faded and her heart galloped within her, threatening to burst out of her chest as her nerves and a fresh wave of anger consumed her.
“Lauren…” came Daddy’s deep voice. Everyone in the salon grew quiet. “May I have a word with you alone, please?” Several of her friends focused wide or rolling eyes on her, while Mama grimaced.
“Hey, everybody, give me five minutes, please,” she announced. After a short hesitation, she stepped off the pedestal and he followed her into the large dressing room, which afforded them a bit of privacy. “Daddy, if you came up here to try and talk me out of marrying Aries, you can forget it!”
“Lauren, I—”
“I’m serious! I’ve not called you for a while on purpose. You missed the engagement party and the dinner for a reason. I will admit it. You’ve hurt me so badly, Daddy, I can’t even figure out how to describe my pain and disappointment with you. Usually, I am not one to have a difficult time finding the right words, but you’ve left me dumbfounded. I was so embarrassed when I brought Aries by the house… Thank God Huggie was there to break some of the tension, but believe me, once I was alone, I couldn’t get how you behaved out of my mind. It was devastating.”
Her chest heaved as he looked away, slipping his hands into his pockets. “And whatever happened to you in the past has nothing to do with you sitting there trying to ruin my future. It wasn’t Aries who made you mad. Whatever White man did you dirty wasn’t him! You’ve been screwed over, hurt, and lied on by fellow Black people, too, Daddy, but I have yet to hear you blame it on our race. You drove Landon Jr. away, and you’ve done the same with me. Be happy. Your adult children now want nothin’ to do with you. You’re a true success story!”
She clapped, then patted her eyes, feeling a little ashamed that she was now fighting angry tears. The gall of the man to show up here…
“Lauren, I can see that… uh, you feel strongly about this. I wanted you to say all that you had to say before I interrupted. You’ve let me know how you feel, and I don’t blame you.” Taken aback by his humility, she kept listening. “You and I haven’t always seen eye to eye, but we’ve always been close. I miss that.” He swallowed and shook his head as he began to pace back and forth. “I’m not here to try and talk you out of marrying Aries. I’m here… I’m here to apologize.” She searched his face, looking for any sign he was speaking the truth. “This morning I watched your mother all excited, getting ready. She didn’t tell me at first where she was going.
“She got all dolled up in her suit and heels, and I knew it had something to do with you or Landon Jr. I asked her once she finished putting on her makeup where she was going. She told me, ‘Our baby is trying on a few wedding dresses and needs to make her final choice, and I need to decide on my mother-of-the-bride attire. I’m busy. Your lunch is in the refrigerator. Please don’t call my phone while I’m away.’ She looked at me with such disappointment, Lauren. She grabbed her car keys, went on out into the driveway, and all I could hear was ‘Deliver Me,’ by Donald Lawrence and Le’Andria Johnson, playing from her CD player.
“I stood at the door with my cigarette, and watched her drive on down the road. She left me there, and I knew that nothing I could have said would have stopped her. She’d made up her mind. She was going to support you getting married to that man, and that was that. I then spent several minutes thinkin’ about how I had hoped that one day, you’d find a nice young man to not replace Nehemiah, but step in and help pick up those broken pieces. You’re my baby girl.” His voice quaked. “I’d never, ever, try to intentionally hurt my lovely Lauren… That’s what I used to call you when you were just a little girl, twirlin’ around in your church dresses on a Saturday, so you could pretend to be a princess.”
She smiled sadly at him.
“I walked you down the aisle the first time around. You were young, but I knew you two really cared for one another. I