Hotel Ladd Read Online Free PDF Page A

to put Fran in a bind when Casey knew
she’d been nice enough to give her a job in the first
place?
    It was completely
inexcusable. Banging a fist to the dashboard, Annie jabbed at the
lighted arrow for the vehicle’s heat. She’d dashed out of the salon
so quickly, there was no time to warm up the car and it was cold!
Cold as a cast iron commode in the winter, she thought. Cold as Ms.
Devane’s intentions as she tried to force Annie’s back against the
wall. I’d hate to see you miss out on the
opportunity of a lifetime . Beneath her
fancy sympathetic words lay a lizard tongue. That woman was slick
in her manipulation and Annie didn’t care for her one bit. But the
money she was offering couldn’t be ignored. Half a million dollars?
Did that woman know what Annie and Casey could do with that kind of
money? They could live comfortably, buy a decent car. Maybe with
her share, Annie could afford the down payment for a salon. Candi
had been dying to get her own place. They could be partners! Candi
would take care of the hair, Annie would take care of the nails.
Why, she could even afford to send Casey to college if the girl
would screw her head on right and stop battling the world. Casey
had her entire future to look forward but instead she was stuck in
the past.
    Because of Jeremiah.
    Casey had been so angry to learn he was
her father, she’d rejected him outright. The minute Annie revealed
the news, Casey screamed and cried and pitched a fit—none of which
Annie could blame her for. Shame skulked in, coursed through
Annie’s veins. She didn’t much care for Jeremiah either, regretting
she ever slept with the man in the first place, though she didn’t
regret having her daughter. Casey was the only bright spot from the
affair. A wave of ambivalence washed through her. Just because they
were having their difficulties at the moment didn’t mean she didn’t
love the girl. She did. Casey was the most important person in
Annie’s world. She only wished they had an easier go of it, but
Casey was troubled.
    Annie’s sister Lacy was fast becoming a
crucial part of her life, too, but it was slower going. Getting
over Lacy’s betrayal with Jeremiah had been difficult. It wasn’t
until Annie let go of the hate, realizing her sister had been a
mere child at the time, that she was able to begin the process of
forgiveness. At the time Lacy ran away, she was younger than Casey.
Headstrong and free-spirited, she had yearned to break free of her
small town and see the world. Unfortunately, she thought Jeremiah
was her escape route.
    Lacy had been wrong. Like Annie, she
had chosen the wrong man to hitch her wagon to and paid the
consequences. When Annie learned the details of Lacy’s life since
leaving Tennessee, her heart split in two. Her sister might have
made some poor decisions, but she didn’t deserve to be abandoned by
Jeremiah in a big city like Atlanta. Annie shuddered, and this time
it wasn’t from the chilly temperature. Lacy had it rough yet she
bounced back and bore hardly a scar. A smile pulled at her mouth.
In that regard, her sister was amazing.
    Thoughts of forgiveness diluted Annie’s
anger. Expelling a sigh, she turned onto the road for her apartment
complex. Casey was young and headstrong, too. Her rebellion stemmed
from choices she didn’t make, situations and circumstances beyond
her control. Remorse twisted Annie’s insides. Most of what Casey
rebelled against wasn’t her fault. It was her mother’s.
    They were facts Annie couldn’t change.
She could only move forward and do the best she could. Thinking
back to her conversation with Jillian Devane, Annie wondered what
the right thing to do would be in her current predicament. Cal said
the logging could bring in a quarter of a million dollars. Ms.
Devane offered double that amount. Excitement flitted across her
breast. Would a sale on the open market bring even more?
    She didn’t know, but these
were definitely things she needed to discuss with