LITMIR.BIZ

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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

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