by Leanne Banks
She felt him rub her back the same way she rubbed Willy when he was upset. She was so confused she didn’t know what to think. She took several deep breaths and finally quieted. Still not trusting herself to speak, she remained encircled in Benjamin’s arms, breathing in his scent.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m ready when you are.”
Delilah took another deep breath and pulled away slightly. “Nicky showed up tonight.”
“Who’s Nicky?” He loosened his arms just a little.
“Willy’s mother.”
She felt him look down at her. “What did she want?”
“She wants Willy back,” Delilah said, hating the tremble in her voice. Embarrassed by her crying jag, she mentally gave herself a shake and told him the rest of the story. The real story, without revealing Howard’s name. He quizzed her about her previous inconsistencies and she had to come clean, but she still didn’t tell him who the baby’s father was. Benjamin had his own strange connection to the Bradfords through Lilly now.
Sometime during their conversation, he led her to the couch. He listened intently and waited until she stopped. He tented his fingers. “Do you want me to tell you your legal options?”
Delilah nodded.
“You can give Willy back to her and keep the papers she signed and tell her that you’ll be watching to make sure that she takes care of Willy.”
Delilah frowned. “But—”
“Or you can take her to court and have a messy, expensive, long, ridiculous court battle after which time you will still end up giving Willy back to her and she’ll never let you see him again.”
“But she signed those papers.”
“But she only abandoned him for three weeks. The court would consider that an aberration and require her to get counseling and be under the supervision of a social worker with a heavy caseload who will put this priority at the bottom of the list.”
“But she signed him over to me,” Delilah protested. “She dumped him at my door and went to Paris.”
Benjamin heard the longing in her voice, saw the despair she was trying to hide. “You went and fell in love with Willy, didn’t you?”
She opened her mouth in surprise. “I, I—” Her face crumpled. “I did.”
He felt a surge of sympathy and pulled her into his arms. “Oh, Delilah, you poor thing.”
“I’m not a poor thing. I’m just a stupid thing,” she protested, but her voice was wobbly. “He was such a little pain in the ass. How did he become so important to me? I don’t want to give him back. He’s my baby now. I would rather cut off my arm.”
Benjamin tightened his arms around her. “You’re not stupid, but you’ll have to give him back.”
She sighed, her breath sweet against his neck. “This sucks.”
He smiled. “Yeah, it does. You want me to stay the night?”
She sighed again. “No. If I had sex with you again, you would be so blown away, you wouldn’t be able to think straight enough to teach class the next day.”
“Promises, promises,” he said, but each day he was unwinding another of Delilah’s secrets, and each day she left him wanting more and more.
Lilly was in a horrid mood.
Robert had not stayed with her last night. He’d said his father said it wouldn’t look right. She bared her teeth as she jerked a brush through her hair. Looking closer into the mirror, she scowled. Was that a fever blister erupting on her mouth?
She wouldn’t be surprised. To say she was stressed would be an understatement. Plus she was premenstrual. Give her a gun and she had enough frustration and energy to bring in the FBI’s ten most wanted criminals. Dead, of course.
She took a deep breath and resolved to take her energy to the spa. She wouldn’t get a soothing massage or facial. She would give Delilah hell and hopefully push her closer to the edge. Lilly still wanted that woman out of her life. Out of Houston if she could manage it.
Her doorbell rang and she glanced at the clock. Who could it be? It wasn’t even seven A.M. Maxine raced downstairs and barked. Shrugging, Lilly walked to the front door and looked through the peephole. A man. No one she recognized.
“Hush,” she said to Maxine, stroking the dog’s head. She pressed the intercom button. “Who do you want to see?”
The man lifted his head and looked the door up and down as if he were trying to find the speaker. “Lilly Bradford. I knew her father.”
“How did you know him?”
“Oh, I knew Howard for many years,” he said in an affectionate tone.
Something about the way the man looked put her off, but the mention of her father reminded her how much she missed him. She could talk to the man on the front porch. She wouldn’t let him in. She opened the door and stepped outside with Maxine’s breath steaming up the storm door.
“I only have a moment. I have an early appointment this morning. I’m Lilly Bradford,” she said, extending her hand. “And you’re?”
“Guy Crandall.” He smiled and the gesture somehow combined oily nervousness. “Your father and I had a special arrangement. I knew things about him no one else did. I knew he had a son.”
Lilly blinked and jerked her hand away from the man. “My father didn’t have a son.”
“Yes he did, but I figure with your engagement to a politician, you probably wouldn’t want that news to get out. I can make sure of that,” he said. “For a price.”
Stunned, offended, she grasped for a response. “You’re insane.”
He laughed. “Not insane. I just want to be paid.”
Disturbed and ready to slam the door in his face, Lilly put her hand on the doorknob. “This is ridiculous. If you keep spouting these lies, I’ll have my attorney call you.”
“Not so fast, Miss Lilly White,” he said, wrapping his hand around her wrist like a snake.
Sickened by his touch, she jerked away again. “Don’t ever touch me.”
“Just pay me. Listen, if you don’t believe me, go ask Delilah Montague. She knows the whole story.”
Everything inside her turned completely red. Delilah Montague was behind this sordid story. She shouldn’t be surprised.
Delilah told Maria the perfect nanny that she wouldn’t need her to take care of Willy anymore. She decided to take the morning off and spend it packing all the things she’d bought for Willy. She cried at the oddest things. The cloth diapers she’d cursed. Strained peaches. Willy loved peaches. His baby cookies.
She had hardly slept during the night, but Willy was still peacefully sleeping in his crib. When he awakened, she would feed him the last time. Lord help her, she was maudlin.
Her doorbell rang, followed by a loud knock. Surprised at the early time, she quickly flitted to the door. Benjamin walked in with his key, so she knew it wasn’t him. Glancing through the peephole, she was stunned to see Lilly Bradford. She quickly opened the door.
“Lilly,” she said, unable to keep the surprise from her voice.
“You slut,” Lilly said, fire darting from her wide blue eyes. “You tricked my father into getting you pregnant and—”
“Pregnant?” Delilah echoed, backing away from Howard Cash Bradford’s irrational daughter.
“Well it sure as hell couldn’t have been immaculate conception if you were involved,” Lilly said and gave her a shove.
Stunned by the move, Delilah gaped at her. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“I was told my father has a son and you’re at the bottom of it, you white-trash slut …” Lilly ranted as she shoved Delilah again.
“You’ve gone crazy,” Delilah said, shoving her back. “I didn’t have your father’s baby!”
“It had to be you,” Lilly shouted. “He wasn’t involved with anyone else half as trashy as you!”
Watching in disbelief as Lilly lifted her hand in a telltale slapping motion, Delilah reacted instinctively. She grabbed Lilly’s hair and jerked it hard.
Lilly screamed. “You bitch. You—”
“What i
s going on here?” Benjamin asked from the doorway.
“She tricked my father into getting her pregnant,” Lilly said hysterically, still trying to slap her.
Keeping a firm grip on Lilly’s hair, Delilah dodged Lilly’s hand. “She’s insane. I never had sex with Howard. He was impotent.”
Lilly shrieked. “He couldn’t have been impotent. He was a womanizer,” she screamed, her face red with fury. She swiped her perfectly manicured nails across Delilah’s arm.
“Ouch!” Delilah cried, kicking Lilly’s shin and pulling her hair harder.
Lilly screamed. “You made me lose a nail!”
“That’s enough,” Benjamin said, stepping between them while Lilly’s arms flailed around him. “Enough of this catfight,” he said sternly, pushing Lilly away from Delilah.
“Benjamin,” Lilly said weakly as if she’d just seen through her haze of fury. “What are you doing here?”
“I live next door.”
“To her?” Lilly asked, looking at Delilah in scorn. “You have my sympathies.”
Delilah bared her teeth at Lilly, resisting the urge to tell her that Benjamin had been more than neighborly.
Lilly glared at Delilah.
“Lilly, why in hell are you acting like a fishwife?” Benjamin demanded.
Lilly shook her finger at Delilah. “It’s all her fault. She got pregnant and had my father’s baby.”
Benjamin looked at Delilah with what she suspected was his lawyerly interrogational expression.
“I did not,” Delilah said.
“She did. She’s a slut,” Lilly interjected.
“Shut up,” Benjamin said to Lilly.
Delilah took her first breath in two minutes. “Howard Cash Bradford was impotent. To compensate, he liked having young arm candy. He charmed me into being arm candy, gave me gifts and became my best friend before I realized I wouldn’t ever be going to bed with him. He taught me about business and gave me career opportunities I couldn’t have imagined.”
“That’s an understatement,” Lilly muttered in a low voice, glowering.
The insult stung. “You’re so right. I didn’t have any of the educational opportunities you had when I was growing up. Even my father said I was white trash.”
Lilly stared in silence.
“I’m sure you remember that your father was very clever, even manipulative at times.”
Lilly opened her mouth as if to protest, then closed it, folding her arms over her chest.
“After his last visit to the hospital, I visited Cash at home and he made me promise to look after you if anything happened to him. He also said he wanted me to do one more thing, but he never got to tell me because we were interrupted and he died that night. Willy’s mother showed up on my doorstep three weeks ago and told me Howard had promised I would take care of him.”
“Willy?” Lilly echoed, her brows furrowing. “Is that the baby you had at the spa?”
Delilah nodded.
“Now some sleazeball named Guy Crandall is trying to get me to pay money to keep him quiet about this,” Lilly said.
Delilah swore. “I’ve already written three checks to the guy.” She felt Benjamin’s gaze on her and tried not to squirm.
“That’s extortion. Is that why you wanted to sell the condo?”
“That and for the baby. Nicky neglected to tell me how to receive financial support for Willy when she left for Paris.”
Lilly stared at her in amazement. “You were going to sell your condo to pay Guy Crandall?”
Delilah shrugged. “I hated to do it, but I didn’t see any way out. You were going to get engaged to Robert any day and—” She broke off, watching Lilly turn white.
“Omigod, Robert will break our engagement if he hears about this,” Lilly whispered.
Delilah searched Benjamin’s face and his impassive expression made her stomach knot. “I’m sure he won’t,” Delilah quickly said, although her voice sounded unconvincing to her own ears.
“Yes, he will,” Lilly wailed, grabbing Benjamin’s shoulders and shaking. “What are we going to do? I’ve got to pay him. I’ve got to or Robert will dump me. You know he’ll dump me. He may like me, but he doesn’t need me.”
“I don’t know that,” Benjamin said, prying Lilly’s hands loose. “I think Robert does believe he needs you or he wouldn’t have asked you to marry him.”
Delilah turned to Benjamin. “You have to swear not to tell Robert about this.”
He shook his head.
“You have to swear,” Delilah said. “You owe me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “How long are you going to keep extracting favors from me?”
“Owe you?” Lilly said. “Why does he owe you?”
Delilah waved a dismissing hand, but kept staring at Benjamin. “I helped him in his hour of need. Benjamin, you have to agree not to tell Robert.”
He raked his hand through his hair. “You can’t continue to pay this Guy—guy.”
“We’re not talking about payment at the moment. I want your word.”
“Okay,” he said. “I won’t tell Robert, but you can’t keep paying Guy. He’ll keep asking for more. He will get out of control.”
A wail sounded from the nursery. “Willy,” Delilah said, automatically heading to collect him. She picked him up from his crib and cuddled him close. “Good morning, Mr. Sunshine.” Her heart twisted as she recalled again that this would be the last morning she would greet him this way.
Delilah closed her eyes against the spurt of pain, refusing to cry. She felt a hand on her shoulder, a comforting squeeze.
“You okay?” Benjamin asked in a low voice.
“Don’t be too nice to me,” she whispered. “It’ll make me cry.”
No way around it, sex in a closet will be murder on someone’s knees. But you’ll never be forgotten.
—DELILAH’S DICTUM
Chapter 16
“So this is really my half-brother,” Lilly said as she stared at Willy.
“The ears are a dead giveaway,” Delilah said, stroking the baby’s soft ears that stuck straight out.
Lilly touched her own ears self-consciously.
“Your father’s ears were like this,” Delilah said.
Lilly let out a slight breath. “I guess you’re right.”
An uneasy silence settled between the two women and Lilly cleared her throat. Benjamin had left after extracting a promise that there would be no more hair-pulling, clawing, smacking or kicking.
Lilly cleared her throat again. “I suppose I owe you an apology.”
Delilah gave a wry smile. “Kinda hard to do when you’re bearing a grudge the size of your native state.”
Lilly sighed. “He was always out with you. And when he wasn’t out with you, he was talking about you.”
“Really?” Delilah felt a dart of pleasure. “I didn’t know that.”
“Well, he did,” Lilly grumbled. She gave her a curious glance. “What’s the story with your parents?”
“I prefer to say I was hatched,” she said. “But the truth is that my mother gave birth to four children by four different fathers. My father is an evangelist and he regards me as the daughter of a she-devil.”
Lilly looked at her for a long moment.
Delilah’s stomach tightened. “Don’t feel sorry for me or I’ll have to stomp on your foot.”
“Benjamin said no kicking.”
“He didn’t say no stomping and he didn’t say I couldn’t rip your hair out by the roots.”
“You must think I’m a spoiled brat,” Lilly said.
“Have you given me reason to think anything else?”
Lilly paused and looked away. “I guess not. So why did you pay Guy Crandall?”
“Why do you think?”
“Because you made a promise to my father?”
Delilah nodded.
Lilly looked at Willy and shook her head. “My father could really be an ass sometimes.” She extended her hands to the baby. �
�May I hold him for a minute?”
Delilah handed over Willy’s warm, squirmy body. He immediately wrapped his hands around Lilly’s hair.
“You’re a cutie, aren’t you?” Lilly said to the baby then looked at Delilah. “Will you be keeping him?”
Her stomach twisted. “No, but that’s another story. His very, very young mother dumped him on me, but she has decided she wants him back.”
Lilly looked at her in disbelief then closed her eyes. “This whole situation is crazy. What are we going to do about Guy?”
“Pay him until we figure out how to neuter him,” Delilah said.
“Neuter?”
Delilah shrugged. “Neuter. Neutralize. Same thing. Any chance you can make this a short engagement?”
Lilly’s eyes filled with misery. “It’ll be very short if Robert finds out about this. Every decision he makes is affected by his run for office. Even sex. He won’t even stay—” She broke off as if she just realized what she’d confessed. Her face flamed.
“Are you saying that you and Robert haven’t had sex?”
If possible, Lilly’s face turned brighter red.
“Are you?”
Lilly closed her eyes and nodded. “He said his father said it wouldn’t be good if a reporter saw his car staying at my house overnight.”
Delilah groaned. “So? You don’t need a bed to have sex. You only need a man and a condom.”
Lilly opened her eyes. “What are you suggesting?”
“Go to his office, lock the door and have your way with him.”
“I never thought of that.”
“Well maybe you should. Women who say that the way to a man’s heart is his stomach should look a little lower.”
By eight o’clock that evening, Delilah felt like a used tissue someone had tossed on the ground and ground into the pavement. Giving Willy to Nicky had ripped her in half. She felt so full of unshed tears that she was sure she was going to burst any moment, but she was determined not to cry.
She looked at the spot where she’d kept the playpen and sucked in a deep breath. “No crying. Crying doesn’t solve anything,” she whispered.
She was so upset she didn’t even feel like getting in the Jacuzzi. The last champagne she’d bought had gone flat and turned to vinegar, so she couldn’t even have her favorite cocktail. She was out of M&Ms too.