Into the Fire - Leslie Kelly [22]
Venus nodded miserably. They'd had this conversation before. "I know, Lace. Of course you're right. I'm sorry your father doesn't understand."
"Believe it or not, my father doesn't want my mother hurt. He has some feelings for her still." Lacey hadn't believed that at first, but the look on J.T.'s face when he talked about the whirlwind romance he'd had with her mother all those years ago made her think he was sincere. "The thing is, he felt cheated out of the first twelve years of my life. He has no other children. And he wants the world to know I'm his."
"Can't really blame him."
"No, I can't. If it were just my mother and stepfather, maybe we could find a way to make this turn out all right."
"Your grandparents, right?"
Lacey nodded, feeling tears gather in the corners of her eyes. "This could kill them, Venus. Finding out their only granddaughter isn't their biological grandchild at all? That their daughter-in-law cheated on their son and he accepted her illegitimate baby? How can I let it happen?"
The truth was, she couldn't. In the years she'd been in Baltimore , her father had given in to her pleas to remain quiet. It was only recently, with the phenomenal success of Lacey's column in the magazine, that her proud, strutting father had started pushing her to let the world know who she really was.
He'd warned her months ago that he was going to do it. When she'd realized she couldn't dissuade him, Lacey had started trying to work things out with her mother, hoping she'd find the strength to deal with the scandal if the word got back to someone in Smeltsville , Indiana . And it would. J.T. Birmingham was a well-known millionaire playboy and world-renowned publisher. The word would get back.
"Well, I guess you lucked out last night," Venus said as she dug another piece of chocolate out of Lacey's fridge. She broke it in half, handing the bigger piece to Lacey. "Maybe something else will happen to make him change his mind."
"It was a reprieve." Lacey nibbled on the chocolate. "A delay, not a solution. I still have no idea what I'm going to do to convince him not to go through with it."
For a moment, Lacey thought Venus was going to forget to question her about her romantic interlude. She should have known better. Venus would never forget anything that had to do with Lacey's rather Spartan love life. She'd been telling her for months it was time for her to find a man.
"Okay, sweetie, time's up," Venus said as she licked the last of the chocolate off her fingers. She took a carton of milk out of Lacey's fridge and took a couple of mouthfuls straight from it. Lacey rolled her eyes.
"We've wallowed. We've gorged. Now … talk!"
* * *
Nate Logan wasn't too surprised to find a message from J.T. Birmingham on his desk when he arrived Monday morning. "Now comes the firing," he mused as he crumpled the pink notepaper in his hand and two-pointed it into the trash can.
He really didn't know if he was going to be fired over Friday night's serious lapse in judgment. J.T. hadn't seemed exactly outraged. And if any firing were to be done, he imagined it would have taken place in the heat of the moment. Still, the man had had the entire weekend to think it over … and perhaps to be influenced by his little girl.
Nate didn't know which was worse. That he'd had out-of-control sex with his boss's daughter or that the daughter had turned out to be Lacey Clark. In any case, he was about to find out what Friday night's debacle would cost him, as J.T. wanted him downstairs in his office on the tenth floor in half an hour.
The entire twelve-story downtown Baltimore office building was owned by J.T. Birmingham's company. The Men's World offices were on the twelfth floor, and the For Her Eyes Only staff worked on the fifth. That was one reason he and Lacey Clark had never bumped into each other. There were, after all, a few thousand people working