This is another story starring Dominique LaSalle, who was in another story in Facets called Reunion. TLY picks up some time after Reunion, say six months to a year later and Dom finally deals with all the unfinished business between her and her mother, Ava.
I hope you enjoy this sample and click here to find out what happens...
Ava’s dead.
I thought
I’d be celebrating when that finally happened. After everything that happened
between us, after all the crap she put me through, her death touched me a lot
deeper than I thought it would.
My name is
Dominique LaSalle-Shields and I make music for a living. I’ve sold millions of
albums worldwide, toured around the world and won many awards. I’m married to a
wonderful man, Kevin, who’s a veteran in the music industry himself and,
fortunately, my producer. I’ve been very fortunate in my career and my life. As
nice as all of that is, none of it will bring Ava back.
The news of
her passing came from her second husband, Carl. This meant that I had another
stepparent, which didn’t faze me at all. (My dad had already remarried.) I was
surprised that Ava hadn’t done it sooner, since she’d always needed a man
around. There was something I didn’t know about my new step-dad though:
“He’s
Terry’s father?” Kevin asked.
“Yep.
Somehow, he and Ava hooked up and got married,” I shook my head. “I swear, the
man’s been dead for seven years and our lives still get tangled up.”
Kevin and I were in the kitchen. I
can cook, but he’s better at it than I am so I usually step aside and let him
do his thing. It was a beautiful, sun drenched day with a lightly salty breeze
that wafted in from the ocean. Usually, I loved days like this, but, I couldn’t
get into it.
“Well, I’m thankful he’s not here
to do the actual tangling. We both know how well that worked out.”
“Too true,”
I agreed and drank some juice.
Who’s
Terry, you ask? Terry Mosley and I were in a band called Avant Groove in Chicago around 1993. We
were in love. It all came apart when I got signed to a record deal and moved to
L.A. He
couldn’t let us go, so he followed me out here. It was blind, dumb luck that he
hooked up with one of my back-up singers and walked back into my life. This led
to an affair that almost ruined my marriage and nearly ended my life. After
that, I tried to forget about what happened and put all of that behind me.
Fate, it seemed, didn’t want me to forget.
“At least they didn’t get married while you
and Terry were together--” Kevin noted, “--Then it would’ve been a black
version of ‘Say It Isn’t So’.
I smiled
sweetly. “Honey, if you want me to ration the passion to you, keep up the
jokes.”
“What else
did Carl say?” Kevin asked. I grinned at his deft changing of the subject.
“He said
that Ava had something for me and he was to put it directly into my hands,” I
shrugged. “The last time I saw Ava, I paid off the house note as a peace
offering. It didn’t work. She still treated me like crap.”
“Why would
she be that way with her only child?”
“Hell, I
don’t know. It was like my birth somehow fucked up her life beyond all reason.”
Kevin shook
his head and asked. “Are you going to Chicago ?”
“Ava may’ve
gotten on my last nerve, but it was her last wish. I should honor that I
guess.”
“You want
me to come with you?”
I so
wanted him to. Ava may’ve been dead, but I was real nervous about what Carl was
going to give me. For all I knew, it could be a mountain of debt willed
directly to me, or something like that. Even so, I had to go and put it all
away.
“No. You
stay here and take care of business,” I said as I kissed him. “I’ll go and see
what Ava has up her sleeve.”
