“How long is long?” Pat questioned.
“Patrick Harrison Wainwright!” Amanda said, her voice rising in annoyance. “Mind your business!”
“Stop it, Dad. Mya and I want the best for Lily, and we will do everything within our power to make certain she knows she’s loved and protected.”
Mya felt like an interloper when she felt tension in Giles as he engaged in a stare down with his father. She wondered if the older Wainwright felt his son had been irresponsible when he’d gotten a woman pregnant, or resentful that Lily wasn’t a Wainwright.
Pat’s comments cast a pall over the remainder of dinner as everyone, except Lily, appeared interested in eating what was on their plates rather than engage in further conversation. Mya was certain everyone was relieved when the table was cleared and no one opted for coffee and dessert.
Giles pushed back his chair. “I’m going for a walk. Do you want to come with me?”
Mya turned to look at Giles. “What about Lily?”
“She’s going to be all right, sweets. Remember my mother raised three kids, so she’s certified to take care of an eight-month-old.”
I’m going to have to learn to let go and not become a helicopter mom, Mya thought. The last thing she wanted to become was overbearing and smothering where her daughter’s love would turn into resentment.
“Okay. Can you wait for me to go inside and change?”
Giles assisted her up. “Of course.”
Chapter Eight
Giles experienced the peace that had evaded him for years as he held Mya’s hand when they strolled along Second Avenue. She had changed into a pair of jeans, pullover sweater and running shoes.
“I’m sorry about my father,” he said after a comfortable silence.
“Don’t apologize, Giles. Your father said what he wanted.”
He glanced at her delicate profile. “And what’s that?”
“He wants us together and I’m willing to bet that he also wants Lily to become a Wainwright.”
“You’re probably right about his granddaughter becoming a Wainwright. Dad views being a Wainwright as akin to American royalty. My great-grandfather came to this country broke as a convict. Like so many other immigrants during the turn of the century, he and his new bride shared a railroad flat on the Lower East Side with several other families. Patrick took odd jobs, while my great-grandmother took in wash to pay their share of the rent. Patrick managed to get a position as a building superintendent for several buildings on Houston Street, which allowed him to move into an apartment rent-free. Meanwhile his wife had become quite an accomplished seamstress and would occasionally sew for people in show business. They had three sons and a daughter, who died from diphtheria before her fifth birthday.
“James and Harrison knew their only path out of poverty was education. They graduated high school and enrolled in City College for a tuition-free college education. James became a teacher, while Harrison went into law. Meanwhile, Wyatt, the middle son took the opposite path of his brothers. He dropped out of school in the tenth grade and hired himself out as a bagman for a local thug running an illegal numbers operation. The police never suspected Wyatt because he looked much younger than sixteen. He made certain to stay off the streets during school hours to evade the truant officers, and after a while, he made more in a week than his law-abiding siblings because he had a gift for playing and hitting the numbers. His father gave him an ultimatum—go back to school and get a high school diploma or move out.”
“Did he move out or go back to school?”
“Yes. He went back to school. I’m telling you this because I want you to know that the Wainwrights haven’t always been legit.”
Mya leaned into him. “Don’t forget so-called robber barons used dubious means to become very wealthy men.”
Giles told Mya that his great-uncle had amassed a small fortune and, with the assistance of his gangster mentor, bought a run-down tenement and renovated it. He moved into one of the apartments and rented the others to his criminal friends who used them for everything from bookmaking to fencing stolen goods. However, Wyatt drew the line when it came to drugs and prostitution. He was sweet on a young black girl who lived in the neighborhood but nothing came of it because interracial relationships were taboo at the time.
“Once he bought his second building, Wyatt decided it was time to leave his criminal past behind. He got one of his criminal cronies to buy him out and he hired Harrison to set up a corporation for his real estate business. Wyatt had become quite adept at buying abandoned properties, renovating them and selling them at a huge profit. He was flipping properties decades before it became popular. After he’d amassed enough money, he decided to build instead of renovate. He’d become the successful Wainwright son while the other two had to depend on others for their salaries. Wyatt made peace with his father and invited his brothers to join him when he set up the Wainwright Developers Group. Wyatt had yet to celebrate his fortieth birthday when he became a real estate mogul and a multimillionaire. Although he’s semi-retired, Wyatt hasn’t come that far from the streetwise, baby-faced gangster to family patriarch. He still has a gun in his desk drawer.
“There are times when my father forgets where the Wainwrights came from because he grew up privileged. We all attended private schools, traveled abroad during school holidays and were expected to marry women with impeccable pedigrees. That was okay for my parents and their siblings, but my generation has, as you say, flipped the script because we marry whoever the hell we want.”
Mya giggled softly. “Y’all have gone rogue.”
Giles gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. “It feels good to throw off the shackles of a tradition that money must marry money.”
There came another period of silence before Mya spoke again. “Is your father upset that Lily is not a Wainwright?”
“That’s only part of it. My father may not have been there for many of the milestones in our childhood but there was something he relentlessly preached to me and my brother and that was making certain not to get a woman pregnant if we had no intention of marrying her. He said never to rely on a woman to prevent contraception because there was no way of knowing whether she was taking an oral conceptive or had an IUD. He said that the one thing we could be certain of was using our own condoms. His suspicions came from several of his college buddies who became fathers before they were ready when their girlfriends claimed they were on the pill, or they’d used the girl’s condoms.”
“Do you resent becoming a father before you were ready?”
Giles stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and cradled Mya’s face between his palms. “No. I never would’ve met you if she hadn’t been born.”
Her hands circled his strong wrists. “This is not about me.”
“Isn’t it, sweets? It’s all about you and Lily. You two are a package deal. I can’t have one without the other.”
Mya’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want, Giles?”
He smiled and attractive lines fanned around his eyes. “I want you and I want Lily in my life.”
“We are in your life,” she argued softly. “Didn’t you say we’re a family?”
“Yes, but not in the legal sense. I want you to marry me.”
A nervous laugh escaped Mya. “You want me to marry you so you’ll have some legal claim on me and my daughter.”
“Wrong, Mya. I want to marry you because you’re the missing piece in my life. I’m no choirboy when it comes to women. I’ve slept with women I liked and some I didn’t like because I needed a physical release, and I’m not very proud of that. Whenever I’m around you, I feel something I’ve never felt with any other woman and please don’t tell me it’s because of Lily because right now she doesn’t figure into the equation.
“When I went into combat, I didn’t know that if I survived whether I’d ever be the same. I did sur
vive but lived in my own personal hell and was racked with guilt because I did survive when other men under my command didn’t. Facing death forced me to acknowledge my own mortality and to live each day as if it was my last. I’ve never been in love with a woman, but if what I’m beginning to feel for you is love, then dammit, I’m willing to embrace it.”
Going on tiptoe, Mya brushed a light kiss over his mouth. “Why don’t we take it slow and see where it leads.”
“Is that a yes?”
She shook her head. “It’s not a yes but a maybe. And because I’m an old-fashioned Southern girl, then I expect you to court me before you ask for my hand in marriage.”
Giles flashed a smile, exhibiting a mouth filled with perfectly aligned white teeth. “How long do I have to court you, Miss Mountain State Queen?”
“At least six months of courtship.”
He quickly did the calculations in his head. “We met for the first time in September, so next February or March seems appropriate for us to announce our engagement.”
“You can’t talk about an engagement when I haven’t said whether I’ll marry you.”
“Will you at least consider marrying me?”
* * *
Mya paused before giving Giles an answer. She knew she was falling for him—hard—and she had sought to test Giles to uncover whether he wanted her as a wife because he loved her and not because she was Lily’s mother. She couldn’t dismiss the nagging suspicion that she had become the conduit through which he would eventually claim his daughter legally.
She nodded. “Right now I can say truthfully that I will consider it. And if I say yes, then I don’t want a short engagement.”
“How long do you want the engagement to be?”
“At least a year.” Dating for six months and marrying a year later would allow Mya more than enough time to know if she could trust Giles completely.
“That means we’ll marry sometime the following spring.”
She nodded. “Do you expect me to sign a prenuptial agreement?”
Giles released her face as his hands curled into tight fists. “Hell no! What made you ask that?”
She withdrew from him without moving when she saw rage lurking in the blue orbs and the skin drawn tight over his cheekbones. “Just checking. I don’t want you to think I’m marrying you for your money.”
“And I don’t want you to think I want to marry you because of Lily.”
Mya slipped her arm through his. “Now that we’ve settled that, we don’t have to bring it up again.”
She knew Giles was still bothered by her query because a muscle flicked angrily at his jaw. He was probably so used to women falling all over themselves to get his attention because of his name, looks and money that no doubt he believed she was no exception. And no matter how much she liked him, Mya wasn’t going to allow her heart to rule her head.
There was a time when she disliked him intensely when they first met, but that was then. Now she enjoyed his company. And she never tired of watching him interact with Lily. At first, she’d believed he was drawn to the little girl because of vanity—that Lily reminded him of his sister—but after a while Mya knew his affection for the child was genuine. He had assumed the responsibility of reading to her before putting her in the crib for her nap. The few times Mya had looked in on them, she found Lily curled up on his chest asleep while he cradled her in his large hands. She had wanted to chastise him for holding her but held her tongue when she backed out of the room. That was when she had to remind herself he shared DNA with the baby and she didn’t. That a judge had ruled that she was legally Lily’s mother, while Giles would have to navigate the legal system to claim his daughter.
They continued walking and stopped in front of a sports bar where the doors were open and patrons were yelling at the top of their lungs. “I used to hang out here whenever I came home from college,” Giles said.
She noticed his eyes were fixed on one of the many screens. “Do you want to go in?” He looked at her, seemingly shocked by her suggestion.
“You don’t mind?”
Mya tugged at his arm. “Of course not. After a few beers, I’ll probably scream with the others.”
“I didn’t know you liked baseball.”
“I got into it when I lived in Chicago.”
“White Sox or Cubs?”
Her smile was dazzling. “Cubbies, of course.”
Giles managed to shoulder his way inside, pulling her behind through the crowd standing three deep at the bar. He managed to find a table for two in a corner near the kitchen and signaled the waiter for two beers.
“Is it always crowded like this?” she shouted to be heard over the babble of voices.
“Yes. But there’s more people than usual because it’s the first game of the World Series.”
Even though she wasn’t an avid sports fan, Mya enjoyed the camaraderie of getting together with friends and colleagues to watch an occasional game. And cheering for a particular team allowed her to get swept up in the excitement going on around her.
She had asked Giles to give her time to consider his proposal because she was still grieving the loss of her sister. And it would also take time to accept the reality that she would eventually sleep with the same man as her niece’s mother.
After the second beer, she found herself caught up in the hysteria that swept through the sports bar like a lighted fuse. She watched Giles when he recognized someone from his past. There were a lot of rough hugs and back slaps before he introduced her as his girlfriend.
It was close to ten when they returned to the house, and Mya discovered she was slightly tipsy from downing two beers. “I’m under the influence,” she whispered to Giles as he unlocked the front door.
“From two beers?”
“Yes.”
“Either you are a cheap drunk or you don’t get out enough.”
Her lips parted in a lopsided grin. “Both,” she slurred.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and turn in while I check on Lily?”
“We’ll check together.” There wasn’t a day since Sammie came home with the baby that Mya hadn’t checked on Lily before turning in for the night.
They found Amanda and Pat sitting together in the den watching an all-news channel. Pat had his arm around his wife while she rested her head on his shoulder. Despite Amanda having to raise her children alone even though she had a husband, she had stayed with him. Was it because, Mya mused, she did not believe in divorce? Or did she fear not having a man in her life? Or was it because she loved him and accepted his shortcomings?
Giles placed a finger over his mouth when he led her in the direction of the nursery.
The nursery was set up in an alcove off the master bedroom where Pat or Amanda had easy access in the event one of their grandchildren required their immediate attention. Lily was sleeping soundly on her back in one of the two cribs. Her tiny rosebud mouth twitched as if she wanted to smile at something that had amused her. Mya’s loving gaze lingered on the long dark lashes resting on rosy pink cheeks and the coal-black hair grazing her rounded forehead.
She leaned against Giles’s body when he put an arm around her waist. Turning her head, she kissed his neck below his ear at the same time his fingers tightened against her ribs. They stood watching the sleeping child, and then as if on cue, they walked out of the room.
“Baby’s in bed, and now it’s time for Mama to turn in before she falls on her face,” he said softly.
Mya giggled. “I told you that I’m not much of a drinker.”
Bending slightly, Giles scooped her up in his arms. “You didn’t lie about that.”
She buried her face against the column of his strong neck. “I never lie.” Giles carried her up the back staircase and into the second-floor bedroom Amanda had assigned her. He placed her on the bed and lay beside her.
“Do you need help getting undressed?”
Mya gave him a crooked smile. “I don’t think so. I’m just going to lie here for a few minutes, and then I’m going to get up and take a shower.”
Giles shifted until they lay facing each other. “What if I hang around to make certain you don’t slip in the bathroom?”
“Sorry, handsome, but no thanks. If you think you’re going to get a peek at my goodies before it’s time, then you’re deluding yourself.”
Giles flashed an irresistibly devastating grin. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to make me wait until our wedding night before I can sneak a peek.”
“Yes.”
He affected a frown. “That’s cruel and unusual punishment.”
“No, it’s not. Remember what I told you about courting me.”
“What about a sniff?”
Before Mya could reply, Giles sprang up, shifted her effortlessly until she lay on her back and planted his face between her thighs. “No!” she screamed before laughing hysterically. She laughed even harder when he made growling noises like rutting bull.
“Don’t make another sound,” he warned, grinning, “or my folks will think something happened to you.
Mya waited for him to inch his way up her body, while supporting his weight on his forearms. Her body shook as her laughter turned to giggles. “You’re incorrigible.”
Giles kissed her chin. “No, I’m not. It’s just when I see something I want, I go all in.”
She sobered and met his eyes. Mya knew she had to stop denying what she so obviously wanted and needed. She’d told Giles that she wanted to wait for their wedding night to make love, yet knew realistically she didn’t want to wait that long. “I’ve changed my mind,” she said in a quiet voice. “I’m not going to make you wait until we’re married for us to make love. It’s just that I don’t want our relationship to be based on sex like yours and Sammie’s.”
“That’s the only thing we shared because she didn’t want anything else.”
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