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He narrowed his eyes and at last released her. Alyssa buried her hands in her lap while struggling to calm the sensations he had evoked.
“You seem angry at me. I understood that you volunteered to take Trinity’s place.”
She gasped. “You don’t think…I mean, I never meant to imply…”
“No, Trinity made that clear. Don’t worry. I know you’re not available for anything other than pretense, but I’m curious. Do you have a boyfriend?”
She bit her lip. “No. He…I…broke it off a few weeks ago. We weren’t right for each other.” She didn’t care to tell him Tony had suggested an open relationship and informed her he never wanted kids. Two blows in one. He hadn’t cheated, he said, but the fact that he wanted to see other people while still having her said he eventually would. “So what about you? Surely, there was, or is, someone special in your life that you can take to meet your parents, and if not, why pretend? Isn’t that giving them false hope?”
“There isn’t.” He seemed to hesitate, but she wouldn’t let him get out of giving her a straight answer. When he tapped the table in a decisive movement, she realized he wasn’t the type to back off of a challenge. “My father has terminal cancer.”
Alyssa gaped. That was the last thing she had expected to hear. “I’m so sorry.”
He nodded his thanks. “They both want grandchildren more than anything at this point, and my sister, for her own reasons, refuses to give in to the demand, so to speak. That leaves me.”
“And you don’t want kids either?” The truth hurt even though she had no designs on him. Just knowing another man who stepped all over her own dream got to her.
“It’s not that I don’t want them. I need a wife, but I’m not ready to find one.” He shrugged. “However, my father means a lot to me, and I want to make his last days happy. If he thinks I’m close to getting married and having kids, that will be enough for him.”
Tears welled in Alyssa’s eyes. “I understand that.”
“I chose you, or rather Trinity, when it occurred to me that a white woman wouldn’t do.”
Alyssa stared. The logic escaped her in this instance.
“I can see you think I’m crazy. Think about it. I’m thirty-five. Over the years, my father has seen me date or have a fling with one blonde after another, a few brunettes thrown in here and there, but all of a certain type.”
So in other words, you’re a man whore who likes the leggy, empty-headed model type. She tried not to show her conclusion in her expression, but something told her she failed when he chuckled. Nathan didn’t care one bit what she thought of him, and he had made no bones about admitting his love of women.
“He won’t believe it’s real if you bring home the same kind of woman,” she said.
“No, he won’t, and I thought, what type of woman could be extreme enough for him to think at last I had succumbed to love?”
“Trinity.”
“You,” he corrected.
Trinity had gone to college and held a master’s in communication. She hobnobbed with rich people every day and held her own. She’d never take down to any of them. Alyssa realized she would make the perfect candidate for Nathan to take home. Alyssa’s bachelor’s in English literature did nothing to enhance her career since one didn’t need to have a command of Shakespeare to sell erotic romance books or “how to build your own furniture” manuals. The average Joe frequented her store, and she had only ever rubbed elbows with the working middle class.
“I don’t want to bring up race, but if you’re thirty-five, your parents have to be in their fifties?”
“Sixties.”
He didn’t appear offended, so she continued. “Won’t they have a problem with you getting serious with a black woman? Even younger people sometimes have issues, despite seeing more and more mixed couples these days. I wouldn’t want to upset your dad. I respect people’s opinions. I just don’t have to deal with them.”
“I’ve thought about it, but I believe with the crisis we’re dealing with, he won’t care. After Trinity agreed to come with me, I mentioned to my mother over the phone that she’s African American. My mother sounded surprised and a little taken aback. I know she told my father, but I heard no more about it. Mom called me several times after that to make sure I was still coming and bringing you.”
“Are you insane?” she squeaked. “So you don’t know what we’re walking into. They could be planning a family intervention.”
He burst out laughing. “Don’t worry.”
“I am worried, damn it.”
He reached across the table and touched her cheek just as their food arrived. Alyssa found her fears escalating, both because she couldn’t shake the attraction to this man and for whatever waited at his family’s vacation home. All she knew was even if his parents came at her wrong, she couldn’t cuss them out with his father so ill. No way would she cause the early death of an old man. With each passing moment, she wondered if this was the stupidest mistake she’d ever made.
Chapter Three
“Ready?”
