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Before taking the job he had read everything he could about the Louisiana Creoles. He knew how both white refugees and free people of color found sanctuary in the bayous. Some lived peacefully among the Native Americans. A mixture of French, Spanish and African heritages. They had come together, united to create their own culture: the Louisiana Creole. They still considered themselves as one cultural unit, although their legacies were different. It was obvious Reid Lacroix had French ancestry while Trudy liked to boast of her Spanish birthright. He would bet Vashti Alcindor was a mixture of all three—French, Spanish and African. He would even throw part Native American into the mix.
She had soft brown eyes, long eyelashes, high cheekbones, shoulder-length dark brown hair and skin the color of rich mocha. Her full lips were a total turn-on and he thought her nose was the perfect shape and size for her face.
He’d noticed all that the day he’d given her a ticket, so why had he concentrated on them at the meeting and why was he thinking about her features now? He could be having an attack of lust, but surely he was too old for such ailments. He’d gone three years without a woman after Johanna, and probably would have gone longer had he not hooked up with Leesa. Sex was never something that had driven him even during his bachelor days when he’d dated his fair share of women. He’d been more into a career in the military than anything else. After marrying Johanna they had enjoyed a good sex life because more than anything they were always making up for lost time. He was convinced returning-home-from-deployment sex was the best kind.
During the first six years of their marriage he was active-duty military. The hardest thing was being shipped off for a year and leaving Johanna in her fourth month of pregnancy. When complications arose and Johanna was ordered bed rest until after the baby was born, he appreciated her best friend, Erin, staying with her during that time. He had returned home to a very healthy six-month-old daughter.
Sawyer had fallen in love with Jade the moment he’d seen her, and he’d known what total happiness was. He, who never had a family to call his own, had finally gotten one. On that day while holding his daughter for the first time, he had promised Johanna that he would be the best father any child could ever have.
That’s why I love you so much, Dad. You’re the best.
As he got dressed he took comfort in the words Jade had spoken tonight, knowing he was keeping his promise to Johanna. He was taking care of their little girl and trying to be the best father she could ever have.
* * *
REID LACROIX DIDN’T know the words to the song playing on the stereo system. The only thing he knew was that it had been one of Roberta’s favorites and she played it often. He recalled the song had been playing somewhere in the house the night she’d died. He was sure of it. After Julius’s death she had tried stopping her chemo treatment but he wouldn’t let her. He’d convinced her to finish all her sessions by saying that’s what Julius would have wanted. But he hadn’t been able to coax his wife into fighting for her life. The chemo really hadn’t done her any good because she’d given up the fight.
It was times like these when he sat alone in the living room parlor with the music playing that he wished he could turn back the hands of time. He wished that he could have gotten wind of what his life would be like now. Then he would have asked to be taken first. Being last and left all alone in a house too massive for one was a torture he endured nearly every night of his life now.
Working late at the office didn’t help because he had to come home eventually. He’d figured by the time he reached sixty Julius would be married with kids. But things didn’t work out that way. At twenty-five Julius died in a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol.
Reid had not known what had changed his son. Why had he begun drinking and become a man who couldn’t stand anyone...not even himself? He and Roberta had reached out to their only child, had tried to get him help, counseling, but none of it did any good. There were demons he fought and they were winning.
When he’d gotten word Julius had been taken by life-flight to a hospital in Baton Rouge, Reid was grateful that for once he hadn’t been away on a business trip. He had arrived at the hospital moments before his son had taken his last breath. In that final moment, his son asked him to make a death-bed promise after a startling confession that explained so many of the changes in him.
Now after all these years she was back. Vashti Alcindor had returned and she had no idea that he knew her secret. Julius had told him everything. And every day following that, Reid had to accept his part in what had happened, why his son felt the need not to stand up and be a man but rather let a young woman face a difficult time alone. His son had never gotten over that period of weakness. When he should have stood by the woman he’d loved, he hadn’t. He hadn’t enough spine to do so for fear of what Reid and Roberta would say.
Since Roberta was having chemo treatment that day she hadn’t been at the hospital. In fact she hadn’t known Julius had died until he’d returned home from the hospital and told her. She hadn’t been the same after. There hadn’t been anything he could do for the two people who’d meant the most to him.
But there was something he could do for the woman who’d meant everything to his son. The woman Julius had died believing he’d let down. Instead of going to her and expressing both his love and guilt, he’d nearly drunk himself to death instead.
He recalled his son’s words like it was yesterday... Please, Dad, promise me that you will let her know I did love her, so much, and that I wanted to stand by her. Let her know how ashamed I was for not doing so and I will never forgive myself for being so weak that I turned my back on her when she needed me. And if she ever needs you, be there for her...something I didn’t do.
Reid knew how it felt to be consumed with guilt about something. Maybe more than most, because like his son he’d once fallen in love and married a woman who over the years he’d neglected. A woman he hadn’t known just how important she was to him until it was too late. Roberta would have given him the world, she had tried, but in the end building the company into something his father and grandfather were proud of had become more important to him.
Now he was alone. No one would know how he felt when Julius had confessed to getting Vashti Alcindor pregnant and to being afraid to come forward because of the scandal it would cause the family’s name. A name Reid had constantly reminded him to uphold and protect. To never do anything to bring shame to the family.
He mourned the grandchild he hadn’t known the woman had been carrying. Legitimate or illegitimate, that child would have been his grandchild. Reid vaguely recalled the scandal involving Vashti Alcindor’s pregnancy. He hadn’t paid much attention to it because at the time he felt it hadn’t concerned him. Years later on his death bed, his son had enlightened him as to how much it had concerned him. Anything involving the Lacroix family concerned him.
And the death-bed promise he’d made to his son still concerned him, all these years later. He had promised if Vashti ever returned to Catalina Cove that he would do right by her, and Reid intended to keep that promise.
* * *
“KAEGAN IS HAVING a seafood roast at his place to celebrate taking over his family’s business and having a successful harvesting season. We were invited,” Vashti said as they sat in Bryce’s kitchen while drinking glasses of wine.
Bryce rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you were invited, not me.”
“We’re both going and he knows it and is fine with it.”
“Only because you probably talked him into letting me come. No, thanks.”
“If you don’t go then I won’t either.”
“You have to go, Vash. If you don’t, he’ll think it’s because of me.”
Vashti laughed. “It will be because of you.”
“It shouldn’t.”
“But it will since I have no idea what’s going on between you two. But like I told you, I’m here when you’re ready to talk about it. Besides, you have to go.”
“Why?”
“I’ve forgotten how to get on that side of the bayou.” Vashti hadn’t really, but if that little lie would get Bryce to come with her, then so be it. And because she knew how Bryce’s mind worked, she quickly said, “And no, you won’t be giving me directions. I don’t do well with directions and you wouldn’t want me to get lost, would you?”
Bryce rolled her eyes. “You won’t get lost, Vash.”
“I won’t take any chances, Bryce. You will be going with me.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sacramento, California
KIA HARRIS ROLLED her eyes as she clicked on the phone. “Mom, I’m leaving school now. I’ll be home in a little bit.”
“Just be careful driving, hon. You’re a relatively new driver and the roads are slick from the rain earlier.”
Kia waved at the new guy at school as she walked out the doors to the parking lot. He returned the wave and smiled. She smiled back while thinking that he was kind of cute. His name was Trace Nichols. A senior who had moved from somewhere in Florida. He was tall and built like the athlete he was. She’d heard he was a member of the football team. That meant she would get to see a lot of him since she was now a majorette.
“Kia, are you still there?”
For a moment she’d forgotten her mother was on the phone. “Yes, Mom, I’m still here.”
“Remember, no texting while driving.”
How could she forget when her mother drilled that into her every time she left the house? The car had been a gift for her sixteenth birthday from her parents and she was elated to have gotten it but could honestly do without the phone calls from her mother before every time she got behind the wheel. “Okay, Mom, no texting while driving. Got it.”
Changing the subject she asked, “When is Dad coming home?” Her father was a chemical engineer who worked for Anderson Pharmaceutical Company. Her mother had been a chemical engineer as well at the same company, but a few years ago had decided to go back to school and get her PhD. Now she was teaching engineering at California State University. Her father had been in Boston all week attending a seminar.
“He’s flying back tonight. Why?”
She shifted her book bag to her other arm. “I miss him.”
“Me, too, kiddo. I’m picking him up from the airport around eight. You can go with me if you’d like.”
She knew at sixteen she should probably dis the idea of fawning over her parents. Some of her friends would think it was so uncool. But she didn’t care. She knew she had wonderful parents. They were the best. Even if her mom did call her more than she needed to and reminded her of stuff she didn’t need to be reminded of.
“Great. I should be finished with my homework by then.”
“Good. And Nana has prepared you something special for dinner.”
A smile touched Kia’s face followed by sadness when she recalled why her grandmother was visiting. Her grandfather had passed away two years ago suddenly of a heart attack and none of them had quite gotten over it...especially Nana. The two of them had been married over thirty years.
“I can’t wait, Mom. Tell Nana I love her.”
“I will.”
“I got to go, Mom. I’ve made it to my car and I remember. No texting while driving. Love you, bye.” Then she clicked off the phone.
Throwing her book bag on the back seat, Kia got into the car and automatically buckled up. Before turning the ignition to her car, she inhaled. Her car still smelled new. How many sixteen-year-olds can boast of getting a brand-new car for their birthday? It wasn’t the two-seater Tesla she dreamed of owning one day, but it was hers. Given with love from her parents and Nana.
As she left the parking lot she couldn’t stop thinking how grateful she was for her family. Her parents had met and fallen in love while attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They’d gotten married after college. They weren’t in a hurry to have kids and instead concentrated on their careers. When they did try to have a baby, it turned out they couldn’t.
Kia knew she’d been adopted. She would never forget the day her parents told her. It was after coming home from school in the sixth grade and crying her eyes out because she couldn’t understand how two people with such a high proficiency in math and science could have a daughter who detested both subjects.
That’s when they had told her the truth. She had been adopted at birth. That revelation had been a shocker and then it explained a lot. Things she had wondered about but had dismissed from her mind. Like how her chocolate-skin-tone parents could have such a daughter with caramel-colored skin. But as she got older she figured nothing was strange about it after all since she and Nana were of the same complexion and Gramps had been even darker than both her parents.
And then both her parents were left-handed and so was Nana. But she’d dismissed that as well since Gramps had used his right hand like she did. They had thought she would be upset about it, but she wasn’t. For a minute, though, she had been disappointed to learn she’d been born to a parent who hadn’t wanted her.
Her parents hadn’t been able to tell her much about her birth mother other than she knew she couldn’t take care of a child properly and had given her up for adoption, where she’d felt her baby could have a better life.
Kia didn’t know what type of life her birth mother had lived, but she would admit for her, being adopted by Percelli and Alma Harris had been for the best. She knew her parents had provided a good home for her and there was never a time she doubted their love.
She recalled her mother asking her if she thought when she got older she would want to find her birth mother and her response had been a resounding no. She had no reason to ever want to meet the woman who’d given her away, no matter the circumstances.
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