Page 20 of The Comeback Heir
That was before her time. Heck. That was even before her father’s time. But she liked the image of several thousand people singing together and feeling the freedom of young love.
On a whim, she found an old Rolling Stones T-shirt still tucked away inside her suitcase. She wasn’t even sure why she had brought it to New York except it was an item of clothing she associated with comfort.
With the patterns on the front, she could even skip a bra. Just the thing for a Saturday night at home. The pants fit as well as they had in the small dressing room earlier today. She left her hair down and braided one small section to fall beside her cheekbone.
Her blond mane brushed her shoulders, but it had been longer still in high school. Wynn had liked wrapping it around his fist and teasing her. Like she was his harem girl. Or a submissive.
Those games had been few and far between. Felicity was too naive back then to understand the allure of power dynamics. Besides, vanilla sex for two kids who were new to physical intimacy was more than enough excitement.
When she walked into the living room, Wynn had the drapes open, framing the dramatic skyline with its myriad lights. The only other illumination in the room came from a duo of small lamps and the glow of the gas logs in the fireplace.
He smiled at her. “I made you hot chocolate. But you don’t have to drink it if you’d rather have wine.”
“Maybe I’ll have both,” she said, feeling reckless.
He raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything.
Felicity chose the love seat. It was small enough that Wynn wouldn’t try to sit beside her. The sofa, on the other hand, might have been dangerous. In the end, Wynn sat there on his own, leaning back, his sock-clad feet propped on the coffee table.
The ambiance was intimate. Comfortable, but with an edge of awareness that made her nerves hum. “So tell me about the adoption,” she said. “I’m assuming it’s straightforward?”
“My lawyer seems to think so, especially with the will naming me as guardian. Ayla’s birth certificate doesn’t list a father. I think Shandy knew who he was, but she kept her secret to the end. So I can’t imagine this guy showing up out of the blue. Surely Shandy would have told him...even if he was a lowlife.”
“Your sister dated lowlifes?”
“She got into trouble with drugs. You know that. So yes...there were several questionable guys in and out of her life over the years. But once she found out she was pregnant, she quit cold turkey. Everything. Booze. Pills. Everything. My sister had determination.”
“I liked her, Wynn. Even when we were all kids. I’m sorry she had such a hard life.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I didn’t mean to bring down the mood.”
“You didn’t. We can’t escape the past. Especially not our families. What ever happened to your friend Matthew? Did he get out of Falcon’s Notch? I know he helped his dad at the mechanic shop.”
Wynn rested his arm on the mantel, his gaze pensive. “Matthew enlisted, too. Ended up in the marines, high-level spy stuff. I haven’t heard from him in six or seven years.”
In that instant, Felicity saw the loneliness in Wynn Oliver. He had achieved his dreams, but at what cost? Maybe he saw Ayla as his salvation.
“I think I will have that wine,” she said. “I’m still thawing out from my day on the town.”
He poured a glass of Chablis and brought it to her. Their fingers brushed, his warm, hers cold. “Sit closer to the fire,” he said. “You need to get toasty.”
Parts of her were plenty hot.
But she moved to a small armchair near the hearth. “Not to beat a dead horse, but what if Ayla’s father did show up and tried to claim his parental rights? Wouldn’t it hurt your case to be a single father?”
Wynn sat on the hearth and faced her, their knees almost touching. When he tipped back his head to drink his wine, she saw the muscles in his throat ripple.
At last, he set his glass beside him and stared at her. “Are you offering to be my wife, Fliss?