Bad Girls Don't (29 page)

“Damn right,” Skye agreed.

“Smooth move,” Sue Ellen said to Nancy. “Now you’ve got Skye admitting she and Nathan are practicing the Kama Sutra in her bedroom.”

“What about your grandmother?” Fanny asked Skye. “Is she doing it?”

“With the
sheriff
?” Sue Ellen looked ready to pass out.

“No,” Fanny said. “Belly dancing. Does she do it?”

Skye shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“She’s definitely not doing it with the sheriff,” Nancy said.

Fanny frowned. “Skye isn’t?”

“I meant her grandmother.”

“I’m confused,” Fanny admitted.

“Which is why we need to focus our attention back on belly dancing,” Skye said. Normally, she didn’t mind a little anarchy in class, but for some reason it was bothering her today. Probably because she was frustrated by her lack of sleuthing skills. And the fact that Nathan was keeping an eagle eye on her activities.

“You did promise to tell us whether you yanked the sheriff into your bed,” Sue Ellen reminded Skye.

Skye glared at her. “Tell me again why we’re friends?”

“Because you like me.”

“Not at the moment I don’t.”

“Remember who taught you about garbology.”

“And remember how we got caught.”

“Now what are they talking about?” Fanny asked.

“I have no idea,” Nancy confessed.

“I had no idea this is what you guys did in belly-dancing class,” Lulu said with a snap of her gum.

“It’s
not
what we do in belly-dancing class. Positions, ladies,” Skye ordered.

“Don’t you talk about the history of belly dancing and stuff? You know, about Little Egypt, the dancer who performed at the Chicago World’s Fair or something way back in the 1890s. And how she, like, totally rocked.”

“You missed that class,” Nancy said. “But it sounds like you already know about it.”

“I’ve been reading up on it,” Lulu admitted.

“I didn’t want to mention it before, but you’ve got some dirt on your neck, dear,” Fanny told Lulu.

“It’s not dirt. It’s a tattoo of a spiderweb.”

“Does it wash off?”

“No.”

Fanny just shook her head. “That’s a shame. When you get older, you’ll have to wear turtleneck sweaters to hide it.”

“No way. My grandfather has more tattoos than I do.”

“Yes, but it’s different for men, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“Everything.”

“Not anymore.”

“Don’t the boys still play football while the girls stand on the sidelines and cheer?”

“I hate cheerleaders,” Lulu growled.

“Lulu likes the kicker, though,” Sue Ellen said. “Ouch! What’d you hit me for?”

Lulu snapped her gum in aggravation. “Can’t you keep a secret?”

“Of course I can. I know that Nancy isn’t really a size eight, but a size ten.” Sue Ellen clapped her hand over her mouth before giving Lulu an accusatory look. “Now look what you’ve made me do!”

“I do not wear a size ten!” Nancy said indignantly.

“There’s nothing wrong with a size ten, or with any size,” Skye said. “I hate the way popular culture has given women such a poor self-image. We’re all
supposed
to be different. That’s the beauty of it.”

Nancy nodded slowly. “Remember that great Dove commercial that premiered during the Super Bowl when the Steelers won? The one with all the different young girls worrying that they were ugly or fat or something else? And how every girl deserves to feel good about herself. It really touched me deeply. Got me a little teary-eyed. Or was that because of Mick Jagger’s performance during the half-time show? I’m not sure now.”

Lulu’s eyes bugged out. “You’re a Stones fan?”

“That surprises you?” Nancy said.

“Well, yeah,” Lulu replied. “Your sister is a nun.”

“So everyone keeps telling me,” Nancy grumbled. “I’m
not
my sister.”

“I hear you,” Skye said. “I’m not
my
sister, either.”

“Maybe not,” Julia said from the doorway. “But don’t forget who taught you how to belly dance.” She proudly pointed to herself. “Me.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Is
it true?” Fanny asked. “Is your sister really a belly-dancing librarian?”

“So she says.”

“Did she really teach you to belly dance?”

“And play poker,” Julia added.

Lulu looked impressed. “I thought you were supposed to be the good-girl sister.”

“She is,” Skye stated, irritation in her voice. “What are you doing here?” she asked Julia.

To which her good-girl, near-perfect half sister replied, “I came back because I heard you were in trouble.”

Her comment immediately annoyed Skye. “And you always come charging in to save the day when I screw up, huh?”

“I used to,” Julia replied.

“Yeah, well, Nathan is doing that now,” Sue Ellen said. “He’s our town sheriff. And he’s doing it with Skye.”

“Sue Ellen.” Julia’s gaze was frosty. “I see you’re as controversial as ever.”

“And I see you still haven’t forgiven me for that llama incident back in Serenity Falls. Which is a shame, because Lucy has forgiven me.”

“Lucy?”

“Lucy the Llama. You know she’s pregnant, right?” Fanny gasped. “Skye is pregnant?”

“No, the llama is,” Nancy explained.

Fanny tapped her hearing aid and looked confused. “What llama?”

“Shhh. I’ll tell you later,” Nancy said.

“Don’t treat me like I’m some silly old woman. You know I only lost my hearing last year when I used that power saw without the proper safety measures of earphones. Now my darn kids won’t let me use power tools anymore. Won’t let me climb up on the roof to clean the gutters anymore either. They don’t let me have any fun.”

“They let you take belly-dancing lessons.”

Fanny snorted. “Thank heavens for small favors.”

“You rock,” Lulu told Fanny with admiration. “I thought you were a ‘plays well with others’ kind of person, but you’re really a ‘runs with scissors.’ That’s wicked awesome!”

Fanny looked skeptical. “I hope that’s a compliment.”

“It is,” Lulu assured her.

Despite their earlier rocky moment about Lulu’s spiderweb tattoo, the youngest and oldest members of Skye’s class suddenly bonded—just like that.

Sometimes it happens that way
, Skye thought. People make a connection. She, Sue Ellen, and Lulu might seem unlikely allies, but there was just a connection between the three of them that made their relationship work.

Skye and Nathan’s relationship was
not
destined to work. That didn’t seem to make the connection between them weaken or disappear, though.

And the connection between Skye and her sister had been broken so long ago, Skye wasn’t sure she remembered it at all.

She stared at Julia, still not quite able to believe she was back. She didn’t look any different. Well, okay, maybe a little. Instead of her usual uptight librarian’s clothes with tidy Peter Pan collars, Julia was wearing a Stanley Idaho T-shirt and jeans. No visible tattoos or piercings, though.

“I’m in the middle of class,” Skye pointed out.

“Nonsense. Your sister has been gone for months. You two should talk,” Fanny insisted. “We can end the class early, right, everyone?”

They all nodded.

“I don’t want to end class early.” Skye realized she sounded as petulant as Toni when she was demanding more ice cream, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t ready to face Julia yet.

That didn’t mean she was afraid of her. No way.

 

 

“Adam, what are you doing here?” Angel stared at him with dismay. She’d never dreamed that he’d just show up on Julia’s doorstep in Serenity Falls without calling first. That wasn’t like him at all. He looked totally out of place in his designer business suit and silk tie.

“I heard our daughter Julia is back.”

“She is, but she’s not home at the moment. She’s gone to Rock Creek to see Skye. You should have called first.”

“I’ll wait for her.”

He walked in and stopped when he saw Violet, who instantly recognized him. “You’re Adam Kemp. I saw you on
Good Morning America
once. What are you doing here?”

Adam frowned. “Who are you?”

“Ethel’s mother.”

“Who’s Ethel?”

“She is.” Violet pointed at Angel. “Even though she calls herself Angel now, her birth certificate gives her name as Ethel. Did I hear you right earlier when you called Julia “our daughter”? Does that mean that you and Ethel . . . ?”

“Mother, don’t you want to go watch
The Price Is Right
?” Angel sounded desperate. “You’re missing it.”

Violet refused to budge. “I don’t care. You’re telling me you had a love child with a billionaire? I assume it
was
out of wedlock.”

“You didn’t tell her?” Adam said to Angel.

Violet stared at Angel in disbelief. “Why aren’t you rich? You don’t have to be living this way, hand to mouth.”

“I’m not living hand to mouth. My fabric arts business is doing really well.”

“Pfft.” Violet waved her words away. “You could be rolling in money. Should have been, all these years.”

“Money isn’t important to me.”

“Well, your father and I sure could have used some to make our retirement years a little easier.”

“He disowned me decades ago. Are you saying that I could have
bought
my way back into his good graces?”

“No, you’re right.” Violet seemed to diminish in size. “He was a stubborn man. Once he’d made up his mind, there was no going back. You’re right.”

Angel didn’t know what to say to that.

Adam had no such problem. “The information about my family life and my relationship with Julia is confidential. I don’t want to hear that you’ve tried to sell it to some media rag.”

Violet drew herself back up to her full height, which, at four-foot-eleven, wasn’t all that tall. “I don’t air my family’s dirty laundry in public. I’ve never done that in seventy years and I don’t aim on starting now.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Why didn’t you do a better job at looking after my daughter?” Violet leveled her best accusatory glare at Adam.

Angel knew firsthand how powerful that look could be. That’s why she stepped in to defend him. “Adam didn’t know. I didn’t tell him I was pregnant. He didn’t know about Julia until a year ago.”

Violet’s expression was etched with remorse. “Did you hate your father so much that you wanted to prevent your own daughter from having one?”

“No. My father had nothing to do with my decision.”
Or had it?
Angel had never considered the impact her own estrangement from her father might have on her life, or on her decisions.

But Sash had been a great father to Julia during his lifetime, even though she wasn’t his biological child. So she had had a paternal influence in her life—a loving, nonjudgmental paternal influence.

Unlike Angel, who’d grown up under the thumb of a man drunk on power. Maybe that’s why she’d avoided Adam like the plague. Because of her fear of becoming subjugated to another man’s autocratic authority.

Violet stared at Angel as if able to read her mind. “Your father had a way of making others do what he wanted, no matter what. Believe me, I know.”

“Then why stay?”

“Because I’d made a vow before God.”

“Which is why I never got married. Because I don’t want any part of a vow that would make you stay in a situation like that.”

“So you’re blaming me for ruining your life, is that it?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then, what?”

“If I could interrupt here for a moment?” Adam said. “It seems to me that with this information about your past, Angel, a lot of things are starting to make more sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if you grew up with a bastard for a father, then it makes sense that that would affect your decision-making process, and that you’d have issues, as they say. No offense intended, ma’am,” he said to Violet.

“None taken,” she said wearily. “Sometimes, it seems you just can’t make up for past mistakes.”

Angel knew what her mother meant. Angel had wondered if she’d ever be able to make up for not telling Julia about Adam, or for not telling him about Julia.

But she’d had no idea that her mother had ever considered such a thing, that she even acknowledged that mistakes had been made. This was all a revelation to her. Talk about an aha moment.

 

 

Skye was having her own aha moment with her sister.
Half
sister. An aha-I-want-to-hit-you moment.

“You couldn’t wait until my class was over to come barging in here?” Skye said the minute they were alone.

“Forgive me for being worried about you,” Julia shot back.

“No way. I don’t forgive you.”

“No surprise there. You’ve always had a chip on your shoulder the size of Oregon.”

“And you’ve always tried to knock it off.”

“No, I haven’t. I am not into confrontations the way you are. Not at all. In fact, usually I try to avoid them at all costs.”

“So why come here, then? Why make me look like an idiot in front of my class?”

Julia was clearly stunned. “Since when do you care what your class or anyone else thinks?”

“I don’t.”

Yet, for all Skye claimed she didn’t care, Julia always came to mind whenever Skye did something. How Julia wouldn’t think this or that. Wouldn’t think Skye was smart. Wouldn’t think she was making good decisions. Wouldn’t wear that top with that skirt. Wouldn’t get her navel pierced. Wouldn’t get pregnant by a self-centered musician with no staying power.

In a sudden, different kind of aha moment, Skye realized she had to make peace with her sister or she’d never find peace within herself. Nancy had tried to tell her, but Skye hadn’t been ready to listen then.