The Braddocks

With movements too slow for his liking, Felicia turned, placing the baby clothes onto the rack behind her. When she turned back to him her warm brown eyes appeared glazed with tears. “Let’s not do this here,” she said quietly.

Ty had to take a deep breath. His emotions were swirling through his body, pain and confusion burning through the layers of other stress he was currently dealing with. He recognized that this was not the place to air their dirty laundry. People would undoubtedly recognize him and the last thing his family needed right now was some trifling gossip about him and his estranged wife in a baby store.

“Fine. Let’s go.” He reached for her hand and wasn’t surprised that she didn’t readily give it to him. With a long sigh, he took her hand, albeit gently, and led her out of the store.

Across the street was a bistro. It looked like one of those French shops with the awning trimmed in some curling material. Houston’s typical cold front, which signaled the official shift from autumn to winter, hadn’t yet hit, so small tables with fancy-backed white chairs were still set outside for customers. He bypassed the host with a nod then proceeded directly to a table in the shade. Pulling out her chair, he watched as Felicia sat down. Her scent, that perfume she loved so much from Clinique, wafted up through his nostrils. God, he missed her.

Taking a seat across from her, Ty tried valiantly not to yell again. She’d just said our baby, meaning theirs—his and hers. When had she gotten pregnant? And when had she planned to tell him?

Before speaking, he looked at her closely. She looked tired but even that didn’t hamper her beauty, or the added glow he noted around her cheeks. Her honey-brown complexion was accented by high cheekbones and wide, expressive eyes. How many nights had he stared into those eyes and pledged his undying love?

His gaze fell to her breasts and his mouth watered. He’d always loved her body. She was small, but curvy and soft in all the right places.

Ty had dubbed her his sweetheart and vowed to always protect her from any harm or danger. But the way she was looking at him made Ty feel as if the person she needed protection from was him. Traveling farther down, he saw that the top she wore, which fitted across her bodice, flared from a band of material at her rib cage. There was no real sign of a pregnant stomach but the blouse was a lot looser than Felicia’s normal attire.

She was pregnant. That realization hit him with warm finality. Having children had been a few years off in his life plan. Yet, Harmon’s immortality had him lately thinking of family. A lot.

“It was the night of the funeral,” she said when he continued to watch her.

Lifting his gaze to her face, he marveled at the soft auburn curls of her hair that rested so adoringly at her shoulders. Her round, cherublike face, full lips and soulful eyes bore into him. “Why did you leave?” he asked with his emotions clogging his throat.

She sighed and sat back in the chair. “We’re not on the same page anymore, Ty. You know that. You want your business and I want…more.”

“I want you,” he said without hesitation.

She tilted her head to the side. “We can’t always have what we want.”

He clenched his teeth. For as sweet as Felicia was, she could be just as stubborn as he. “You had no right to keep a secret like this.” If there was one thing Ty hated, it was secrets. They had a way of coming back to haunt you. Or slap you in the face. “Did you ever plan to tell me about my child?”

Felicia looked offended. “Of course I was going to tell you. I would never keep you away from your child. Even if you don’t want one. I just didn’t want you to think I was trying to trap you or something.”

He shook his head in disbelief. “First off, I never said I didn’t want a child.”

“You never said you did. And besides that, actions speak louder than words, Ty. Working twenty hours a day, weekends included, barely having time to eat dinner with me, let alone make love to me, said it all.”

“It wasn’t like that. It was just never the right time.”

“Oh, really? Then tell me what it was like. For you, I mean. Did you really think we had a good marriage?” Her hands had been waving as she spoke, a sure sign that this conversation was about to get very emotional.

“Sure there were rough days, but that was normal. I thought we were both getting what we wanted.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “No. You were getting what you wanted. I was just taking up space.”

Ty let her words marinate and tried like hell to hold on to his temper. How could she sit here and use his actions to justify why she hadn’t told him about his child?

On another note, there could be some truth to her words. He did work a lot, but that was for the good of them both, for their future. He wanted them to be financially secure, outside of the Braddock fortune. Working hard was the only way a man could adequately provide for his family. He’d learned that from his father.

All this past mumbo jumbo aside, Ty was not about to let Felicia raise his baby without him. “I want you back, Felicia. I never wanted you to leave.”

“Ty.” She sighed.

The shreds of his calm shattered and he slammed his hands down on the table. “You will not shut me out of this pregnancy or my child’s life, no matter what you think you know about me!”

“Keep your voice down,” she said sternly, as if he were one of her students.

Ty dragged a hand down his face. His temples hurt like hell. “I don’t know what you want me to say, what you want me to do, Felicia.”

“Like I said, what I wanted never mattered to you.” When he was about to say something else, she held up a hand to stop him. “Now that you know, I will keep you in the loop about the pregnancy. You can be a father to your child.”

“Thanks for the permission,” he snapped.

She frowned. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what? Don’t act pissed off? Well, I am. So deal with it.” How dare she keep this from him? And how dare she act like she was doing him a favor by allowing him to be in his child’s life? They were once so happy. How had they come to this?

“That’s just it, Ty. I have been dealing with it. I’ve been dealing with you and your twisted priorities and your lack of attention. But I don’t have to take it.”

Her words were curt, sharp and sounded entirely too final for his liking. “So what are you saying? You don’t want to be with me?” Asking the question made him feel vulnerable and insufficient. Sitting up straighter, he cleared his throat. “We took vows, Felicia. And I for one didn’t take them lightly. There are problems in every marriage. The true test is loyalty and patience. Does our love mean so little to you that you won’t even try?”

No, the hell he wasn’t! she thought.

He was not turning the tables on her, making this all seem like her fault. She’d tried and tried. Talking and planning romantic weekends and trying to bring back the spark they’d once had. All to no avail.

“You were the one who stopped trying, Ty. Your job always came first. Making your next million meant more than making love to your wife. And you expected me to simply be there to help you celebrate. I won’t be your trophy wife. It takes two to make a marriage work.”

He touched his fingers to his temples and rubbed. He had a headache and Felicia immediately felt guilty. Ty always got headaches when he was hungry or tired. She could guess what the culprit was this time. Opening her purse, she dug inside and pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen. “You haven’t eaten today, have you?”

“What?” he asked, his eyes squinting as he looked at her.

“Food? Did you have any? Breakfast, lunch? Never mind.” She opened the bottle and poured two pills into her hand. Signaling the waiter, she ordered them two glasses of water and salads. The water came first and she put the pills in Ty’s hand.

He didn’t say a word but popped the pills and lifted the glass to drink.

“Three meals a day can easily be woven into your work schedule. How do you expect to keep up your strength if you forget to eat? You are not Superman,” she said, watching him swallow.

He chuckled. “I was your Superman once.”

Felicia had to smile at that one, touched once again by the sentiment in his tone. She hadn’t heard him talk like that in years. “Yes, you were. A long time ago.”

When he reached across the table for her hand, she didn’t pull away. “I want what we had before, Felicia. I want you with me again. If that means I have to change some things, then I will. But this separation is killing me. It’s been three whole months!”

Run? Stay? Her mind argued even as his thumb rubbed over the back of her hand. Heat moved swiftly up her arm and settled throughout her chest with familiarity.

She sighed. “It’s not that easy. You can’t just say you want it and think that it will be. I wanted it all for us, Ty. The careers, the family, the love.”

“I’ve never stopped loving you.”

“You just stopped being with me.”

“How can I fix this?” he implored with a look of such honesty that it almost broke her heart.

“I only wanted you and a life where we were equal partners and friends. I wanted a family and a home.”

He nodded as if hearing her for the first time. “I understand.”

“Do you really?” she asked.

“I know exactly what you need, Felicia. I always have,” he said with that slow, sinful smile.

Felicia’s insides melted. Boy, did he know what she needed. Flashes of their last night together hit her like a warm breeze.

When it came to the bedroom—or any room, for that matter—Ty knew and always delivered everything she wanted or needed. But that area of their lives wasn’t the problem. When he wasn’t working, his performance in bed was much more than she could ask for. However, their marriage could not survive on sex alone. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, then put her hand on her belly and thought about her own family.

She was an only child. Her parents, Marshall and Lydia Turner, had been happily married for forty-three years. They had a loving, trusting marriage—one that was filled with arguments and makeups, trials and tribulations, but one they both cherished. They’d been her role models as she’d grown up. She wanted a marriage just like theirs. And she wasn’t settling for anything less.

“That’s not what I’m talking about, Ty. Sex was never a problem for us.”

“No. And apparently we’ve had much more success than I’d anticipated,” he said, nodding toward her belly. “I can’t believe we’re going to have a baby.”

She smiled, hoping he really was excited, but she wasn’t really sure. She knew a baby wasn’t a part of Ty’s plan just yet. But there wasn’t much they could do about it now. “When the doctor told me, I was in a state of shock for days.”

They both grew quiet. “I was so sorry about Harmon’s death, and then this happened, and I just didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t know how you would react.”

“You can tell me anything, baby. Don’t ever forget that.”

Felicia looked at this man and knew that she loved him even more today than she ever had. He’d been her best friend for almost ten years and her lover for more than half that time. Of course she could tell him anything, but could she trust him again with her heart?

“Let’s have dinner tonight? At the penthouse.”

“I’m not moving back in, Ty. If you really want a reconciliation, you’re going to have to prove it. You’re going to have to convince me that we should give this another try.”

He stared at her a moment, contemplating—she could tell by the slight furrow of his brow.

“So you won’t move back in until I prove to you that we can make this work?” He nodded, answering himself. “I can do that. I can win you back, if that’s what you want.”

Leave it to Ty to make everything a competition. Ambition infected his blood like a disease. “I’m just saying that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to rekindle the spark between us, trying to bring back what we lost somewhere along the road. I’m not willing to do it this time. You’re going to have to do the trying.”

“Fine. Dinner tonight at the penthouse.”

He grinned devilishly and she groaned. “No sex, Ty.”

Ty cleared his throat. “No sex. I just want to share a meal with you, like we used to.”

She sighed. Looking into his eyes, having him touch her…she never stood a chance.

Felicia stood at the door to the home she and Ty had shared, debating whether or not she should use her key. Still, she needed to retain some sort of distance between them. As she’d told Ty earlier that afternoon, she wasn’t about to run back to him and things the way they were, baby or not. She wasn’t about to act like things were even remotely back to normal.

After a few more awkward moments, she realized how foolish she was being and lifted her hand to ring the doorbell. Ty was at the door in no time, as if he’d been standing directly on the other side waiting for her.

“Hey, you’re right on time, as always.” He smiled and Felicia almost bolted.

How was she going to survive having dinner with him, here of all places? It was bad enough she’d been thinking of him and that crazy toned body for the duration of the afternoon. “I was hungry.” She shrugged and walked inside.

“I’ll bet, considering your present condition. Let me get that for you.” He took her purse and the sweater she’d draped over her arm as a weather precaution.

Felicia continued into the living area. She loved their loft-style penthouse and remembered each piece of furniture they’d chosen together. Clean lines and a contemporary décor was their goal. As she stood in front of the wall-length windows, she would say they’d hit their mark.

Ty wanted to be close to the pulse of the business industry, and so they’d found this great place in the center of downtown. The windows that made up one wall overlooked downtown Houston’s Near Northside.

As dusk had just settled over the city, Felicia was treated to the sultry golden hue of the sun as it settled for the night. Buildings glowed majestically, while trees with leaves just changing color filled the landscape. In the distance the Quitman Bridge had a steady flow of commuters either heading toward Houston’s nightlife or hurrying to get home and put the workday behind them. Folding her arms, she took a moment to simply enjoy.

“You look good standing there,” Ty said from behind.

She turned slowly. “It’s the view.”

He shook his head. “No. It’s you. I always liked to see you standing there looking so content.”

Quickly unfolding her arms, she moved away from the window to take a seat on the beige leather couch. “Looks can be deceiving.”

Ty didn’t respond, but came to sit beside her. “Dinner’s just about done. Do you want to listen to some music?”

Felicia blinked in surprise as he leaned forward and picked up the remote to the entertainment center from the cherrywood block coffee table. When was the last time she and Ty had simply sat in the living room listening to music? When was the last time they had sat and did anything together?

She watched in a trance as he pushed buttons, having never mastered that monstrosity he called a remote. It operated everything electronic in the room—the DVD, the CD player, the television, etc. It had been her practice to just push the power button on the machine she wanted to turn on. The remote was intimidating and entirely Ty’s domain.

Her heart stumbled when the first chords of a song she hadn’t heard for years began to play. It was an old Freddie Jackson song she and Ty had listened to as they’d studied back in college. She couldn’t help but smile. “Where’d you find that?”

It was Ty’s turn to shrug. “It wasn’t lost, just forgotten for a while.”

She sat back in the chair, loving the caramel and ivory pillows she’d insisted on. The relaxing was good for her. Dr. Franz, her ob-gyn, had informed her that during her first trimester she should try and get as much rest as possible. Especially in light of the mild cramping she experienced erratically. Dr. Franz said it wasn’t a big deal as long as she wasn’t bleeding or the pain didn’t become unbearable. But she certainly wanted to be as careful as she could.

“Are you comfortable?” Ty asked. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Please, no.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “I go to the bathroom enough without any added help.”

“Really? I always thought that was later in the pregnancy.”

“Nope. That was one of those symptoms that started right away. I hear it gets worse as the baby grows. I’m definitely not looking forward to more trips to the bathroom.”

“So you’ve been to the doctor and everything is going to be okay? You and the baby are healthy?”

She couldn’t help but touch her stomach at his words. In the beginning of their marriage, Ty had always been very attentive, providing any-and everything she needed—from a glass of wine when they came home from work to a massage on those particularly rough days she’d had at school.

“Dr. Franz said that everything looks fine. He anticipates a noneventful pregnancy and a healthy baby in late April.”

To her surprise, Ty smiled. “May I?” he asked, nodding at the spot on her stomach where her hand rested.

After a second of stunned silence, she smiled. “Sure. There’s not much to feel yet.”

When his hand replaced hers, Felicia’s pulse quickened. It wasn’t just with the awareness that it had been almost three months since she’d felt Ty’s hands on her. It was also the realization that what he was feeling was something they’d both created. The baby that would forever symbolize their love and commitment. Family.

“This still seems a little unreal,” he said, his eyes glued to her stomach.

“Is that good or bad?” she inquired tentatively.

He lifted his gaze to hers and smiled with complete sincerity. “It’s perfect.”

Keeping his palm on her stomach, Ty continued to stare at her. He used to do that when they were in college. She’d be reading some textbook and assuming he was doing the same. But when she’d look up, those intense, dark brown eyes would be focused solely on her. What was it he used to say he was doing?

“I’m still memorizing you,” he said as if he’d read her mind. “After all these years, I look at you and want the picture of your face to stay permanently etched in my mind.”

Dammit. She wasn’t going to make it. He was pushing all the right buttons, saying all the right things. How could she resist coming back to him?

“I wonder why that is, Ty. I mean, I’ve always wondered why you’d want to memorize me. Is it that you knew one day we would part?” Clearly Ty hadn’t expected that, as his once-soft gaze shifted to mildly irritated.

“I don’t want tonight to go this way, Felicia. I want us to spend the evening together, with nothing on our minds but you and me. Like we used to do.”

She nodded, chastising herself for being a little insensitive. It was a protective instinct, she knew, but was it necessary?

“I hear you.”

“Let’s just relax and not think about our issues for this one night.”

He moved closer as he spoke, his voice lowering to that seductive tone she knew all too well. Still, she heard what he was saying and decided it wasn’t such a bad idea.

“That sounds perfect,” she whispered, just before his lips brushed hers.

Tonight is going to go well, Ty thought with certainty. He had the music and her favorite meal: meat loaf, mashed potatoes and corn. Ty was used to getting his way, and in this arena there would be no changing that. He would win his wife back, and then he’d make sure she never felt she had to leave him again.

After dropping Felicia off at the school this afternoon, he’d thought of her constantly. However, when he’d arrived back at his office, Shondra had called to see if he was available for lunch with her and Malcolm tomorrow, and he’d been forced to think of his father’s death again.

He knew the story of how long his parents had tried for children; it had been years before his mother had gotten pregnant. They had just been about to give up. The appearance of him, his brother and his sister brought a sense of completion to their lives. He realized that with Felicia now carrying his child, he wanted that same thing. His dad was gone, and now Ty wanted to leave his own legacy.

He wanted his career, his wife, his child, his family. And nothing was going to stop him from having them. He hadn’t been so sure of anything in a long, long while.

“Dinner was fantastic,” Felicia said when they stood out on the balcony. “How much did you pay Sarona to cook it for you?” Because Felicia knew nothing if she didn’t know her man. Sarona, the Braddocks’ longtime housekeeper, cooked like an angel. Felicia would know her signature mashed potatoes anywhere.

“I’m offended.” He smiled and leaned against the railing. “You know I can cook.”

“Shrimp pizza and hamburgers on the grill are the extent of your culinary expertise. This was a good soul food meal that you definitely did not prepare yourself.”

“All right. All right, you caught me. But I had the best intentions.”

“You did, so you earn points for effort,” she said, watching as the crisp, white dress shirt, left unbuttoned at the neck, molded his upper body.

Ty had always been sexy. There was no doubt about that. Even in the designer suits he seemed to wear more than anything else, he exuded pure, unadulterated sex appeal. She’d been thinking of nothing else but heading to the bedroom with her gorgeous husband for the duration of the night. Her hormones were going crazy. Luckily her brain still had some power over her libido.

While she’d been lusting after his body, Ty had moved closer so that his hand was now caressing her cheek. His cologne permeated her senses. She looked away, pretending that the view from the balcony was affecting her more than the man standing too damn close to her.

Putting a fingertip to her chin, he directed her gaze back to him. “You can’t walk away from me, from us,” he whispered, his face looming dangerously close to hers.

“Ty,” she whispered, trying to turn away from him. She knew what was coming, and no matter how much she wanted it, she knew that it would be a mistake. That kiss they’d shared before dinner had been brief but still potent enough to leave her off-kilter.

“I love you so much, Felicia.”

At his words, she could do nothing more than sigh. “You said we would take this slow.”

“We’re not supposed to do this tonight. Just dinner, remember?”

He feigned innocence, which was a blatant lie considering that devilish look in his eyes. “We’re not doing anything.” His lips touched hers in a sweeping fashion that sent tingles all the way to her toes.

Her body was instantly on fire, her tongue anticipating the silky feel of his. “This doesn’t solve our problems.”

“No,” he answered, then used his tongue to stroke fire into her mouth, pulling out the moment she was about to give in. “But it’s a damn good start to our reconciliation.”

He wasn’t lying about that, Felicia thought with a groan. Then she felt her body leaning into his. His arms wrapped quickly around her, locking her in place. “You’re not playing fair,” she gasped, then nipped his bottom lip, loving the scrape of his low-trimmed goatee against her face.

“All’s fair in love and war.” He sighed a second before taking her mouth in a scorching kiss that made her remember just why she’d spent the last nine years loving this man.

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