“Okay, are you going to tell me what happened, or am I supposed to guess?”
With a sigh that indicated her distress, Davia recounted the story that the two little girls had revealed. At its end Reba sat on the love seat doubled over with laughter, which was not the reaction Davia wanted.
“You mean to tell me that the kid bit herself trying to draw blood, and then let Bianca bite her, too?” Reba could hardly get the last words out before breaking into another fit of laughter.
Davia was indignant. “I don’t see what’s so funny. Gabby lied about what happened. You know how I feel about liars!”
Composing herself, Reba wiped tears of mirth from her eyes. “Oh, give it a break, girl, you’re trying to judge a child’s reasoning with adult logic. It all makes sense to the kids. They wanted to play vampires and a vampire’s bite draws blood. When Gabby couldn’t draw blood with her bite, Bianca stepped in to help her out. Like the kids said, vampires don’t bite themselves to draw blood, they bite others.” Reba giggled. “Shoot, it makes sense to me. Anyway, the kid didn’t tell you a lie. You asked Gabby who bit her and she said Bianca. She just didn’t tell you that she told her to do it. It was you, the teacher, and the school’s director who jumped to conclusions.”
Although Davia knew that what Reba said was true, she still wanted to be annoyed at the whole situation. “I don’t care, Gabby could have explained it before all of this mess happened.”
Reba sat up, more alert to what wasn’t being said than to what had just been said.
“What are you talking about? What mess?”
Davia’s voice went up a notch in annoyance. “This mess! This…this…man coming out here…”
“Man? You mean Mr. Miles? That man?” Reba laughed devilishly.
Davia’s agitation increased. “Yes, who else would I be talking about? He comes over here accusing my baby of gnawing on herself, and I’m defending her, thinking his niece is one step above a cannibal, and what happens? Two four-year-olds make fools out of both of us. Anyway, what do two little girls know about vampires and Dracula and all of that…”
Reba sat watching the woman pacing in front of her rant about the events of the day. She’d known Davia for three years and she constantly marveled at this beautiful, poised, self-assured woman. The mountains that she had climbed would have stopped a weaker person, but she had scaled every one of them and survived. Davia Maxwell was the most determined person she had ever met. Nothing stood in her way and few things rattled her, but this man’s presence today seemed to have shattered that calm. It was true that she was a fanatic when it came to Gabby, but to go on like this over a little misunderstanding? No, that wasn’t Davia. There was definitely something else going on here.
“I felt like an idiot.” Davia finished her tirade and flopped onto the love seat opposite Reba. “I really ought to punish her for not telling the truth. Don’t you think?”
She looked at Reba expectantly, waiting for her reply. She valued Reba’s opinion. Since this woman had answered her ad for a housekeeper, she had become much more than just someone to help keep the house clean and take care of Gabby. She had become a friend. Of course, she wasn’t your average household employee. Not many housekeepers were pursuing a doctoral degree at Emory University. Reba was, but she was in need of a job when she showed up for an interview and Davia had been in need of assistance. The two women had clicked. Hiring her had been one of the best decisions that Davia had ever made. Now sitting across from her, waiting for her sage advice about Gabby, she was taken aback by the sudden light that appeared in the woman’s eyes. It didn’t quite match the seriousness of the moment.
“Uh-uh! So that’s it!” Reba grinned like a cat that had trapped a canary.
“That’s what?”
“Justin Miles is tugging at your drawers!”
“What?” Davia looked at her, dumbfounded. “How in the world did you get that out of me talking about Gabby fibbing?”
“I think that he liked what he saw, too.”
Scooting to the edge of the love seat, Davia waved her hand in front of Reba’s face. “Hello! Reba! Is anybody home? I was talking about Gabby telling a fib.”
“I wonder if he’s married. He wasn’t wearing a ring, because you know I checked that out.”
Married? Ring? Now she was going too far. “Earth to Reba. Earth to Reba. Can we get back on the subject at hand?”
Reba added a wink to her grin. “Honey, I was talking about the subject—Mr. Justin Miles and his marital status.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Davia threw her hands up in frustration. “What has Justin Miles got to do with what I’m trying to talk to you about? I’m concerned about Gabby’s fibbing, and how she found out about vampires and…”
Reba waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, forget that. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Let’s get to the important stuff, you and that man.”
“There is no me and that man. He came over here to talk about…”
“Yeah, yeah. Girl, we’ve got to see how we can get you two together.”
Davia decided that the realm of reality had vanished altogether in this conversation. Further discussion was impossible. The woman had lost her mind.
Reba Fray was a man magnet, attracting not only men her own age, but men years younger than she, and she took all applicants. During her years working in Davia’s home, Reba had commented to her more than once that she was determined to find her employer a man. Just as she did with CeCe, Davia usually ignored Reba’s attempts to play matchmaker, and today would be no different. It had been a long day, and she was too tired for this foolishness.
Without fanfare, Davia got up and headed to her second-floor office. “I’m going upstairs. Call me when you’re back in your right mind.”
Reba watched as she walked away in retreat. She called after her, “You can’t hide behind that wall forever, Davia.”
The words had their effect. Davia spun around to face her. “What wall?”
The smile on Reba’s face faded to be replaced by a serious look and tone. “The one that you keep your emotions hidden behind. Oh, I’m not talking about your feelings as far as Gabby is concerned. You love that child to death, and you can’t be any more devoted to your friends, but when it comes to members of the opposite sex, the wall is erected and the defenses go up. As long as I’ve known you, you’ve had absolutely nothing to do with men unless it’s associated with business.”
Davia wasn’t going to deny it. “So?”
“So you’re straight, and men are crazy about you. Taking that into consideration, I’ve always known that there’s something else going on, and one day you’re going to have to face whatever it is. You can’t hide forever.”
Enough was enough. Friend or no friend, Reba was stepping out of bounds, again. “Listen, I don’t have time for this…”
“Of course, you never have time. You’re too busy running.”
“That’s enough.” Davia’s tone had caused grown men to cringe, but the woman standing before her didn’t. It was moments like this that made Davia regret having allowed the employer-employee relationship between them to get so far off course. Reba was getting her doctorate in psychology and Davia had no doubt that she was her major case study.
Reba continued. “There’s no denying that Gabby and Small Sensations are the biggest miracles in your life, and if they’re enough for you, then so be it. But if there are other miracles to be experienced, let them happen.” This time it was Reba who got up to leave the room. “I’m going to start dinner.”
Davia stormed up the stairway toward her office, mad enough to spit nails. How dare Reba Fray think that she knew her so well? What she didn’t know about her could fill an ocean. Davia plopped into the soft leather swivel chair behind her desk, a replica of the one in her company office. Two of the walls in her home office were redwood, as well as the bookcases that lined a third wall. She had fallen in love with the large redwood trees on a business
trip to California, and now her home office and the one at Small Sensations were both decorated with the beautiful wood. She felt at peace in both places, just as she had among those trees, but Reba’s meddling had upset her sense of well-being. Switching on the computer, Davia tried to dismiss Reba’s latest attempt to psychoanalyze her, but she found it difficult.
With angry strokes, Davia’s fingers flew across the computer keyboard. Put Pride in Your Child’s Stride. The words jumped out at her in a tableau of red, black and green letters as she checked the company’s website. Putting pride in her own stride, that was what her sacrifices had been about. By sheer will she had turned Small Sensations into the largest manufacturer of Afrocentric clothes for children in the nation. At age thirty-four, she was the founder and the owner of a multi-million-dollar company. A sense of pride at that accomplishment coursed through her body every time she saw her company’s name blazoned across the website, or on billboards, in magazine ads, or on the company’s five-story building on Peachtree Street—a building that she owned. Small Sensations was a miracle. Yet, no one would ever know the price that she had paid for its existence.
Davia blinked back the tears that she was determined not to shed. Everything that she had sacrificed to build her company had been done with her child in mind. The company was to be her child’s legacy, but—
It was better not to dwell on the past. It was the present and the future that mattered and it was time to attend to them both. Hitting a few more keystrokes, she watched as the company’s latest sales figures appeared on screen. They were sensational. Davia smiled. The legacy was alive and well. The future looked bright.
Reba had been right about one thing. Gabby and Small Sensations were all that existed in her life. They were her life, and she was happy. She didn’t need anything or anyone else, especially a gray-green-eyed man with an attitude.
The telephone rang. Absently, she picked up the receiver.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Ms. Maxwell.”
The voice on the other end was deep, masculine and familiar. Davia recognized it immediately. “Yes, Mr. Miles? Did you forget something?”
There was a slight hesitation at the crisp, business-like tone in Davia’s voice. “Well, no, I didn’t. I was just thinking that it’s too bad that we’ve had this little misunderstanding and I’m glad that things have been settled amicably.”
There was a pause as he waited for a response. When there was none, he proceeded. “I just want to say how much I enjoyed meeting you and your daughter, and I was hoping that…”
“It was a pleasure meeting you also, Mr. Miles, and your niece. But I’m afraid that you’re mistaken about Gabby.”
“Mistaken? Uh, I don’t understand.”
“Gabby isn’t my daughter,” Davia informed him. “She’s my granddaughter. ”
Hanging up the receiver, she let the dial tone sever the connection.
CHAPTER 4
Justin was stunned. The delectable Ms. Maxwell was a grandmother! She had to be kidding! At least that’s what he tried telling himself after hearing her startling revelation. He had been glad to hear the dial tone after she told him because he had been at a total loss for words.
He had called her from his car phone after pulling up to an ice cream parlor where he stopped to treat Bianca to a cone. Not one to waste time, he had made the decision to ask the lady out shortly after leaving her house. He didn’t know whether she was interested in him or not, but he was definitely interested in Ms. Maxwell. Her revelation didn’t dim his interest; it only served to increase his curiosity about her.
How had she become a grandmother so young? She couldn’t be a day over thirty-five and looked younger. What had happened to Ms. Maxwell? She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, so he assumed that she wasn’t married. Where was the man involved in this? Where was Gabby’s mother? The questions seemed endless, and the only one who could answer them was Ms. Maxwell herself. Perhaps the lady thought that by informing him of her grandmother status that his interest in her might lessen. Well, she was wrong. It might have thrown him off balance for a bit, but now he was back on track.
While Bianca sat beside him happily licking her treat, Justin thought about what his strategy might be in getting to know Ms. Maxwell. She had made it clear when he first spoke to her that she didn’t know his sister, yet he couldn’t rule Vanessa out as a source of information. Justin and Vanessa were the children of Katherine Miles. That alone meant that if one was African-American, lived in Atlanta and had any significant position of status, Katherine knew something about you. If their mother knew anything about Ms. Maxwell, she might have shared it with Vanessa. The only challenge was that if he mentioned the lady’s name to Vanessa, she might alert their mother. Justin didn’t want his mother knowing his business.
He knew that a grandmother of any age would not meet his mother’s rigidly high standards for anyone dating her son, but what she thought about the women he dated had long ago ceased to be important to him. He was his own man, and he found Ms. Maxwell totally intriguing. She was a beauty, there was no doubt about that, and her story spurred his interest. His attraction to her had been instantaneous and he wanted to get to know her. That he was certain about.
* * *
As her son planted a kiss on her upturned cheek, Katherine Miles broke into a smile that softened her café au lait face. At age sixty, she was a beautiful woman, her face unlined by age. Her light auburn hair was streaked with gray, and the gray-green eyes she had passed on to her son were acutely alert. The stylish cut in which she wore her hair was youthful, and complemented her heart-shaped face. She wore little makeup. She had never needed it. She had always been a natural beauty. Katherine considered her features as being “all American.” Her nose was small, sharp, and her lips were thin, attributes that she felt enhanced her attractiveness. She was fiercely proud of her white ancestry. The fact that it was the result of her great-great-grandmother, a slave, having been raped by her owner’s son was ignored. Over the years her family had modified that incident to her having been enticed.
Before marrying the late Frederick Zachary Miles, the only son of one of Atlanta’s most prosperous black physicians, Katherine Justin had been actively pursued by the most eligible bachelors in Atlanta. Katherine’s parents had spared no expense on their only child. She got whatever she wanted and went about getting her way in any fashion that she deemed necessary. Over the years Katherine had become known as the “Queen of Black Atlanta Society.” She even reigned over a small kingdom.
Shortly after Justin was born, Zachary Miles had purchased one hundred acres of land a few miles outside of Atlanta’s downtown perimeter. After building a twenty-room showplace on the land for his family, he surrounded part of the lush acreage with a gate of stone and a higher wrought iron fence, then sold the remaining acreage in tracts to forty-nine of his wealthy friends. The result was Zachary Acres, an exclusive compound for many of the movers and shakers in Atlanta. This was Katherine’s kingdom, and she ruled it with grace, finesse and a will of iron.
She now sat in her favorite wingback chair amid the luxury of her exquisite living room smiling up at her son. Justin returned her smile.
“Hello, Mother.”
“Hello, yourself, mister. What took you so long getting this little one home from school?” She hugged her granddaughter to her as Bianca planted a kiss on her cheek.
The child’s eyes met her uncle’s silently. They had agreed not to divulge to Katherine the reason for their diversion to the Maxwell home. Vanessa should be the first person informed of today’s events. If she wished to share the information with their mother, that would be her choice.
Justin was noncommittal. “Oh, we’ve been here and there.”
“Buying ice cream, I see.” Katherine gently wiped a dab of ice cream from the corner of Bianca’s mouth. “And before dinner, too.”
Justin grinned guiltily as he took a seat in the chair next to his mother. Katherine sent B
ianca upstairs to get ready for the evening meal. They watched her lovingly as she scampered away.
“You spoil that child rotten,” Katherine admonished, knowing that she was guilty of the same offense.
Justin didn’t deny it. “That’s what doting uncles are for.”
Katherine sat back in her chair and gave a heavy sigh. This was the sign that criticism was coming. Justin braced himself for the forthcoming comment about either Vanessa or himself. Her children were the love of Katherine’s life, but the direction he had taken, and that Vanessa seemed to be taking, did not meet with their mother’s approval. So Katherine never missed an opportunity to let them know about it, and since Vanessa was absent, it was safe to assume that the censure would probably be aimed at her. He was correct.
“You’re right, son, doting uncles are supposed to spoil their nieces and a doting grandmother’s job is to spoil her grandchildren. That’s why I can’t for the life of me understand why Vanessa won’t let me pay for Bianca to attend the Prescott school. It’s the finest school in Atlanta, and Bianca would have the opportunity to associate with the children of the cream of Atlanta society.”
Justin was blunt. “I don’t want to hear it, Mom.”
Katherine bristled. She hated being called anything other than Mother. “Your lack of respect is not appreciated, Justin, and it will not be tolerated.” She paused for an apology. Katherine did not allow disrespect.
“Forgive me, oh mighty mother,” he teased.
“Nor is your sarcasm amusing.” She continued, “I was simply saying that Vanessa’s decision to put Bianca in that…that…”
“Preschool.”
She cut her eyes at Justin. Katherine did not allow interruptions either.
“I’m simply trying to say that Bianca would thrive in a better environment.
Vanessa’s defiance of me is affecting Bianca, and if you were as doting an uncle as you claim to be, you would help me do something about it.”
Justin wanted to laugh aloud. His mother knew better than to try and involve him in his sister’s life. Unless it was life threatening, he believed in the adage “live and let live.”
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