“I was never convicted, so get your facts straight,” William shot back. “And I’m not sure when he found out about that. We haven’t talked since I was run out of Yearwood.”
“What do you mean run out of Yearwood?” Richard continued to question.
“I mean, it just so happened that a relative of the mother of the boy who died lived in Yearwood and recognized me one day at the market. She threatened to blow the story wide open if I didn’t leave town, saying something about how she couldn’t stand living just a few streets over from me. By then, my wife had already found out and filed for divorce.”
Richard’s brows came together. “Henry Cartwright.”
“What?”
“The boy who died, his name was Henry Cartwright.”
“Anyhow,” William continued, waving away the assertion, “I don’t have anything more to say at this time. I’ll only tell the whole story if I get the chance to sit down with my son, daughter, and ex-wife.”
“And what about Sommer Hayes?”
William scrunched his nose. “I don’t need to talk to her.”
“But she’s the mother of your grandchild.”
“Allegedly.”
Richard’s face flushed as he struggled to quell his anger. “If I can ask one more thing, Mr. Riley?”
William nodded.
“Austin has been mum about this issue for three weeks. Since his request for privacy outside of the church in Yearwood, his camp has been trying to appease us with rehearsed responses. Sommer Hayes has also seemingly disappeared. No one has been giving us a straight answer. In your opinion, why do you think Austin failed to introduce the world to his daughter’s mother, but readily displayed his daughter?”
William stuffed a hand into his pocket and pretended to think for a minute. He knew that his next few words were crucial, so he decided to choose them wisely.
“Well,” he began, “Even though we haven’t spoken in over fifteen years, I still know my son. I know my boy. He’s a man cut from the very same cloth that his father was cut from. I mean, these things are delicate in this day and age with Civil Rights and Affirmative Action and whatnot. And men, we were made to procreate. To spread our seed. Sometimes, one of those seeds take root. You can’t help who it’s with. But you’ve seen the baby. Olivia. She’s a doll. She’s a part of him. He had to show her off.”
Richard further suppressed his disdain for the man standing in front of him. “So, are you saying that Austin is ashamed of Sommer’s race?”
William held up a hand and headed back towards his front door. Richard started after him, but William whistled through his teeth, bringing a snarling Gus to the front of the house.
“No more questions,” William restated. “Like I said, I won’t answer anything else unless I can talk to my family. Any further questions can be answered through my lawyer. At least, once I get one.”
He ushered Gus inside and then slammed the door shut behind him. Never did he think that answering a few questions could result in this type of a rush, but even his hands were shaking. Now, all he had to do was wait.
Years ago, when Austin was in middle school, he’d gotten detention for some foolish display of reciting poetry and tossing a rose at Sommer’s feet during recess. Clarita Waters, his teacher at the time, had called the house to let him and Emma know about Austin’s behavior, and that Austin stole the rose from her cherished anniversary bouquet. Emma had actually found the display “cute,” which had been her exact terminology, but he’d been furious.
So, that day after school while Emma and Arielle were away, he’d taken Austin out back to teach him a lesson. Then he’d explained to him about the complexities of the world and that, although it might feel uncomfortable to think about at first, having feelings for someone who wasn’t White would ruin his chances at ever being successful, as well as his chances for upward mobility.
He’d assumed that the boy had listened to his advice when, during draft day, it had only been Arielle and Emma there with him. He was even more proud when he’d seen the relationship between Austin and Jessica as Jessica had been an ideal choice for a mate. But now, he’d gone and messed up. He’d fallen back into Sommer’s trap and had let her use him in an attempt to raise her social status.
William looked down at Gus. “They’ll get me that interview with Austin, Arielle, and Emma. The news people, they just have a way of working these things out. Maybe then I’ll be able to get Austin to put his head back on straight to provide financially for his daughter, but then move on to build a real family. Arielle didn’t listen and ended up having four half-breed children with that Black boy, Justin. Bet he’s not doing a damn thing with his life right now.”
He scratched behind Gus’ ear. “I tried to warn those kids, but they’re hardheaded just like their mother. You’d think a little bit of education would help, but just like all those years ago, they think they know everything. Now, look at how everything is unfolding, Gus, and tell me, who do you think was right?”
Gus whimpered, walked to the other side of the room, flopped down onto his bed, and placed a paw over his nose.
*****
“Thanks for picking us up on such short notice, Walt,” Sommer thanked, slipping into the black town car.
“You don’t have to thank me, Sommer,” Walt replied, waving in the rearview mirror at Olivia who was wide awake and strapped into the car seat next to her mother. “I’m just relieved that you were able to avoid those reporters. Those people are too nosy for their own good. They need to leave you and Olivia alone.”
“I wish they would too Walt,” Sommer agreed, “But Austin hasn’t released any further public statements and I’ve been hiding out at Arielle’s for the past three weeks. The only thing that prevented them from finding me there was Arielle’s sharp tongue and Justin’s law degree. That didn’t mean that they still weren’t parked on the street like a police protective detail.”
Walt shook his head. “So, are you telling me that you weren’t able to even go outside while you were at Arielle’s?”
“Only in the back,” Sommer answered with a sigh. “If it weren’t for the huge trees in their backyard, we wouldn’t have even been able to. Three weeks and you’d think that these people would have had their fill, but it’s as if the wound is only being dug deeper.”
“They want blood,” Walt declared, staring the engine. “They want Austin to come out and explain himself. But I don’t think that this is such a bad thing.”
Sommer’s brow shot up. “How’s that?”
Walt peered into the side mirror as he pulled out into the departing lane. “I think that what you and Austin have is a chance to spark some important dialogue in this country. For people to look at themselves and wonder either why they can’t accept that Austin genuinely does love you, or why they are disturbed by your relationship. I have lived a lot of years and I’ve seen plenty of things, but sometimes I still have to find a newspaper somewhere to make sure that I’m truly living in the twenty-first century.”
Sommer looked out onto the moving landscape. “I can only imagine what you’ve seen, Walt.”
“And there’s even more world for your eyes to see, youngin,” he added with a chuckle. “Then even more for Olivia who hasn’t seen a full year on this Earth yet. Muhammad Ali once said that ‘it’s not the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.’ Now, think about the world that you’d like for Olivia to grow up in and then ask yourself: would you rather toss that pebble into a river and watch as it creates ripples, changes throughout the current and throughout time, or would you prefer that it stay in your shoe, bothering you for years to come?”
He briefly met her eyes in the rearview mirror and Sommer swallowed tears as she studied the sheer innocence of her daughter’s face.
“Thank you, Walt,” she answered with a grateful smile. Walt returned the gesture and winked at her, and then turned his attention back to the road.
*****
“So, you’re telling me that Alexandrina told you about Sommer, and then you told Kyle?” Austin asked Jessica from across his kitchen counter.
“Yes,” Jessica answered with a pert nod.
“And you think that Kyle was the one who gave the scoop to that tabloid reporter, Luke Maisley?”
“Luke is always writing stories about Kyle, some of which I’m sure Kyle hand-fed to him.”
Austin paused as he pieced the information together. “It makes sense since Kyle is from Yearwood and would definitely know that my father’s still alive. What doesn’t make sense is the connection between you and Kyle. How do you two know each other?”
Jessica lifted the steaming cup to her lips. Even after everything she’d done to him, Austin had still been enough of a gentleman to offer her a warm cup of tea.
“We did a magazine shoot together a couple of years back. He asked me out a few times but he seemed like the type that would wander, so I turned him down.”
Her gaze fell into her cup as she prepared herself for a rebuttal about her also being the type that wandered. However, it didn’t come and she found that slightly disappointing.
“But why would Kyle want that information to come out?” Austin asked. “We’ve never had any bad blood, so I don’t get why he’d mastermind an entire smear campaign against me.”
Jessica shrugged. “I can’t answer that either, but he seemed pretty upset when I mentioned Sommer’s name. Did they date, maybe?”
Austin shook his head, but then realized that he wasn’t certain. He’d assumed that Kyle’s flirtation towards Sommer and his defensiveness that night at her mother’s house were part of Kyle’s Lothario-style personality: the man wanted nearly anything with breasts. However, there was a possibility that it could have gone deeper than that.
Austin’s mind then ran to Sommer’s words that night on the beach. About being used up and tossed aside like trash.
“I’ll get to the bottom of everything,” he finally answered. “But is that the only reason you came here tonight? To tell me that?”
When Jessica looked up, she saw a flash of desire flicker in his eyes and nearly choked on her sip of tea. She’d read him all wrong. He did still want her.
“Maybe,” she coyly responded, placing the cup on the marble countertop. “Unless there’s something else that you have in mind.”
“You don’t have a moral bone in your body, do you?” Austin spat.
“But I thought—”
“What’d you think, Jessica? That I still wanted you? You’re no different from the people out there claiming that I can’t possibly really love Sommer because we have different complexions.”
“That’s not true,” she argued. “I just don’t like thinking that there’s no possibility for you and me anymore.”
“You may not like thinking it, but it’s true.”
“I know it’s true.” She pushed the mug out of arm’s reach. “I mean, people have dragged me into this too. Asking me if your affair with Sommer was the real reason for my tryst with Walter Remos, and if it’s been going on for longer than speculated.”
“And you’ve been handling that pretty well,” Austin said, surprising her. “I appreciate that you didn’t take this as a chance to drag either one of our names through the mud. Thank you, for that.”
She tugged on the sleeve of her pullover sweater. “When I ran into you and your sister at that burger restaurant, I knew that what you said was true. That you were in love. I was not ready to accept it yet, but I never questioned what you said.”
Austin sighed and clasped his hands behind his head. Three weeks had been too long for him to be without his family, but he also knew that Sommer had needed that time. She’d been thrust into the spotlight in the most negative of ways and during one of the most vulnerable periods of her life, so he’d taken a step back to give her a chance to piece everything together. But time was now up. He missed his daughter, and he missed his woman.
“Jessica?”
Both he and Jessica looked up and in the direction of the voice.
“Sommer?” Austin asked, taking her in as though he expected her to float away. She looked absolutely gorgeous dressed comfortably and casually in a pair of jeans, and one of his college hoodies. Olivia was attentively looking around the room and he wondered if his curious daughter ever slept.
He crossed the room and crushed their lips together for what seemed like an eternity. When he finally let her up for air, he brushed a finger across her jaw and lifted Olivia from her grasp and into the air. When he brought her down, he pressed raspberry kisses against her cheeks.
Sommer’s eyes flickered over to Jessica and for a split second, she actually felt sorry for the woman. Even with all of Jessica’s money and good looks, she was still the woman across the room with that hollow look in her eyes as she watched on, excluded from a moment of happiness. Unfortunately for her, Austin was one piece of happiness that she was never going to get back.
“I guess I should go,” Jessica said, retrieving her purse.
“I’ll walk you out,” Walt offered, appearing in the hallway. “Austin and Sommer have some talking to do.”
With a brief nod, Jessica followed Walt out the door and Austin lifted Olivia into the air once more. Sommer delightedly watched them before making her way over to the refrigerator.
“She cried for five nights in a row,” she told Austin, putting away a generous portion of brownies that she, Arielle, and Arielle’s two older daughters had made. Thinking about the way they’d looked in the kitchen, Aria with a face full of flour and Isabela tumbling with laughter whenever Aria smudged cocoa on her nose as she tried to get it off, had made her heart long for Austin in a way she hadn’t even known was possible. Not having him around had only magnified the loss of her mother, and she realized then how stupid she’d been to think that not having him in her life could have ever been a solution to anything.
“Baby girl, why were you crying?” Austin cooed, taking a seat and holding Olivia up to face him. “Did you miss Daddy?”
Sommer unwrapped one of the brownies and took a bite. She’d missed Daddy too.
“How about Mommy? Did she miss Daddy too?” Austin said, echoing her thoughts. “Was she tossing and turning at night because she realized that she can’t live without Daddy either? Did Mommy really think that Daddy would let more than three weeks pass before he came looking for his ladies again?”
Olivia beamed and it lit up his heart.
“You’re corrupting our child,” Sommer teased, crossing the room. She took a seat next to him and held up the brownie for him to take a bite.
“I missed you,” he said, lowering his voice.
“Austin, don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Be all sweet and use your Barry White voice at the same time. It confuses me.”
He tossed his head back and laughed.
“I missed you too,” she admitted, leaning into his side. Austin rested his cheek against the top of her head.
“I would’ve come for you,” he assured. “Not having me in your life was not an option.”
She reached up and touched the side of his face. “I love you, Austin, and I’m sorry.”
“I love you too, Sommer. And don’t worry, you’re going to make it up to me.”
She leaned forward and took his mouth, this time letting her lips linger even longer against his. She welcomed his tongue and used her own to play back, and then slipped her hand behind his head to pull him closer. She ended the kiss by nibbling on the sensitive spot she’d found on his lower lip.
Austin glanced down at Olivia and then cradled her in his arms.
“Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop,” he began rocking her gently. “Come on, baby girl, it’s time for you to sleep. Mommy and Daddy have some making up to do.”
Sommer covered her ears. “I guess that’s where the similarities between you and Barry White end.”
Austin laughed an
d continued to sing as he carried Olivia up the stairs, and Sommer made her way to the master suite on the ground level. The minute she walked in, Austin’s phone began to vibrate wildly in the middle of the bed. She leaned over it to see several missed calls from Gary, which usually meant bad news.
She returned to the kitchen to search through Olivia’s baby bag and found a few missed calls from Emma and Arielle, her phone still on do-not-disturb since their connecting flight in Atlanta. There was a single message from Arielle instructing her to turn to the sports channel, so she turned on the TV in the kitchen.
The featured story of the night was none other than William Riley, and viewer comments and responses followed the image of a face older than Sommer had remembered, with a head full of hair that had been obviously dyed brown. The reporter shook his head in disgust as he read a quote that was highlighted on a blurred background:
I mean, these things are delicate in this day and age with Civil Rights and Affirmative Action and whatnot. And men, we were made to procreate. To spread our seed. Sometimes, one of those seeds take root. You can’t help who it’s with.
Anger simmered beneath Sommer’s surface. William Riley had actually had the audacity to say that she’d just been a receptacle for Austin’s seed. That Olivia, their daughter, was the result of some sort of uncontrollable, instinctual penile curiosity.
“Where’d you run off to, baby?” Austin called, his voice coming from the direction of the bedroom. When he appeared in the kitchen entryway, he grinned seductively when he saw her standing there, but the grin faded when he followed her eyes to the TV.
“Austin,” she said, turning to face him. “I’m done running from this.”
“What the hell is this?” Austin asked, crossing over to the TV in a few strides. He grabbed the remote to increase the volume, and then stood with his hands folded and legs shoulder width apart as William’s story was replayed for what he was sure was the umpteenth time that night.
Dressed in his traditional navy and khaki, Austin was sure that his father had assumed that he’d looked professional, but new clothes couldn’t hide the aging lines that had been etched into the man’s face. Nor could they hide the slight yellow tinge to his eyes indicating early liver problems and a life enslaved to alcohol. Even as William tried a smile, his face had only twisted into a villainous smirk that clearly demonstrated that this was a man that could not be trusted. Yet, the reporters hung onto his every word. They’d even had the audacity to give credence to those words, and think that they represented anything that Austin had ever believed.
The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) Page 19