God Ain't Blind by Mary Monroe Read Free Book Online Page B

even more.
    “Does that mean you’re coming to the Red Rose tonight? Friday night is buy one drink, get one drink free. And all the free buffalo wings you can eat. And they are the best—no offense.” I immediately wanted to bite my tongue. I should have known better than to brag about another cook’s abilities to a struggling caterer.
    “None taken.” He laughed. “I know I can hook up a mean meal.
    I’ll be at the Red Rose tonight. There and any other place you want me to be.”
    I was smiling so hard when I got off the phone, my cheeks hurt.
    I was still smiling when my daughter pranced into the kitchen, already dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt with a black Barbie’s face on the front. She was spoiled, materialistic, self-centered, and ma-nipulative. But she was also smart, generous, loving, and cute. Even though she had the same habits and mannerisms, and the nice, slim build and soft, gentle features, that her daddy used to have, she was my most treasured creation.
    “What are you smiling about, Mama? You look like that cat in Alice in Wonderland, ” she said, with a smirk.
    I cleared my throat and stopped smiling. “Nothing,” I managed.
    C H A P T E R 8
    I was probably the only person at the company I worked for who didn’t look forward to Friday. I didn’t know what to do with myself on the weekends anymore. My personal life had become so hum-drum that I preferred being at work to being in my own house.
    I loved my husband. He was the most important man in my life and probably always would be. I loved him more than my own flesh-and-blood daddy. I still loved my daddy, and I always would, but he had not fulfilled my needs as thoroughly as Pee Wee. And even though I had forgiven my daddy for deserting me and my mama for another woman when we had needed him the most, some of the pain that that betrayal had caused would remain with me to my grave.
    When Pee Wee was home, he spent most of his time slumped in that damn La-Z-Boy, watching TV, or outside, tinkering around under the hood of his car. His parents were deceased, and most of his family lived in Erie, Pennsylvania. The only time he left the house was to go to work at the barbershop that he owned and managed, fishing with some of his buddies, or out for a few drinks at one of the local bars. He hadn’t been to church in over a year, and the only time he visited my parents’ house a few blocks away was when I dragged him along with me. We had not been to a party, picnic, or any other social event together in months.
    GOD AIN’ T BLIND
    39
    I loved my daughter, too, but when she was in the house, she wasn’t much company, either. I knew she loved me, but she took me for granted, almost as much as her daddy. In her case, it didn’t bother me so much. She was a typical child. As long as I fed her and took care of all her other needs, she was satisfied. And like most of the kids her age, she didn’t want to hang out with her mama. She had a lot of friends in the neighborhood that she liked to visit and hang out with at the malls and playgrounds. When she wasn’t with her friends or my parents, she liked to lock herself in her room and read. She had inherited her passion for reading from me, and I encouraged her to do it as much as possible. I just had to monitor what she read. Even though she was just ten, I didn’t have a problem with her reading material meant for teenagers.
    However, I did have a problem with her reading “adult” books, such as those by mega-writers Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins—even though I enjoyed and admired both writers myself.
    To this day I believed that if Rhoda had not allowed her daughter, Jade, to read books by those two writers, and others like them, when she was Charlotte’s age, the girl might not have turned out the way she did. She was the daughter from hell, and that was the nicest way I could describe her. I cringed when I recalled the times I’d caught Jade reading The Joy of Sex and The Happy