However, now he’s left me no choice.”
“For the money.”
“No, it has nothing to do with the money. I’m a pretty wealthy man without my grandfather’s money. The only reason I’ll even consider getting married is that now I realize just how much continuing the Garwood line meant to him for him to pull something like this. And whether you like it or not, you’re the woman he wants to have the Garwood heir.”
Kimara’s eyes smoldered with anger. “I won’t do it!”
“Hey, look, don’t get angry with me. I didn’t name you in the will, he did. But I think you’ll do just what he wants, Kimara. You’ll do it for the same reason I’ll do it. Even though we’re madder than hell at him right now for doing what he did, we both loved him, and he knew it.” Kyle drew in a deep breath. “Don’t you see? Granddad went to his grave believing that he would get just what he wanted. And do you know why?”
Not waiting for Kimara to reply, Kyle continued. “Because he knew that the two of us would never deny him anything. He knew that no matter how we felt about each other or how crazy the plan was that he concocted, we would go through with it because we loved him. He died believing in our love for him.”
The truth of Kyle’s words rang in Kimara’s ears. Deep down she knew he was right. She had spent enough time with Poppa Garwood to know how much continuing the Garwood line meant to him. And although his relationship with Kyle hadn’t been at its best over the years, he’d known Kyle loved him.
“Think of Granddad, Kimara, and you’ll realize there’s only one thing for us to do.”
“I need to think about this, Kyle, and I can’t think straight now,”
“Kimara . . .” he began. “Lets just--”
“No. I have to think this through. Give me a few days. I’ll call you.”
“Think of Granddad,” Kyle repeated when she turned to leave.
After Kimara walked out of the office, closing the door behind her, Kyle drew in a ragged, nettled breath, angry with himself. The last thing he’d wanted was to show his vulnerability to any woman. He’d wanted to bottle up inside of him all the memories and pain of his strained relationship with his grandfather. He hadn’t wanted to ever share them with anyone.
But he had shared them with Kimara.
And she had understood. No, he thought further to himself, she had more than understood. She had offered him an explanation for his grandfather’s behavior the past eight years. Without realizing it, she’d made the ability to get through his grandfather’s death easier for him. Somehow she’d known he was suffering and had shared his pain, mainly because they both felt the same loss. Kyle Garwood III had touched both their lives. Death was supposed to be final. Permanent. But somehow his grandfather had found a way to call the shots even from the grave.
Kyle leaned against the desk under the weight of both anger and grief. After a brief moment he shrugged his wide shoulders as if to ease the tension in them. Kimara had said she needed to think and that she would be contacting him.
There was nothing left for him to do now but wait for her call.
* * *
After leaving Mason’s office, it didn’t take Kimara long to drive the short distance to the building where the office of the Golden Flame Catering Service was located. She was determined for the time being to put Kyle out of her mind.
There were several messages on her desk when she arrived. All of them were regarding the Valentine’s Day charity ball that the Golden Flame would be catering and her company, Stafford Publishing, would be sponsoring. With the holiday season now behind her, she needed to resume making plans for the ball that would be held next month.
This would be the third year that Stafford Publishing sponsored the event, with all the proceeds going to the United Negro College Fund. It was the only time she publicly took over her position as president of Stafford Publishing Company. This year she wanted to make the event more special than before. And to assure that goal, she had formed a special committee consisting of several members of Stafford Publishing’s management team to work with her.
As in the past, a number of celebrities had agreed to participate, some of them coming from as far away as California. She’d already received firm commitments back from Halle Berry, Spike, Justin Timberlake and Denzel, just to name a few. But still, there were others she hadn’t gotten a response-- like Sterling Hamilton. At present he was the number one black actor in the country, and after the blockbuster success of his last four movies, he was also the latest heartthrob. She didn’t want to think what a giant boost his presence would make at the affair.
This year’s ball would be different in a number of ways, she thought. It would be the first time in three years that Poppa Garwood would not be her escort.
Kimara sat down in the chair at her desk and pensively glanced around the room. Her gaze focused on a painting on the wall. It was a piece of black art featuring a mother and child. Poppa Garwood had given it to her the day she opened her office.
Slowly, she pushed herself away from her desk, walked over to the window, and stood staring out. As much as she didn’t want to, she couldn’t help but think about Kyle.
She’d seen him from a distance at the funeral service. Even then she’d wanted to go to him and put her arms around him to share his grief and his pain. She had watched him sit stiffly erect and withdrawn through the service, totally separated from the people around him.
The deep emotions she’d felt for him that day had touched her so deeply that for a while she had doubted her ability to get through the service. But somehow she’d found the strength to do so. And today, while closed in Mason’s office with Kyle, she had not expected the feelings she had experienced as an impressionable sixteen-year-old to plague her again.
But they had.
Ten years ago suddenly seemed like yesterday. Each time she had met his eyes-those eyes that belonged to the man who had haunted her fantasies since childhood- she couldn’t help but wonder if she had indeed gotten completely over him, as she had thought. There was no doubt in her mind that she was still attracted to him. Her body’s strange reaction whenever she was near him was a surefire indication. There was no way she could ever think of him as just another man. To her he would always be more.
Feelings for him had been instilled in her from an early age. They were feelings that should have lost most of their momentum over the years, but now upon seeing him again, those same feelings were trying to resurface-- deep emotions that she didn’t want to ever feel again. Unknowingly he had hurt her deeply before, and had basically ruined her for any other man. At sixteen she had gotten her heart broken. That was something she could not and would not forget. And knowing how she felt, the best thing to do would be to avoid Kyle at all cost. But deep down in her heart she knew she couldn’t do that.
Today he’d struck her where she was most vulnerable when he had said, “Think of Granddad.”
She was indeed thinking about Poppa Garwood and the conditions he had placed in his will. She wanted to feel anger and resentment over his underhandedness and for being so manipulating, but couldn’t. The reason she couldn’t was that she knew that in Poppa Garwood’s own special way, he’d sent out a clear message to her of just how much she meant to him, and just how much he thought of her to want her to bring his great-grandchild into the world.
She tossed her head, feeling she was fighting a losing battle in trying to make the most difficult decision of her life. She knew in her heart that she would willingly give to Poppa Garwood in death what he’d been denied in life. What Kyle had said was true.
She could never deny Poppa Garwood anything. She couldn’t let the complex and bewildering feelings she was experiencing for Kyle interfere with what she had to do. It wasn’t about her or Kyle, but about fulfilling a special man’s last dream. It was about giving him what he’d wanted most-- future generations of Garwoods. It was the least she could do for the man who had always been there for her.
Kimara turned from the window and went back to her desk.
Four
The sound of soft music drifted through the restaurant. Kyle gazed over the candlelight to the woman sitting across the table from him. When Kimara had contacted him that morning requesting to meet with him, he had jumped at the opportunity to ask her out to dinner. At first she’d been reluctant, and then had agreed.
Tonight he thought she looked even more beautiful than the other two recent times he’d seen her. The outfit she had on, a sleek sea-foam-colored silk dress, enhanced the lush curves of her body. And her creamy brown skin seemed to glow in the candlelight. Her silky head of layered chestnut hair brushed against her cheeks and touched her shoulders. Every single thing about her screamed sensuality. There was no doubt in Kyle’s mind that any man who possessed a lick of sense would want to take her to bed and keep her there until he’d gotten his fill-- which would never happen, because he would always want more. The thought of her giving birth to his child sent fierce stirrings of arousal through him. He wondered if she was presently involved with anyone. According to the information he’d been able to squeeze out of Mason as well as a few other reliable sources, although Kimara dated occasionally, there was no serious man in her life.