A Family Reunion (8 page)

Slowly, silently, Rae’jean shook her head. Being a doctor herself, she clearly understood what Grady was telling her, but still she didn’t like it. Because he had to perform open heart surgery first thing in the morning, he could not fly out with her that day for Macon, Georgia. Instead, barring any unforeseen complications with his patient, it would be sometime late Friday afternoon or early Saturday morning before he could get a flight out to join her at her family reunion.

He seemed to sense her disappointment and reached across the table in the hospital’s cafeteria and took her hand in his. “You do understand, don’t you, Rae’jean?”

She met his gaze. The last thing he needed to be concerned with was how she was handling the disappointing news. Grady needed to have his mind completely clear. The complexities of open heart surgery required total and complete usage of a surgeon’s mind both before and after the operation.

She forced a smile up at him. “Yeah, I understand. I’m a doctor, too, remember. Some things just can’t be avoided. How about if I just wait and fly out the same time you do and—”

“No, Rae’jean. I know how much you’ve looked forward to seeing your family again and spending time with them. I don’t want you to change your plans because of me. I’ll join you late Friday night or early Saturday morning, just as soon as I can get a flight out.”

She nodded. She did look forward to seeing her family again and spending time with them. She had spoken to Alexia earlier that morning. The two of them would be arriving at the hotel around the same time. Already she, Alexia, and Taye had made plans to get together in Alexia’s suite later that night. “I’m going to miss you.”

Grady smiled at her admission. His hold on her hand tightened. “Not half as much as I’m going to miss you. I hope you know that Christmas won’t get here fast enough for me.”

Rae’jean nodded, smiling. “I’m waiting for it with bated breath myself,” she whispered softly, and watched as his eyes darkened with more than a hint of longing and desire. They had decided on a small wedding on Christmas Day. That meant they would be husband and wife when the New Year rolled in. Although the date for their wedding was five months from now, they were looking forward to the night they would become sexually intimate again. Keeping their hands off each other was a sheer test of their wills. But like she’d told Grady, the abstention would make their wedding night the best ever.

He leaned forward toward her across the table. “Are you absolutely sure I can’t get you to reconsider your request for us to hold out?”

Rae’jean sadly shook her head no and smiled at the pout that appeared on Grady’s face.

“Well, how about if we moved our wedding date up sooner? The wait is about to kill me.”

Rae’jean threw her head back and laughed with sheer delight. He was determined not to give up on making her change her mind. The thought that she could put that deep, dark, sensuous glaze in Dr. Grady Fitzgerald’s eyes was some pretty heady stuff. She had opened her mouth to respond when a feminine voice interrupted her.

“Grady?”

She and Grady turned to take stock of the woman who stood next to their table. For some reason Rae’jean knew immediately who she was. The way the very attractive blond-haired, blue-eyed woman was looking at Grady with such familiarity said it all. This could only be the renowned former fiancée, Lynn.

A few seconds later Grady confirmed Rae’jean’s suspicion when he stood and said, “Lynn. Hi. What are you doing here?”

“I had an appointment here and thought I’d look you up.”

“An appointment? You’re OK?”

Lynn smiled. “Yes, I’m fine. My third-grade class at school drew pictures about the dangers of smoking, and the hospital agreed to display them on the wall in the main lobby starting next week.”

Rae’jean sat there wondering if Grady had completely forgotten her presence. She was about to clear her throat to remind him of her existence when he looked down at her and smiled. It was a reassuring smile.

“Lynn, I’d like you to meet my fiancée, Rae’jean Bennett,” he said to the woman. To Rae’jean he said, “Rae’jean, this is Lynn Whitworth, an old friend.”

Rae’jean nodded, not bothering to stand. She reached her hand out to the woman. “Hi. Nice meeting you, Lynn.”

The woman took her hand in a friendly exchange, but Rae’jean was fully aware that she was being checked out from A to Z. “The same here, Rae’jean.” Lynn returned her gaze back to Grady. “How have you been?”

“Fine,” Grady answered her. “What about you?”

“I’ve been doing OK.”

After a few moments of silence, Lynn said, “Well, I’d better be going. It was good seeing you again, Grady.”

“Yeah, same here.”

Lynn then turned her eyes to Rae’jean. “I’m glad to have met you, Rae’jean.”

Rae’jean blinked. What she saw in Lynn’s blue gaze was something only another woman would notice. Especially one whose profession could easily recognize signs of pain, despair, and regret. The woman standing before her had once loved Grady very much. Chances were she still did.

Rae’jean took a quick glance up at Grady. He seemed not to have noticed the look in Lynn’s eyes. In fact, he wasn’t looking at her at all. Instead, he was checking his watch. It was time for him to leave and go make his rounds. It was time for Rae’jean to leave as well. She glanced back at Lynn and stood up from her chair. “I’m glad I got the chance to meet you, too, Lynn.”

“I hate to run, ladies, but I have to go make rounds,” Grady said, smiling first at Rae’jean and then at Lynn. “I’ll be sure to check out that display from your class when it goes up next week, Lynn,” he said as he quickly began walking away. He stopped, turned, and gave Rae’jean a warm, seductive smile. “I’ll see you again later, before you leave for the airport.”

Rae’jean returned his smile. “With your busy schedule will you be able to get away?”

“I’m going to make it a point that I do.”

Rae’jean’s smile widened as she watched Grady turn back around and continue walking. She noted that Lynn kept her eyes on him until he disappeared around a corner. Then the woman nervously turned and met her gaze and said, “Well, I’ll be going now. Again, it was nice meeting you.”

I just bet it was.
Rae’jean was never one to hold her tongue when she felt she had something to say. She quickly decided now was one of those times and came right out and asked, “Lynn, why are you really here?”

At first the woman frowned in puzzlement. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“I think you do,” Rae’jean responded in a clipped tone. “Did Grady’s sister Candace suggest that you come here to see him just like she suggested that you look him up when you got to Boston?”

Lynn stared at her. “Candace is concerned and suggested I talk to him.”

Rae’jean smiled briefly. “In my opinion Candace is a lot of things. And at the moment none of them are nice.”

Lynn met Rae’jean’s gaze. “Candace loves her brother and wants what’s best for him.”

And no doubt Candace believes you’re what’s best for him,
Rae’jean thought to herself. “At least that’s something Candace and I agree on. I want what’s best for Grady, too.”

Lynn nodded her head slowly. “Candace isn’t the reason I came here today. I had to see for myself.”

Rae’jean lifted a brow. “See what?”

“I had to see if he was truly as happy as he pretended to be at dinner that night.”

“Oh, and what’s your verdict?”

“He wasn’t pretending. He is truly happy,” Lynn said, her voice flat and defeated. She then turned and walked away.

“I don’t want to go!”

Michael gritted his teeth against his daughter’s words as well as the tone of voice she was using with him. As a child if he had spoken that way to either one of his parents or his grandfather, he would be picking his teeth up off the floor this very minute. At times he was starkly amazed at how much the world had changed over the past twenty years. But then he knew it was the people in the world who had actually done the changing. They were more tolerant and their kids were less respectful.

“And you can’t make me go, either!”

Michael placed his arms across his chest and gave Kennedy a look that clearly said he could make her do anything he wanted and that he was at the end of his patience with her. She had the good sense to read the silent message in his glare and take a step back. “Do you want an instant replay of what you got the week before we moved here, Kennedy?”

He watched as she slowly shook her head no. He didn’t think that she did, but he thought he would ask anyway just to make sure. The week before they had moved to Atlanta, he had whipped her behind in good fashion, getting her for “the old and the new,” as his parents would have said. The next day after she’d gone to school he had waited for the school officials to call him and accuse him of child abuse. He’d been almost certain she would take the opportunity to claim as much to the school administrators. But no one called, and if they had called, he’d have a thing or two to tell them or any judge or court of law that would question him about giving Kennedy the whipping she’d rightly deserved. Under no circumstances would he be made to feel like a criminal for giving his daughter the type of discipline she needed to make her straighten up and fly right. As a loving parent he appreciated anyone, teacher, school administrator, or child welfare official, who was concerned with a child who routinely came to school with bruises or broken limbs. But as far as Michael was concerned, when it came to a good tanning to the backside of a disobedient or disrespectful child, especially someone with a lot of mouth like Kennedy, that was the only way to get through to him or her.

As a parent Michael didn’t want to ever hurt Kennedy by having to spank her, but then as a parent he felt it was something he had to do. What she needed to take her through life was a good attitude and respect for herself as well as for others.

Michael ran a hand over his stubbled chin. He was grateful that he and Kennedy understood each other—for now. “OK then,” he said, glancing at the kitchen clock. “I’m going into my room to finish packing and to shave. I want you to go to your room and finish packing as well. I plan to leave around four o’clock. It will take us an hour to get to Macon, which will put us at the hotel around five, plenty of time to make the welcome reception at seven. Understood?”

He watched as Kennedy glared at him before stomping out of the kitchen without bothering to say whether she understood one way or the other. Later as he stared at himself in the bathroom mirror while he shaved, Michael couldn’t help but think of Stephanie and the promise he’d made to her about letting another woman come into his life and heart. What woman in her right mind would want him if Kennedy was a part of the package? His daughter would give any woman he showed an interest in pure hell. But then he knew that he would never get involved with any woman who would not accept his child. She was his and he wouldn’t neglect or ignore her for anyone. That was the main reason he avoided his neighbor across the street, Marcella Boykins, at all costs. Although she was around ten years older than he was, it was quite obvious that she was interested in him, as she didn’t bother hiding it. The first time they had met was the day he and Kennedy had moved into their new home. Marcella Boykins had boldly strutted across the street to officially welcome him to the neighborhood. She had flirted shamelessly with him in front of Kennedy, who had watched the entire thing with curious eyes. The woman had dressed to garner attention and interest by wearing skin-tight jeans and an all-too-revealing top. She had licked her lips the entire time she’d been talking to him, undressing him with her eyes, and had told him her life’s history in a little over thirty minutes.

Although Marcella was a very good-looking woman with a put-together body, he’d found her lacking in a number of ways. Her age didn’t bother him, but the way she dealt with Kennedy whenever his daughter was around did. Marcella liked bragging about how quickly she had given her kids to her husband to raise when they got unruly and began cramping her style.

“I just didn’t have the time or patience to deal with them anymore,” she had told him as she batted her long lashes and licked her lips while looking at him like he was a bowl of cream and she was a hungry cat. “Kids can be such a bother,” she’d added. “If I had known they would be such a pain, I would never have consented to getting pregnant,” Marcella had concluded.

He and Kennedy had been in the grocery store at the time Marcella made that comment. She had run into them there and had invited herself to follow them from aisle to aisle offering idle, meaningless conversation while he and Kennedy did their grocery shopping. After hearing Marcella’s words, Kennedy had looked at him with questioning eyes at the same time she had reached for a jar of mayonnaise, as if wondering if perhaps he felt the same way about her that Marcella felt about her kids.

To rid his daughter of any such thoughts, he had quickly said to the woman, “You’re right, Marcella; kids are an awesome responsibility and only the strongest of parents will survive. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can’t imagine Kennedy not being a part of my life each and every day. There’s no way I would ever slack off on my responsibilities as a parent, because she means the world to me. I love my daughter very much.”

His words had brought a huge smile to his daughter’s lips, and he knew Kennedy had needed to hear his affirmation that she still meant everything to him and that he loved her. It seemed from that day forward things had gotten better between them.

Until today, when she found out she had no choice but to go to the family reunion.

“I may as well warn you that she’s on her way over here,” Kennedy said, entering the bathroom.

Michael looked up and met his daughter’s gaze in the mirror as he continued shaving. “Who are you talking about, Kennedy?”

“The man-hungry Mrs. Boykins.”

He frowned as he continued to shave. “That’s not a nice thing to say, young lady.”

“It’s true, Daddy, and you know it. All she wants is for you to unzip your pants and get into her panties.”

The heavy lashes shadowing Michael’s cheeks flew up and the razor fell from his hand into the sink. He whirled around and stared at his daughter, tongue-tied. Kennedy merely looked at him with a smug smile on her face. Nothing, not even the sound of the doorbell ringing, broke his stare. He was too stunned. Finally he was able to find his voice after taking a deep breath of utter astonishment. “What do you know about someone unzipping their pants and getting into someone’s panties?”

She had the nerve, he thought, to actually laugh. “Oh, Daddy, I’m not a child,” she said. She sobered up quickly when she noticed that he wasn’t cracking a smile. “I’m thirteen, remember,” she rushed in and said. “There are a lot of things I know. Since moving here, with nothing else to do, I’ve been reading a lot of books and watching a lot of television.”

He leaned against the vanity cabinet, thinking he’d better start paying closer attention to what books she was reading and what shows she was watching on television. “We’ll definitely talk about this later, Kennedy. Go and get the door.”

“She doesn’t want to see me. You know as well as I do that Mrs. Boykins only came over here to see you.”

He glared at her. “Do what I said and get the door, Kennedy,” he said in a stern voice.

He watched as she turned and left the room. He couldn’t help but shake his head. Just last month after Kennedy had gotten her first monthly period and he’d survived that, he had hoped that surely with her official emergence into womanhood and their move to Atlanta, the worst part of dealing with a teenage daughter was past him. It seemed his hope was in vain and he was wrong.

Dead wrong.