“It was nice to see you, too, Roland.”
He walked off and, unlike the last time, she refused to stand there and watch him. Turning her grocery cart, she quickly headed down another aisle. The minute she figured she was out of sight, she stopped and fanned herself.
His words had been like a physical caress, as she’d stood there staring into his mesmerizing dark brown eyes. He’d certainly made her day with that smile. She’d seen him smile from a distance while talking to others, but he’d never smiled for her.
Until today.
She had felt the essence of that smile all the way to her soul. And it had felt good.
• ••
Roland opened his car door and tossed the grocery bags on the opposite seat before sliding inside. He was about to start the ignition when he saw Lennox walking out of the store, pushing a cart. But it wasn’t the cart, or the bags inside of it, that held his attention. It was the capri pants, tank top and stilettos.
He noted more than one man had stopped to stare at her and he understood why. The woman was sex personified. She definitely owned every step she was taking. And he’d bet that she wasn’t deliberately swaying her hips as she walked. The movement just came naturally for her.
He watched as one man approached her, figuring the man was offering to put her bags in the trunk for her. She must have turned him down because the guy eventually moved on. But not before nearly walking into the path of a car as he glanced back to get another look at Lennox.
Roland shook his head. The fool could have gotten himself killed. In a way, though, he understood. At that moment, Lennox was leaning over, into her trunk, to place items toward the back. Stretching her body in a way that showed a perfectly shaped ass.
He rubbed a frustrated hand down his face. Not only had Lennox Roswell stolen his ice cream, she now captured his attention. But that’s how it always was whenever he saw her.
Tapping his fingers on his steering wheel, Roland watched her close her trunk, get inside her car and pull out. For some reason, he’d run into her a lot within the last month. First at that career fair, then at Stonewall and Joy’sparty and now today. For his peace of mind, that was three times too many.
He pulled out of the parking lot and had driven a few blocks when his cell phone rang. He tapped the button on his steering wheel to connect. “This is Roland.”
“Where the hell are you?”
Roland rolled his eyes. Now that Frazier Connelly had accepted him as his brother, the man often got carried away with the “big brother” thing. “I’m on the east side of town. Why?”
“Just wondering. Margo dropped by with the baby today and mentioned she saw you at some party a couple of weeks ago.”
“That’s right. What of it?”
“Nothing, but you rarely attend any of the parties I give.”
That was true. “And you know why.” Frazier usually invited other rich folks who had a tendency to act like snobs.
Roland could clearly recall the newspapers having a field day when it was discovered that Roland was the illegitimate son of Harold Connelly, the wealthy industrialist. Yet, for as far back as Roland could remember, he’d known Harold was his father…and that the reason he couldn’t be with his father was because Harold had another family.
Harold hadn’t known Roland existed until he was six. It was after Harold and his mother had broken up that she’d found out she was pregnant. For some reason, she’d decided to keep it to herself. One day, while he and his mother were out shopping, they’d run into Harold Connelly. Harold had taken one look at Roland and known the truth. That night, Harold had paid them a visit and introducedhimself as his father. Although Harold never came to their home again, his presence in their lives became apparent.
Within weeks, Roland and his mother had moved from their modest three-bedroom home to a spacious five-bedroom house in a nice community on the other side of Charlottesville. And Harold made sure his mother had a new car on a regular basis.
Suddenly, life became much easier. Roland had always known where the extra funds had come from, though he had discovered, years later, that his mother had turned down Harold’s offer of financial help at first. In the end though, Harold had won that argument.
His mother had always told him that his father was an honorable man. That was the reason she’d never told him about her pregnancy—she hadn’t wanted him to feel obligated. But once Harold found out about Roland, she knew there was no way he would not provide for him.
Once his parentage was no longer a secret, his mother told him everything, about how she and Harold had met when she was working as a flight attendant, that his regular business trips coincided with her flight schedule. He’d been a sad, lonely man at the time and the two of them had become friends. They hadn’t meant to fall in love, but they had. She told Roland that she’d never regretted her affair with Harold Connelly--he had been in an unhappy marriage and she was glad she had brought some happiness into his life. She also believed he had loved her as much as she had loved him.
Roland hadn’t been so sure. Though he believed his mother might have loved Harold, he wasn’t all that convinced his father had loved her. If he had, then why hadn’the ended his marriage to be with his mother? Still, Roland had to give Harold credit for doing right by them.
He would never forget the day his mother had called him, just weeks after he’d arrived at college, to let him know that Harold had died unexpectedly of a heart attack and that he’d included Roland in his will. That’s when the Connelly family had found out about him and things had gotten pretty damn ugly.
Harold’s wife, Audrey Connelly, had tried to block the trust fund Harold had left to Roland and the very generous monetary gift to his mother. Anticipating such a move, Harold had made sure the terms he’d laid out in his will were ironclad.
Like his mother, Frazier, the oldest of the two sons, had been angry and upset and had eventually shown himself to be a real dickhead. The only one who acted with any decency was Murdock, the other brother. Not only had Murdock reached out to Roland to claim him as a brother, but over the years, Roland and Murdock had forged a bond. Unfortunately, that had cost Murdock his life. Not only Murdock’s, but also the life of Murdock’s wife. They’d been Margo’s parents.
“Roland?”