“But what?”
“I need shoes and accessories.”
Shaking his head, Giles rolled his eyes upward. “More shopping?”
“I don’t need you to come with me.”
“Do you know where you’re going?”
She laughed softly. “I’m not going to get lost, Giles. I’ve downloaded a maps app on my cell and if I want to find a particular store, then I’ll just Google it.”
“I suppose you’ll do okay in the big city.”
“Just okay? Remember I lived in Chicago for nearly seven years.”
Giles wanted to tell Mya that even though Chicago was a big city, it still wasn’t New York City with its five boroughs and countless neighborhoods. “While you’re shopping, I’m going to visit a cousin. I’m going to give you the keycard to my apartment and leave instructions with the doormen to let you into the building. Meanwhile, I’m going to call a few places to see if we can get a reservation for tonight.”
“Maybe I’ll stop and get a mani-pedi.” She ran her fingers through her hair, frowning when she rubbed the curls between her thumb and forefinger. “And if I have time, I’ll try to get my ends trimmed.”
“I’ll give you my charge card in case you run out of money.”
“You gave me back my card and I have enough of an available balance to cover what I need to buy.”
“I want you to take it anyway and buy whatever you want. In fact, keep it. I’ll call the company and have them overnight me another one.”
“You may come to regret that decision.”
Giles winked at her. “I don’t think so, sweets.”
Mya returned his wink with one of her own. “Do I have a spending limit?”
“There is no spending limit.”
Her expression changed, amusement crumbling like an accordion. “You’re kidding?”
“No, I’m not.” One of the many perks of having a Black Card was no spending limit. He knew it would take Mya time to adjust to the changes in her life once they were married. She would not have to concern herself with standing in line at airport terminals to take a commercial flight because a single phone call would give her direct access to a private jet. She would no longer stick to a budget when it came to managing household expenses, and if she wanted a new car, she wouldn’t have to negotiate with the dealer for discounts on optional features.
“Okay.”
His eyebrows lifted questioningly. “Just okay?”
“Yes. I can’t think of anything else to say.”
Threading their fingers together, Giles brought his hand to his mouth and brushed light kisses over her knuckles. “Have fun shopping.”
Her smile began with a slight parting of her lips before moving up to her eyes, and Giles felt as if he was staring into a misty gray pond with delicately floating water lilies. “Thank you.”
He kissed the back of her hand again. “There’s no need to thank me because there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to make you happy.”
“I am happy, Giles. Happy that you’re Lily’s father and happy that you’re in both of our lives.”
She eased her hand from his loose grip, turned on her heel and headed for her bedroom. Inviting her to come to New York with him signaled a change in Mya. She appeared less tense, with the exception of agonizing over not having Lily with her 24/7.
When he’d introduced her to his friend in the sports bar, the word girlfriend had come out unbidden, and despite her wanting to wait until next spring to announce their engagement, he had begun to think of her as his bride-to-be. When she had asked him to court her, Giles knew the tradition of a man dating a woman for a specific period of time before proposing marriage had come from her traditional mother’s Southern upbringing.
Giles regarded Mya as a small-town girl with big-city sensibilities. She could navigate a city with a population of millions, but it was her small town roots that surfaced when she preferred spending hours cooking to eating at a restaurant. She said grace before every meal, kept the tradition of making Sunday dinners the most important meal of the week, and whenever she sat at her computer, it was to pen her novels and not post messages to her friends on various social media groups.
Giles did not want to fool himself into believing that relocating from New York to Wickham Falls would be without angst. He would miss going into his office, interacting with WDG employees and sitting in on meetings with department heads and the board of directors. He wouldn’t be able to pick up the phone and make dinner plans with his mother or join Brandt or Jordan at baseball and basketball games. The only constant would be the flights to the Bahamas, and the upside to that was the probability of Mya and Lily accompanying him.
His life had become a series of highs and lows. He’d graduated college with a degree in engineering but within months, he’d turned his back on his family when he’d enlisted in the Marine Corps. He’d taken to military life like a duck to water when graduating as an officer and rising to the rank of captain. But after facing and cheating death twice, he wasn’t ready to challenge it again when he resigned his commission and returned to life as a civilian, unaware it would become the darkest period of his young life. And in reconciling with his mother, facing his post-wartime demons and joining WDG, he’d become the phoenix rising from the ashes to soar and come into his own as the head of the company’s international division.
Giles smiled as he exhaled an audible breath. His life was good and he predicted it would become even better once he, Mya and Lily became a legal family.
Chapter Eleven
Jordan Wainwright opened the door and pulled Giles into a rough embrace. “I’m glad you came over because right about now I need some serious male bonding.”
Giles studied his cousin. The brilliant attorney looked different. His dark hair was close-cropped and instead of being clean-shaven, he now sported a short beard. Giles noticed there were dark circles under Jordan’s large hazel eyes. He’d earned a reputation as a champion for those less fortunate, and many of the residents who recognized him on sight had dubbed him the Sheriff of Harlem.
“You now have your son to bond with.”
Jordan blew out a breath. “I love my boy to death but all he does is cry, pee, eat and sleep. Then he wakes up only to repeat the cycle.”
Giles smiled. “That’s what babies do. And as a new dad, you have to sleep when they sleep or you’ll end up falling on your face.”
Jordan led the way into the maisonette. He and his wife divided their time between their Manhattan duplex facing Central Park and a house in Westchester County. “Do you want anything to eat or drink?”
“Why? Did you cook?”
Jordan flashed a wide grin. “I’m learning. Zee told me if I’m going to hang around the house for six weeks, then I should learn to put a meal on the table.”
“How’s it going?”
“I made chicken with dumplings last night. She gave me an A, so if you want to sample leftovers, I’ll heat up some for you.”
“No, thanks. I’m good.” Mya and his mother had prepared a buffet-type breakfast.
“Sit down and take a load off your feet,” Jordan said as they walked into the living room. “Zee’s upstairs feeding Max.”
Giles sat on a butter-soft leather chair. He’d always liked Jordan’s apartment because of its proximity to the park where he had an up-close-and-personal view of the changing seasons. However, for Giles it had one drawback: the noise of traffic along Fifth Avenue. His condo, high above street noise and the pollution from nonstop vehicles along the FDR Drive, was his sanctuary, a place where he decided who came and went.
Mya had been the first woman, other than his female relatives, he had invited in. And she was the only woman to share his bed
Jordan stretched out long legs and crossed his feet at the ankles. “Sleep has become a premium around here. By the way, do you sl
eep when your daughter sleeps?”
“Not really. Whenever Lily takes her afternoon nap, I usually hang out on the porch reading or relax in the family room watching television.” Giles didn’t tell Jordan it was a time Mya jealously guarded whenever she retreated to her office to write.
“What about at night?”
“I don’t sleep over.”
A slight frown creased Jordan’s forehead. “I thought you and the baby’s mother were getting closer.”
“We are.” Giles candidly told Jordan everything that had transpired since he left New York to move into the extended stay hotel so he could see Lily every day. “I’ve gotten her to agree to consider announcing our engagement sometime next year, but even that is tenuous. She wants us to date before we take what we have to another level.”
Smiling, Jordan tented his fingers. “In other words, you’re not sleeping together.”
“We did share a bed but nothing happened. Our relationship is different from boy meets girl, boy likes girl, and then they fast-track their relationship from platonic to intimate. Right now, Mya and I are still in the platonic stage.”
Jordan angled his head. “I’m going to ask you a question, and you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want. Are you in love with her?”
“Yes,” Giles replied without hesitation. It was the easiest question he’d ever had to answer. “I’ve never been in love before so what I’m feeling for her has to be love. I say that because she’s the first woman I’ve known whom I want to see every day. I like that she can be serious and teasing at the same time. I love her strength, intelligence and her devotion to Lily. And I admire the sacrifice she’s made to give up her career to raise her niece.”
Jordan chuckled under his breath. “She sounds quite remarkable.”
“She is. And on top of that, she’s gorgeous and sexy.
Jordan sobered. “When you called me, I thought you were going to bring your daughter so we could meet her.”
“I would have if she wasn’t on her way to Boston to meet her grandma’s people.”
“Are they flying up?”
“No. Mom and Dad decided to drive.”
Jordan went completely still. “Your father took time away from the office to go on a road trip?” Giles nodded. “But he never takes off. Only when he’s sick. Which my father says isn’t often.”
Giles had to agree with his cousin. Jordan’s father, Edward, was now CEO, and there was an ongoing joke throughout the office that Pat was looking to replace Edward once he announced his retirement. Giles knew his father did not want to take over the reins as head of the company. He loved heading the legal department. Pat was single-focused, a workaholic, a perfectionist and a control freak. Patrick told him that their father tended to micromanage everyone and everything in the legal department, and that’s why Giles knew he could never work for his father.
“Dad took one look at Lily and it was like he’d become a different man. And because he isn’t a first-time grandfather, I’m willing to bet having a granddaughter is the reason for the change. I remember my mother mentioning that he took off for two weeks when she had Skye, compared to leaving the office to drop Mom off at the hospital once she went into labor with me and Patrick and then going back to the office. Once she came home with his sons, he hired a nanny to help her out because he claimed his work was piling up and he didn’t want to fall behind.”
“Are you saying my uncle has a soft spot for girls?”
“What else can it be?” Giles saw movement out of the side of his eye and stood up when he saw Aziza descending the staircase cradling her son in her arms. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk, playa,” she teased.
Giles winked at his cousin’s wife. “My playa certification expired once I discovered I had a daughter.”
“When Jordan told me you were dropping by, I thought you were bringing your daughter and her mother.”
Aziza Fleming-Wainwright sat on the love seat next to her husband and then placed the infant in his arms. The new mother wore a white man-tailored shirt over a pair of black leggings and had styled her shoulder-length dark hair into a loose ponytail. When Jordan had introduced Aziza as his fiancée, Giles hadn’t been able to resist staring at the tall, brown-skinned, slender woman with large, round dark eyes in a doll-like face with a hint of a dimpled chin. And when she’d smiled at him, he’d been completely enthralled with her.
Aziza’s connection with the Wainwrights began years before she met Jordan. Their cousin Brandt had been and still was her client whenever she reviewed his NFL contracts and now his business projects. Jordan confided that he’d had to work hard to convince Aziza to marry him because she had been burned by a disastrous first marriage.
“She’s on her way to Boston because my mother wants to show her off to her relatives.”
Jordan chuckled. “Aunt Mandy must be over the moon now that she has a granddaughter.”
Giles nodded, smiling. “You’re right about that.” He told Jordan and Aziza they probably wouldn’t get to meet Lily and Mya until Thanksgiving. “We’ll be back again for Christmas and stay until after the New Year.”
“You guys are welcome to spend a couple of nights with us,” Aziza said.
“I’ll definitely run it past Mya.” Giles was certain Mya would probably want to hang out with Jordan and Aziza because they all were around the same age. “Who are the designated babysitters for New Year’s Eve?” he asked Jordan.
“My sisters Chanel, Stephanie and Keisha have volunteered to monitor the childcare center.”
A suite in the Wainwright family mansion had been transformed into a permanent nursery with cribs, youth and bunk beds. Another area had been set aside as a playroom rivaling those at some fast-food restaurants.
Soft grunting from Maxwell garnered everyone’s attention. The infant had inherited his father’s swarthy complexion and his mother’s features. Sparse dark hair covered a perfectly rounded little head.
Jordan wrinkled his nose. “I think somebody needs to be changed.”
Aziza reached for her son. “I’ll do it.”
Waiting until Aziza took the baby upstairs, Giles asked Jordan, “You don’t change diapers?”
Jordan rubbed a hand over his bearded jaw. “Not if I don’t have to.” His hand stilled. “You change diapers?”
Giles nodded. “I’ve been certified as a Mister Mom. I’ve learned to diaper, feed and bathe Lily.”
“There’s no doubt you’ve earned your Daddy certification. I took off six weeks to help Zee around the house. We still use the cleaning service, but there’s laundry and cooking. Now that I no longer have a live-in housekeeper I’ve learned to operate the washer and dryer and fold clothes. Instead of going to the supermarket, we now order online and have the groceries delivered.” Shaking his head, Jordan blew out a breath. “I can’t even begin to imagine what a single mother has to go through caring for her new baby and keeping her house in order and still remain sane. And those who make it look easy are definitely superwomen.”
Giles knew exactly what Jordan was talking about. Before he’d stepped in to help Mya with Lily, she had done it all. “I hear you, cousin.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Jordan gave Giles a prolonged stare. “How are you adjusting to life in the country? Have you traded your luxury SUV for a pickup with a gun rack?”
“That’s not funny, man. When I first got there, I was ready to cut and run, but now I can’t wait to get back.” He held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong, Jordan. I love New York but I think of Wickham Falls like finding an oasis in the desert. It’s where I’m able to feel at peace with myself and everything around me.”
“Maybe it has something to do with your new family.”
“Maybe,” he conceded. “Or maybe it goes beyond Mya and Lily. There are time
s when it’s so quiet I can hear crickets in the daytime. Wickham Falls looks like a picture postcard with mountains, forests, waterfalls and white-water rapids. Once Lily’s older, I’m going to teach her to swim in a lake rather than in a pool. I want to take her fly-fishing and white-water rafting. And because we live in a rural area, I’ll also teach her to handle a rifle and a handgun. And of course whenever we come to New York I’ll take her to most of the sporting events.”
“So it looks as if you have your future all mapped out.”
“Not really. Those are just some of the things on my wish list. I...” His words trailed off when his cell phone vibrated in the back pocket of his jeans. Rising slightly, he retrieved the phone and answered the call. It was a store calling to ask if his charge card was missing or stolen. “No, the card isn’t stolen. I gave the card to Miss Lawson for her use. Thanks for calling.” Giles ended the call. “Sorry about that. I gave Mya my charge card and a store clerk thought she’d stolen it.”
“What you need to do is apply for one in her name.”
“I’ve already done that.” He’d called the credit card company earlier that morning and requested an additional card for an authorized user. Giles glanced at his watch. He stood up. “I have to head out now because I have a three o’clock appointment with my barber.”
Jordan pushed to his feet. “I know you have your itinerary planned out in advance while you’re here, so I guess we’ll see you guys for Thanksgiving.”
“You bet.” Giles’s parents were hosting Thanksgiving, while Jordan’s parents had assumed the responsibility of planning Christmas. He hugged Jordan again before taking his leave. “Kiss Aziza and that beautiful boy for me. I’ll see you guys next month.”
Giles left the maisonette, walking east to Lexington Avenue where he hailed a cab to take him downtown. He’d called a former high school classmate who recently opened an intimate restaurant with a piano bar on a quiet block between First and Second Avenue and within walking distance of his Sixty-Second Street apartment. He knew Mya was in a funk because it was the first time since Lily came home from the hospital that she hadn’t been there with and for her, and Giles hoped eating out and listening to music for several hours would help to lift her dark mood.
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