Reaching into her hobo bag, Mya took out a pair of sunglasses to shade her eyes against the glaring autumn sun. “Half a cow,” she said, deadpan.
He splayed his hand over her hips. “You could use a little more meat in this area.”
“I have enough, thank you.” She wrapped her arm around his waist under his suit jacket. “Thank you for paying for my clothes.”
Giles frowned. “There’s no need to thank me, Mya. Whenever we’re together, I don’t want you to go into your wallet for anything. And I repeat—anything.”
“Oh, that’s how it’s going to be?”
“No. That’s how it is.”
Mya decided it was futile to verbally spar with Giles. Most times it accomplished nothing so she mentally accepted his mandate that he would pay for whatever she needed when they were together. After all, it was his money and he could spend it however he wished.
Chapter Ten
Mya sat on the balcony outside Giles’s bedroom staring out at water views while enjoying the most delicious chicken piccata with a side dish of broccoli in garlic and oil she had ever eaten. And throwing caution to the wind, she had accepted a glass of rosé to accompany the meal. She had shed her dress, jacket, nylons and booties in exchange for one of Giles’s long-sleeved shirts.
She closed her eyes for several seconds and turned her face up to the warm sun. “This is wonderful.” She opened her eyes to find him watching her. “How often do you sit out here and have your meals?”
His lids came down, concealing his innermost thoughts from her. “Not enough. Whenever I sit here, it is usually to clear my head.” A faraway expression swept over his features. “This is what I call my therapy place. When I first bought this condo, I would sit out here for hours until nature forced me to get up. At that time I was in a very dark place.”
She recalled him admitting to experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. “What about now?” she asked in a quiet voice.
He blinked as if coming out of a trance. “I’m good. Very good.” Giles pointed to her half-empty wineglass. “Do you want more wine?”
She placed her hand over the top of the glass. “Please no. I’m surprised I’m having it when I’d gone down for the count after two beers.”
“I do happen to have a bed where you can sleep it off,” he teased.
Mya glanced over at the king-size bed with a massive dark gray quilted headboard. “I just might take you up on your offer.” She patted her belly over the shirt. “Right now I’m as full as a tick on a dog’s back.”
Throwing back his head, Giles laughed. “I’m going to have to get used to your regional expressions.”
“Like, if the creek don’t rise, or she was madder than a wet hen.”
“Exactly.”
“Once you spend some time in the Falls, you’ll become familiar with all of the expressions. I...” Her words trailed off when Giles’s cell phone chimed.
He picked it up and read the text message. “My sister decided not to come. She says she’ll see you and Lily at Thanksgiving.”
“Is something wrong?”
Giles shook his head. “I don’t know. Half the time I wonder what she’s going through with that clown. I hope and pray he’s not abusing her because it won’t go well for him. My father is a laid-back dude, but don’t mess with his little girl because he can more dangerous than Uncle Wyatt.”
“Do you think she would put up with a man abusing her?”
“Skye is a throwback to a flower child. She believes in peace and live-and-let-live. She feels guilty that she was born into money when there’re so many people that are hungry and homeless. When I suggested she donate her trust fund to charity, she said she’s wary of charities because the money will usually pay for administrative salaries rather than for the earmarked need.”
“Why doesn’t she set up her own charity? That’s what Sawyer Middleton did when he donated almost a million dollars to update the technology lab at the school. Not only does he head the charity, but he’s also responsible for overseeing the project. If she’s a guidance counselor, then she can set up a counseling center for kids with emotional issues. And if she’s really ambitious, she can add a tutoring component and hire teachers looking to supplement their income to help students needing extra help with their schoolwork. I’d be willing to volunteer to help kids struggling with English.”
Giles leaned back in his chair and pressed a fist to his mouth. “I think you’ve got something there. I’ll be certain to mention it to Skye. She’d fit right in living in Wickham Falls because she’s so unpretentious.”
“There you go,” Mya drawled. She pushed off the chair. “I’m going to accept your offer to take a nap before we go back to your folks’ place.”
“Leave the dishes. I’ll put everything away.”
She walked off the balcony and into the bedroom. Pulling back the white silk comforter, she slipped under a sheet and lightweight blanket. “Are you going to join me?” she asked Giles when he entered the room balancing plates along his forearm.
“Later.”
* * *
Giles wanted to ask Mya if she had lost her mind inviting him to share the bed with her. Did she trust him that much not to try to make love to her? Then he had to remember she would be the first woman to sleep there, because every woman he’d slept with since returning to civilian life had been in a hotel. It was as if the condo was his sacred sanctuary and he didn’t want to defile it by having sex with different women. And sex was what it had been. He had never allowed himself to feel anything other than hormones calling out to one another for a physical release.
Giles didn’t need a therapist to tell him he would’ve continued to live his life by his leave: spending hours in his office, traveling to the Caribbean and waiting for women to call him, if it hadn’t been for Mya and Lily. He had made it a practice never to call a woman but waited for them to call him.
He put away the food and stacked the dishwasher. Spending time with Mya had enhanced his domestic skills. She’d shown him how to load and operate the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. The last bastion for him to scale was learning to cook. Although he had balked, Giles knew eventually he would have to make an attempt.
He returned to the bedroom, slipped off a pair of walking shorts, leaving on his boxer briefs, and got into bed with Mya. Her back was turned to him. “Are you still awake?”
“Yes. I’m not as sleepy as I am relaxed.”
He kissed the nape of her neck. “Good.” A pregnant silence ensued, and he felt her suddenly go stiff. “What’s the matter, sweets?”
“I was just thinking about Sammie sleeping here with you.”
“She never slept here with me.” Mya turned to face him, and he told her about the suite at a Chelsea boutique hotel where he conducted his affairs. “I pay for the suite every month even if I didn’t use it. Something wouldn’t allow me to bring a woman here.”
Mya rested a hand on his cheek. “Until now.”
He smiled. “Yes. Until now.” Giles pulled on a curl that escaped the pins in the chignon. “There are times when I need you to be patient with me if I become somewhat overbearing. I suppose it comes from giving orders and expecting them to be followed without question.”
Her fingernail grazed an emerging beard. “Did you enjoy the military?”
“I did because it was strictly controlled, regimented, and I needed discipline at twenty-one.” Giles met her large, slightly slanting, catlike gray-and-green eyes. “I’d grown up believing as a kid of privilege I could do whatever I wanted and the hell with everything else. I went to a private school where infractions at a public school would’ve resulted in a suspension or expulsion, but because our parents were doling out the big bucks for tuition or bestowing substantial endowments, we got away with things that would’ve been questionable by law enforcement. Like a lot
of teenagers, we drank, smoked weed, had sex with girls willing to give it up, and a few kids ended up in rehab because they got hooked on crack or heroin.
“I was an above-average student and was accepted by several top universities but in the end, I chose MIT. I continued to drink and smoke weed, but I’d become discriminating when it came to sleeping around because I knew I wasn’t ready to deal with an unplanned pregnancy. My senior year signaled a change when I stopped hanging out as much and stopped drinking and smoking altogether. I managed to graduate with honors and Wyatt, who was at the time WDG’s de facto CEO, asked me to join the engineering department.”
“What did you tell him?”
“‘Ask me again in three months and I’ll give you my answer.’ I was burned-out and needed that time to recharge. That’s when my mother decided that her youngest son needed a steady girlfriend.”
“Is that when your mother tried to set you up with Miranda?”
Giles nodded.
“But you were so young to think about settling down with a wife.”
“I know that and you know that, but people in particular social classes are always looking for their children to make a proper match, much like an arranged marriage in some cultures. Once I discovered the subterfuge, I enlisted in the branch of the military with the toughest basic training. I met the initial requirements for officer eligibility and worked and studied harder than I ever had in my life to graduate Officer Candidate School. It was when I was mentally, physically and morally at my best.”
Mya cradled his face. “You’ve come a long way from that weed-smoking, skirt-chasing and binge-drinking boy to a man Lily will grow up to be proud of.”
“And I swear if I find some pimply faced, pothead cretin sniffing around my daughter, I’ll snap his head off and roll it down the street like a bowling ball.”
Mya’s laugh was low, throaty. “Why do men always talk about hurting a boy if they come around their daughter?”
“That’s because we know what we’ve done to some man’s daughter.”
“It’s called karma and payback.”
Resting an arm over her waist, Giles pulled Mya closer until her breasts were flattened against his chest. “Karma is a very nasty girl.”
“That she is.”
Those were the last words she mumbled before Giles registered her breathy snoring. He had done something with Mya he had never done with another human being and that was to bare his soul. His parents never knew of his drinking and drug use either because he’d become so adept at concealing his destructive behavior or they were in denial, unable to believe their so-called model son was less than perfect.
“I love you.”
Giles knew Mya couldn’t hear him, yet he felt compelled to say what lay in his heart. He loved everything about her: her loyalty to her sister, willingness to sacrifice her career to take care of her sister’s child and her feistiness when she refused to back down when he challenged her.
He was aware of her reluctance to share her life and future with a stranger and he was willing to wait however long it would take to convince her he wanted her as his wife with or without Lily. Mya had accepted the responsibility of raising his child with or without him, while offering him an alternative to a lifestyle where he had become so self-absorbed that his only focus was doing what made him happy.
Wickham Falls would not top his list of places to live and retire; however, he found himself looking forward to living in the Louisiana low-country style house with a woman and child that had him planning for their futures.
Giles’s breathing deepened, and after a while he joined Mya in the comforting embrace of Morpheus.
* * *
Mya held Lily to her chest as she paced back and forth on the sidewalk while she waited for Pat to retrieve his car from the indoor garage. A freezer chest with jars of baby food and bottles of milk and water, a carry-on with Lily’s diapers and clothes, a portable crib and a car seat sat on the curb.
“You are becoming quite the traveler,” she crooned. “First you visited the Bronx Zoo and now you’re going to Boston.” Lily cooed and patted Mya’s face with her small chubby hands. “You have tons of cousins so I want you to be on your best behavior when they meet you. We can’t have them thinking you have no home training.” She went completely still when she detected the familiar scent of Giles’s aftershave and the warmth from his body as he came up behind her. His moist breath feathered over her ear. “I was just giving your daughter a pep talk about behaving.”
He laughed softly. “She’s my daughter when she misbehaves and your daughter whenever she’s a good girl?”
Mya smiled. “You said it and I didn’t.”
“Isn’t that what you implied, Mama?”
“Not in the least, Daddy.”
Giles rested a hand on Mya’s shoulder and he leaned over to blow Lily an air kiss who pulled at her hand-knitted hat in an attempt to pull it off. He gently brushed her hand aside. “Don’t, princess. Once you get into the car, I’ll take your hat off.”
Mya reached up and adjusted Lily’s hat. “We’re going to have a problem once winter arrives because she doesn’t like wearing hats or socks.”
“That’s because she’s a free spirit.”
“You won’t think she’s that much of a free spirit when she comes home from college in bare feet, one side of her head shaved and a boyfriend with a braided beard trailing behind her. And the first words out of her mouth will be, ‘But, Daddy, I love him!’”
“And Daddy will throw him in a Dumpster where he belongs.”
Tilting her chin, Mya scrunched up her nose. “Why so violent?”
“I’m not going to let anyone mess over my baby girl. Here comes Dad.”
A black Lexus SUV maneuvered up along the curb and came to a complete stop as the hatch opened. Mya continued to hold Lily as Giles stored everything in the cargo area and then placed the car seat on the second row of seats. He returned to take Lily from her arms.
Mya gave her a kiss and then turned and walked back into the house. She didn’t know why but she felt as if she was losing her baby, even though she had a responsibility to let Lily know she had a large extended family. What Mya feared was that as Lily grew older, she might eventually lose her to the Wainwrights.
Amanda, carrying several bags, found her sitting on a chair in the entryway. She was dressed for traveling: cropped khakis, pullover sweatshirt, running shoes and a cap bearing a Yankees logo.
“We’re going to take good care of your baby.”
Rising to her feet, Mya flashed a smile she didn’t feel. “I know you will.”
“I’ll call Giles to let him know we’ve arrived safely.”
She hugged her future mother-in-law. “Safe travels, Mom.”
“Thank you, darling.”
Mya was standing in the same spot when Giles returned and closed the door.
“What’s the matter, sweets?”
“Nothing.”
Giles didn’t believe Mya. She looked as if she was struggling not to cry. His fingers curved under her chin. “She’ll be back tomorrow.”
Mya nodded. “I suppose I’ll have to get used to sharing her.”
“Remember, you’re sharing her with her family.”
“I know that.”
“If you know that, then why the long face?”
“I really don’t want to share her, Giles. When Sammie put her in my arms and made me swear an oath to love and take care of her baby, I interpreted that to mean she wanted me and not you, Amanda or Pat to be responsible for her. Now this is the second time that I’ve allowed someone else to assume that responsibility, and if you think I’m being selfish, then just say it.”
Giles searched her upturned face, his heart turning over when her eyes filled. “You’re not selfish, Mya. You’re just being a mom. You’ve been
with Lily every day of her life, and when you wake up, you look for her and it’s the same at night when you get her ready for bed. But today is different because someone else will put her to bed and do all of the things for her you would normally do. Her grandparents taking her away for a day or two is preparing you for a time when Lily will leave for a much longer period of time. Maybe it will be sleepaway camp or an out-of-state college.”
“I can’t even think that far ahead.”
“Neither can I, but we both know it’s going to come. You’ve been rehearsing for your role as Mommy for eight months, while I just got the part as Daddy, so it’s going to take us time before we really master our starring roles in this production based on parenting. Characters may come onto the stage for a brief moment before disappearing and others may become major supporting characters that remain on the stage until the final curtain comes down. We are the protagonists and my parents and the rest of the Wainwrights are the major supporting characters. They’re not going to leave the stage, Mya. They’re going to become a part of Lily’s very existence because that’s what Samantha wanted when she added the codicil. She wanted Lily to know who her biological father was and connect with his family because that’s what she’d wanted for herself.”
Mya rested her head on his shoulder. “Thanks for the pep talk. You’re going to be an incredible father.”
He buried his face in her curls. Giles wanted to tell Mya that he wanted to a good father and an incredible husband. “Now that we don’t have to concern ourselves with a babysitter, I’d like to make good on my promise to take you out to dinner to celebrate the release of your latest book.”
“Where are we going?”
“I have a few places in mind.”
“Should I wear something nice?”
Pulling back, Giles smiled. “Yes.” He still hadn’t decided where he would take her but he wanted to make the night a special one.
“I bought an outfit yesterday that may be appropriate. But...”
Claiming the Captain's Baby Page 14