“I love Myles, Miss Bertie. Even when I was another man’s wife I still loved him. Some people would say I was an adulterer, but I really don’t care. I never wished Thomas Cooper ill and I’m not ashamed to say I never shed a tear when the police told me he’d drowned, nor at his funeral.”
Lines of concern furrowed Roberta’s forehead. “What did he do to you, Brina?”
Without warning, her maternal instincts had surfaced. She’d come to love Zabrina Mixon as if she were a daughter after she’d lost her mother. Although she was raising four rambunctious children who insisted on bringing animals into her house, she’d welcomed Zabrina with open arms, because her rationale was, what was one more child at her table?
“He didn’t do anything to me, Miss Bertie, that I hadn’t permitted him to do.”
“Had he harmed or posed a threat to your son?”
Zabrina’s expression changed, her face suddenly grim. “No. And if he had I wouldn’t have stayed with him. I don’t know what’s going to happen with me and Myles beyond the summer, but we’ll probably remain friends.”
Roberta gave her son’s girlfriend a skeptical glance as she sucked her teeth. “Friends? Don’t delude yourself, Brina. You and Myles haven’t been friends in a very long time.”
She knew she’d shocked Zabrina when her mouth opened but no words came out. Only someone visually impaired didn’t see the tenderness in Myles’s eyes whenever he looked at Zabrina. When they’d walked onto the patio Roberta hadn’t missed how protectively Myles held on to Zabrina’s arm. It was as if he had to hold on to her to make certain she wouldn’t get away from him.
She also noticed something very different about Myles that hadn’t been apparent when he’d returned to Philadelphia years ago, trips that were too short and infrequent. She knew he was aware that Zabrina was now a widow, and once Belinda told him that she’d invited Zabrina to her wedding Myles spoke of a possible extended stay in Philly. This revelation shocked everyone—everyone except his mother. She knew if anyone could get Myles Eaton to spend more than a week in Philly it was Zabrina Cooper.
“You’re right, Miss Bertie. Myles and I are sleeping together.”
“Good.” She placed the bouquet in the vase, and stood back to admire her handiwork. “Now, maybe you’ll give me a grandchild, too.”
“Who’s going to give you a grandchild?”
Roberta and Zabrina turned to find Myles leaning against the entrance to the kitchen, muscular arms crossed over his broad chest. “Well, ladies? What’s up?”
Roberta spoke first. “Why are you eavesdropping on a private conversation?”
Taking long strides, Myles walked into the kitchen. “I wasn’t eavesdropping. I got here in time to hear the word grandchild.”
“Your mother said she wants more grandchildren,” Zabrina volunteered.
Myles lifted an eyebrow. “Bertie Eaton can speak for herself, Brina.”
Pinpoints of heat dotted Zabrina’s cheeks at his retort. Her eyes narrowed, reminding him of a cat about to pounce. “I’m more than aware of that, Myles Eaton.”
Roberta recognized the tension between her son and Zabrina. It was palpable. Normally she wouldn’t interfere in the scraps between her children and their partners, but she wasn’t going to stand by and let Myles intimidate the woman who’d suffered too many losses in her young life.
“And you need to watch your tone, Myles Adam Eaton.”
Myles gave his mother an incredulous look before his eyes narrowed. “What did I say?”
Roberta rested her hands on her hips, a gesture her children easily recognized. It meant she’d had enough and it was better that they walk away than stand and debate with her. “It’s not what you say, but how you said what you said.”
Myles threw up his hands. “How did I say it!?”
“What’s going on in here, Mama?” Belinda had walked into the kitchen. “And, Myles, why are you raising your voice?”
Knowing when he was bested, Myles threw up his hands again, this time in defeat. “Women,” he whispered under his breath.
Roberta cupped a hand to her ear. “You got a problem with the so-called weaker sex?”
Mumbling an expletive, Myles walked out of the kitchen to the sound of hysterical female laughter. Belinda had sent him to get Zabrina, and he’d reached the kitchen in time to hear his mother mention a grandchild. Roberta had talked about having more grandchildren after he’d proposed to Zabrina because Donna and Grant Rice had decided beforehand that they wanted two children, but hadn’t counted on getting two at the same time.
Reaching for a napkin, Belinda blotted the tears filling her eyes. “That wasn’t nice, Mama.”
Roberta waved a hand. “It serves him right. There are times when Myles is full of himself. I’ve told him that with his attitude he should be sitting on the bench instead of teaching law.”
“Judge Eaton,” Belinda crooned. “I kinda like the sound of that. What do you think, Brina?”
Zabrina smiled. “It sounds good to me, too.”
Picking up the vase of flowers, Belinda cradled it to her chest. “If Myles is appointed judge and you marry him, Brina, then I’ll have to address your mail to the Honorable Judge Myles and Zabrina Eaton.”
“I’m not marrying Myles.” The protest was out of Zabrina’s mouth before she could censor herself.
Wincing, Belinda bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Brina. I didn’t—”
“Please don’t apologize, Lindy. Myles and I are just hanging out together for the summer.” For Zabrina, sleeping together didn’t necessary lead to a marriage proposal, or a promise of happy ever after.
Belinda blew out a breath. “Now that I’ve taken my foot out of my mouth I’ll take these outside. By the way, I sent Myles in to get you because he’s offered to make Philly cheesesteaks.”
Zabrina’s eyes lit up. “Is he using Cheez Whiz or provolone?”
“Please,” Belinda drawled. “It’s a sacrilege not to go with the Whiz.”
“Even though Dwight told me I should watch my cholesterol, I’m going to have a bite of his,” Roberta said.
Belinda shot her mother a pointed look. “Now, Mama, you know that Daddy’s not going to let you take a bite of his Philly cheese with Whiz,” she teased with the right amount of South Philly atty-tood. Regulars and tourists who lined up at Pat’s or Gino’s were familiar with the debate as to which sandwich was better: Cheez Whiz or provolone, wit’ or wit’out, which translated into with or without onions. “We’ll snack until the game is over,” she continued, “then we’ll sit down to eat dinner.”
Zabrina wanted to tell Belinda she would eat dinner only if she wasn’t too full. Somehow she’d forgotten the amount of food the Eatons consumed on Sunday afternoons. What she found surprising was that none of them had a weight problem.
She followed mother and daughter out of the kitchen to the rear of the house where the aroma of steak filled the air. Myles had taken over the grilling duties, chopping the thinly sliced steak as though he performed the task every day. A pot of Cheez Whiz sat on a back burner over a low flame. Griffin and Dwight, sitting on chairs while holding bottles of cold beer, groaned in unison when the Phillies pitcher gave up another run.
Accepting a glass of lemonade from Belinda, Zabrina put on her sunglasses, lay down on a cushioned lounger and closed her eyes. She’d applied a layer of the highest number sunblock to her face and arms. Reuniting with the Eatons had gone more smoothly than she’d anticipated. But, then again, ten years was a very long time to hold on to a grudge.
She knew firsthand how hate festered until it eventually destroyed its host. It was only when she’d unconsciously forgiven Thomas Cooper that she’d begun to experience a modicum of peace.
Life was good. She’d rediscovered love and passion with Myles Eaton, and she would reunite
with her son in exactly one week. Her only concern was how Adam would react when she introduced him to his biological father for the first time.
Chapter 14
Zabrina kept pace with Myles and the real estate agent as the silver-haired, fashionably dressed woman gave them a tour of a house that had just come on the market.
The call had come in on Myles’s cell phone before seven that morning. He’d joined her in the shower, announcing he had to return to Pittsburgh before noon and he wanted her to come along. It wasn’t until they were an hour into the drive that he revealed his Realtor wanted to show him a house that met his specifications. The Realtor had downloaded pictures of the house to Myles’s BlackBerry, and he was anxious to see it in person.
The house, all fifty-five hundred square feet of it, was magnificent. The sixty-year-old structure was erected on three acres overlooking a valley ten miles outside Pittsburgh. It had everything Myles wanted: wraparound porch, fireplaces in each of the four bedrooms, four full baths, two half baths, entry hall, great room, living and formal dining rooms, three-car garage and screened back porch. The former owners had put the house up for sale and moved into a retirement community when it became impossible for them to maintain, and their children preferred condo living to mowing lawns and shoveling snow.
Mrs. Eck smiled at Myles. “I have documentation verifying the plumbing and electricity were updated two years ago.”
Reaching for Zabrina’s hand, Myles cradled it in the crook of his arm. “If I decide to purchase the house, then I’ll hire my own engineer to check out everything.”
“Mrs. Eaton, you also might want to update the kitchen appliances. That is, if you and your husband agree you want the house. Do you have children, Mrs. Eaton?”
Zabrina hesitated, while at the same time staring at Myles. He nodded. “Yes. We have a son.” The admission had slipped out unbidden, but Myles didn’t appear to notice her damning faux pas.
The petite woman with sapphire-blue eyes clapped her hands. “Wonderful. Come out back with me and I’ll show you what the former owners erected for their grandsons.”
Myles covered the hand tucked into his elbow as he followed Mrs. Eck across the kitchen and out a set of French doors to the backyard. He wanted the house. He’d wanted it even before seeing inside.
The smile that began with his mouth tilting at the corners spread to his eyes. Someone had built a miniature log cabin that doubled as a playhouse. The other surprise was a ladder attached to the trunk of a massive maple tree that led up to a large tree house. He hadn’t met Zabrina’s son, but he had no doubt the young boy would love spending time in the tree house or hanging out in the cabin.
“Do you think Adam would like it?”
Zabrina could hear her heart echoing in her ears. Myles was answering a question to which he knew the answer. Their son would love the tree house. She knew if she couldn’t find Adam in the house then he would be either in the tree house or the log cabin daydreaming about the alternate universes he created in his fertile imagination that eventually came to life on paper.
“He would love it.”
“How about Adam’s mother? Does she like the house?”
Zabrina felt as if she’d been frozen for more than a decade and had begun to thaw. She couldn’t remember when she hadn’t been in love with Myles Eaton, and if she’d doubted her feelings, she knew now for certain that she was hopelessly and inexorably in love with him.
“Adam’s mother loves the house.”
A sense of strength and peace came to Zabrina with the pronouncement. She’d made her feelings for Myles known to him, his mother, his sister, and the only person that remained was their son.
Myles met the Realtor’s hopeful expression with a warm smile. “If you’ll allow me a few minutes, I’d like to talk to Mrs. Eaton.”
“Take all the time you need, Professor Eaton.”
After waiting until Mrs. Eck returned to the house, Myles cradled Zabrina’s face in his hands. The rain blanketing the western part of the state had stopped, but one-hundred-percent humidity had frizzed her short hair.
“Do you like it, darling?”
Zabrina’s eyelids fluttered wildly. “It shouldn’t be whether I like it, Myles. The question is do you like it.”
He nodded. “I love the house, I love you, and I want you and Adam to live here with me.”
She stared at a tiny bird perched on the branch of a sapling. “I can’t live with you, Myles.”
“I thought you said you loved me.”
Her gaze shifted to his mouth, bracketed with lines of tension. “I do love you.”
“Then why won’t you live with me?”
“If I didn’t have Adam I would do it in a heartbeat. But what message would I send him if I shack up with a man who’s not my husband? I thought sending him to a private school would shield him from kids whose mothers expose their children to a revolving door of men who come and go at will. One month there’s Uncle Bobby, then six months later there’s Uncle Jimmy. After a while the names and faces become a jumble. Some of them slept with the same men just to compare notes.”
“How did you find out about his classmates’ mothers’ sexcapades?”
“Adam slept over at a friend’s house and he heard someone call the mother a name. He came home and asked me what a ho meant.”
“And you told him?”
“Of course I did, Myles.”
Wrapping his arms around her waist, Myles molded her to his length. “You think if you move here with me Adam will think badly of you?”
“Yes.”
“If you married me would you still be a ho?”
Zabrina could feel Myles’s heart thudding against her own. She realized he was as apprehensive about marrying as she was. “Are...are you proposing marriage?”
“No, Brina. I’m asking you to marry me.”
“Again?”
He smiled and attractive lines fanned out around his eyes. “Yes—again.”
She still hadn’t processed what she was hearing. “You want me to marry you because you want me to live in this house with you?”
Hard-pressed not to shake her until her teeth rattled, Myles clenched his own teeth to stop the curses poised on the tip of his tongue. “The house has nothing to do with it, Zabrina.” He angled his head and brushed a light kiss over her parted lips. “You said there were no do-overs in life, but you’re so wrong, Brina. Call it luck, fate, providence or destiny, but we’ve been given a second chance.
“I don’t know, nor do I care why you married Thomas Cooper. What matters is you’re free to marry whomever you want. If you don’t want to marry me, then I need to know now before I get in any deeper. And if you say no, then I’ll drive you back to Philly and I’ll never bother you again. That’s not a promise, Zabrina. That’s a vow.”
Zabrina saw the torture in the eyes of the man she’d once promised to marry. She’d deceived him once and he’d taken her back. Fate had given her a second chance and all she had to do was open her mouth and say yes. Yes, I will marry you, Myles Eaton. Yes I will move to Pittsburgh and live in what will become our dream house. Yes I will share everything I have, and that includes your son.
“Yes,” she whispered, the word coming from a place she hadn’t known existed.
Myles’s dark eyes riveted her to the spot. “Yes what, Zabrina?”
“Yes, Myles, I will marry you.”
“Will you and Adam live here with me?”
This was the side of Myles that irked Zabrina. “What if I tell you that I want you to move in with me and Adam?”
“Then, I’d do it! I would move anywhere, Zabrina. Anywhere as long as it is with you.”
She hesitated before giving him an answer. Zabrina knew Myles wanted the house, wanted it as much as he wanted to
marry her, yet he’d give it up for her. She shook her head as tears pricked the backs of her lids. “If anyone’s going to do any moving it will be me and Adam.”
One moment she was standing and within the next Zabrina found herself swept off her feet as Myles swung her around and around, shouting at the top of his lungs. He was going to get everything he’d ever wanted: Zabrina, a son and their dream house.
“We’ll get married as soon as we get back to Philly unless...”
“Unless what, Myles?”
He set her on her feet. “Unless we fly to Vegas, get married, then come back and have a little something for the family once you decorate the house however you want it.”
“No. No,” she repeated. “I can’t do that to Adam.”
“Do what?”
“Introduce you as my husband and his new dad the first time he meets you. I’m not saying I need his approval, but it’s only fair that the two of you spend some time together before we all live under the same roof.”
Myles ran a hand over his face. “You’re right, baby. I’m sorry.” His lips came down to meet hers in a dreamy intimacy that felt both trembling. “Let’s go inside and tell Mrs. Eck that she can start counting her commission.”
Zabrina wasn’t certain whether she’d be able to sell her house, and if she couldn’t then she’d rent it. She was sorry to leave Rachel and her children, but if her soon-to-be ex-neighbor wanted to come to Pittsburgh to visit, she and Myles had plenty of room to put them up.
* * *
“This is where I live, darling.”
Zabrina walked around Myles’s furnished apartment in what once had been a small hotel. He told her he’d turned down an offer for faculty housing because he valued his privacy. The accommodations were less than opulent, but serviceable and within walking distance of the law-school campus.
The apartment had a miniscule bedroom, a bathroom with a shower stall, basin and commode and a utility kitchen with a dining area. Everything was in its place, but somehow it still looked cramped to her. Myles stacked law books on the floor along one wall of the bedroom because he said there was no room for a bookcase.
Forever an Eaton: Bittersweet LoveSweet Deception Page 33
