His Uptown Girl - By Liz Talley Page 0,108
be.”
Dez kissed her again. Around him, his band set down their instruments as traditional jazz piped through the speakers. Everyone still watched them, but he didn’t care.
“You’re going to get lipstick on your collar,” she said when he finally came up for air.
“I don’t care. I want your mark on me. And I want my mark on you. You’re mine and that’s all I really care about right now. Stay with me.”
“I’m not leaving, and I’ll never run again. For a while things were cloudy, but—”
“You looked for the sunshine?”
“It was always there, Dez. I just couldn’t see nor handle what you’d come to mean to me. But now I’m ready. Not just to date, but to love again.”
He grasped her hand, jogged down the three steps of the stage and then swung her into his arms. “Then let the games begin. We’re moving forward together.”
She hugged him. “No games, baby. Just something real this time.”
“Deal,” he said, turning to accept the congratulations of his guests. Blue Rondo was open and Eleanor was by his side, and if that wasn’t a happily ever after, he didn’t know what was.
* * * * *
Look for the next book by Liz Talley set in New Orleans, LA! Coming in October 2013 from Harlequin Superromance.
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CHAPTER ONE
TIFFANY KNEW THE EXACT MOMENT when her family arrived in the E.R.
“Say joh may-ah?” Poh-poh’s voice creaked.
“No, Grandma, she’s not dead.” She heard Daniel reassure in that too-smooth voice of his. Tiffany grabbed the edges of the pillow and stuffed them against her ears. With her family hovering on the other side of the curtain, the pleasant buzz of the painkillers evaporated, and her stomach churned.
Shadows streaked into her cubicle from beneath the partition. “Tiffany?”
For a moment, she considered pretending to be comatose, or ducking away and hiding somewhere until they left. But there was no avoiding the inevitable. Sighing, she propped herself up in the hospital bed, smoothing the blanket over her knees. “I’m here,” she called in a rusty voice.
The rings on the curtain railing clattered as the partition was yanked aside. Mom, Dad, Daniel and Poh-poh took her in with dark, wide eyes.
“Ai-ya!” Her grandmother began speaking rapidly in Cantonese, waving her hands.
“Bah, she’s fine. I told you she was fine,” her father said impatiently, giving her a cursory once-over. His stained white kitchen apron still clung to his narrow hips, the front dangling to his knees, and he smelled strongly of fryer oil. “You’re fine, right?” he asked.
She didn’t reply, knowing any answer apart from “yes” would cause only more trouble.
“What were you doing driving so fast in the rain?” Her mother placed her dry, papery palm against Tiffany’s forehead as if she had a fever. Her fingers brushed the bruises along her cheek and jaw and Tiffany flinched. “It’s that car, I bet. I told you not to buy used.”
“There’s nothing wrong with used cars,” her dad said. “She’s just a bad driver. She should have learned from me instead of paying for those classes. ‘Defensive driving’—bah.” He snorted in disgust. “Daniel learned from me, and now he teaches driving.”
Poh-poh cycled through relief, exasperation and hysterics as she berated her only granddaughter in her native tongue. She was reckless; drivers today were careless; the weather had cursed her; her face was all bruised and now she wouldn’t be able to find a husband and why hadn’t she stayed in Everville with the family instead of moving to New York City?
“I’m sorry, Poh-poh.” She felt bad for making her grandmother worry.
“Sit down, Grandma. Don’t work yourself up.” Daniel pulled the cubicle’s lone chair next to the bed, but their grandmother argued that her dad should sit after his long day in the kitchen. Tony insisted his wife sit. Rose insisted Daniel sit. Tiffany closed her eyes as they argued, voices rising until a nurse asked them to quiet down. Grudgingly, Poh-poh sat.
The E.R.’s attending physician interrupted to talk to the