eyes misted and she blinked to keep from making a complete fool of herself inside this quaint shop. One of her co-workers had hipped her to the place and Felicia was ecstatic to find the woman was absolutely right. This shop was comfortable, fabulous and had everything she would need and then some.
Gently laying her hand on her lower stomach, Felicia sighed.
Ten years ago, when she’d first seen Tyson Braddock walking across the campus of Texas A&M, she’d been enamored along with the rest of the female population at TAMU. Felicia prided herself on being one of the smartest of them all, though she knew a man as good-looking and inherently successful as Tyson would never be interested in a shy, quiet girl from South Texas. So she hadn’t even bothered with the games and ploys the other girls performed to get his attention. By day she focused on school and getting her degree. And by night, in the privacy of her dorm room, she longed for him.
It was on a windy October night, days before Halloween. She’d been coming from a late study session in the library and Ty had bumped into her, knocking her and all her books to the ground. He’d been fooling around with some of his frat buddies and not watching where he was going. She’d been so tired from late-night studying and the part-time job she was working at the school bookstore that she wouldn’t have seen a Mack truck if it had come barreling at her.
Embarrassed, angry and still tired as hell, she’d scrambled on the ground to pick up her books. Ty had been faster, collecting each textbook along with her notebook and her purse without a word. He’d offered her a hand up then because she was now on her knees wondering where the mess she’d dropped had gone. She looked up at him and could have sworn the sun was shining in a halo around him—except for the fact that it was close to midnight. Finally coming to her senses, she’d put her hand in his and let him help her up. As smart as she considered herself, she had no idea just how handsome he was close up.
He was tall and towered above her meager five feet four inches. She craned her neck to look up at him and was blinded by his smile. God, he was so fine it should have been a sin. He’d said something that snapped her out of her reverie and she remembered smiling and muttering a thank-you. She’d walked away so fast she would swear she was a blur in the wind.
The next morning he was waiting at the door of her dorm. And for the next two weeks he met her at each class and walked her home from her late-night studying at the library. Their meetings had been really casual. He talked of his family and everyday things while she, although still in awe, managed to talk about the same. A month later he asked her out on a real date. By this time Felicia had come to the conclusion that Tyson Braddock was not the all-American star athlete and untouchable sex symbol the girls on campus thought he was. Underneath the handsome and polished exterior, he was just a man who loved pizza and basketball, economics, vintage cars and R & B music. And he was kind, focused, and he truly seemed to care about her.
Ty and Felicia found they had a lot in common, and before either of them knew it they were an item, dating seriously and sending rumors flying around the campus. It wasn’t the instant-fall-desperately-in-love like Nicky and Terry in one of Felicia’s favorite movies An Affair to Remember. It was more like the intense, heated drop into submission like Darius and Nina in Love Jones, another one of her all-time favorite chick flicks.
Marriage was obviously on their horizon and the fairy-tale ceremony their shining moment in the spotlight. She loved that man like nothing and no one in her life. And in the five years of their marriage, she’d given him everything she had physically and mentally. She’d also sacrificed the one thing she’d wanted most because he said he wasn’t ready.
Until his excuses became the norm and she realized what he wasn’t saying, but wholeheartedly meant, was that he didn’t want children.
The hardest decision Felicia ever had to make was to walk away from her marriage, from the commitment she’d made before God and her parents. But she’d done so to save herself.
Ty came from a very influential family. He was rich even before he made his first million. His father, Harmon, was a congressman. His mother, Evelyn, was a philanthropist who worked specifically with hospitals and women’s-rights organizations. His older brother, Malcolm, was the bleeding heart and had left the family, so to speak, a few years before to become a community activist. Malcolm was definitely the Braddock with a conscience and now he may follow in Harmon’s political footsteps. While Shawnie was her father’s daughter, with her brilliant mind and touch of rebellion, Tyson was the lone ranger of the family. The only one who did not hold a law degree, he was still the epitome of ambition. For that very reason, her marriage had never stood a chance.
In the beginning, their marriage was strong, but soon Tyson’s career and his quest for success proved more important than she’d ever been. Felicia had finally grown tired of the competition.
Giving up was not usually in her nature, especially when it came to relationships. Her parents were very traditional and prided themselves on their long and enduring relationship. They would be heartbroken to learn that she hadn’t had what it took to make hers work.
Still, she’d been strong the morning she packed her bags and left the penthouse she and Ty had picked out and furnished together. She hadn’t even left him a note that first time.
He was so smart, with his MBA degree and intuition, he should have been able to figure it out. Especially since the day before they’d argued about starting a family.
Her heart had ached until she’d thought about ripping it free to finally gain some peace. But later she’d received the news of Harmon’s death. Felicia had grieved as if he were her own father. And despite the animosity she had toward Ty, she wouldn’t have wished that tragedy on anyone. So it was with that in mind that she’d returned to the Braddock estate on the outskirts of Houston.
Being with the family again had been difficult, especially since she hadn’t seen or spoken to any of them in more than six months. The moment she arrived, Ty made a point of telling her that he hadn’t mentioned her hiatus to his family. Felicia had been stung by the way he’d called her departure a hiatus, like she’d gone on some type of vacation or something. But that hadn’t been the time to get into it.
Besides, just seeing Ty again had her body and her emotions going haywire. A case in point was the passionate night they’d spent together after leaving the cemetery. Looking back now, Felicia had to claim that as one of the best nights of her life.
But then the next morning, it looked to Felicia as if it was business as usual for Ty, like he hadn’t just buried his father. Like they hadn’t made sweet, tender love to one another. When she’d tried to talk to him, he’d brushed her off. He was officially unreachable, emotionally closed off just as he’d been the last few years.
Now, walking around the store, Felicia sighed over all the different designs and the racks of clothes in a pastel rainbow of colors.
She heard the tiny bell that signaled a new customer entering the store, but didn’t pay it much attention. But as she surveyed the outfits, her peripheral vision caught the suit and that confident swagger. Expensive and elegant, that’s what it was, and when she raised her gaze a little higher, her heart pounded.
“Ty!” she gasped. As if she had been caught stealing, she thrust her arms with the clothes in hand behind her back.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his medium brown eyes raking over her with barely masked hunger.
“I, um, I’m shopping.” Lord, she prayed he wouldn’t ask what or who she was shopping for.
“I’ve been calling you.”
Felicia
