LITMIR.BIZ

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all of us.”

      A wry smile twisted Mya’s mouth. Spoken like a true businessman. She wanted to tell him it wasn’t about compromising. The terms in the codicil did not lend themselves to negotiating a compromise. “That’s not possible now because I’m going home.”

      “Then I’ll go with you.”

      Mya went completely still, and she stared at Giles as if he had taken leave of his senses. Did he actually expect her to welcome him, a stranger, into her home as if she had offered him an open invitation? “You want to come home with me?”

      He cocked his head at an angle. “I don’t hear an echo.”

      Her temper flared. “You cocky, arrogant—”

      “I know I’m an SOB,” he drawled, finishing her outburst. “Look, Ms. Lawson,” he continued in a softer tone. “Up until a few minutes ago I had no idea that I was a father. But if Samantha had told me she was carrying my child, I would’ve made provisions for her and the child’s future.”

      Mya scooped the diaper bag off the floor and looped the straps over her shoulder. “In other words, you wouldn’t have married Sammie, because you weren’t ready for marriage and fatherhood. She wouldn’t tell me your name, but she did open up about your views on marriage and children.” Mya knew she had struck a nerve with the impeccably dressed businessman when he lowered his eyes. Everything about him reeked of privilege and entitlement. His tailored suit and imported footwear probably cost more than some people earned in a month.

      “What’s the matter, Mr. Wainwright? You see a little girl with black hair and blue eyes and suddenly you’re ready to be a father? What happened to you asking for a paternity test?”

      Giles’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t need a paternity test because Lily looks like my sister.”

      “If that’s case, then you can save some money,” Mya mumbled under her breath. Suddenly she realized she wasn’t as angry with Giles Wainwright as she was with her sister. Sammie had completely blindsided her with the codicil.

      Giles rounded the table and took the large quilted bag off Mya’s shoulder. “Please let me help you to your car.”

      Mya resisted the urge to narrow her eyes at him. At least he’d said please. She walked out of the room, Giles following as she cradled Lily to her chest. Fortunately for her, the baby had quieted. She had parked the Honda Odyssey in the lot behind the office building.

      Pressing a button on the remote device, she opened the door to the minivan and placed Lily in the car seat behind the passenger seat. She removed the baby’s hand-knitted sweater and buckled her in.

      “We’ll be home in a few minutes,” she crooned softly as Lily yawned and kicked her legs. She closed the door and turned around to look for Giles. He was nowhere in sight. Where could he have gone with the diaper bag?

      “Are you looking for this?”

      She turned to find him standing on the other side of the vehicle, holding the bag aloft. Bright afternoon sun glinted off his neatly barbered inky-black hair. Closing the distance between them, she held out her hand. “Yes. I’ll take it now.”

      Giles held it out of her reach. “I’ll give it back to you when you get to your house.”

      She didn’t want to believe he was going to hold the bag hostage. Mya bit her lip to keep from spewing the curses forming on tongue. She wanted the bag, but more than that she needed to get her daughter home so she could change and feed her and then into her crib for a nap.

      She knew arguing with the arrogant man was just going to delay her. “Okay,” she conceded. “Follow me.”

      She flung off Giles’s hand when he attempted to assist her into the van. The man was insufferable. She couldn’t understand how Sammie was able to put up with his dictatorial personality. It was as if he was used to giving orders and having them followed without question.

      Mya hit the start-engine button harder than necessary. Lily’s father was definitely working on her very last frayed nerve. She maneuvered out of the parking lot, not bothering to glance up at the rearview mirror to see if he was following her.

      Mya’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel at the same time she clenched her teeth. She knew the anger and frustration she’d unleashed at the man who’d just discovered he was Lily’s father was the result of Sammie keeping her in the dark as to her child’s paternity; repeated attempts for her to get her sister to disclose the identity of the man who’d gotten her pregnant had become an exercise in futility. It was a secret Sammie had taken to her grave.

      And why now? Mya mused. What did Sammie hope to prove by waiting a month after her death to disrupt not only her life, but also Lily’s and Giles Wainwright’s? She decelerated and took a quick glance in the rearview mirror to see a black town car following her minivan.

      * * *

      Giles closed his eyes as he sat in the back of the sedan. Samantha was dead and he was a father! What he found incredulous was that they’d never made love without using protection. And to make certain he would not father a child, Giles had always used his condoms, because he did not trust a woman to claim she was using birth control when she wasn’t. And while he had been forthcoming when he told women he’d slept with that he wasn’t ready for marriage and fatherhood, he never said he did not want a wife or children. It was just that the timing wasn’t right, because after serving his country for ten years as a captain in the Marine Corps, he found difficulty transitioning to life as a civilian.

      Giles opened his eyes and stared out the side window. Towering trees growing close to one another nearly blotted out the sunlight, while a series of waterfalls washing over ancient rocks had probably given the town its name. The mountainous landscape appeared untamed, forbidding. It was a far cry from the skyscrapers, crowded streets, bumper-to-bumper traffic and the sights and sounds that made his hometown so hypnotically exciting. He sat straight when the driver turned off into a long driveway behind Mya’s minivan.

      He leaned forward. “Don’t bother to get out,” he ordered the driver. “I’m not certain how long I’m going to be inside.”

      “I’ll wait here, Mr. Wainwright.”

      Giles reached for the colorful blue-and-white-patterned diaper bag. He was out of the town car at the same time Mya had removed Lily from her car seat. The baby’s head rested on her shoulder.

      Looping the straps of the bag over one shoulder, he gently gathered Lily from Mya’s arms. “I’ll carry her.” He met Mya’s brilliant catlike eyes, not seeing any of the hostility she had exhibited in the law office.

      “Thank you.”

      He followed her up the porch steps to a house he recognized as a modified Louisiana low-country home. As a developer, he had gotten a crash course in architectural styles and he favored any residential structure with broad porches welcoming the residents and callers with cool shade. Tall shuttered windows and French doors were representative of the French Colonial or plantation style.

      Admiring the house with twin fans suspended from the ceiling of the veranda, the white furniture, and large planters overflowing with live plants did not hold as much appeal as the small, warm body pressed to his chest. He lowered his head and pressed a kiss on her silky curls. The distinctive scent associated with babies wafted to his nose, a pleasing fragrance that reminded him of the times he’d held his nephews.

      His previous declaration that he wasn’t ready for fatherhood no longer applied, because the child in his arms was a blatant reminder that he had to get ready. He and Samantha engaging in the most intimate act possible had unknowingly created another human being. Even before sleeping together, he and Samantha had talked about marriage and children and he was forthcoming and adamant that he wasn’t ready for either.

      And when he’d walked into the conference room and had seen the infant for the first time, there was something about her that reminded him of someone, and within minutes of the attorney

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