Second Chance, Baby

by A. C. Arthur

  In the beginning, their marriage was strong, but soon Tyson’s career and his quest for success proved more important than she’d ever been. Felicia had finally grown tired of the competition.

  Giving up was not usually in her nature, especially when it came to relationships. Her parents were very traditional and prided themselves on their long and enduring relationship. They would be heartbroken to learn that she hadn’t had what it took to make hers work.

  Still, she’d been strong the morning she packed her bags and left the penthouse she and Ty had picked out and furnished together. She hadn’t even left him a note that first time.

  He was so smart, with his MBA degree and intuition, he should have been able to figure it out. Especially since the day before they’d argued about starting a family.

  Her heart had ached until she’d thought about ripping it free to finally gain some peace. But later she’d received the news of Harmon’s death. Felicia had grieved as if he were her own father. And despite the animosity she had toward Ty, she wouldn’t have wished that tragedy on anyone. So it was with that in mind that she’d returned to the Braddock estate on the outskirts of Houston.

  Being with the family again had been difficult, especially since she hadn’t seen or spoken to any of them in more than six months. The moment she arrived, Ty made a point of telling her that he hadn’t mentioned her hiatus to his family. Felicia had been stung by the way he’d called her departure a hiatus, like she’d gone on some type of vacation or something. But that hadn’t been the time to get into it.

  Besides, just seeing Ty again had her body and her emotions going haywire. A case in point was the passionate night they’d spent together after leaving the cemetery. Looking back now, Felicia had to claim that as one of the best nights of her life.

  But then the next morning, it looked to Felicia as if it was business as usual for Ty, like he hadn’t just buried his father. Like they hadn’t made sweet, tender love to one another. When she’d tried to talk to him, he’d brushed her off. He was officially unreachable, emotionally closed off just as he’d been the last few years.

  Now, walking around the store, Felicia sighed over all the different designs and the racks of clothes in a pastel rainbow of colors.

  She heard the tiny bell that signaled a new customer entering the store, but didn’t pay it much attention. But as she surveyed the outfits, her peripheral vision caught the suit and that confident swagger. Expensive and elegant, that’s what it was, and when she raised her gaze a little higher, her heart pounded.

  “Ty!” she gasped. As if she had been caught stealing, she thrust her arms with the clothes in hand behind her back.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, his medium brown eyes raking over her with barely masked hunger.

  “I, um, I’m shopping.” Lord, she prayed he wouldn’t ask what or who she was shopping for.

  “I’ve been calling you.”

  Felicia licked her lips nervously. “I know.”

  “Why haven’t you returned my calls?”

  “Ty, this is not the place to discuss this. I’ll call you later.”

  His thick eyebrows drew close as he frowned. “I’m not inclined to believe that, since you’ve been ducking me for about three months now.”

  Felicia shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze. Would she ever stop feeling like a love-struck college girl in his presence? She was grown and he’d hurt her, repeatedly, by ignoring her and denying what she wanted most in the world. By all normal standards, she should be able to walk away from him without a second thought. Yet, even now, she couldn’t.

  He took a step closer and touched a hand to her shoulder. “What’s going on with you, Felicia? Why won’t you just talk to me?”

  She closed her eyes. His touch felt so good, but it was distracting her from the matter at hand. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at him. “I can’t,” she said, with all the strain and indecision she’d been feeling since leaving him the first time.

  He rubbed her shoulder, an act she remembered all too well. “Yes, you can. We’ve always been able to talk. We’re best friends. Remember you told me that the night of our graduation. There’s nothing we can’t say to each other.”

  That was then and this was now, Felicia thought dismally. Still, she was surprised he’d even remembered something like that. “Things have changed.”

  “Yeah, they have,” he said, then, as if just noticing his surroundings, looked around the store and back at her. “What are you doing in a baby store?”

  Even as the question left his lips, his hands moved around her back. He pulled her wrists around so that the clothes she was holding—two baby sleepers—were now hanging between them.

  “What are these? A present for someone you know?”

  His gaze lifted from the sleepers and met hers. For all she wanted to pick up and run out of that store, she knew the moment she’d been dreading had finally come.

  “They’re for a baby.” She took a steadying breath. “Our baby.”

  Chapter 2

  She did not just say “our baby,” Ty’s mind roared. “What the hell are you talking about?” he exclaimed.

  Her upper body shook and Ty realized it was because he’d grasped her shoulders, shaking her with each word he’d spoken. Immediately disgusted with himself, he yanked his hands away from her. “I want to know what’s going on right now, Felicia,” he said through clenched teeth.

  With movements too slow for his liking, Felicia turned, placing the baby clothes onto the rack behind her. When she turned back to him her warm brown eyes appeared glazed with tears. “Let’s not do this here,” she said quietly.

  Ty had to take a deep breath. His emotions were swirling through his body, pain and confusion burning through the layers of other stress he was currently dealing with. He recognized that this was not the place to air their dirty laundry. People would undoubtedly recognize him and the last thing his family needed right now was some trifling gossip about him and his estranged wife in a baby store.

  “Fine. Let’s go.” He reached for her hand and wasn’t surprised that she didn’t readily give it to him. With a long sigh, he took her hand, albeit gently, and led her out of the store.

  Across the street was a bistro. It looked like one of those French shops with the awning trimmed in some curling material. Houston’s typical cold front, which signaled the official shift from autumn to winter, hadn’t yet hit, so small tables with fancy-backed white chairs were still set outside for customers. He bypassed the host with a nod then proceeded directly to a table in the shade. Pulling out her chair, he watched as Felicia sat down. Her scent, that perfume she loved so much from Clinique, wafted up through his nostrils. God, he missed her.

  Taking a seat across from her, Ty tried valiantly not to yell again. She’d just said our baby, meaning theirs—his and hers. When had she gotten pregnant? And when had she planned to tell him?

  Before speaking, he looked at her closely. She looked tired but even that didn’t hamper her beauty, or the added glow he noted around her cheeks. Her honey-brown complexion was accented by high cheekbones and wide, expressive eyes. How many nights had he stared into those eyes and pledged his undying love?

  His gaze fell to her breasts and his mouth watered. He’d always loved her body. She was small, but curvy and soft in all the right places.

  Ty had dubbed her his sweetheart and vowed to always protect her from any harm or danger. But the way she was looking at him made Ty feel as if the person she needed protection from was him. Traveling farther down, he saw that the top she wore, which fitted across her bodice, flared from a band of material at her rib cage. There was no real sign of a pregnant stomach but the blouse was a lot looser than Felicia’s normal attire.

  She was pregnant. That realization hit him with warm finality. Having children had been a few years off in his life plan. Yet, Harmon’s immortality had him lately thinking of family. A lot.

  “It was the night of the funeral
,” she said when he continued to watch her.

  Lifting his gaze to her face, he marveled at the soft auburn curls of her hair that rested so adoringly at her shoulders. Her round, cherublike face, full lips and soulful eyes bore into him. “Why did you leave?” he asked with his emotions clogging his throat.

  She sighed and sat back in the chair. “We’re not on the same page anymore, Ty. You know that. You want your business and I want…more.”

  “I want you,” he said without hesitation.

  She tilted her head to the side. “We can’t always have what we want.”

  He clenched his teeth. For as sweet as Felicia was, she could be just as stubborn as he. “You had no right to keep a secret like this.” If there was one thing Ty hated, it was secrets. They had a way of coming back to haunt you. Or slap you in the face. “Did you ever plan to tell me about my child?”

  Felicia looked offended. “Of course I was going to tell you. I would never keep you away from your child. Even if you don’t want one. I just didn’t want you to think I was trying to trap you or something.”

  He shook his head in disbelief. “First off, I never said I didn’t want a child.”

  “You never said you did. And besides that, actions speak louder than words, Ty. Working twenty hours a day, weekends included, barely having time to eat dinner with me, let alone make love to me, said it all.”

  “It wasn’t like that. It was just never the right time.”

  “Oh, really? Then tell me what it was like. For you, I mean. Did you really think we had a good marriage?” Her hands had been waving as she spoke, a sure sign that this conversation was about to get very emotional.

  “Sure there were rough days, but that was normal. I thought we were both getting what we wanted.”

  She folded her arms over her chest. “No. You were getting what you wanted. I was just taking up space.”

  Ty let her words marinate and tried like hell to hold on to his temper. How could she sit here and use his actions to justify why she hadn’t told him about his child?

  On another note, there could be some truth to her words. He did work a lot, but that was for the good of them both, for their future. He wanted them to be financially secure, outside of the Braddock fortune. Working hard was the only way a man could adequately provide for his family. He’d learned that from his father.

  All this past mumbo jumbo aside, Ty was not about to let Felicia raise his baby without him. “I want you back, Felicia. I never wanted you to leave.”

  “Ty.” She sighed.

  The shreds of his calm shattered and he slammed his hands down on the table. “You will not shut me out of this pregnancy or my child’s life, no matter what you think you know about me!”

  “Keep your voice down,” she said sternly, as if he were one of her students.

  Ty dragged a hand down his face. His temples hurt like hell. “I don’t know what you want me to say, what you want me to do, Felicia.”

  “Like I said, what I wanted never mattered to you.” When he was about to say something else, she held up a hand to stop him. “Now that you know, I will keep you in the loop about the pregnancy. You can be a father to your child.”

  “Thanks for the permission,” he snapped.

  She frowned. “Don’t do that.”

  “Don’t do what? Don’t act pissed off? Well, I am. So deal with it.” How dare she keep this from him? And how dare she act like she was doing him a favor by allowing him to be in his child’s life? They were once so happy. How had they come to this?

  “That’s just it, Ty. I have been dealing with it. I’ve been dealing with you and your twisted priorities and your lack of attention. But I don’t have to take it.”

  Her words were curt, sharp and sounded entirely too final for his liking. “So what are you saying? You don’t want to be with me?” Asking the question made him feel vulnerable and insufficient. Sitting up straighter, he cleared his throat. “We took vows, Felicia. And I for one didn’t take them lightly. There are problems in every marriage. The true test is loyalty and patience. Does our love mean so little to you that you won’t even try?”

  No, the hell he wasn’t! she thought.

  He was not turning the tables on her, making this all seem like her fault. She’d tried and tried. Talking and planning romantic weekends and trying to bring back the spark they’d once had. All to no avail.

  “You were the one who stopped trying, Ty. Your job always came first. Making your next million meant more than making love to your wife. And you expected me to simply be there to help you celebrate. I won’t be your trophy wife. It takes two to make a marriage work.”

  He touched his fingers to his temples and rubbed. He had a headache and Felicia immediately felt guilty. Ty always got headaches when he was hungry or tired. She could guess what the culprit was this time. Opening her purse, she dug inside and pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen. “You haven’t eaten today, have you?”

  “What?” he asked, his eyes squinting as he looked at her.

  “Food? Did you have any? Breakfast, lunch? Never mind.” She opened the bottle and poured two pills into her hand. Signaling the waiter, she ordered them two glasses of water and salads. The water came first and she put the pills in Ty’s hand.

  He didn’t say a word but popped the pills and lifted the glass to drink.

  “Three meals a day can easily be woven into your work schedule. How do you expect to keep up your strength if you forget to eat? You are not Superman,” she said, watching him swallow.

  He chuckled. “I was your Superman once.”

  Felicia had to smile at that one, touched once again by the sentiment in his tone. She hadn’t heard him talk like that in years. “Yes, you were. A long time ago.”

  When he reached across the table for her hand, she didn’t pull away. “I want what we had before, Felicia. I want you with me again. If that means I have to change some things, then I will. But this separation is killing me. It’s been three whole months!”

  Run? Stay? Her mind argued even as his thumb rubbed over the back of her hand. Heat moved swiftly up her arm and settled throughout her chest with familiarity.

  She sighed. “It’s not that easy. You can’t just say you want it and think that it will be. I wanted it all for us, Ty. The careers, the family, the love.”

  “I’ve never stopped loving you.”

  “You just stopped being with me.”

  “How can I fix this?” he implored with a look of such honesty that it almost broke her heart.

  “I only wanted you and a life where we were equal partners and friends. I wanted a family and a home.”

  He nodded as if hearing her for the first time. “I understand.”

  “Do you really?” she asked.

  “I know exactly what you need, Felicia. I always have,” he said with that slow, sinful smile.

  Felicia’s insides melted. Boy, did he know what she needed. Flashes of their last night together hit her like a warm breeze.

  When it came to the bedroom—or any room, for that matter—Ty knew and always delivered everything she wanted or needed. But that area of their lives wasn’t the problem. When he wasn’t working, his performance in bed was much more than she could ask for. However, their marriage could not survive on sex alone. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, then put her hand on her belly and thought about her own family.

  She was an only child. Her parents, Marshall and Lydia Turner, had been happily married for forty-three years. They had a loving, trusting marriage—one that was filled with arguments and makeups, trials and tribulations, but one they both cherished. They’d been her role models as she’d grown up. She wanted a marriage just like theirs. And she wasn’t settling for anything less.

  “That’s not what I’m talking about, Ty. Sex was never a problem for us.”

  “No. And apparently we’ve had much more success than I’d anticipated,” he said, nodding toward her belly. “I can’t believe we’re going to hav
e a baby.”

  She smiled, hoping he really was excited, but she wasn’t really sure. She knew a baby wasn’t a part of Ty’s plan just yet. But there wasn’t much they could do about it now. “When the doctor told me, I was in a state of shock for days.”

  They both grew quiet. “I was so sorry about Harmon’s death, and then this happened, and I just didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t know how you would react.”

  “You can tell me anything, baby. Don’t ever forget that.”

  Felicia looked at this man and knew that she loved him even more today than she ever had. He’d been her best friend for almost ten years and her lover for more than half that time. Of course she could tell him anything, but could she trust him again with her heart?

  “Let’s have dinner tonight? At the penthouse.”

  “I’m not moving back in, Ty. If you really want a reconciliation, you’re going to have to prove it. You’re going to have to convince me that we should give this another try.”

  He stared at her a moment, contemplating—she could tell by the slight furrow of his brow.

  “So you won’t move back in until I prove to you that we can make this work?” He nodded, answering himself. “I can do that. I can win you back, if that’s what you want.”

  Leave it to Ty to make everything a competition. Ambition infected his blood like a disease. “I’m just saying that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to rekindle the spark between us, trying to bring back what we lost somewhere along the road. I’m not willing to do it this time. You’re going to have to do the trying.”

  “Fine. Dinner tonight at the penthouse.”

  He grinned devilishly and she groaned. “No sex, Ty.”

  Ty cleared his throat. “No sex. I just want to share a meal with you, like we used to.”

  She sighed. Looking into his eyes, having him touch her…she never stood a chance.