Ladd Fortune (2 page)

Lacy gulped. Without looking at the
young woman, stammered, “Um, let me think about it,
okay?”

“
Sure thing,” the
receptionist replied.

Annie came to life and approached Lacy
with a hard line in her gaze, a chop to her step. Familiar blue
eyes bore into her. Annie’s wrath arrived ten steps ahead of her,
followed by a sharp whoosh of displeasure, which strummed in the
air around them as the women stood face-to-face. “What are you
doing here?”

Despite her sister’s animosity, Lacy
thought Annie looked good. Her hair was shorter now, cut into a
cute pageboy, her black-clad figure trim. Her makeup was flattering
in shades of pink and other than the vile look in her eyes, Lacy
discovered her sister had grown into an attractive woman. “Hi,
Annie.” Lacy gave a short wave, flushing with an uncomfortable
awkwardness.

Apparently catching onto the
underpinnings of anger between Lacy and Annie, the receptionist
closed her book and busied herself with something on her
desk.

“
I asked you a question,”
Annie repeated flatly.

Lacy shuddered beneath the caustic
tone. People could hear her! “I wanted to let you know that I’m
back in town,” she ventured softly.

“
Why?”

“
Um...” She bit her lip,
averting the gaze of the receptionist, the inquisitive glances from
hairstylists. “Because we’re family, why else?”

“
Is Jeremiah with
you?”

Without thinking, Lacy
nodded.

Loathing poured into Annie’s
expression. “So you two are still together.”

“
No!” Lacy exclaimed,
pressing a hand to her chest. “Oh, no, we’re not together at
all!”

Annie’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Then
why would he be here same time as you? Coincidence?”

“
No. He’s with my friend
Loretta. Loretta Flynn.”

“
Your friend?” Annie asked,
disbelief crawling through her eyes.

“
Yes, yes—we work together
at a lounge in Atlanta.” Or did. She’d quit on her way out the door
as she headed home for Tennessee. “That’s how I know he’s here. He
told Loretta he was coming home and I...I...” Lacy didn’t know
exactly how to say it.
I needed an
escape
?
I wanted to
come back home
? By the icy nature of
Annie’s reception, it didn’t seem like her sister much cared why
Lacy had returned. Only that she had—and it wasn’t good
news.

“
What do you
want?”

Lacy glanced about the immediate
vicinity. Was the middle of the salon’s entrance really the place
to be having this discussion?

As though taking her cue, Annie stalked
off toward a white leather nail chair. Beside it sat a square black
ottoman, a pristine white towel draped over one side. A myriad
polish bottles lined the work table, shades ranging from the
sheerest of pinks to the darkest of plums. Files and clippers were
lined neatly to one side, the workspace made all the brighter by a
petite but powerful black lamp. Lacy thought her sister had come a
long way from the rinky-dink salon in which she started her career
as a teenager. From what Lacy could tell, Trendz was top of the
line, as nice as any in Atlanta and a surprise find in this
backwoods town. When Lacy lived here, the fanciest store they had
going was the flower shop, and they only stayed afloat because of
weddings and funerals.

Struggling to continue the conversation
with something harmless, Lacy decided on a compliment. “This is a
nice place you work in.”

“
This isn’t a social
call.”

“
Isn’t it?”

Annie glowered, crossing arms over her
chest. “What do you want, Lacy?”

“
I’m here to say
hello.”

“
Goodbye.”

Lacy reached out for her sister but
quickly rethought the gesture. Annie looked as if she might bite
her arm off. “Annie,” she pleaded, “what about all the letters I
wrote you? Why didn’t you write back?”

“
Because I had nothing to
say to you. Still don’t.”

Crestfallen, Lacy couldn’t believe her
ears. This wasn’t how she’d envisioned their reunion. Rocky, maybe.
Thorny, possibly. But absolute rejection? Her sister didn’t even
want to try? Sliding a hand up her narrow purse strap, Lacy asked,
“Can’t we catch up on old times? Get back in touch?”

“
The old times I remember
are you running off with my boyfriend. Sorry, but it’s not
something I care to catch up on.”

“
But Jeremiah wasn’t really
your—” Lacy scrambled for reason. She’d never thought that Annie
and Jeremiah were a serious couple. Jeremiah had been with so many
others. Could Annie really be that upset she’d moved to Atlanta
with him?

“
He was my boyfriend,” Annie
declared, “the one you decided to chase to Atlanta. The fact that
he wasn’t faithful doesn’t change the truth.”

Lacy breathed easier.
So she did know
. Then why
so mad? “I’m sorry, Annie. I just thought—”

“
Thought what? That because
he was playing around behind my back, it might as well be you he
was playing with?” Disgust rolled through Annie’s expression.
“You’re dead to me.”

“
Annie Grace!” Lacy cried,
punctured by the hateful remark.

“
What?” A glimmer of
pleasure crept into her sister’s gaze. “You don’t like hearing the
truth?”

Lacy smoothed the ruffled layers of her
blouse and searched for onlookers. Eavesdroppers in these parts
were as common as oxygen and sure as she was breathing, Lacy knew
word would get out about her arrival and this dreadful showdown.
But Lacy would not be deterred. “Annie, the truth has more sides
than one. I’m sorry you’re upset with me about going to Atlanta
with Jeremiah, but I thought you two had broken up.”

Annie laughed, the sound biting to
Lacy’s ears. “And I’m supposed to stand here for a lecture on the
truth from someone who wouldn’t know the truth if it jumped up and
smacked her on the head?”

“
Annie
.”

“
Don’t
Annie
, me. You fibbed as a child and
you fibbed as a teenager. I don’t expect it to change.”

Tears pushed behind her eyes, but Lacy
held them in check. She didn’t want to break down in front of her
sister, the entire salon. It was bad enough people were staring at
her from clear across the room. They didn’t have to witness her
losing it completely.

Lacy pushed back her shoulders and said
plainly, “I’m sorry, Annie.”

“
You’re darn right, you
are.”

Staring into Annie’s blue eyes, the
black pupils punctuated by white from an overhead drip light,
Lacy’s heart fell. “This was a mistake,” she said quietly. She had
hoped to make amends. She had hoped to forgive and forget and move
forward with the only family she had left. Daddy was dead, Momma
was gone. Annie was it.

Lacy turned to go but stopped. Lifting
her chin, she said, “I’m truly sorry about Jeremiah. If I had known
you believed he was still your boyfriend, I wouldn’t have run off
with him. I thought you two were over.”

“
Save it for the choir boys,
will you? Your pouts don’t impress me.”

Lacy nodded and a heavy tear burst
free. “See you around,” she said, and plodded toward the
door.

“
Why don’t you go back to
Atlanta where you belong,” Annie flung at her back.

Because Atlanta isn’t
home
. Lacy pushed out through the front
door, the sun bright, the air a blanket of warmth enveloping her
body. She breathed in deeply, but expelled the breath in a rush of
despair. Annie hated her. Pure and simple. She hated her sister,
her own flesh and blood, and would never forgive her. Tears flowed,
but Lacy wiped them away. She wouldn’t give her sister the
satisfaction of hurting her. She wouldn’t let Annie know how
desperately she had wanted back into her life.

Plodding to a stop, she looked both
ways and waited for a slow moving truck to pass. Lacy had been
lonely in Atlanta. Not alone, but lonely. Men were always ready and
available, but none were interested in her for who she was, what
she had to offer as a person. They only wanted what she could do
for them, her manager a case in point. He’d chased her, hired her,
but the minute she gave in to his advances, he became expectant.
Demanding. She had to play by his rules and his rules only. Lacy
crossed the street, her calves contracting tightly as she ran
across the pavement in heels.

Well, Lacy Owens played by
her own rules. She was the boss of her destiny and no man, no how,
was going to dictate to her what she was and was not allowed to
do—especially when it came to the attention from other men.
How would she ever find Mr. Right if she didn’t
entertain their flirtations
?

She wouldn’t. Besides, she loved men!
Men were bold and daring. They were big and strong. Joy sizzled
through her veins. Men were smart. Men would help guide her to her
destiny, slide over the rainbow with her and share in the treasure
of gold waiting at the other end. Pressing the key fob to unlock
her car door, she heaved a sigh. Some man would, anyway. Jeremiah
had turned out to be a fool, but that didn’t mean all men were.
Where Annie didn’t know he was a two-timing cheat, Lacy did, but
she hadn’t cared. The day he asked her to join him on his way out
of Ladd Springs was the day she’d believed her life would take a
turn for the better. They were going to the big city, the land of
opportunity.

Unfortunately, opportunity didn’t
always look the way a girl wanted it to look. Lacy dried her eyes,
got into her car and drove to her Aunt Frannie’s diner. Time to
break the news that her “girls” weren’t getting back
together.

Annie hurried out of Trendz, headed
down the street to a competing salon, Bangs. She had to talk to her
best friend, Candi Sweeney. She would freak when she heard about
Lacy, though Annie herself could hardly believe she’d come back.
What was she thinking, sashaying her way into the salon where Annie
worked, trying to play the role of sweet innocent sister in search
of reunion? Was she nuts? Desperate?

And Jeremiah. Nerves shimmied through
her limbs. She’d only been bluffing when she told Delaney she was
going to call him. Those were words spoken in the heat of anger.
Was it possible he’d arrived in town at the same time as Lacy by
coincidence? A shudder ran through her. Annie didn’t know, but she
was going to find out. Swinging open the entrance door to Bangs,
she hurried past the hairdressers, most personal friends of hers,
in a bee line for the back. Set up similar to Trendz, the stations
lined the walls, the shampoo chairs in the back situated right next
to Candi’s chair. But there was no Candi, only a woman sitting in
her chair. Was she mixing up color?

“
Hey, Annie.” Comb in hand,
Ida Shore waved to her. She was a good friend of her Aunt Fran’s
and part-owner of the Bangs salon. “How you doing?”

“
Good,” Annie replied
absently, more concerned with Candi’s whereabouts at the
moment.

“
She’s in the color closet,”
Ida confirmed. “You can go on back.”

Annie nodded thanks and hurried past.
Hairdressers were like family. They worked at different salons, but
no one held it as a sticking point. Each had their own client list,
loyal as hound dogs, and gossip was gossip. Ida would expect her
dose of information after Annie’s visit with Candi and wouldn’t
mind for a minute that it came second-hand.

Turning the corner, Annie found Candi
wearing gloves, plastic bottle in hand, her torso length apron tied
securely around her petite waist. As expected, she was mixing up
hair color for her client. “Hey, girl! What are you doing
here?”

“
Lacy’s in town,” she said
breathlessly.

Candi’s hands stilled. Chocolate brown
eyes became saucers, her face framed by her straight brown hair
streaked by wide blonde chunks. “She is?”

“
Stopped by the salon less
than an hour ago.”

“
Oh my God...” Candi sliced
the room with a conspiratorial gaze and whispered, “What’s she
doing here?”

“
Don’t know.” Heartbeats
scampered across her breast. “Said she’s here for a
visit.”

She gaped. “A visit?”

Of course Candi was horrified. She knew
their history. “But get this—” Annie hushed her voice. “She says
Jeremiah is in town, too.”

Where Annie expected Candi to fall over
dead from shock, instead, she glimpsed a glimmer of awareness dart
behind her eyes. It caught Annie on the chin. “Did you know he was
here?” she demanded abruptly.

“
No,” she blurted. “Er—I
mean, not exactly.”

Annie’s insides caught on fire. “Not
exactly?”

“
Well...” Candi smacked her
color bottle down to the counter, then whisked a flat brush through
the goopy contents in her bowl. Mixing briskly, she confessed, “I
called him, Annie. I called him and told him about Delaney and
Felicity and how they were trying to steal Ladd Springs from
him.”