Chapter 9
Derrick approached Leah and eased her off the stool, wondering how many more hits she would have to deal with before she would be able to right the wrongs. First she had to recover from her husband’s vicious attack and now it appeared as if she’d lost her job.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her close. “It’s going to be all right.”
“No, it’s not,” she mumbled. “It’s getting worse. I just lost my job, and I know for certain that my husband had something to do with it.”
When Leah had first come to the island wearing a pair of oversize sunglasses covering the upper part of her face, Derrick had recognized an inner strength in her that communicated she was a fighter. That had been apparent when he offered to pay her for baking, and she’d threatened to pack up and leave.
“How can you be so certain?”
“He was responsible for me getting my first position as a teacher at the prep school after I’d graduated college. It was a little intimidating at eighteen to teach girls who were only a few years younger than myself. But once I discovered I was pregnant I resigned to become a stay-at-home mother and go back to college to earn a graduate degree. Then I reapplied years later and was rehired. I taught there for twelve years before the school board approved me to become headmistress. None of that would’ve happened without Alan’s influence.”
“Are you saying he got you hired and fired?”
“Yes.”
Derrick listened intently as Leah revealed the school’s charter’s arcane rule and her husband’s receipt of the certified letter. “He’s really that vindictive?”
“Most people don’t know the man to whom I’ve been married for thirty years. Yes, he can be charming, generous almost to a fault for causes he believes in, but behind closed doors when he doesn’t get what he wants he turns into a monster.”
“What about your sons?”
“Alan could win Father of the Year every year. He adores his sons and they’d always worshipped him. Until now,” she added.
“What changed?”
“I told you I fell down the stairs. But the truth is my husband pushed me down the staircase. We’d had a disagreement and he became so enraged that he beat me. We’d always had arguments, but that was the first time he’d laid a hand on me. When I woke in the hospital more than a week later I discovered Alan had called our sons to tell them I’d had an accident. When I told them what he’d done to me, they were ready to take him apart, but I begged them not to say or do anything to him because I didn’t want them involved in something I planned to remedy on my own.”
“Do they know you’re planning to divorce their father?”
“Yes. And they are completely supportive.”
Derrick released her waist and cradled her face. His heart turned over when he saw the flood of tears in the bright blue eyes. Seeing a woman cry was his Achilles heel. He’d tried to put on a brave face during Andrea’s illness but failed whenever he saw her cry. Leah wasn’t his late wife, but somehow he was still able to feel her pain.
He did not want to believe that she’d lived more than half her life with a cruel, selfish man who manipulated not only her but also her career. However, the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was his physical attack. And he wondered how she’d been able to successfully conceal her husband’s cruelty from their sons.
“Is there anything else he can do to you?”
“I don’t think so. I discovered Alan canceled all his credit cards on which I’m authorized to sign after I left Richmond. He probably thought I would max them out to get back at him. But it appears after being married to me for so many years he never took the time to know who I am.”
“Narcissists never do, because it’s always all about them.”
She managed a tight smile. “I never thought of him as a narcissist, but a spoiled, indulgent man who’s used his family’s name and money to get whatever he wanted.”
“And he wanted you.” Derrick’s question was a statement.
“I suppose he did.”
Derrick dropped his hands as he stared over Leah’s head. He did not want to believe she could be that naïve. It was obvious Alan Kent had pursued her because he wasn’t able to accept rejection. “You suppose, Leah? Did you not marry the man and give him children?”
“Yes, but . . .”
“But what?”
“I wasn’t his first choice as a wife.”
Leah’s revelation that Alan had no intention of marrying her spoke volumes, and it was obvious he’d spent years filled with resentment because he was in love with another woman. “He married you because you were pregnant.”
Leah’s spiked eyelids fluttered. “It was the only reason he married me, and there was never a time during our marriage that he let me forget that.”
“Something is not adding up, Leah. You claim he loved his sons, yet he resented marrying you because of them.”
“He loved his sons because they are Kents, while I was just someone that carried them to term so he could boast that he was responsible for fathering another generation of Kent men.”
“That sounds crazy,” Derrick spat out.
“It may sound crazy to people like you or me, but for a family with roots that go back to when the colonies were still under British rule, it means a lot to them. It’s all about family name and honor. Kent men served with distinction in every war in this country beginning with the Seven Years War. The only exception was the Civil War, when they paid others to serve for them. And because no Kent man was an officer in the Confederate Army, their lands weren’t confiscated. The mention of the Kent name will open doors closed to most others that aren’t in their social circle. He comes from a long line of politicians, lawyers, and judges. He’s a judge, as were his father and grandfather.”
“Are you saying you stayed in a toxic marriage because of the privilege of being a judge’s wife?”
Leah closed her eyes as she struggled not to lose her temper. Did Derrick actually believe she hadn’t divorced Alan before now because she didn’t want to give up her status as the wife of Judge Alan Kent?
“You know nothing about my marriage, so I resent your insinuation.”
“You’re right about that, Leah. I don’t know anything about your marriage except what you’ve told me.”
There were so many things she wanted to tell Derrick about her past, but she feared he would think of her as a social-climbing wanna-be who’d set her sights on a much older man and had deliberately gotten pregnant to trap him into a loveless union.
“I’ve told you enough.”
“Does my sister know?”
“Yes. I’ve told Kayana everything, because I trust her, Derrick.”
“Do you actually believe I would repeat what you’ve told me to other people?”
“I don’t know.”
He threw up a hand. “You’re living on my property and you don’t trust me?”
Leah’s temper exploded. “What the hell do you want from me!”
“I want you to trust me, because I’ll need to know how to react if your crazy-ass husband decides he wants to come here and start trouble. This is Coates Island and not Richmond, and it’s here where my family’s roots go back to when North Carolina was still a colony under the British crown. We may not hold the same political sway as the Kents, but let me warn you that if Alan Kent comes here making trouble, then he’s going to get his ass handed to him.”
Panic replaced her anger. “I don’t want you involved in this.”
“Too late, Leah. I am involved because you live here.”
“What if I leave?”
“And just where are you moving to? The B and B may have a few vacancies, and there’s always the boardinghouse.”
Leah did not want to leave the space that had become her sanctuary, where once she closed the door she was able to relax and indulge in whatever she wanted without someone telling her what she could and could not do. Kent House had become a prison without bars where Adele sought to monitor and control everything she did from the time she woke until she retired for bed.
“I don’t want to move,” she admitted after a pregnant pause. She’d called the agent handling the island’s vacation properties to inform her that she did not intend to rent the bungalow for the coming season once Kayana offered her the use of the Café’s second story apartment.
A hint of a smile lifted the corners of Derrick’s mouth. “And I don’t want you to. You have a home here for as long as you want.” He paused. “I don’t know what it is, but a sixth sense is telling me your husband is not done with trying to make your life a living hell. Do your sons know that you’re here?”
“Yes. I sent them a text letting them know where I am.”
“Do you think they’ll give that information to their father?”
“No,” Leah said emphatically. “I told them I was going into an unofficial witness protection program and they weren’t to tell anyone where to find me.”
“What about your parents?”
“All they know is that I’m recuperating on the island where I vacationed last year. They never liked Alan, and if my father found out that he’d put his hands on me he would kill him.”
“What he needs is a good old-fashioned ass whooping, so he’ll know how it feels to hit a woman.”
“There are other ways to best Alan. I’ve been compiling a list of firms I plan to call and ask if they will represent me. I told Kayana I didn’t want alimony or a settlement, but that’s changed now that I’m unemployed. I’m going to ask for a settlement with enough money to equal my salary for the next sixteen years.”
“Do you think he’ll agree to it?” Derrick asked.
“He’ll have to, or I will subpoena the hospital to release my medical records when I told the doctor how I’d sustained my injuries. I’ve also photographed my body and sent the pictures to Kayana for safekeeping in case I lose my phone. Then there are my sons, who have agreed to testify to what I’ve told them in confidence.”
Derrick smiled, bringing her eyes to linger on his straight white teeth. “It looks as if you’ve covered all of your bases.”
“I did learn a little something about the law with a husband and two sons as lawyers.”
“That sounds like an overload of jurisprudence.”
Leah laughed for the first time since answering Erin’s call. “That’s all I heard whenever Caleb and Aron came home on school break. I have to admit the best thing to have come from my relationship with Alan are my sons.”
“You’re lucky, Leah, because they could’ve turned out like him.”
“I’m more than lucky. I’m blessed. You said you wanted to show me something,” she said, deftly steering the conversation away from her personal dilemma.
“Yes.” Derrick reached for her hand. “Come with me.”
She followed him to a corner in the kitchen and a workstation with a desktop, printer, landline phone, and fax machine. A trio of two-drawer file cabinets lined one wall. He picked up a sheet of legal paper and handed it to her.
“Let me know what you think.”
It was a mockup of the menu with an effective date beginning the Memorial Day weekend. It was only during the summer months the Seaside Café offered their dinner guests sit-down service between the hours of five and eight p.m. She perused the items for starters, appetizers, salads, sides, entrées, and beverages. And then Leah saw it. Derrick had added desserts. She’d made an assortment of sample minicakes, breads, and cookies for him and Kayana, and they’d selected what they predicted would become customer favorites.
She clasped her hands in a prayerful gesture. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you, Leah. I don’t know if you realize it, but you missed your calling. You are a very gifted baker.”
“I have my mother and grandmother to thank for that.” Derrick angled his head as he smiled at her. It was a motion she’d come to recognize whenever he appeared to be thinking about something.
“I know we talked about this before, and you went off on me. But now that you’ve joined the ranks of the unemployed, I’d like to offer you the position as baker for the Café for the summer season.”
Leah wanted to tell him that although she’d lost her position at the school she wasn’t destitute. She would be paid her accrued sick and vacation time. And she also wasn’t willing to go down without a fight. She intended to challenge the school to convince them to reinstate her. When she’d informed the board members she was taking medical leave no one had informed her of the arcane rule about updating her leave every thirty days. She also needed to be employed when she went to secure a mortgage for property.
Leah managed a small, tentative smile. “I don’t want to fight with you about money because I think of it as gauche, but I’m willing accept the mandated minimum wage for an hourly worker.”
Attractive lines fanned out around Derrick’s large near-black eyes when he smiled at her. “Now, that wasn’t so difficult was it?”
“No.”
He stared at the wall calendar attached to a corkboard. “We have a little more than ten weeks before the summer season starts; meanwhile I’m going to put you on the payroll because you’ve been helping out after hours. And once you begin baking full-time I’ll give you a raise.”
“Okay.” Leah didn’t want to debate with Derrick because she’d argued enough with Alan to last her several lifetimes.
“I just noticed that this coming Sunday is Easter Sunday. I’m going to invite Kayana and Graeme over to the house for dinner. Would you mind hosting it with me?”
Her smile was dazzling. Leah had forgotten that Easter came earlier than in past years. “I’d love to.”
Derrick took a step, lowered his head, and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
He’d kissed her cheek when it was her mouth Leah wanted him to kiss. It had been much too long since she’d experienced even a modicum of tenderness with a man and even longer since she’d moved out the bedroom she shared with a man for eighteen years and into one at the opposite wing of the house. She didn’t know or care if Adele knew she wasn’t sharing her son’s bed once Aron and Caleb moved to New York to attend college; it had become her first act of defiance to physically and psychologically divorce Alan, unaware that ten years later she would seek to make it legal.
“Hold on, let me call Kay to see if she and Graeme will be available.” He tapped the speaker button, and then dialed Kayana’s number. “Hey, sis,” he said when Kayana’s voice came through the speaker. “I’m calling to find out if you and Graeme have plans for Easter Sunday.”
“Not really. We plan to—”
“Keep it clean, Kay,” he said, cutting her off. “Leah’s here and I have you on speaker.”
“Leah and I have discussed things I know would make you blush, Derrick. Tell him, Lee.”
“You’ve got that right!” Leah confirmed. She recalled one of their book club sessions when the topic of vibrators came up and she had admitted to Cherie and Kayana that she used them. After all, it had been ten years since she’d shared a bed with her husband, and even in her late forties her libido was still strong.
“What I was going to say before you got virtuous on me, brother, is that Sunday is Graeme’s birthday and I’ve decided to make a special dinner for him.”
“I’m willing to make Easter dinner, and I’d like you and hubby to come.”
“What’s on the menu?” Kayana asked Derrick.
“Rack of lamb with an herb crust.”
“We’re coming! Leah, my brother makes the most delicious lamb I’ve ever eaten. Once you eat his you’ll never order it anywhere else. Derrick, do you want me to bring anything?”
“Mac and cheese,” Leah said loudly before Derrick could answer his sister.
“I’ll make mac and cheese if you make your mini Bundt sour cream pound cakes. You know how I am when it comes to dessert. They are truly my weakness.”
Leah remembered Kayana telling her that she made certain to limit her intake of anything made with sugar or she would overindulge. When she’d baked samples for Kayana and Derrick, she’d made miniature batches of everything.
Derrick rested a hand at the small of her back, and Leah went still before relaxing and enjoying the light touch. “Mini it is,” she said breathlessly.
“Maybe I should let you ladies decide on the menu.”
Kayana’s soft laugh came through the speaker. “I’m game if Leah is.”
Derrick dropped his hand. “I’m out. Kay, you can talk to Leah.”
She sat at the desk, lifted the receiver off the handset, and disengaged the speaker feature. “Where are you?”
“I’m at a shop looking at pens.”
“Call me back on my cell when you finish shopping.”
“Thanks. Later, Leah.”
“Later.”
Leah ended the call and saw Derrick staring at her. “What?”
“That was quick.”
“She’s busy, so she’ll call me back later. Is your lamb as delicious as Kayana says it is?”
Leah remembered the first time Alan took her to the Bramble House, where he’d ordered lamb chops. She had to admit as a teenager she’d been slightly overwhelmed and impressed with the dapper, erudite lawyer who had made it known he was very interested in her, that he had been willing to stop seeing his girlfriend to date her. Now in hindsight Leah realized that should’ve been their first and last date, yet when he’d used his influence to secure a position for her at the prestigious Calhoun Academy she’d agreed to go out with him for a celebratory dinner. It would become a night to remember and would dramatically change her life.
Derrick crossed muscular arms over his chest. “That’s something you’ll have to let me know.”
“Do you have to order the lamb?”
“No. I have a few racks in the freezer.”
“Where do you buy your meat?” Leah asked him.
“I have a butcher on the mainland that knows exactly what I want. My grandmother ordered meat from his uncle years ago, and she was so impressed with the quality of their products that they’ve become our go-to butcher. During the summer the owner will call once a week to ask what we need because we serve three meals a day. I’ll place the orders and he will dress the meat, package and date it, and have it ready when I come to pick it up. When I get racks of ribs I don’t have to waste time removing the membrane because he’ll do that for me.”
“Why do you remove it at all?”
“If I cook the ribs on a grill or smoker with the membrane, it will prevent the ribs from fully absorbing the flavor, and they’ll also have a tougher texture.”
“How often do you order lamb?”
“It depends. I usually try to have several racks on hand during the spring because that’s when it’s most popular.”
“Do you grill or smoke them?”
“I prefer to grill them if they’re separated into chops.” Leah rarely came down to the dining room between the hours of ten and two, preferring instead to remain in the apartment reading, listening to music, or watching television. And now with the increase in daytime temperatures she’d put on a hat to protect her face from the rays of the sun. The heat from the sun on her exposed arms and legs was the balm she needed to feel revived. She had come to enjoy sitting on the sand and watching seagulls fighting over crabs and other sea life washed up on the beach with the incoming surf. It had become her time to clear her mind while her body continued to heal. All the bruises had faded while there were occasional twinges of discomfort in her ribs, which had taken the full impact of the fall.
“Although I like lamb, I rarely eat it,” Leah admitted.
“Have you ever eaten shawarma?” Derrick asked her.
Her expression mirrored confusion. “I don’t think so.”
“Shawarma is a Middle Eastern dish made up of meat cut into thin slices and stacked in a cone-like shape and slow roasted on a vertical rotisserie or spit. When I lived in New York there were food trucks that offered shawarma, and you knew which was the most popular by the number of people on the sidewalk waiting to place their order.”
“I’ve seen televised travel shows where the hosts eat shawarma. Is lamb always used for the dish?”
“Originally it was made with lamb or mutton, but today’s shawarma ingredients can be lamb, chicken, beef, or turkey. Personally, I prefer one made solely with lamb.”
“Would you consider making it for the Café?”
Derrick chuckled. “Surely you jest.”
Leah detected a hint of censure in his tone. “No, I’m not joking,” she snapped.
Derrick sobered quickly with her comeback. “Let me impress on you that the Café is a two-person operation, and during our busy season Kay gets up at dawn and she’s in the kitchen by five to prepare a buffet breakfast when we open the doors at seven. We close at ten and reopen from noon to two for a buffet lunch. Then it is a sit-down dinner from five to eight, and most times I don’t get out of the kitchen until ten or eleven at night. We do this six days a week. The only break we get is Sundays when we offer brunch ten to one. Grilling and smoking meats frees up time where Kay and I can concentrate on making sides.”
“Have you thought about hiring another cook?”
“I did last summer when I brought in a retired short-order cook for the dinner hours. I’m not certain whether he’ll be available this year, because he was talking about moving to Georgia to help a cousin set up a roadside barbecue joint.”
Leah knew what she was going to propose would either shock or anger Derrick. Even after interacting with each other for two months she still was unable to gauge his moods. Most times she kept her distance, which also allowed her feelings of lust to lessen. Other than his kissing her cheek or resting his hand at the small of her back, Derrick hadn’t touched her in what she thought of as a gesture of affection. She was his sister’s friend, and he related to her as a friend.
“My plans have changed now that I’ve been fired, and that means I have to wait for the school board to reconvene for the new school term before I can request a hearing. And that means I’ll be here through Labor Day. I’m a quick study, so I wouldn’t mind standing in as your sous chef.”
Derrick struggled to understand his sister’s friend. It was obvious she’d lived a privileged lifestyle as evidenced by the jewelry she’d worn last summer, and then there were her clothes. The garments she wore were what he considered chic. Blouses, slacks, sweaters, and jackets that were favored by a particular class of women. When she’d come down to the kitchen in a man-tailored shirt, jeans, and white deck shoes, her red hair held off her face with a navy and white headband, and with her bare freckled face, she reminded him of the Ralph Lauren models on the pages of glossy fashion magazines.
He had hesitated to ask Kayana about Leah, because he didn’t want his sister to misconstrue his intent. He was attracted to her in a way a man was to a woman, yet he did not want to act on it. After all, she was still a married woman. And Derrick had an unwritten rule never to date married, engaged, or women casually dating other men. He’d witnessed altercations between couples that never ended well and were branded into his memory.
There was something about Leah Kent that was innocent and sensual at the same time. Although slimmer than most women to whom he’d found himself attracted, she wasn’t what he thought of as skinny. He liked that she didn’t attempt to conceal her freckles with makeup, which afforded her a fresh-faced look. However, it was her eyes that he’d found mesmerizing. They were a startling light blue and would sometimes appear green whenever her moods changed. And although he didn’t have what he thought of as a particular type when it came to race and ethnicity, he did briefly date one white girl in college. They went out several times but stopped short of sleeping together. Both decided it was better to remain friends than become lovers.
He had also come to resent Kayana’s insistence that he begin dating again because it wasn’t good for him to spend so much time alone now that his daughter had decided not to spend her senior year at home with him on Coates Island. Derrick knew she was right; however, it wouldn’t be easy for him to have a relationship with a woman when he had to concentrate on making certain the Café remained viable. His hours were too erratic to commit to social events or making and keeping a date.
“While I will admit that you are an amazing baker, that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily make a good cook. Kayana is a genius when it comes to duplicating my grandmother’s mac and cheese and our mother’s creole chicken with buttermilk waffles, yet it took her years to perfect those recipes. Allowing you to assist me during the summer isn’t long enough to teach you what you’ll need to know when it comes to certain dishes. All chicken, whether grilled, smoked, or fried, is brined for a minimum of twenty-four hours.”
Leah rested both hands at her waist. “Do you really think I don’t know what brining is, Derrick? Regardless of what you think of me, I did not grow up in a mansion with servants and someone to chauffer me to and from school. I lived in a trailer park the first nine years of my life, where I shared a bed with my grandmother. Then we moved to a rental apartment that was so small that my father had to put up partitions for makeshift bedrooms.
“My great-grandparents were sharecroppers, and there was a time when both grandparents worked in cotton mills, and I knew the only way to improve my lot in life was through education. I studied my ass off every chance I got, accelerated twice, and graduated high school at fifteen with a full academic scholarship to Vanderbilt. But how smart I was didn’t matter to the girls whose parents could afford to pay their tuition without securing student loans because they still considered me trailer trash.
“Then I met and got involved with Alan Kent, who probably thought of me as a novelty, and the first time we slept together he didn’t use protection and I ended up pregnant. He wanted me to have an abortion because he’d planned to propose to a woman whom he’d been dating for several years, and when I refused all hell broke loose. His girlfriend left him, while his mother was madder than a wet hen when told her precious son had impregnated some lowdown girl who was the first in her family to graduate college.”
Derrick stared at Leah, complete surprise freezing his features. It was apparent he had misjudged her. His first impression was that she was a wealthy woman who’d tired of vacationing at exclusive foreign resorts and had come to Coates Island to mingle with common folks.
“How did your family react to you marrying him?”
“They were totally against it, because my parents felt that Alan had taken advantage of me, but Adele Stephens Kent, as she liked to announce herself, did not want any stray grandkids, so it was imperative that her son marry me. Once the twins were born I was given a reprieve, but only for a while. I was assigned a nanny to help with the boys, and once they began walking Adele felt it was time to turn me into what she referred to as a woman befitting my husband’s status. I was forbidden to make my own bed or remove my dish from the table because that was why she’d employed help. When I told her I knew how to make a bed, cook, dust, and vacuum, and that it was a tradition in my family that we cleaned the house from top to bottom for the spring and fall, she screamed at me to forget whatever the Berkleys did because I was now a Kent. I was taught how to set a table for a formal dinner, how to address elected officials, and the proper etiquette for serving and hosting high tea. I’d attended so many garden parties, fund-raisers, and so-called society weddings and engagement parties that I’d occasionally feign not feeling well. Meanwhile, Alan and I presented as the perfect couple, while we were bitter enemies behind closed doors. It was during this time that I went back to university to get a graduate degree. And once my sons were enrolled in school I was rehired to teach at the Calhoun Academy.”
“Had you planned to have more children?”
Leah looked at him as if he’d spoken a language she did not understand. “No. If I’d had a different husband, then yes. Two days after my sons left Richmond for college I moved out of the bedroom I’d shared with their father, and that was more than ten years ago.”
Derrick could not imagine living in the same house as his wife and not sleeping in the same bed with her. “Was he upset?”
Leah grunted. “Not at all. Alan had what I call a love nest in a place about thirty miles outside of Richmond where he and his friends conducted their extramarital affairs, so he never lacked for female company. I told you before that he’s very generous, and as long as he is willing to give them what they want, women will continue to see him. There was never a time when I felt like a wife to Alan, because I wasn’t allowed to cook for him, and it was only after his mother was in a nursing home and he was away on business or a golfing outing that I would give the chef and housekeeper time off and make some the dishes I’d remembered from my childhood.”
“So, you really can cook.”
An attractive flush suffused her face. “Ye-ah. And because we didn’t have a lot of money Mom would make big pots of food to last for several meals. It would be collard greens or cabbage with pieces of smoked meat. Then she would make fricassee chicken with light, fluffy dumplings, lima beans, pig’s feet, beef ribs, meatloaf, and oxtail stew. My favorites were fresh and smoked neck bones. Occasionally we would have beef stew, only because my father always requested it. It was always fried chicken on Sundays with macaroni and cheese, potato salad or white rice, and giblet gravy. Everyone liked sliced cucumber in white vinegar with salt and pepper, corn on the cob, green beans, and lima beans. My brother is sensitive to acid, so we never added tomatoes in his salad. Then dessert was either gingerbread with applesauce, pound or lemon cake, and sometimes Mom would put fruit cocktail in the Jell-O mold. We had ham for Easter and turkey for Thanksgiving, because the man that owned the used car dealership where Daddy worked as a mechanic always gave his workers turkeys and hams for those two holidays, and an extra week’s pay for Christmas. We were poor, Derrick, but we never went hungry.”
Derrick felt as if she’d just chastised him. Smiling, he walked over to Leah and pulled her close to his body. Resting his chin on the top of her head, he could feel her trembling. He wanted to ask Leah where her father was during her ordeal when she’d had to deal with a cruel and indifferent husband and domineering, interfering mother-in-law? Had her parents known what she was going through or had she neglected to tell them?
Derrick could not have imagined his daughter marrying a man and not noticing the signs that she was either being emotionally or physically abused. Even if Deandra pleaded with him not to interfere, he would ignore her and get involved. Not only was she his flesh and blood, but she was also the last link between him and the woman whom he’d loved unconditionally.
He felt Leah shaking, and he knew she was crying. Cupping her chin in one hand, he gently eased her head up. Moisture had turned her eyes a shimmering teal blue. She probably had believed marrying a wealthy man would improve her life, when it had become the reverse. It was apparent she was happier living in a trailer and an apartment than in a mansion with live-in staff. She had a husband who not only cheated on her but had also beat her when she got up the courage to defy him.
“It’s over, Leah. You never have to go through that again.” A wave of fresh tears flowed down her face, and Derrick lowered his head and kissed her parted lips. He hadn’t planned to kiss Leah but offer her healing; but it turned into something more than he expected as healing changed to an unbridled hunger when he took her mouth, caressing it until she pressed her breasts against his chest in an attempt to get closer.
Derrick’s hands slipped down her back and cradled her hips. He pulled her against his middle at the same time he felt his penis stir until he was fully erect. Leah tightened her hold around his neck, groaning as she pushed her hips against his groin, and Derrick knew he had to stop or he would be guilty for taking advantage of Leah’s vulnerability, in a way her husband had done, and it took herculean strength for him to reach up and remove her arms from around his neck. Both were breathing heavily when he ended the kiss. Her response communicated that she was as physically attuned to him as he was to her.
Leah’s face was flushed with high color, making it almost impossible to discern her freckles. “I’m sorry about that,” Derrick apologized.
She smiled through her tears. “I’m not.” Suddenly she sobered. “Thank you for reminding me that I can still feel like a woman.”
Derrick reached out to touch her and then pulled his hand away. At that moment he didn’t trust himself to kiss her again. “I don’t want you to ever forget that you are a woman, Leah. In fact, you’re a very sexy woman.”
Wiping away her tears with her fingers, she bit her lip. “There are times when I don’t feel very sexy.”
“Don’t you ever let anyone tell you that you’re not.”
She sniffled. “Thank you, Derrick. Do you know you’re very good for a woman’s ego?”
He wanted to tell her that he didn’t want to stroke her ego, but for as long as she remained on Coates Island he wanted to right the wrongs she’d suffered even before she became Leah Kent. “I need to start on tomorrow’s menu before it gets too late.” Derrick averted his head, smiling. Although kissing Leah was something he hadn’t planned, he had to admit that he’d thoroughly enjoyed it.
“And I need to mop the dining room and clean up the restrooms.” She headed in the direction of the utility closet, then stopped and turned around. “You didn’t answer my question, Derrick.”
A slight frown furrowed his smooth forehead. “What was it?”
“Can I be your sous chef?”
He ran a hand over his face and shook his head. Leah was like a dog with a bone. She wasn’t going to let it go. “Okay.”
“Is that a yes or a no?”
He winked at her. “It’s a yes.” He wasn’t prepared when she raced toward him and jumped up in his arms, her arms going around his neck and her legs around his waist.
She kissed his cheek. “You’ll never regret it.”
“I better not,” he said in her ear.
He patted her backside and set her on her feet. At that moment he wondered who she actually was, the sexy woman who had had to grow up much too quickly when she’d become wife at eighteen and mother at nineteen, or the effervescent teenage girl that had lain dormant for so many years and was now teasing and playful.
Right now, it didn’t matter to Derrick because he liked both the sexy and the playful Leah.