All in a Day

by Alexis Nicole

Genres: African American Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

The wedding of Morgan Willis is the buzz around the small town, because Morgan is the prodigal child. She was their pageant queen who moved overseas without looking back. Returning to deal with everyone from her hometown is the last thing Morgan wants to do. She doesn' t need everyone in her business, and she isn' t ready to face her unfinished situation with Henry, her high school sweetheart. She' s also nervous about revealing the identity of the person she' s going to marry. All she wants to do is escape from her family and return to her life in London. The death of Joe " Junebug" Maxson is a complete shock to everyone, only made worse by the fact that it happened mere days before the family reunion. His children, Joe Jr. and Janette, refuse to be upstaged by Morgan' s wedding and insist on holding Junebug' s funeral during the same weekend. When their father' s death brings out a long-held family secret, the bonds of the Maxson family will surely be tested. This weekend promises to be a reunion the Maxson' s will never forget.

Release date: December 1, 2013

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

My mother’s favorite phrase was “God never makes mistakes.” Even to this day, that saying drove me nuts. He may not make mistakes but He certainly loves to play jokes on people. The first seventeen years of my life were definitely proof of that. Any God who would put me in the family that I had, growing up in middle-of-nowhere Georgia where the townspeople were nosier than the FBI, CIA, and black mothers combined is one hell of a comedian. Well played, God. For the last eight years I had tried to free myself from the tyranny that was my childhood, but this conversation was bringing back all the bad memories.

“Oh, you were so adorable. All the mothers were so jealous.” Even over the phone I could tell my mother was doing her ritual walk down memory lane.

“Mom, did you pull out the photo albums?”

“I can’t help it. They’re the only things I have since you’re all the way across the world.”

I could hear the pain in my mother’s voice. Leaving Georgia was always my main mission in life. If there was a law permitting children to live on their own, I probably would have left the first time my mother signed me up for a beauty pageant. Unfortunately, I had to wait until college to make my great escape.

“Ma, London is only like an eight-hour flight from Georgia.” I was trying my best to change the subject. My mother loved putting the guilt trip on me. “You and Daddy can come visit anytime.”

“You know how your father feels about flying.” She said it like I should have known that wasn’t an option. “Oh, Morgan, I just found the picture of you when you qualified to compete for Miss Teen Georgia. I will never know how you lost to Sue Baker. You were the best thing on that stage.”

As my mother rambled on about my glory days, I couldn’t help but think about that competition, when I consciously made a decision to lose.

Winning Miss Teen Georgia meant possibly going on to Miss Teen USA and I refused to be a part of that. Sue Baker was a sweet girl from Athens who I competed against a few times before. Her strawberry-blond hair, blue eyes, and girl-next-door persona was definitely heavy competition for the other girls, but the certain tricks of the trade that I possessed couldn’t be beat.

“Okay, Miss Morgan Willis, how are you doing it?” she asked as we changed our hair and makeup for the next segment of the competition.

“Doing what?”

“Making those judges drool all over you. I can’t even get judge number three to look at me.” She paused and studied me in the mirror for a second.

As I continued to curl and pin my hair, I could tell she was searching for some sort of magical answer.

“You’re sleeping with one of them, aren’t you?” she asked as if she came to a revelation.

All I could do was laugh in her face at that ridiculous suggestion. “Sue, trust me. This competition does not mean that much to me.”

“Well, it means everything to me.”

I could see the disappointment in her eyes as she tried to pull herself together to finish changing into her next outfit. Pageants were just something I did to please my mother and rack up the scholarship cash so I could get out of this godforsaken state. I never realized that these things actually meant something to these girls. Sue was such a sweet girl and I felt bad that I didn’t have the same passion for pageants as she did.

For the next twenty minutes I gave Sue the Morgan Crash Course to winning pageants. I shared all the little secrets I’d learned over the years, and even the scoop on the judges on the panel. With Sue having the goods and me doing the complete opposite of everything I knew, she went on to win the title and I never did another pageant again.

“I still think that crown should have been yours,” my mother continued to gripe.

“Mom, enough about me. How’s everything at home?” I had to get this conversation moving elsewhere.

“Same ol’, same ol’. Just trying to tie up all the loose ends of this reunion, which everyone is hoping you will attend this time.”

The Maxson family reunion was my mother’s favorite pastime. She was the youngest of six children, but seemed to be the most responsible one, which meant she always planned the biannual event. My mom felt like it was a time for the whole family to get together and catch up. I just saw it as everybody being able to get in your business all at once. I hadn’t been to a reunion since I left for college.

“Mom, I don’t think I’ll be able to. I have so much going on with work, and Ahvi has been in and out of town lately.”

“Speaking of Ahvi, when are we going to meet this mystery man?”

“Soon.”

That was a lie. I was totally and completely in love with Ahvi. We’d been together over a year, living together for six months, and I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life. I didn’t think I’d ever met anyone so wonderful, but I wasn’t ready to do the whole meet-the-family thing.

“Well, you’ve been dating this person for a while and you have yet to introduce him to your mother. If you ask me it doesn’t seem like you guys are serious.”

I didn’t ask. “We are serious.”

“You couldn’t be if your parents don’t know him.”

“Mom, we’re engaged. It’s serious.”

There it was, like word vomit. I had absolutely no intention of telling my mother about my engagement, but her prying just made me give in. I waited what seemed like an eternity for my mother’s response. If I knew Juanita Willis, she was furious.

“Engaged?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said as if I were twelve years old again. Lord, please let her be gentle.

“This is so wonderful.”

I knew she was going to be . . . Wait. What? Did she just say it was wonderful? Okay, who is this woman and what has she done with my mother? A minute ago she was complaining that she never met Ahvi and now she’s excited that I’m engaged? Am I the only one confused here?

“You are actually happy I’m engaged?”

“Absolutely, and I think you should have the wedding here in Georgia during the family reunion.”

Okay, now I know she’s trippin’. I want a beautiful, small ceremony in Spain or Paris, not some barnyard hoedown in Macon, Georgia. I had to get out of this.

“Mom, the reunion is two weeks away. That is not enough time to do anything for a wedding.”

“Of course it is. We’ll do it at the church, everyone will already be here, and the family banquet will be the reception.”

The family banquet will be my wedding reception? Is she serious? What has this turned into? If I could take anything back in my life, the words “I’m engaged” would definitely be on the top of the list.

“Mom, I really don’t think—”

“Morgan Anne Willis, you have been away from home for eight years and you have never really included your father and me in any major decisions of your life. I will not miss my only child’s wedding. You are getting married in Georgia. Now that’s it.”

I debated a lot of things with my mother, but when she said “that’s it,” that was it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. So there it was. In two weeks I was going to be faced with my worst nightmare. The Lord just kept getting funnier by the moment.

“Yes, ma’am.” Those were the only words I could counter with.

“Great. You find your tickets and I’ll handle everything else. Love you, baby. Bye.”

Just like that she was gone, leaving me speechless, still holding the phone to my ear until that annoying busy tone started beeping. What in the hell had just happened? How did I end up having my wedding in Georgia—in two weeks? I began pacing the floors trying to come up with a plan to get out of what could possibly be a total disaster of a wedding. Maybe I can call my mama back and just tell her we are not coming. What can she do, spank me? No, that won’t work. She’s probably already picking out flower arrangements.

“Darling, I’m not criticizing your methods, but if you plan on putting a hole in our floor maybe I should go out and buy a rug.”

The thick British accent startled me as Ahvi walked through the door. For a brief moment, I completely forgot about what just transpired and rushed into my love’s arms to plant the biggest kiss I could on Ahvi’s lips.

“You’re home early. How was Paris?”

“Oh, Paris is Paris. I lived in a conference room for three days.”

Ahvi was brilliant in international business and had become a junior partner in a big firm here in London. Who knew that meeting someone in a pub would lead to such an amazing love? I was so happy to be spending the rest of my life with this beautiful soul, but I didn’t want to start it off in Georgia.

“My love, we need to talk.” I led Ahvi to the couch to reveal my mother’s plans for our wedding. I was hoping that I would, at least, have my fiancé on my side and we would decide to absolutely not go.

“If you’re going to tell me you’re leaving me, I’m keeping the flat.”

“Of course I’m not leaving you and we would sell the apartment if I did, but my news isn’t good.” I took a breath and prepared to speak as fast as I could. “I sort of told my mom about our engagement and now she wants to throw us a wedding in Georgia in two weeks.” I closed my eyes and waited for that glorious sound of outrage.

“Oh, darling, that’s wonderful,” Ahvi said in delight.

Okay, seriously. What the hell is going on? First my mother, now my fiancé. I must’ve stepped into the Twilight Zone.

“Honey, you do realize this is going to be in the backwoods of Georgia . . . in two weeks . . . during my family’s reunion.”

“I understand that, love, but I think it’s time for me to finally meet your family.”

What was I hearing? This was not the plan. We were supposed to have a quaint little wedding in Spain, my family not included, and that would be it. This was not happening.

“But—”

“I know you have concerns, but let’s go and do this for your family and we’ll come back and have the wedding we planned.”

Ahvi gently kissed me on my forehead and then disappeared to our bedroom. So, just like that I was outvoted. How did my life go from a dream to my worst nightmare in an hour? Well played, God . . . well played.

If I never heard the name Morgan Willis again it would be too soon. My whole life I’d been compared to my pageant queen cousin. “Morgan’s so pretty. Morgan’s so talented.” I was starting to feel like the Jan Brady of the family. It was bad enough that everyone in town loved her, but her being extremely close to my daddy I’d always hated. He called her his favorite niece and he always doted on her. He even helped pay for all those pageants she was in. The most my father did for me was teach me how to fix a carburetor. The day she left for college was the day I began making people forget about Morgan Willis.

Living in her shadow the rest of my life was not on my agenda. I transformed my style from tomboy to bombshell, I owned the biggest boutique in Macon with my best friend Millie, and I even had an amazing boyfriend. Well, he wasn’t officially mine, yet, but he would be. Things were perfect and this upcoming family reunion was the perfect place to show off just how perfect my life was.

“’Scuse me. Do you have this in black?” a heavyset woman with rainbow color hair said, interrupting my thoughts. She held up a tangerine halter dress that looked ten sizes too small for her. “I like this for the club but black is more slimming.”

So is Weight Watchers but I guess you can’t wear that to the club.

“I think we’re all out of the black,” I said through a fake smile.

She held the dress up to her body and stepped back from the counter. She examined it from head to toe and even twirled in it to get the full effect. “You think this color match my skin?”

I think it matches your hair.

“I think you gon’ shut the club down with that dress, girl.” No fake smile needed for that comment. The thought of her going to the club in this tangerine halter dress that probably couldn’t fit her left arm made me chuckle. As long as she was buying, I was selling, regardless of how she looked.

She squealed with delight and went back to the racks for more.

“It is hotter than a slave ship out there,” Millie griped as she came through the door.

Millie Parker and I had been friends since grade school. Everybody referred to her as the Mouth of the South. She knew everybody’s business and wasn’t afraid to tell anybody who would listen. Being friends with Millie had its advantages and disadvantages, but she beat up Marlene Dade for me in the fourth grade for calling me a jiggaboo and I’d been loyal to her ever since.

“Maybe if you would have gotten here at nine when it was still cool you wouldn’t be complaining.”

“If I would have gotten here at nine, I wouldn’t have so much dirt for you.”

I hated when Millie strolled in here whenever she felt like it, especially when I was dealing with costumers by myself, but good gossip always made me forgive and forget. Millie came behind the register and took a seat in what I called her spilling-the-tea chair. Hearing other people’s business from Millie was almost like an event.

“Okay, so you remember Ms. Tucker who used to run the nursery?”

“Yeah.” I was getting excited.

“How ’bout she’s been boosting electronics and selling them out of her back room?” Millie said it like she had struck gold.

“That’s it? She’s been doing that for years.”

“Really?”

“Where you think my daddy got that forty-two-inch TV from?”

Millie looked slightly offended that she hadn’t known about this sooner. She quickly recovered and proceeded with the rest of her news. “Well, did you know Mrs. Johnson from New Mount Zion Baptist was sleeping with their pastor, Reverend Dixon?”

“And First Lady Dixon is sleeping with Mrs. Johnson’s nephew,” I countered with additional information.

“Are you serious?” Millie was in complete shock.

“All those trips up to Morehouse ain’t for speaking engagements.”

Millie looked so hurt. My best friend was slippin’. She’d never been this late with gossip before. I guessed all that time she’d been spending with her new boyfriend, Ray, had her worried about her own business now. This lack of juice just made me mad that she was late all over again.

“Damn. Well, I guess you know about Morgan’s wedding, too, then.”

Okay, now I was shocked. For eight years it was all quiet on the Morgan front and now all of a sudden she’s getting married. “Where did you hear that?”

“I ran into your aunt Juanita and she gave me this ‘save the date’ flier.” She pulled a small square piece of paper out of her purse and I snatched it out of her hand before she could even read it to me.

“Beanie gave you this?” I asked, still scanning the flier.

“Yeah, she’s passing them out to everyone. She seems really excited about it.”

I read each word on that paper carefully as if it were a golden ticket. I could feel myself getting hot as I registered what was actually happening.

“She’s getting married at the family reunion?” I hadn’t realized my voice went up two octaves and I was almost yelling.

“So I’m guessing you didn’t know about this. Yes! Still got it.” Millie seemed delighted with herself that she finally gave me news that I didn’t know about.

This is not happening. All that effort and . . .