Into the Fire - Leslie Kelly [21]
Venus looked surprised. "I thought you said he was committed to going through with it."
"He was. Something, uh, happened to interfere with his plans." Lacey curled her legs, tucking her bare feet under a cushion of the sofa. "I guess that's one positive result of what has to be one of the worst evenings of my life."
"Well, what on earth happened? Your father's been chomping at the bit for a year to announce to the city of Baltimore that you're really his daughter."
Venus was one of only a small group of people who knew the truth of Lacey's parentage. A group that had increased by one last night when Nate Logan found out. She cringed. "I had a little accident and ended up ruining my dress during the party."
Venus snorted. "So, you took my advice and did the old dump-a-bloody-Mary-on-your-lap routine to make your getaway."
"Not exactly." Lacey began to explain to her friend what had taken place the evening before. She tried to avoid some parts—mainly the makeout session on the trampoline, the unexpected intensity of passion between her and the man she hated, the whole sex-with-a-nameless-stranger thing.
Venus didn't buy it. "So your father walked in and found you and some guy wearing bathrobes in the gym. So what? It's not like you were…"
Lacey flushed.
"Whoa-ho, you were! You were doin' the hootchie cootchie dance with a hunka man you fished out of a swimming pool."
Lacey knew her silence spoke volumes.
"Was he good?"
"Venus…"
"Oh, come on," Venus said with an impatient shrug. "Forget that you're hating yourself this morning and thinking you're a trampoline tramp. Did the man rock your world last night or not?"
Lacey couldn't lie. "Rocked it big time. Cripes, Venus, I didn't know it was possible for an orgasm to be strong enough to blow off the top of my skull. I shook for five minutes!"
The redhead let out a shriek of laughter. "Girl, I knew you could let loose if you tried."
"Why is everyone so altogether concerned about me letting loose? My father probably would've offered to let us have his whole house for the night if I'd expressed the least bit of interest. Do you know how bizarre that is?" Lacey muttered as she stood and went into the kitchen to make more tea.
Venus, the first friend Lacey had made when she moved to Baltimore to make it on her own three years before, followed, giving Lacey an awkward pat on the shoulder. She looked almost remorseful for her words, which wasn't a typical expression. Venus typically had a screw-you look on her face, one suited perfectly to her attitude.
Her attitude had something to do with her upbringing, Lacey imagined. And their upbringings couldn't have been more dissimilar. Lacey had been raised under the rigid, watchful eye of her stepfather, a former Army sergeant turned minister, and her mother, a Betty Crocker, June Cleaver wannabe who'd had one tiny lapse of judgment in her otherwise proper youth. The misjudgment that had resulted in Lacey's birth twenty-six years before.
Venus had grown up in the child welfare system in south Jersey , scratching her way through high school and out of the foster home where she'd been raised. The only thing they had in common was their complete confusion during their childhood about who their fathers were. At least Lacey had eventually found out. That's more than she could say for Venus.
"Everyone wants you to be happy, honey," Venus said, "including your real dad. I think he sounds kinda cool."
"In a Hugh Hefner way, I suppose," Lacey retorted. "My mother sure went from one extreme to another, didn't she?" Lacey started. "My mother! I guess I should call her."
"I know you're worried about what's going to happen to your mom if everyone in your hometown finds out you were illegitimate. But it's the new millennium. Does anyone really care about that stuff anymore?" Venus asked.
"Maybe not here. Maybe not in New York or L.A. But in Smeltsville , Indiana ?" Lacey gave a bitter laugh as she steeped another cup of tea, then added lemon and sugar. "Yes. People care. People would care that