by A. C. Arthur
“Girl, I swear I think you were born with that serious look on your face,” Noreen said as she made her way into Karena’s office.
“Mama,” Karena said, looking up quickly because she hadn’t heard anyone knock on the door, nor had she heard her mother enter, but she was already taking a seat.
“Whatever it is, Karena, believe me it can’t be that bad.”
Hurriedly she started putting the invitation and its accompaniments into the envelope. “It’s nothing,” Karena replied.
“I hope you’re going to respond to that before you tuck it away into your drawer,” Noreen said, looking down at Karena’s desk.
“Ah, yeah. I just need to check my calendar first and then I’ll send my response in.”
Noreen nodded. “Good, because it’s rude to ignore an invitation. RSVPs are sent for a reason. And it’s not hard to simply reply. Some folk are just so tacky.”
With the invitation pushed to the side of her desk, Karena sat up in her chair. “So how was the getaway?”
Noreen smiled. And it was different from before. Karena was intrigued.
“The getaway was fantastic. Your father and I really made some progress.”
“Really?”
“Yes, and that’s why I’m here. I want to talk to you about your trip to Pirata.”
“Oh. That was really nice, too. I had the chance to meet Eduardo Matos. He’s the guy who sold me the painting.”
“Izabel told me all about him. And I’m telling you, Karena, my heart just ached for those children. I knew right then what must be done.”
“I had some thoughts about helping the children, as well.”
Noreen held up a hand to stop her from talking. “Let me just get this out before I lose my nerve.”
Karena’s lips clapped shut and she sat back in her chair, waiting.
“Remember we talked about the foundation and me wanting to get involved? Well, the moment Izabel told me about Eduardo and those children I knew I’d found my cause. I want to help them, all the so-called ‘street children’ in Brazil. I want to provide safe places for them so the scum who consider themselves ridding the world of God’s children will have to find something better to do with their time.
“Now, I don’t really know how to go about it, but after we left from meeting with you and the investigator, I had another idea. I remembered you talking about going to Maryland to see about your friend, the one who is just like a sister to the Donovans.”
Karena couldn’t believe her ears. Still, she acknowledged her mother’s words by adding, “Noelle. Yes, she’s involved with one of the Donovan cousins.”
Noreen had scooted up in her chair, her brown eyes alight with excitement. “That’s right. Well, the name Donovan stuck with me and I did a little research on the computer.”
“You were on the computer?” Karena asked.
Noreen looked at her as if she were speaking another language. “Of course, Karena. Everybody does everything on the computer these days. I had to learn or I’d be in the Dark Ages forever.”
Again, Karena was shocked silent. She’d had no idea her mother knew how to operate a computer, let alone do Internet research. She figured her mother’s free time was filled with housework and tending to her father. How wrong she’d been.
“So anyway, the Donovans have a couple of foundations and they all have specialties. I came across their Children With HIV/AIDS projects and thought about contacting them, you know, for some pointers on getting this type of venture off the ground.” Noreen was reaching into her purse and pulling out an envelope. “I’ve drafted this letter and I want you to take a look at it and tell me what you think.”
Karena thought she was dreaming.
Was this really her mother?
She reached for the letter her mother had taken from the envelope and read it. “This is good, Mama. But why don’t you just give Beverly Donovan a call. I’ve met her and her sister-in-law Alma. They do most of the philanthropic work for the family. I could probably even set up a meeting.” Beverly Donovan was the mother of the renowned Triple Threat Donovan Brothers, Linc, Adam and Trent. But aside from that, she was a well-respected and well-liked woman in Karena’s estimation.
“No,” Noreen said adamantly. “I don’t want to ride on anybody’s coattails. Especially not my daughter’s. I’ll approach them myself.”
“Okay. Then at least let me give you Beverly’s home number. It doesn’t make sense for you to go through all that red tape trying to get in touch with her when you can just make a phone call.” It was Karena’s turn to hold up her hand to halt her mother’s words. “It’s not riding on anybody’s coattails, Mama. You’re a Lakefield. And while we’re not as well-known as the Donovans, we’ve made our mark in the business and charity arenas. Just call her and tell her your ideas.”
Karena was already flipping through her Rolodex. Grabbing a pen, she wrote Beverly Donovan’s name, home and business numbers on a Post-it and passed it to her mother.
“I’m just so happy you’ve found something you want to do after all this time.”
Noreen took the paper, stuck it to the corner of her letter and put it and the envelope back in her purse. “You just don’t understand. I’ve had something to do all my life. At different times my responsibilities were different. Now is a new time in my life, a new direction for me.”
“I know and I’m happy for you.”
Noreen folded her hands in her lap and watched her daughter. “But are you happy, Karena? Are you happy with yourself, with the life you’ve decided to have? Don’t think I don’t know how long you’ve been wanting me to do something different, hating the way I took care of you girls and your father. But that was my decision, my life. What I wanted to do. What about you? Is this what you really want to do with your life?”
“I didn’t hate how you took care of us. I just thought you could do so much more.”
“I think you can do much more.”
Her words made Karena uncomfortable. She shifted in her seat. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Mama, this isn’t about me. We were talking about you and your new career move.” Her mother was the last person she wanted to talk to about Sam or her feelings for Sam.
“You’re right,” Noreen said with a complacent smile. “But let me tell you something about mothers and housewives, we’re very perceptive. I watched you and that investigator, Sam Desdune, at the meeting the other day.”
Because she knew what was coming next, Karena sat up and let her elbows rest on her desk. “I met Sam a few months back when I visited Noelle. He’s a great guy, a good investigator and a loyal friend. So, yes, we know each other outside of business and this case.”
“I’m betting you know each other intimately.”
Heat suffused Karena’s cheeks, but she prayed the blush wasn’t visible. “Mama,” she began.
“Don’t get all embarrassed, Karena. I’ve had sex a time or two in my life.” Noreen chuckled. “And I still try to get in as much as possible, if truth be told.”
Karena closed her eyes momentarily, shaking her head. “Way too much information, Mama.”
“I know, I know.” Noreen laughed. “But what I was getting at was that you two look like a couple, a very handsome couple, I might add.”
Karena sighed. Lying would be foolish.
“We were involved but it didn’t work out. Now we’re just friends.” Were they?
“Was that his decision or yours?”
“It was inevitable,” she replied, feeling the painful truth to her words.
“Do you love him?”
“Does it matter?”
For the first time in she couldn’t even remember how long, Karena saw Noreen frown.
“Love always matters, Karena. Remember that,” she said, standing up and putting her purse on her arm. “Above else, love always matters.”
Chapter 25
“You did what?” Lynn set her co
ffee mug down with a loud clunk as she stared across the table at her younger brother.
Bree shook her head, rolling her eyes. “Please, please, please tell me you didn’t.”
Breakfast with his sisters was a bad idea, Sam knew it the minute he accepted. But he wasn’t doing anything else this Saturday morning, so he’d figured it would be harmless. He should have known better.
It had been a month since he’d seen or heard from Karena, thirty days that he’d thought about her at least three times in each twenty-four-hour interval.
“I just said that either she wanted to give us a chance or she didn’t,” he tried to backtrack. Bree had been the one to bring Karena up, mentioning that she hadn’t called the office and that the invoice for their services had been promptly paid by Lakefield Galleries. Lynn had chimed right in, asking when they were going to meet Karena. So he’d had to tell them where things stood with them and about the last day he’d seen Karena.
“It wasn’t like an ultimatum,” he continued.
“Then what do you call it?” Lynn asked.
“I call it being honest.”
Bree frowned. “I call it being an ass.”
Sam had been balling up his napkin and impulsively tossed it at her. “Who asked you?”
Lynn waved a hand between the two of them. “So let me get this straight—she wanted to set guidelines for your relationship, and you wanted the whole nine yards.”
“So unyielding,” Bree murmured, lifting her cup to her lips to muffle the words.
Ignoring his twin, Sam answered, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
“Did you propose marriage to her?”
“No, I wasn’t moving that fast. My point was just that assigning days and times we would spend together was juvenile.”
Lynn kept her gaze on Sam, her fingers tapping on the table. “Maybe that’s all she could handle right now. Maybe, even though you didn’t say marriage, the thought of being totally single and independent one day then shacked up and committed the next was too much, too soon.”
“Controlling,” Bree said as she finished crunching ice from her finished glass of lemonade. “I told you before you left you were being too controlling, just like Leeza was with you.”
Sam cut her an agitated glare. “I told you that was no comparison.”
“Are you sure?” Lynn asked. “If memory serves me correctly, you were tired of her making plans for the both of you, accepting invitations, planning how many kids you would have and when, how long you would work and when you would take a break.”
His older sister’s raised brows had him pausing. Was that what he’d done with Karena?
“I didn’t plan anything.” He took a deep breath, looking around Lynn’s cheery kitchen, then released it. “I didn’t tell her any of my plans. I just told her that I needed more than a few days here and there. Was that so wrong?”
“No, but telling her it was your final offer was two points shy of stupid.”
Of course this was Bree, and of course he gave her another scathing look. “Since when did you become an expert in the relationship department?”
For a minute she looked bruised by his words, and Sam really did feel like an ass. Bree had gone through a lot with the men in her life, starting with the retired colonel from the Marines who’d stalked and then attacked her earlier this year. She’d had a tug-of-war going on with her current husband before coming to her senses and letting her guard down. Now she seemed happier than Sam had ever seen her.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said quietly.
“I know what you meant, and you’re right. I haven’t been in enough relationships to give you advice where they’re concerned. But I’ve been a woman all my life and I can tell you there’s one thing you never, ever do.”
With a nod she looked at Lynn, who nodded back in agreement.
“Never, ever, give a black woman an ultimatum unless you want your pride handed to you on a platter.”
Lacing his fingers together, with his elbows propped on the table, Sam dropped his head momentarily. Why did her words sound so true? Why was he slowly realizing how big a mistake he’d made with Karena.
“She’s not answering my calls,” he said quietly.
“I don’t blame her,” Bree quipped.
Lynn reached across the table and waited until he extended his arm to take her hand. “Step back a little from your feelings, from your goals and your wants, and think about her. Think about how you felt when Leeza was railroading your life. Then go see her, don’t call, don’t write. The best groveling can only be done in person.”
When she finished she was smiling, which made Sam smile, too. Like Bree, Lynn hadn’t experienced the best of relationships, yet it never seemed as if she’d given up on love. Resigned to her own situation, maybe, but not bitter and cold like some women who’d been scorned could be.
He had a lot to think about, a lot more than he’d been thinking about these past few weeks. Outside of work and brunch with his family, Sam had pretty much stayed in his house, spending time with Romeo and remembering the one night Karena had spent there.
In her hurry to leave she’d left some of her toiletries in his bathroom, a comb on his dresser and a travel-size bottle of aspirin on the nightstand where she’d slept on the left side of his bed.
He hadn’t moved any of it, hadn’t wanted to disturb the memory in the hopes that it would make her come back.
Tonight, as he walked the shiny wood floors of his home, he gave a lot of thought to what his sisters had said, to what his feelings for Karena were and to how he planned to win her back.
Chapter 26
The wind had turned only slightly chilly as the week before Christmas approached, which was strange for East Coast states, considering this time last year they’d already had two snowstorms.
But Sam wasn’t really concerned with the weather. He was more worried about the fact that Karena was still on his mind and still avoiding his calls. He’d be leaving for Trent and Tia’s wedding tomorrow morning, going to Las Vegas two days early to attend Trent’s bachelor party and other festivities the Donovan family had planned.
The idea of watching another couple take the plunge into matrimonial bliss had him thinking more and more about Karena. His feelings hadn’t changed. In fact, they’d only grown stronger in the weeks they’d been separated. Since talking to his sisters, he’d come to terms with the fact that he could have been acting more like Leeza than he cared to admit.
That fact was resonated when he’d had to attend the Fall Ball because his parents weren’t able to and his mother thought the family needed a representative. Leeza had immediately clung to him, at which time Sam, once again, had to put her in her place. After that he realized how annoying it had been to have her planning their every move, even before he’d thought about them.
So on some level he could assume Karena had felt that same way. He still wanted her totally committed to him, but he’d seen the advantage to apologizing to her and letting her have a say in their future.
These thoughts and conclusions were what led him to her office this afternoon. He’d received her voice mail one time too many. It was time for a face-to-face.
Astrid wasn’t at her desk when he walked through the glass doors, but he didn’t mind, he knew the way. Moving purposefully down the hallway, he was startled and annoyed to find her office door open and the room empty.
Where was she?
Going around her desk he noted that her computer was off. There was a desk calendar that he immediately reached for and flipped through, but he didn’t see any appointments for today or the days immediately prior. He was just coming around the desk to leave when a decidedly feminine and slightly irritated voice stopped him.
“Well, well, well, what brings you back here?”
Monica Lakefield, dressed in a black business suit that draped her tall frame with a sophisticated air, stood in the doorway. “Hello, Monica.”
“Are we
breaking and entering now?” She arched a brow on her perfectly made-up face, folding her arms over her chest and leaning against the doorjamb.
“I’m looking for your sister.”
“Really? Which one? I have two, you know.”
Try as he might to dislike Karena’s older sister, Sam couldn’t. After Alex’s quick assessment of her, he’d begun thinking how much of a pity it was that a woman as attractive as Monica had decided freezing her emotions forever was better than trying her hand with men again. It was a pity but probably not his battle. He couldn’t rescue everybody.
“I’ve been trying to get in contact with Karena.”
“Unsuccessfully, I assume,” she quipped. “A fact that only goes to prove my theory of men being a total waste of time.”
“That’s your theory, huh?” he asked, too intrigued by her words to simply let them go and walk away. “I wonder what could have happened to give you that impression.”
Instantly she straightened up, her defenses raised. “I’m just smart enough to spot the bull about twenty minutes before the walking vessels full of testosterone show up.”
“Wow, never heard the male species described that way. A little clinical, don’t you think?”
Her lips grew to a tight line. “Karena’s not here, as you can see. You can leave now.”
It was obvious he’d touched a nerve and even more obvious that this particular Lakefield female had a lot of work cut out for the next man who decided to take her on. But Sam was not that man. The Lakefield woman he wanted was playing a game of her own. One he intended to win.
“Where is she?”
“Out of town.”
“For how long?”
“None of your business.”
Sam exhaled heavily. “Monica, I’m not going to hurt her, if that’s what you think you’re protecting her from.”
“You already did,” she replied instantly. “Don’t think I’m going to stand by and watch you take another shot at her.”
“Karena’s a big girl, she can fight her own battles.”
“I used to think so until you came along. Then she changed, and I don’t know that it’s for the better.”
