Chapter 24
“Kendra, please give me the dishes on the table so I can finish loading the dishwasher,” Ramona Griffin said softly.
“Come and get them yourself.”
Lamar walked into the kitchen in time to hear his daughter’s acerbic reply. “What did you say?”
Kendra glared at him. “I said she can come and get them herself. There’s nothing wrong with her hands or feet.”
He did not want to believe she would repeat the disrespectful remark. “Get up and put the dishes in the sink, then I want you to go to your room and stay there.” Kendra popped up and stacked the dishes and dropped them in the sink, and then stalked out of the kitchen. Lamar shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ramona. I don’t know what has gotten into her lately, but I intend to find out. This is the last time she will disrespect an adult in this house.”
“It’s all right, Lamar. She’s just going through a phase and—”
“It’s not all right,” he countered, cutting her off. “No child of mine will act disrespectful as long as he or she resides under my roof. So consider this the last time it will happen.”
Lamar left the kitchen and took the staircase to the second story and knocked on the door to Kendra’s room. “Open the door.”
“No!” came her reply.
He tried the knob and found the door locked. “Unlock the door, Kendra.”
“No!”
Lamar raised his foot to kick the door in but changed his mind. He had no intention of damaging his property because of a surly adolescent. Retracing his steps, he went to a room where he kept a toolbox and returned with a drill. It took less than three minutes to remove the doorknob and he walked into the bedroom to find Kendra standing staring at him as if she had never seen him before. Her eyes were filled with fear.
“I want you to apologize to Miss Ramona.”
“No, Daddy. She always orders me around.”
He struggled to control his temper. Lamar picked up the drill and removed the hinges from the door, and placed the door against a wall. “The door stays off until you come to your senses and apologize to Miss Ramona. And if I ever hear something like that coming out of your mouth again you’ll be grounded until you’re old enough to leave my house. I don’t intend to subject Nydia to your freshness once I marry her.”
“I don’t want you to marry her. I hate her!”
Lamar did not intend to argue with an eleven-year-old. “The door stays off!”
He walked into his home office and closed the door, unable to understand why his daughter had gone from a sweet, affectionate girl to an angry, impudent person he did not recognize. “I don’t give a fuck about hormones,” he swore under his breath.
Once Jasmine gave birth, he and Nydia had agreed he should tell Kendra that they were planning to marry. At first his daughter seemed happy with the news, and then like quicksilver she changed, becoming more solemn each day until today’s verbal barrage. Lamar knew he had to put his house in order before inviting Nydia into a hostile environment that was destined to end in divorce.
* * *
Nydia parked her leased Corolla hatchback on the street in front of Lamar’s house and walked through the porte cochère and into the courtyard. It had been raining off and on for more than a week and daytime temperatures were cool enough for her to wear several layers. She and Lamar had planned to shop for rings before they officially announced their engagement, and she had offered to pick him up.
The door opened before she could ring the bell, and Lamar pulled her inside. “I didn’t want to tell you on the phone, but I’ve been going through hell with Kendra.”
Nydia removed her wool jacket and hung it on a peg in the entryway. “What’s going on?”
“She talked back to Ramona, and when I told her to go to her room she locked the door and wouldn’t let me in. So I took the damn thing off the hinges until she apologizes.”
Nydia blinked once. She did not want to believe what she’d just heard and headed for the staircase. “I hope you’re kidding. How long has she been without a door?” she asked Lamar when he followed her up.
“No, I’m not kidding. I’ll put it back when she apologizes and not before.”
Nydia headed for Kendra’s bedroom and saw the door resting on its side against the wall. “What’s the hell is wrong with you, Lamar!” she shouted. “She’s a young woman and you’re disrespecting her right to privacy.”
“Damn privacy when she disrespects my home and my rules.”
She looked into the room to find Kendra sitting on the window seat, staring back at her. “Put the door back on, Lamar,” she said in a quiet voice.
“I will not,” he countered angrily.
Going on tiptoe, Nydia put her mouth close to his ear. “Put that fucking door back on or I’ll walk out of here and never come back.”
“No, Miss Nydia!” Kendra screamed. “You can’t leave me!”
Nydia heard the panic in the child’s voice. She had lost one mother and she suspected Kendra viewed her as a surrogate mother. “I’m not leaving, but your father is when he goes and gets the tools he needs to put up the door.” She walked into the room and took the girl’s hands. They were cold as ice. “Come, baby, let’s get into bed so we can talk.” She turned to glare at Lamar. “May we please have some privacy?” Waiting until he left, she pulled Kendra over to the bed. She removed her shoes and lay atop the quilt and patted the side of the mattress. “Get in and tell me what’s bothering you.”
Holding the child, Nydia listened intently as Kendra told her about the fight she’d had with her mother hours before she was killed and how she subsequently blamed herself for Valerie’s death. Kendra also admitted she resented her mother going away for days at a time when other kids always had their mothers every day.
“I told Daddy I hated you but I really don’t. I love you, Miss Nydia, but I’m so afraid of losing you.”
Nydia kissed the girl’s forehead. Kendra smelled wonderful. She’d given her a gift basket of scented body wash, lotion, and matching spray cologne to celebrate her becoming a woman. “I’m not going anywhere. You saw how old my grandmother is, and that means I’ll live at least until eighty or older. By that time I hope you’ll make me a grandmother or even a great-grandmother.”
Kendra giggled. “Why do the kids in your family call your mother Abuela and your grandmother Abuelita?”
“That’s to tell the difference between the two.”
A beat passed. “Are you really going to marry my father?”
“I want to marry your father, but that’s not going to happen if the three of us are fighting with one another.”
“I don’t want to fight with you, Miss Nydia.”
“This is not all about me, Kendra. Just because you’re upset with something or someone you can’t say things to people—adults in particular—that put you in a bad light. I used to talk back to my mother and spent almost my entire teenage years grounded. I believed I was asserting myself when in fact I was being rude and insolent, which I’m now ashamed of.
“I know you won’t agree with everything your father says, but you have to know he loves you and only wants the best for you. And when I marry him I will support whatever decision he makes for you, so don’t think you’ll be able to pit me against him. I only challenged him to put back the door because as a young woman you’re entitled to your privacy. Now I want you to apologize to him and Miss Ramona for your behavior, because I don’t want my daughter to develop a reputation for challenging authority.”
“I’m your daughter?”
Nydia smiled when she saw an expression of shock cross Kendra’s delicate features. “Of course you’re my daughter.”
Her eyes lowered. “Does this mean I can call you Mom?”
Nydia gathered her close. “Of course you can.”
“Now or when you marry Daddy?”
“You can start now, so I can get used to it. Now, I want you to go and apologize to your father and Miss Ramona. I’ll be here when you get back.” Nydia left the bed, sat on the window seat, and stared out the window overlooking the courtyard. Somehow she had averted a major crisis that could have resulted in her walking out on the man she loved beyond description.
“What did you say to her?”
She shifted and saw Lamar standing in the doorway with a drill in one hand. “It was just girl talk.”
He set the drill on the floor and closed the distance between them. “So, it’s going to be like that?”
Nydia’s eyes made love to his handsome face. “Yes. What goes on between me and my daughter stays between us.”
Lamar sat beside her. “Will it be the same for me and my son if we have a boy?”
Nydia laced their fingers together. “So, you want another child?”
“Of course I do,” he said, giving her an incredulous look. “Did you think I’d marry you and deprive you of children?”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Children, Lamar?”
“Of course, sweets,” he said. “If it’s all right with you, I’d like to have at least two more.”
Nydia rested her head on his shoulder. “If that’s the case, then we have to start baby making on our wedding night. I’ll be thirty-four in July and after we have the first one my biological clock will begin ticking.”
“Not to worry, my love. Maybe you’ll have twins, which means we’ll have two for the price of one.”
“Bite your tongue, Lamar. Can you see me carrying a couple of babies? I’ll probably look like someone who swallowed a whole watermelon.”
Lamar buried his face in her hair. “You’ll look incredibly beautiful. You really shocked me when you came at me like a rabid lioness protecting her cub,” he said after a comfortable silence. “That’s when I knew you really love Kendra.”
“Of course I love her, Lamar. She’s my daughter.”
“Once I put the door on we’ll leave and look at rings. Have you decided what you want?”
“I’d like something in rose gold to match my bracelet.” Nydia planned to wear Jasmine’s wedding gift at Sabrina’s baptism and Lamar’s Christmas gift to her for their wedding.
“I want you to remember one thing, Nydia. I will try and give you whatever you want.”
She smiled. “You may come to regret those words.”
“Nunca, mi amor.”
“Haven’t you heard never to say never?” Nydia whispered as she brushed a light kiss over his mouth.
“No. Now you’re going to have to let me know when you want to get married.”
“May,” Nydia said without hesitation.
“That’s less than three months.”
Nydia smiled. “I can count, Mr. Pierce. We’ll just have a short engagement. Jasmine dated Cameron for the first time in May, and by August she was Mrs. Cameron Singleton.”
“Don’t tell me you’re competing with your fellow innkeeper?”
“There’s no competition between any of us. I just don’t want to get married in the summer with the heat and humidity. And Hannah projects the inn will be open for business by that time. I’ll let her know that I want to hold the ceremony in the garden and the reception in the ballroom. I’ll also see if she can set aside most of the eighteen rooms in the inn for our out-of-town guests.”
“My mother, sister, and her family can stay here.”
“Who are you going to select as your best man?”
“Cameron. And I’d like my partners to be my groomsmen.”
“I suppose I’ll have to select two bridal attendants. I want Jasmine to be my maid of honor and my sister-in-law Sandra and Kendra will be my attendants.”
Kendra reentered the bedroom, grinning from ear-to-ear. “Miss Ramona said she and I are cool.”
Nydia moved over to allow Kendra to sit between her and Lamar. “Your dad and I are planning to marry in May, and I’d like you to be one of my attendants.”
“Really?”
“Yes really, Kendra.”
“I get to wear a gown?”
Nydia gently tugged on her ponytail. “Yes, Kendra, you’ll get to wear a gown and look like a princess.”
Kendra clasped her hands together in a prayerful gesture. “Thank you, Mom.”
Nydia met Lamar’s puzzled expression over Kendra’s head. It was obvious he hadn’t known she had given the girl permission to address her as if she were her mother. “Let’s go downstairs and see if Miss Ramona needs help with something while Daddy fixes your door.”
Hand in hand they left the bedroom, and Nydia knew the day signaled a new beginning in her. She had also selected the month of May to marry because it would commemorate two years since she’d walked into the offices of Wakefield Hamilton and was informed that she no longer had a position with them. She planned to marry Lamar and push out a couple of babies before turning forty.
So many things had happened since that momentous day, and when she looked back it wasn’t with regret. She’d come to the Big Easy and fallen in love with the city and one of its native sons. She didn’t know what it was about the men from New Orleans, but three Big Apple divas had been given a second chance at love in a city with nonstop music, food, and drink.
And when Hannah invited her, Tonya, and Jasmine to become innkeepers it had changed all of their lives forever.
Three months later
Nydia rested her right hand on the sleeve of her father’s suit jacket as he led her down the flower-strewn path to where Lamar stood with Cameron and his groomsmen. He looked incredibly handsome in his tuxedo with the sky blue silk vest that was an exact match to his bow tie. He and his groomsmen wore sprigs of lavender as their boutonnieres.
They’d officially announced their engagement on February fourteenth, and it began with invitations to social events where she did not know a single person. Now she knew how Jasmine felt when linked to the Singletons, who along with the DuPonts were counted as New Orleans’s elite. The Pierces could trace their ancestry back nearly two hundred years as free people of color, and she found herself smiling and engaging in conversation with those who were familiar with Lamar’s father.
It was early May when the DuPont Inn opened for business, and many of the city’s officials attended the ribbon cutting ceremony that was followed with an invitation-only sit-down luncheon at Toussaints. The food critic had written a review of the affair in the local newspaper and predicted the restaurant would someday be listed as one of the best in the city.
The week before, Jasmine and Cameron had baptized Sabrina at the same parish where countless Singletons had been baptized, and the little baby with inky black hair and dark blue-gray eyes slept through the entire ceremony.
Nydia had felt she was on a runaway roller coaster with fittings, doing payroll for her New York clients, and maintaining the financial records for the inn, so Lamar hired a wedding planner to take care of every detail of the ceremony and the reception to follow.
The weather was perfect for a white wedding as she smiled when Lamar winked at her. As promised, they would spend their wedding night in the bridal suite at the Louis LaSalle and fly down to San Juan the following morning, and they would spend ten days island-hopping.
Luis Santiago placed his daughter’s hand in Lamar’s when he held it out to signal he would assume the responsibility for loving and protecting her for the rest of their lives. “Take care of my pequeña muñeca,” he whispered to Lamar.
Lamar nodded. “Lo haré con mi vida,” he replied in the same language.
“Te amo, Papi,” Nydia said to her father. She loved her father for asking Lamar to take care of his little doll, and Lamar had told him he would with his life. And she trusted the man who would become her husband to love, protect, and honor her all of their lives. She handed her bouquet of miniature white roses and violets to Jasmine. Her attendants were knockouts in gowns of varying blues ranging from royal to cornflower to lapis lazuli.
Nydia could not pull her eyes away from Lamar’s as they repeated their vows. Every word she spoke was torn from her heart and she struggled not to cry. It all ended when the minister told Lamar he could kiss his bride.
His lips were warm and sweet on hers as he cradled her face. The intimacy of the joining made her weak in the knees as she clutched his wrists to maintain her balance.
Cameron tapped Lamar’s shoulder. “Save some for tonight.” The assembly burst into laughter when they overheard the best man’s warning.
The minister laughed along with the others. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m honored to introduce you to Mrs. and Mrs. Lamar Abraham Pierce.”
Nydia hugged Kendra and took her hand as she and Lamar processed over the flower petals where they would pose with the wedding party and family members for photographs before heading to the onsite restaurant for a sumptuous dinner prepared by the Toussaints.
Sunlight streaming through the branches of a towering tree fired the facets of the two-carat Asscher-cut diamond engagement ring set in rose gold on her right hand along with the Cartier bracelet on her wrist. She and Lamar had selected plain rose gold wedding bands that flattered their complexions.
She adjusted the skirt of her gown with its train of cascading ruffles on the back of the strapless silk satin sheath that added body and dimension and hinted at whimsical flirtation. She looked directly at the photographer as he snapped photos of her and her bridal attendants. Her mother had styled her hair in a mass of curls atop her head to add height to her diminutive stature and attached the waltz veil to a pearl-encrusted back piece.
“You did it, chica,” Jasmine whispered in her ear. “La princesa puertorriqueña now has her prince.”
Nydia smiled. “I believe all of the innkeepers have found their princes: St. John, Cameron, Gage, and now Lamar.”
Hannah and Tonya joined them as they held hands and smiled from ear to ear. Hannah angled her platinum blond head. “I’d like to thank Wakefield Hamilton for having the good sense to downsize me along with my sisters and to allow us a second chance to find love and embark on a new career as innkeepers.”
“Hear, hear,” they agreed before dissolving into laughter.
Nydia knew when she returned from her honeymoon it would be to step into the roles of wife, mother, and innkeeper.