“I’m so happy for you,” Meghan said with a sigh that was probably simply an exhalation of air for her, but for him was the height of sensuality. Or maybe being sick was somehow heightening his senses, because everything about her—her voice, her scent, the way she moved—was arousing him in ways he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
He finished the soup and set the bowl back on the tray. “Thank you, Meghan. You’re a godsend.”
“You’re welcome, Mr. Darcy.”
Leo smiled at her. “I don’t mind it so much when you say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re calling me darling,” he said.
“Your cold is making you delirious,” Meghan said with a sexy smile. She got up, took the tray into the kitchen and made short work of washing the bowl and spoon and putting them in the dish rack to drain.
Going back to the living room, she sat down again. “I didn’t come here to tempt you, Mr. Darcy. I came here on a mission of mercy. To help you with Malcolm.” She looked over at the two dogs, who were now lying next to each other in easy camaraderie, perhaps even settling down for a nap. “Mission accomplished. They look like old friends. So I’ll put them in their carriers and head back to Raleigh now.”
“But they look so comfortable over there,” Leo said, trying not to whine like a child. “Why don’t you and Chauncey spend the night here? I don’t like the idea of you on the road tonight.”
“It’s barely nine o’clock,” Meghan said. “I’m a big girl. I’ve driven much later, and farther, at night. It’s only a twenty-minute drive.”
“Malcolm was given to me when he was barely weaned,” Leo said. “We’ve rarely been apart since then.”
Meghan stood up, determined. “Where’s his carrier?”
“It’s in the garage, just inside the door,” Leo told her. “But won’t you consider staying?”
“You can rest easy tonight,” Meghan said, walking toward the garage door off the kitchen. “Malcolm will be fine with us, and tomorrow I’ll phone to see how you’re doing. Now, may I have his food? And are there any instructions I should have about his care and feeding?”
Leo gave her everything she asked for, albeit reluctantly.
He felt almost jealous when Malcolm went into his carrier without a fight. Normally he had to chase the puppy to put him in there.
Chauncey also went quietly, tail wagging when her mistress called her and told her it was time to go home, and that they’d be having a guest for a while.
Meghan went to put Malcolm’s food and bedding in the car and came back inside.
Ready to leave now, with her shoulder bag slung over her right shoulder and a doggy carrier in each hand, she smiled at Leo and said, “Good night, Mr. Darcy.” Her tone was intentionally light, and her eyes danced with humor.
“What if Malcolm falls for Chauncey? It’ll break his heart when he can’t see her every day,” Leo said in a last bid to get her to stay.
“Oh, don’t worry about that happening,” Meghan said as she stepped onto the porch, Leo holding the door open for her. “Chauncey’s two years old. She’s way too old for him.”
Chapter 5
Meghan phoned Leo an hour after leaving his house to let him know they’d arrived home safely. Leo had moved from the living room to the bedroom and stretched out on the bed. He’d been camping in the living room because he’d had to let Malcolm outside so often.
“Malcolm isn’t giving you any trouble, is he?” he asked as he sat propped up on pillows.
“No, Chauncey is showing him around the place. I just saw her demonstrate how to use the doggy door in the kitchen a minute ago. She’s taking good care of him.”
“And how are you?” he asked, his voice husky.
In Raleigh, Meghan was sitting on the sofa in the living room with her legs stretched out. She’d changed into pajama pants and a thin sleep T-shirt, both in white.
This was the first time she’d spoken to him over the phone. His voice sounded sexy in spite of his cold. Or maybe she hadn’t built up an immunity to his charms as she’d pretended to have done. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Just concentrate on getting better.”
“I would hate for you to catch my cold,” he persisted.
Meghan laughed softly, “Leo, I didn’t touch you once when I was there. I wash my hands a lot. So don’t worry.”
He was well aware that she hadn’t touched him. Of course, logically, he hadn’t wanted her to risk catching his cold and had understood her reluctance to touch him. On the other hand, he’d craved her touch so badly, it had been painful being so close to her, knowing it wasn’t going to happen. Now, he remembered their day together that Saturday with nostalgic fervor. When he’d shaken her hand as they were parting, he’d wanted to hold on longer but hadn’t wanted her to think he was strange.
“What are you doing?” he casually asked.
“I’m sitting on the sofa in my jammies,” Meghan said lightly. “Watching a movie.”
“What’s it called?” Leo asked. “No, let me guess. Sense and Sensibility? Pride and Prejudice? Or Persuasion?”
“None of the above, Mr. Darcy. I’m watching the magnificent story of the Delany sisters,” Meghan said smugly.
“The Magnificent Story of the Delany Sisters? I didn’t know Jane Austen wrote a book with that title.”
“That’s because she didn’t,” Meghan informed him, smiling.
Leo could hear the smile in her tone, and he smiled, too, imagining her face as she spoke. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I’m watching, but you have to promise not to roll your eyes.”
“Done,” Leo quickly agreed.
“It’s a 1999 drama about Sadie and Bessie Delany, sisters from Raleigh who lived to be over a hundred years old.”
Leo didn’t roll his eyes, but he wasn’t surprised in the least that she was watching a movie about history. “They really existed?”
“Do you remember me telling you about Saint Augustine’s College, another HBCU in Raleigh?”
“Yes.” He coughed. “Excuse me a sec,” he said, and he put the phone down and blew his nose. Picking it up again, he said, “I’m back. Go ahead and tell me about the Delany sisters.”
“Their father, Henry Beard Delany, was the first African American Episcopal bishop. He worked at Saint Augustine’s, and that’s where he and his wife raised their ten children, Bessie and Sadie among them.”
“Wow, people had big families back then,” Leo commented.
“Yeah,” Meghan agreed. “Women were made of better stuff back then. I’d be happy with half that many.”
Hearing that, Leo’s hopes for something meaningful to happen between the two of them were dashed to pieces. Five children. Meghan wanted five children. He could imagine her with five children, too. That was the part that hurt the most. Five children, a young, robust man to father them and a beautiful house in the suburbs where she would garden and haul all those children around in a big SUV.
Even after that devastating revelation, he soldiered on. “Are you actually going to give birth to those five children, or adopt one or two?” he jokingly asked.
Meghan laughed, “I’m strong and healthy. I think I can have them the old-fashioned way. But I’m not averse to adopting. There are a lot of kids out there who need homes, and I’m not stuck on my children having to come from my body.” She stopped suddenly. “I feel like I’ve said too much.”
“No, no,” Leo reassured her. “You’ve said just enough.” He didn’t have to fake a yawn. He really was exhausted, and the impact of Meghan’s revelation had done a number on his psyche.
Fight, his father had told him. He wished he were more confident about the outcome of this fight. Did he actually have a chance of winning?
* * *
Hearing his yawn, Meghan quietly said, “Get some rest, Le
o. I’ll phone you tomorrow and let you know how your baby boy is doing.”
She glanced at Chauncey and Malcolm, who had curled up in front of the fireplace and were sharing Chauncey’s comfy bed.
“I think they’ve decided to go to sleep for the night,” Meghan told Leo. “I’m going to snooze right here on the sofa so I can keep an eye on them for a while. Good night, Leo.”
“Good night, Meghan. Thanks again for your help. You’re a sweetheart.”
Meghan sighed after she’d hit the off button on her cell phone. “Leo, Leo, what is it about you that I like so much? I need my head examined!”
Fluffing up her pillows on the sofa, she snuggled into them and turned the DVD player back on. On the screen, Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll were having a lively conversation about men. Both actresses had undoubtedly needed to spend a long time in the makeup chair in order to portray the Delany sisters, Bessie and Sadie, who were in their hundreds in the scene that was being played out. They were talking about how neither of them had had long relationships with men. Their longest relationship was with each other. Were they trying to say women who didn’t have a man in their lives lived longer?
Meghan laughed quietly so as not to disturb Chauncey and her houseguest. There could be something to that theory. Here she was thinking about a man who clearly didn’t give her a second thought.
Yawning, she closed her eyes and soon was asleep, the remote still in her hand.
Chauncey licked her face to awaken her the next morning. Meghan sprang up, wiping her face and laughing. “Ugh, morning breath!”
She stood up and Chauncey and Malcolm danced around her long legs, obviously ready for their breakfast. “Okay, okay,” Meghan cried, heading to the kitchen and the pantry. “Good thing it’s Saturday and I have all day to be at your beck and call.”
After filling their bowls with food and freshening up their drinking water, Meghan left them to their repast and trudged to the bathroom.
Once she’d seen to her more urgent needs, she lingered at the sink and examined her face in the mirror. She wiped the sleep out of the corners of her eyes and grimaced. She liked her face, even though she didn’t consider herself to be beautiful.
She liked her nose, even though it was a little too long. She liked her unruly hair, especially in the morning when it was all over the place, and she rarely cut it so it was nearly to her waist. Her sister Petra’s was at her butt. Petra didn’t get to a salon often since she lived mostly in the equatorial jungle in Central Africa.
Meghan was grateful for what God had given her. It was simply that she didn’t care so much about the physical face other people saw when they looked at her. She cared more about the person inside and the legacy she would leave behind.
If that made her strange, then so be it.
“Wonder how Mr. Darcy’s doing this morning,” she murmured and then checked herself. They said talking to yourself was the first sign of madness. In which case all of us are a little crazy. She smiled at that and went to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast.
She turned the TV to the Weather Channel and listened as she scrambled a couple of eggs and made wheat toast. As soon as she sat down to enjoy her meal and a glass of orange-pineapple juice, her cell phone, next to her plate at the island in the kitchen, rang. Recognizing the ringtone as belonging to her mother, she started to let it go but thought better of it. Virginia Gaines was not a woman to be ignored.
“Good morning, Momma,” she answered pleasantly.
“Good morning, Meggie,” Virginia said, her tone sweet.
Uh-oh, Meghan thought. She wants something. Normally her mother’s voice was no-nonsense. When she phoned, it wasn’t to chitchat. Virginia Gaines wasn’t one of those mothers who tried to be best friends with her children. She was the mother, and that was perfectly clear.
“I was wondering if you’re free for lunch today. Marjorie and I would like to speak with you about your career path. We can go to that place your little friend from high school works at.”
“Mother, Annie owns that café, and she’s doing very well. She’s a formidable businesswoman.”
“Sorry I ruffled your feathers this early in the morning.” Virginia came back with the guilt, which she was an expert at.
Meghan sighed softly. “I’m sorry, too, but I’m busy today. We’ll have to make it another time. I’m babysitting a puppy for a friend of mine who’s sick.”
“A friend?” Virginia asked, curious. “Which friend?”
“You don’t know her,” Meghan said. There was no way in Hades she was going to discuss Leo with her mother. Virginia Gaines would want to do a full background check on the poor man.
“Oh, I have the perfect solution,” Virginia cried. “Marjorie and I will come to you! I’ll pick up takeout for us on the way. We’ll be there around noonish.”
Meghan glanced down at the time on her cell phone. That meant she had around three and a half hours to make her place spick-and-span clean. Her mother was a stickler for cleanliness. Meghan was surprised she didn’t carry a supply of white gloves in her designer bag specifically for random inspections.
“That’s fine,” Meghan agreed. “Bye, Momma. Love you.”
“I love you more,” Virginia stated before hanging up.
“There goes my peaceful Saturday!” Meghan groused and continued eating her breakfast. It had gotten cold while she was talking to her mother.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother. She adored her. All of her sisters adored Virginia. That didn’t erase the fact that their mother had a problem. She liked to micromanage their lives, or try to. She and her sisters had learned how to reject their mother’s interference and stay on speaking terms with her. That didn’t mean spending time with her wasn’t sometimes frustrating. Such was life, and it was one of the things they’d learned to live with because even though Virginia seemed to be improving a little, she was never really going to change her psychological makeup.
Meghan was hoping her mother would mellow with age. But so far, that hadn’t happened.
She concentrated on the Weather Channel while she finished eating. The weatherman said that it looked like they were in for a warm-up this weekend, but not to get too excited because the forecast showed the beginning of December and possibly all of December promised to be very cold indeed. Meghan shuddered, remembering last winter when half of America had been plagued by snowstorms. Even the South hadn’t been spared tons of snow.
Chauncey trotted up to her, resting her forepaws on Meghan’s thigh, her brown eyes pleading for a taste of Meghan’s scrambled eggs. Meghan gave her a little. “Now, go play while you can. You don’t know how long Malcolm’s going to be here. His dad might be feeling a lot better today. Speaking of which...”
She stood up and drank a little of her juice to clear her throat before dialing Leo’s number.
He answered on the second ring. She smiled. She hoped that meant he’d been anticipating her call.
“Good morning, Miss Elizabeth,” he said, with a note of laughter in his voice.
Meghan laughed shortly, “So it’s like that now, huh? I’m actually flattered. Elizabeth Bennet had a lot of qualities I admire in a heroine. She was smart, funny and was able to admit when she was wrong. You sound a lot better today. Did you get a good night’s rest?”
“I did,” Leo said. “I feel more energetic this morning. I didn’t realize how beneficial a good night’s rest is.”
Meghan smiled again at his word choices. He sounded just like an English professor.
“Yeah,” Meghan said. “Uninterrupted rest is the best thing for a cold. Any illness, really, since it’s when you’re asleep that your body gets the chance to heal.”
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“Stop, you’ve already thanked me enough,” Meghan told him. “I just called to let you know Malcolm is doi
ng fine. He’s having fun. When do you want me to bring him home? Chauncey is enjoying him so much I was hoping you’d let him stay at least another night.”
* * *
In Durham, Leo was pacing the kitchen floor in his robe and a pair of Adidas slides. He had made himself a fruit smoothie this morning. The blender was still on the counter, and a tall glass of frothy smoothie was in his left hand as he held the cell phone to his ear with his right. He wanted to see Meghan as soon as possible and was about to say he’d like Malcolm back home today, but he didn’t want to be selfish. If Chauncey was enjoying Malcolm’s company, the least he could do was let Meghan’s dog have her day. “Tomorrow will be soon enough,” he said. “What are your plans today with them?”
“I’ll probably take them to the neighborhood park and let them romp later on today. But first, I’m going to have company. Remember I told you about my mom and my godmother, who are both educators?”
“Uh-huh,” Leo said, with a note of interest in his voice.
“They’re coming over today to give me their annual pep talk, or rather, their ‘so what are you doing with your life, Meghan?’ talk. I call them the Higher Education Mafia because they usually make you an offer you can’t refuse. Or, according to them, you shouldn’t refuse if you have any sense.”
“They don’t approve of your working at Shaw?” Leo asked.
“They have nothing against Shaw,” Meghan said. “They simply have something against remaining in one place too long. Or not living up to your full potential. They believe black folks need to be strivers, always trying to improve their positions. On a personal note, they also believe I’m at Shaw out of some exaggerated sense of loyalty since I was an undergraduate there. Although I got my master’s from Duke and my doctorate from Howard.”
* * *
On his end, Leo was setting his glass on the countertop and climbing onto a stool at the island. Recalling what Jake had told him about Meghan’s broken relationship with the quarterback she’d met at Shaw, he wondered if that was the reason her mother and godmother thought she had an unusual attachment to the school. Memories of a lost love? He dared not broach that subject, though, because then Meghan would know he’d been digging up information on her behind her back. That wouldn’t be good.
Love in San Francisco ; Unconditionally Page 22
