AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, no. But my mom’s birthday is always a week or so after Thanksgiving. I don’t want her to feel cheated, so I come back to celebrate her big day.”
“That’s sweet of you.” Felicity tried to gather her scattered thoughts. “I can take Ayla now...so you can leave.”
“Thanks, but I’m fine. Mr. Oliver said you’d had a tough weekend, and he didn’t want you to have to come home and babysit. Why don’t you relax and do whatever you need to do? I’ll be here until he returns.”
Felicity nodded, feeling oddly out of sorts. She was planning to leave Wynn’s employ by the New Year. Why did she care if Missy stepped in? Maybe because Felicity had come to regard Ayla as her own. Reluctantly, she set the child back on the floor with her toys.
Missy had things under control, so a short while later Felicity slipped out of the apartment and walked a block and a half to the small restaurant that had become her favorite. It was a mom-and-pop business that served up authentic Italian dishes. Felicity needed the comfort food tonight.
At a table for one with a single candle burning, she wondered what would happen if she told Wynn how she felt. If she brought up the possibility of starting over.
He had told her he wasn’t interested in permanence with any woman. Was that the truth? Or was he protecting himself like she was? If she told him she was falling in love with him again, would it make a difference? A man could change his mind...right?
Deep down, she knew she was courting heartbreak.
Yet she couldn’t abandon the notion that she and Wynn were two of a kind. That they were meant for each other.
On the walk home, she bent her head into the wind...shivering. As she passed the entrance of a posh clothing store—shuttered on a Sunday evening—she stepped into the small alcove for a reprieve from the cold and rubbed her hands together.
When she looked up, a couple on the opposite side of the street caught her attention. The woman was a redhead, tall and statuesque. The man was very familiar. It was Wynn.
As Felicity watched, the woman went up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the mouth. To be fair, Wynn didn’t extend the kiss. He stepped back, laughing, and removed the woman’s hands from his shoulders.
Felicity’s stomach flopped unpleasantly.
She knew he had other relationships. But she had coaxed herself into believing otherwise. How stupid could she be?
As she watched from her darkened hiding place, Wynn hailed a cab, tucked the woman inside, then turned in the direction of his building and strode away, his dark hair ruffling in the breeze.
Felicity took her time walking back. When she arrived at the apartment and went upstairs, Missy was gone. Wynn was changing Ayla into her pajamas. Felicity lingered in the doorway of the nursery.
Wynn turned and smiled when he saw her. “There you are. Missy told me you had gone out for dinner.”
“Yes. I didn’t have lunch, so I was hungry.”
Their prosaic conversation camouflaged a host of emotions. Felicity had missed him in the time she had been gone. After sharing his bed every night for more than a week, it had felt odd to sleep alone last night.
He finished snapping the baby’s pajamas and picked her up. “We’re glad you’re back, aren’t we, Little Bit?” He blew a raspberry on the infant’s cheek, making her laugh.
Felicity’s heart turned over in her chest. Here was everything she wanted. If things had turned out differently when she and Wynn were teenagers, they might have been a couple. Parents. Together.
She cleared her throat. Enough with the secrets and the lies. It was time for plain speaking. “I saw you,” she said. “When I was walking back. You were with a woman.”
His body language changed from relaxed and mellow to wary. “Yes. Gretchen and I had dinner. I owed her an explanation, and I hadn’t found the opportunity before now.”
“An explanation for what?”
He shrugged. “I ended things with her rather abruptly when Shandy died. Tonight, I explained that my life was taking another direction. I have Ayla now. She understood.”
Felicity had her doubts about Gretchen’s amiability. Any woman with even a slight claim on Wynn Oliver’s affections wouldn’t cede the field easily...even to a child. “That’s nice for you,” she said, noncommittally.
His gaze narrowed. “Are you jealous, Fliss?”
Inside she felt hollow and anxious, but she shook her head slowly. “I have no right to be jealous. Your life is your own.”
“Even after our recent...escapades?”
Her cheeks flushed. “We agreed that was recreational.”
