For Better, For Worse

by Leslie E. Banks

• ISBN13: 9780743457392
• ISBN10: 0743457390
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Pocket

Summary

First the hit movie.
Then the groundbreaking television show.
Now the smart and sassy book series. SOUL FOOD Sisters at heart. Sisters through it all.... Baby sister Bird and her husband, Lem, are having a rough time. Lem has a secure job with his brother-in-law Kenny, but he still feels like the charity case of the family -- and he wants to make it on his own with his own business. But with his checkered past, Lem knows it will be tough to find anyone to front him the cash -- legally, at least. Lem's attempt to get the money on the sly brings him into conflict with Bird's eldest sister, Teri, who finds out that Lem may be slipping into his old, shady habits. When Bird learns of this, the stress of worrying about her husband, her business, and her future proves too much, and her health begins to suffer badly -- bringing her family together, and forcing Bird and Lem to decide how much they mean to each other, and whether they're willing to risk losing their dreams and everything they've worked for.

Author Biography

Leslie E. Banks is a pseudonym for Leslie Esdaile. A wife, the mother of a blended household of four children (and an energetic Labrador named Girlfriend), who is actively involved in her community, and the author of fourteen novels and four novellas, Leslie is well-fueled with dramatic content and draws from life experience to "keep it real" in her writing. She has created an array of work in romance and women's fiction under the name Leslie Esdaile, and she also writes a vampire series for St. Martin's Press as L.A. Banks. You can reach Leslie at P.O. Box 7344, Philadelphia, PA 19101, or [e-mail]. Please visit her website at www.esdailebooks.com.

Excerpts

Bird Van Adams stood behind her client, testing the curling iron and listening to the idle chatter zigzagging through her salon. As she waited for the iron to heat, she moved freeze spritz and a jar of brown gel nearer, by the bank of quarter-inch to three-inch rounds.

Although she automatically participated in the happy banter within Cut It Up, part of her brain was a million miles away. Where was her husband?

After a long stretch of peace, the years of drama with Lem felt like they were beginning again. She loved him and he was a good father, but hadn't they been down this road before? All those arguments and household tension, only to find out that he hadn't been with another woman, or wasn't somewhere shaky. She still had a few trust issues to hurdle, and that had always been the center of any conflict with the man she dearly loved.

Tonight, she'd make Lem's evening special and would squash all the drama between them. After she rocked his world, maybe he'd think twice about going off to some Community Center every Wednesday night. That's all they needed to do - get back to the basics.

Bird picked up the heated curling iron and sectioned off her client's hair. There had been enough icy attitude about Lem's new volunteering efforts; it was time to turn up the heat in their relationship again. They needed to spend some time together as a family, too - her, Lem, and their baby boy, Jay. Tonight, she would banish any negative thoughts about her man. She had a long-overdue surprise for her husband, from Victoria's Secret.

She held the thin strand of her client's new weave between two fingers, and slid the iron down it to produce a curl. Her mind returned to the surprise she was planning, and she didn't realize how long she'd been lost in thought until she saw smoke coming from the curl. Oh, no! Lord have mercy.

Alarm swept through her, though she tried to appear calm. Whew! The curl was almost fried, but no big deal. It could be fixed. Luckily, she'd caught her mistake before it was too late. Bird almost laughed as she picked up another strand of nylon weave. She had to get her mind off how much she was missing her man.

Almost twelve weeks of Lem being out at nights volunteering for a Community Center, when he had never done anything like that before, was wearing her out. Men had backward logic. They fixed one minor problem by creating a bigger problem than the one they were trying to fix in the first place! If he'd wanted her to give him more attention, or to tighten their bond, he could have simply stayed home at night. He didn't need to go off and do some altruistic thing to get her to recognize his worth. Men were so crazy.

Bird quickly dropped the second curl, which was also beginning to smoke, and glanced at her customer. Shoot! She'd almost torched the sister's nylon again. That would have been a royal pain in the butt, because then she'd have to unglue the messed-up sections and reapply two new ones. This was her last head for the evening, and she had to get home. She had a special dinner to make, a dessert to prepare, had to get her son to sleep so that she and Lem could -

"Girl, you're puttin' a lotta heat on those curls, don't you think?"

Bird jumped, then swiftly covered. "You want it to hold, or do you want to be back in here tomorrow?"

"You're right," her client said with a laugh, relaxing. "It ain't like you're burning up my stuff. Go ahead, Miss Bird - do your thing."

"Thank you," Bird replied with a sheepish grin. "I am the best. That's why you all come here and fight for an appointment in my chair."

"Then beat this head like you know how, Sis. I've got a hot date tonight and need to be slammin' for this one. Go ahead and work your magic."

Bird smiled. She could relate. She had a fun evening of her own planned, and had to stop rushing.

Working with renewed fervor, Bird began styling her client's hair. It was a hairdo that she could do in her sleep, which was a blessing. Getting any real rest at night had become impossible. Lem had been so distracted and so tired lately. Too tired with working his day gig at Chadway Towing, and then running around for the Community Center at night, to really do anything. She hoped his claim of volunteering was on the up-and-up. Not knowing for sure what he was really doing was making her nerves fray, just like the strand of auburn weave she'd just dropped. But a little one-on-one affection ought to fix that.

Excerpted from Soul Food by Leslie E. Banks Copyright © 2002 by Paramount Pictures Corporation
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.