Read Online Bourbon Street Blues by Maureen Child - Free Book Online

coffee table. A huge desk sat in front of the wide windows that provided a view of the harbor. The gulf stretched out forever and huge ships crawled across its surface. Sunlight glittered on the blue water, reflecting up and into the tinted windows .
    “Your mother wanted to redecorate,” his father was saying, “but I thought Frannie would get a charge out of doing it for you.”
    Parker laughed shortly and laid one hand on the cool window glass. “I don’t know if Frannie’s interested in decorating, but I’ll be sure to ask her.”
    “Son, I know you’re going through with this wedding for the sake of the family, and I want you to know, it’s appreciated.”
    “Uh-huh”
    “But,” his father added, then waited until Parker turned to look at him, “I also know Frannie loves you. Hell, boy, she can’t hardly keep her hands off you. And many successful marriages have started with less.”
    “Don’t worry,” Parker said with a shrug. “I’m sure Frannie and I will get along fine.”
    “Sure you will. Your mother and I started out much the same, you know.” The older man sat on one of the visitor’s chairs pulled up in front of the desk. “Her father and mine negotiated the wedding. Wanted to merge our coffee business and their shipping firm. Worked out fine, I must say.”
    “I know,” Parker said, sitting for the first time in the chair where he’d be spending the rest of his life. And while his father continued to reminisce, thatlittle phrase repeated itself over and over again in Parker’s mind. The rest of his life. The rest of his life.
    This was it.
    This office.
    This life .
    He would be a part of the James family coffee business. He would do what his father had done before him. He would come to this building, this office, every weekday from now until eternity. He would stare out the same window. He would watch the gulf and the ships coming and going.
    And here he would stay.
    Something cold and tight fisted around his heart.
    “Your sister’s taking over the marketing department next year, so I’m thinking the company is in good hands.”
    “Seems to be,” Parker muttered thickly, reaching to loosen his tie in an attempt to ease the tightness in his throat. His breath came short and fast as his father talked, building plans for the future even while Parker fought valiantly to survive the present.
     
    P ARKER LAID ONE HAND on the window glass. Below him, on the wharf, it was business as usual. Except he no longer felt part of it.
    He was different now.
    He’d put in his time. He’d tried. He’d done his best. Hell, he’d even married the woman his parents had asked him to. Look how well that had turned out.
    But now he had something else in his life. The jazz club was something he’d long dreamed about. For his sanity, for his happiness, he would have to turn his back on the dynasty built by his ancestors.
    All he had to do now was to break the news to his father.
     
    B Y TEN THAT NIGHT , Holly was in the zone.
    The crowd at the Hotel Marchand was responsive and she fed off the energy pulsing at her from the shadows. Tommy’s talented fingers danced across the piano keys and Tommie Junior was sitting in on bass fiddle. Holly stepped off the stage, taking her cordless mike with her, and walked slowly through the crowd. Easing her way around the tables, she stopped every now and again to lean into a customer and sing solely to him.
    She smiled and moved on, then stopped again, listening to the beat, feeling the swell of music fill her, rush through her blood. Every note was like a lover’s touch. Every word a promise, and as the spotlight followed her through the room, its heat on her skin felt more natural to her than sunlight.
    She caught Leo’s eye and he winked at her just before she stopped at a table with a couple celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. The man and his wife leaned in close to each other and smiled up at Holly as she serenaded them briefly before moving on