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I felt so uncomfortable wearing a dead woman’s clothes, but since he seemed so unbalanced, I went along with it as we left his bedroom. When we entered the solarium, my worries faded a little. Seeing the deep rich reds and oranges of an incredible sunset lighting the room and reflecting off the glass table, a warm euphoria overwhelmed and intoxicated me. The room was a magical place made to be one with nature entirely.
As everything in his penthouse was white, everything in his solarium, but for the white soft furniture was glass. I came to the realization that nothing he owned was kid-friendly, almost deliberately so.
Chapter 26
Alec
We walked silently to the solarium where Edwin had laid our dinner out in elegant style as per his usual. He must have been happy to have someone to serve. I’d left him and his family unattended for months. When Ava was alive, we came every weekend; she hated the city but loved the lake house. It was like a fairytale for her as she hadn’t come from money, and I loved to lavish her. She hated my money, but I didn’t flaunt it. I only used it to make her happy, and the simplest things used to bring her joy, like that damn T-shirt. I had bought it in the hospital gift shop the day we found out we were pregnant. She loved it but said she wanted to wear it when she knew for sure everything was going to be okay with the birth.
The women in Ava’s family had a hard time carrying their pregnancies to term. There was some medical explanation about their wombs being an odd shape, but I had every confidence our child would be perfectly fine. At her four months checkup, we found out she was having a girl … our daughter. I didn’t think I could be happier. We had planned a trip to the lake house and dinner with neighbors who she’d befriended and with whom I’d since lost touch. We were getting ready to walk the two hundred yards to their home, the only other residence on this side of the lake when she started cramping. The memory haunts me to this day.
I pulled out the chair for Kylie to take a seat at the table and instantly regretted letting my emotions get away with themselves. Seeing Kylie in the bedroom I’d shared with Ava suddenly flooded me with a mix of hopefulness and pain. Kylie was no less remarkable than Ava, but they were entirely different people, and yet, both pregnant with my child. That fact alone overwhelmed me.
“Thank you,” she said quietly as she took the seat. I sat to her right as Edwin walked in.
“Is everything to your liking?” he questioned as he stood waiting for my answer.
“This all looks wonderful,” I said more kindly than I’m sure he was used to hearing.
I was a kinder man when Ava was in my life, and I was finding myself becoming that way for Kylie
“May I get you some wine? We have, as you know, an extensive selection in the cellar.” He nodded at me.
“Kylie will have water and …” I looked at her. “Do you want juice or some herbal tea?” It was unfortunate she couldn’t share a glass of wine with me, but I really appreciated that she didn’t even think to drink while she was pregnant.
“Just water is fine. This looks so delicious,” she added giving Edwin a flirty smile in typical Kylie fashion.
“I’ll have a Malbec, thank you.” As Edwin left, I looked to Kylie. “Go ahead and eat before it gets cold.” I felt as if I needed to give her permission because as soon as Edwin was out of the room, she seemed much less sure of herself and us.
She took a few bites, and we were silent for the moment, which was odd for us until Edwin came back with my wine. He poured some in my glass, and I took a sip, the rich woodsy flavor hit my palate, and I felt fractionally better. A good glass of wine always put me in better spirits. I nodded at him.
“This is nice, thank you. You can retire for the night. Kylie and I can get whatever else we need.”
“Thank you, sir,” he said with a curt bow and was gone.
Kylie dabbed her napkin across her lips as the game hen was delicious but quite moist. She cleared her throat to speak, and my heart began to race.
“Yes,” I caught her before she could ask the question.
Since I was the one stupid enough to blurt out that I’d been married before, I was going to steer the conversation back to waters I could navigate.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” she started.
“Well, I won’t go into great detail. It was a long time ago; almost seven years. I was married just out of grad school to a history major from the liberal arts campus. I was a business major but had to take a humanities course. Ava was in my class. I hated the class, Human Geography. My particular interest was economic geography as I was planning on entering an international business. Her specialization was how civilizations were both different and the same, economically, culturally, etc. I say this because she and I couldn’t have been more opposite, but we ended up in a study group together, which nearly brought us to blows.
