Destiny Of A Donovan (The Donovans Book 15)

by A. C. Arthur

  Mia shook her head.

  “Disgraceful,” she said and titled her chin up higher. “If I were the woman of this house there would definitely be changes. For one, the staff wouldn’t be so disrespectful.”

  “If you were the woman of this house I guarantee you wouldn’t have anyone willing to work for you,” Mrs. Ramsey replied. “That’s probably the reason Wade dumped you right before the wedding.”

  Mia turned red, her hands fisted at her sides as she prepared to go in for the kill. Brynne had had enough. She moved around Mrs. Ramsey and lay a hand gently on the older woman’s shoulders as if to say “I’ve got this”.

  “This is a pointless conversation. Some of us are civil and have common sense. Others are not,” Brynne said.

  “And some of us are chubby and delusional,” Mia spat.

  “Maybe so,” Brynne told her as she stared directly in the spiteful, bitter woman’s face. “But at least I have some dignity. If Wade didn’t want me I know I would be okay. I could walk out of this house and out of his life, the same way I walked in. I don’t need him to define who or what I am and I’m not so desperate for a man that I have to belittle myself with ignorant racist comments to people you don’t even know. So go ahead and call me all the names you want, Mia. Believe in your petty little mind that Wade is simply playing house with the chubby black girl, or giving in to some old and offensive time period with his choice of staff. That’s your prerogative. But don’t you ever think you can get in my face again without being knocked down.”

  “I will kill you, you little slut!” Mia roared and was just about to pounce, when Wade grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away.

  “What the hell is going on here?” he was asking.

  Brynne didn’t wait to provide an answer, but turned away and walked out of the building.

  Chapter 11

  Wade had been standing at the window so long, his back was beginning to feel stiff. It had been three hours since he’d been able to leave the winery after seeing that all of the guests were gone and that Mrs. Ramsey and all of the items she’d brought to the winery for the event were back safely in the Big House. He’d also spent a little time making sure that Mrs. Ramsey was alright.

  “She’s grown into a wicked one,” Mrs. Ramsey had told him when they were in the kitchen of the Big House.

  “She had a good trainer,” he said thinking about his conversation with Evelyn. “If I’d known they were still working this agenda I would not have allowed them on the property. They are not to return here again. If they do, call security and have them removed.”

  Mrs. Ramsey nodded. “I’ll definitely do that,” she told him. “Now what are you going to do about the real issue that’s got you all tensed up?”

  “I’m tense because anyone could have witnessed that little scene at the winery. There were still some executives there, as well as two reporters from Wine Soiree magazine. Tonight was about the wine, the 60th anniversary and the donations to the non-profit organizations. It was about our heritage and our community work. It was not about petty jealousy.”

  “Or racism?” she asked

  Wade scrubbed his hands over his face.

  “You don’t have to answer that,” Mrs. Ramsey continued. “I know you’re not a racist. I wouldn’t be working for you if you were. But just because you’re okay with dating a black woman, doesn’t mean other people will be.”

  She’d moved over to one of the boxes he’d carried in for her and set on the table. Opening it, she reached in and began pulling out silver trays.

  “My son Graham, he dated a white girl once,” she said.

  “Graham’s your oldest right?” Wade asked as he watched her moving with efficiency.

  “Yes he is. Lawrence and Richard are the younger two.”

  She smiled whenever she spoke of her family. It always made Wade feel privileged to know a woman that loved so deeply.

  “When Graham was dating Sarah I told him the same thing. That he could love her all he wanted but other people may not love seeing them together. It’s just the way of the world. It’s unfortunate, but it still is.”

  “I never thought about that with Brynne. I just liked her,” he admitted. “I like her a lot.”

  Mrs. Ramsey nodded. “She likes you a lot too. And the Terringtons have always liked Basset Banks Vineyards. It wouldn’t matter to them if you were dating a white woman, they’d find some way to attack her too. But you still gotta think hard and long about what happened tonight and get your mind fixed on the fact that it may happen again.”

  “I won’t allow her to be disrespected,” Wade replied immediately. “I don’t want anyone hurting her. Not ever again.”

  “That’s my baby,” she said and moved over to pat Wade on the cheek. “You always did protect what was yours.”

  “That goes for you too. I heard what she said to you and I won’t allow it. I’ll be paying the Terringtons a visit tomorrow to make myself clear. You are not now, nor have you ever been the help, or even a staff member. You’re my family,” Wade said. “You’re the only family I’ve ever really known.”

  “And I love you too my darling,” she told him. “Working here for this family has allowed me to put all three of my boys through college. I’ve got a substantial 401K as well as those other investments your guy advised me on. I can afford a Mercedes or any of those other types of cars, but I like my old Toyota. I have a mink stole and diamond earrings just like the ones Evelyn Terrington had on tonight. Their petty words don’t touch me. I know who and what I am. I always have.”

  There was no one like Ophelia Ramsey. If Wade hadn’t already been convinced of that fact, he was now.

  “I’ll take care of this,” he told her. “I promise.”

  She’d taken both his hands in hers and squeezed them tight. “I want you to take care of her,” she told him. “The Terringtons and folk like them are what I call stupid. And unfortunately, you can’t always fix stupid. So my mama used to tell me to just let them be. They’re not worth your time. But that woman up there, she is. I knew the moment Lauren brought her in here that she was wounded, and not just from that surgery. There’s something in her that needs to be healed Wade, before she can really be this new person she’s trying to be. You can do that for her. I see how she looks at you and I believe she thinks you can too.”

  “Brynne doesn’t need a man to save her, Mrs. Ramsey. She’s a strong and intelligent woman. She did all of this—the surgery, therapy, everything—without me. I don’t believe for one minute that she’s depending on me to save her.”

  “Not save her, baby, to love her,” she told him. “That’s what she needs from you. That’s what she’s never had, the love of a good man.”

  Wade sighed and thrust his hands deeper into his pockets as he recalled those words over and over again. Mrs. Ramsey was never wrong. That was something else Wade had learned a long time ago. Even when it meant he was in trouble, she was never wrong. Which translated to she couldn’t be wrong now.

  He turned around to stare at the empty bed. Every night at this time for the past week, Brynne had been in this bed with him. She was either tucked tightly in his arms, sleeping soundly, or above him riding him into a bliss he’d never known before. She was an excellent lover and a really good friend. How many times had he sat and simply talked with her? About his day, his plans, his dreams? She knew things about him that even Lauren and Mrs. Ramsey didn’t know. Granted, she didn’t know everything, but she knew enough.

  Wade knew things about Brynne and her family that Brynne had no idea he knew. And none of that changed the way he felt about her.

  That was a very good issue. How did he feel about her?

  Like he’d never felt about anyone else before. Wade knew that for a fact.

  He also knew that it was almost three in the morning and Brynne was still not here. On a curse Wade left his room, heading down the hall and pausing just in time to catch himself from opening Brynne’s door. He took a d
eep breath and let it out slowly, before lifting his fist to knock. It was a light tapping at first, but when there was no answer, he knocked harder. It dawned on him that she could have locked the door. The fact that she would have locked him out of her room, or more importantly her life, didn’t sit well with Wade, so he didn’t try the knob. Instead, he knocked again, harder. And he didn’t care if Lauren or anyone else in the house heard him. He wanted to see her and he knew she was in there.

  When she finally answered the door, Wade could do nothing but curse. Her eyes were red and puffy and her hair which had been styled earlier was now tousled. She had on a plain white robe, tied tight around her waist as she leaned against the door to look at him.

  “I’m tired, Wade,” she told him. “Can we do this in the morning?”

  “No,” he said and pushed against the door, moving her back as he moved in.

  She made a sound as if she were going to attempt to protest, but quickly gave that up and walked further into the room.

  After closing and locking the door, Wade was right behind her.

  “Why are you here? Alone?” he asked.

  She stopped at the bed and sat down heavily. Her feet were bare, her toes painted candy apple red.

  “This is where I belong,” she told him.

  “Really?”

  She nodded and then sucked in a deep breath. After releasing it she looked up at him, squaring her shoulders as she held his gaze. “I’m going to be moving out. Probably by the end of the week. I just need to find an apartment in San Francisco.”

  “So you’re moving to San Francisco now? How long are you going to stay there?” he asked. “A year? Maybe two?”

  “Probably longer,” she said. “I received a job offer.”

  Wade slipped his hands into his pant pockets because that was the only way to stop them from reaching out for her. He wanted to hold her and cradle her against him, more than he wanted to breathe. But he refrained because he sensed she would push him away and that, Wade knew, he could not bear.

  “San Francisco’s not far. In fact, I have an apartment there. You can move in tomorrow, if you want.”

  She was shaking her head before he could finish speaking.

  “I don’t want to live in your apartment, Wade.”

  “Okay,” he said. “What do you want, Brynne? What do you want from me? From us?”

  “Nothing,” she replied immediately. “Nothing at all. I appreciate you being a good friend to me, but—”

  “Whoa,” he said holding his hands up in the air to halt her words. “Friend? Is that what I am now, “a good friend”?”

  “Look, don’t stand there and act like you didn’t see what happened tonight. While I don’t agree with what your ex had to say or how she chose to say it, I have to admit I can see the logic of her thinking.”

  “You have got to be kidding me!” he yelled and immediately chastised himself.

  Wade was cool under pressure. Always. His father had been a yeller, a verbal abuser and a bully. Those were traits that Wade prayed each day never surfaced in him.

  “You’re going to stand here and tell me that you’re moving away because Mia Terrington told you to. She said you don’t belong so you believe her and run away,” he said.

  Brynne jumped up from the bed at that moment. “Don’t act like I’m that far off base. I’ve thought along the same lines that Mia was thinking. Tell me you haven’t, Wade? Tell me that our differences have never occurred to you?”

  He took a step closer to her then. “I’ll tell you what has occurred to me, Brynne. After years of trying to be everything my father expected me to be, I finally broke. In college I was out of control drinking and partying until one night I was so drunk I drove my car right off the road. That wouldn’t have been so bad because at that point I didn’t care if I lived or died, but I wasn’t in the car alone. My roommate and the best friend I’d ever had in my life was in the passenger seat. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the car. He lived for three days, just long enough for his parents to travel from the east coast and say goodbye. I offered to pay for the funeral, to fly them back home to Philadelphia and to give them whatever else they needed for the rest of their life and you know what they told me?” he asked, hating the feeling of guilt and pain resurfacing in him all over again.

  “They told me to keep my blood money because it wasn’t going to bring their son back.” The last words stuck in his throat and Wade fought all of the intense emotions roiling through him at that moment.

  “Nothing was going to bring Rodney back. I hated being in school after that. I hated that the District Attorney had done a favor for my father and declined to file charges against me. Still, my father continued treating me like a disappointment. My sister got really sick. She could have died from the severity of her anorexia. I’d already lost my mother to suicide.”

  He was shaking his head now.

  “But I never ran. I could have because I’d put away some money of my own. Since I was fifteen I’d received an allowance, but what did I need money for when everything was given to me? I could have bought a plane ticket and flew to some remote island and stayed there until I was twenty-five when my trust fund was in my complete control. But I didn’t,” he said.

  “I stayed right here and I faced every bad thing that came along. The thing about that was in staying for the bad, I was also here for the good. When Lauren finished at the rehab center. When Mrs. Ramsey’s sons graduated from high school and she asked if she could throw them a party in the backyard. I would have missed it all if I’d run away.”

  “Wade,” she began.

  “No. Don’t,” he said. “Look, I know what Mia said was ignorant and hurtful and I’m sorry for that.”

  “You can’t apologize for what a grown woman does or says,” Brynne told him. “And I don’t want you to try. I’m not leaving just because of what she said. I’m leaving because it’s time. It was never my plan to stay here forever, just until I was strong enough to be on my own again. I’ve been strong enough for a long time now.”

  “So why have you stayed?”

  She opened her mouth to reply and then snapped her lips shut tightly.

  “No,” he said with a shake of his head as he took a step closer to her. “Don’t close down now, Brynne. I want you to tell me why you stayed here when you could have returned home or gone anywhere else months ago.”

  “I never meant for us to become involved,” she replied. “That wasn’t what I was looking for when I came here.”

  “Neither was I,” he said. “But you stayed her for a reason. I’m waiting for you to tell me what it was.”

  He moved closer to her, and she folded her arms over her chest.

  “I stayed because I wanted to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Lauren was my friend and she said I could.”

  “Why, Brynne? You know the reason. It’s just you and me here so all you have to do is tell me.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said shaking her head. “I’m leaving soon. I’ll leave tomorrow. I’ll be gone and this will be over. It was a mistake anyway!”

  If she had slapped him Wade could not have recoiled any faster. He stopped cold, staring at her as if she were a complete stranger. Rage soared through his body but it was enhanced by hurt, stark and brutally hot filling every crevice of his being. He clenched his teeth and willed his fingers to remain still. He prayed that his next words could be calmly spoken and that whatever other pain that was meant to be felt this night would dissipate. He couldn’t guarantee any of that, so Wade simply turned away from her.

  He took a few steps toward the door telling himself that this was the right thing to do. He’d been trying to get her to admit that she was running, and now he was resorting to that measure himself. He had to. If he stayed, Wade didn’t know what he would do or say to her. She’d done something nobody—not Rodney’s parents, not his father, not even his mother’s death—had been able to do
. She’d broken his heart.

  His hand was on the knob of the door when Wade finally paused.

  “Tell me again that we were a mistake, Brynne,” he said quietly.

  “Wade. I have to go,” she replied.

  He moved quickly then, closing the distance he’d put between them and grabbing her by the shoulders until she came up on the tips of her toes.

  “Look me in my eye and tell me that you haven’t been happy with me these past weeks. Tell me that the time we’ve spent together hasn’t been the best time of your life.”

  She didn’t speak but a tear fell and rolled down her cheek.

  “Tell me!” he yelled.

  “Wade,” she whispered.

  He lowered his forehead to hers, shaking his head as he said again, “Tell me now, Brynne. Just say the words and I’ll go. I promise you I will walk out that door and never bother you again. Just tell me. Please.”

  Endless seconds ticked by and Wade closed his eyes to the silence that served as its own answer.

  “I can’t,” she said finally in a voice so low he’d barely heard her.

  His eyes opened and Wade stared at her.

  “I can’t say it because that would be a lie,” she told him.

  He didn’t wait for any other words but kissed her at that moment. She kissed him back, flattening her palms on his chest and gripping his shirt. He still wore his suit pants, but had taken off his jacket, vest and tie. When she tilted her head, Wade took the kiss deeper, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and moaning as hers rubbed along his sensuously.

  His hands were moving faster than his mind, and Wade untied her robe, pushing it over her shoulders until he could feel her skin. She was soft and warm and he wanted, no, he desperately needed more. Brynne dropped her arms and let the robe fall to the floor. She only wore her bra and panties and Wade groaned at the sight. Cupping her face in his hands, he was kissing her again as she pulled on his shirt, popping a few buttons along the way. Their connection broke once more as Wade pulled off his shirt and the t-shirt he was wearing beneath. When his chest was bare, Brynne touched her lips to his pectorals, first one and then blessedly the other.