived. The salon was decorated with black and violet balloons and streamers. A table of muffins, croissants, bagels, butter, jams, various juices and coffee had been prepared. Lisa even went a step further, bringing in a technician for each of them.

“Oh, Lisa this is so nice,” Karen gushed, not believing she had been so thoughtful as to make this day even more special.

The other women looked around the beautifully decorated space, agreeing with her.

Going to the petite Asian woman, Karen gave her a big hug. “You didn’t have to do all of this.”

“You stop. You know you my best customer.” And she wasn’t telling a lie. Karen had been one of her first loyal customers when she opened her doors some ten years ago. She had also helped Lisa to study for the U.S. citizenship test. With Karen’s busy schedule and Lisa running a business, it had taken them six months to prepare. But she passed the test the first time and was now a productive U.S. citizen.

Smiling and looking over at the other technicians, Lisa teased in her thick Vietnamese accent, “We got to get her ready for wedding night so she make baby.”

“Lisa! Stop it!” Karen playfully scolded, hitting Lisa with her fluffy scarf.

The tiny salon erupted in laughter. Lisa’s warm and comical personality is what kept Karen and most of her customers coming back.

After they’d divested of their winter gear, Lisa led Karen to a pedicure station. One technician led Summer to the other station, while the other two led Ava and Starr to the manicure stations.

Karen and Summer both sighed at the same time as their feet eased into the water just hot enough not to burn. Lisa and Summer’s technician took their places on the stools at the foot of the bowls.

Gently lifting one of Karen’s feet out of the water, Lisa said, “Tell me about this party you had,” as she began her ministrations.

It was Ava who groaned, “Oh dear God in heaven.”

Starr snickered beside her as she looked over her shoulder to see both Karen and Starr roll their eyes.

When no one said anything Lisa frowned. Looking up at Karen she tugged on her foot.

“Girl! What happen?”

Karen laughed. Lisa was a hot mess. If she wasn’t telling bits and pieces of her own gossip she was interrogating her clients for theirs.

“Well…what had happened was…”

Dropping her head, Summer laughingly muttered, “Oh boy, here we go,” as Karen began to tell the adventure of a lifetime.

The morning after meeting with the wedding planner, Karen gets a call from her mother telling her that she and the other ladies were taking her to Vegas for her bachelorette party.

“Mom, I have to work and what am I going to do with the kids?”

Karen could just see her mother waving her off as she said, “I talked to your boss and he agreed to give you the time off. And the men are going to take care of the children.”

“Mom, you did what?” she asked in disbelief.

Donna countered with, “Is something wrong with your hearing?”

Letting out a deep breath, “No Mom, but I can’t just pick up and go to Vegas.”

“Sure you can. If the other girls can do it, so can you. Now get off this phone and get packing. The limo will be there in an hour.”

Before she could further argue her point of not being prepared for a spur of the moment trip, the next sound she heard was a dial tone. She immediately called her sister. When Starr answered, she demanded, “What in the world is going on?”

“Girl, the old babe squad is taking us on a trip to Vegas for the next four days.” The excitement in her voice wasn’t missed. The last time Starr took a trip to Vegas she had been in a depressed mood because of her fertility issues. This time she
was
going to have fun.

“What about Kalvin, Sydney and Shayla?” Karen questioned, baffled. Starr had never up and left the toddlers, who wouldn’t be turning two until June.

“Listen, that’s what they have a father for. Mommy said Dom agreed to look after Ashley and Kyle, so what’s the problem?”

Yeah, what was the problem? Here she had a group of women who wanted to give her the time of her life and she was being stuck in her role as good old dependable Karen. If her sister could leave three toddlers in the care of their father, surely she could do the same.

“Nothing. There’s no problem.” Her sister’s excitement was contagious. “Get off the phone so I can pack!”

Karen didn’t know what happened when they landed in Vegas. It was as if her mother and her counterparts, aka Janet Peretti, Joan Stiles, Nita Jackson, Beverly Dawson, and Beatrice Warrington, had lost their minds. And that’s putting it lightly.

The first night they arrived everything was cool. They had a wonderful dinner at Emeril’s restaurant in the MGM Grand. The next morning they shuffled to The Spa at the Wynn where they were staying. Surrounded by pure opulence, they enjoyed being pampered like the ebony queens they were.

It was the second night where all hell began to break loose. Beverly whacked a twenty-something upside the head on the casino floor of The Venetian because she stepped on her bunion and refused to apologize. The redhead retaliated by yelling, “You mean old bitch,” in Beverly’s face. Before Starr could snatch her up, the old gals crew swam around her as if she was bloody flesh and they were sharks. By the time they got finished taking turns tongue lashing her and threatening to beat her so bad her own momma wouldn’t recognize her, a crowd had gathered, the girl was a hysterical mess and Karen was mortified as they were escorted out of the casino by security for causing a ruckus.

The third night as they headed out to the Bellagio casino Summer made them swear there would be no repeat of last night. Oh goodness, why did she do that? They had to listen to a thirty minute discourse about how they were old enough to be
everybody’s
mother on planet earth and how no snot-nosed, stringy-headed, strumpet was going to disrespect any one of them. They all cut their eyes at Ava when she huffed, “We get it. Can we go now?”

In the end, the mature ones agreed to behave. Karen should have known something was up from the glimmer in Joan’s eyes as she elbowed Beatrice.

Hitting the casino floor, they all scattered about to try their hand at gambling. Ava was working the one armed bandit when Starr came charging over with Summer and Karen on her heels. Pointing to the poker table, Starr warned, “You better get over there. Your mother-in-law just placed eight one thousand dollar chips on her hand.”

Ava shot up from the stool she’d been sitting on while sipping on a piña colada. “What!” Leaving her drink, she marched over to the poker table. Tapping the woman on the shoulder, she said, “Mom Beatrice, what are you doing?” She did not want to have to explain to Langston how she let his mother blow eight grand in twenty minutes.

Beatrice gave Ava the talk-to-the-hand move. “Hush daughter, I’m trying to concentrate.”

Ava shot daggers at Starr, Karen and Summer, who were snickering like a pack of hyenas. Raising her eyebrow at Janet as if to say
you’re going to let her do me like that?
Janet just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

Rolling her eyes, Ava gathered around Beatrice with everyone else as they watched her play her hand. Beatrice was the last to reveal her hand. Everyone groaned at the downcast look on Beatrice’s face. She’d just blown eight grand. The big Texan sitting across from her had a smile that was as wide as his hometown of Dallas. He’d just spread two aces and two jacks; the other two men had folded. Letting out a big sigh, she slowly turned her hand over and spread her cards. Four tens. The small crowd behind her went wild.

Leaning across the table, she scooped up her winnings of thirty-two thousand dollars. She was hot and wasn’t about to stop. It wasn’t that she needed the money, it was the adrenaline rush that she loved.

“What are you doing?” Ava asked again, this time with her hands on her hips.

Slightly turning to look at her daughter-in-law, she smiled. “I’m going to play another hand.”

Shaking her head, Ava said, “Oh, no.” Reaching across Beatrice, she began to gather up the chips, stuffing them in her jean pockets. “You will not have your son on my case about you losing a ton of money.” Bending down, she gritted between her teeth in Beatrice’s ear so no one would hear her. “Langston told me about your gambling problem.”