White Lines II: Sunny: A Novel by Tracy Brown

Author:Tracy Brown [Brown, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Extratorrents, Kat
ISBN: 9780312555238
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 2012-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

10

UNGRATEFUL

Sunny was up at five in the morning, but she had no turkeys to baste, no collard greens to clean. She was splitting Thanksgiving between her mother’s and Jada’s homes and had no domestic duties on this day. She hadn’t just awakened. Instead, she had been up all night.

Sunny had been back from L.A. for two days. It had seemed far longer than that. After the charity ball, Sunny and Malcolm had made love until they ran out of energy, and in the morning they ordered breakfast to their room. They lay together all morning until Malcolm peeled himself away and went to spend the day with his daughter.

Sunny and Malcolm had shared a whirlwind of dinners, wine tastings, dancing, and incredible lovemaking. Malcolm was the most fun and romantic man she had ever met. They had flown back to New York, parting ways at the airport. Sunny had her brother, Reuben, pick her up at JFK with Mercedes in tow, thus sparing herself the misfortune of having to face her mother while high—and paranoid.

Sunny had hugged Reuben, her eyes shielded behind shades, and handed him her bag. The moment she turned to hug Mercedes, unexpected tears came. She had no idea what had triggered them at first, but later realized that the sight of Mercedes—twelve years old, sweet, innocent and genuinely glad to see her mother come home—had flooded Sunny with an intense sense of guilt. How could she have gotten high again after so many years being clean?

Mercedes had chuckled, happily, when she saw her mother tear up. “Oh, Mommy, you’re so emotional! I missed you, too.” Mercedes had thrown her arms around her mother, hugging her tightly around her waist.

Reuben had taken them home, careful not to mention the drama in the news in front of Mercedes. Marisol and Dale had insisted that their granddaughter not be exposed to the media’s version of what had happened during Sunny’s trip to L.A.

“Sunny will explain it when she gets home,” Marisol had said.

Sunny knew that her mother would be expecting an explanation, without question. Hearing that her daughter was on the other side of the country and had been on the scene of a drug overdose, while she was unsupervised no less, had Marisol concerned to say the least. She wanted to hear how Sunny had found herself in such a precarious situation—and what had led her to stay for an extra two days afterward.

Despite their mother’s insistence that he make no mention of “the incident” in front of Mercedes, Reuben had looked at Sunny sitting in the passenger seat of his Jaguar and his face showed genuine concern.

“You okay?” he asked.

Sunny nodded, grateful again for the sunglasses that shielded the truth in her eyes. She was far from okay.

“We’ll talk after I get some rest,” she had told him.

Reuben had dropped them off, and Sunny had gone to her room to lay down. While Mercedes unpacked and gave Jenny G her laundry to wash, Sunny had shed tears

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