The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) (26 page)

Nodding, she slipped the box into her purse before disappearing through the back doors.

Chapter Twelve

William let the brown vinyl blinds fall one by one from his finger as he turned away from the window. Three weeks. It had taken them three whole weeks to find him out there in rural Alabama when he’d practically gift-wrapped everything for that reporter Luke
Maisley. Granted, he probably hadn’t been the easiest person to locate, but he’d seen the news media track down criminals who’d been on the run for decades. Hell, he wasn’t Jimmy Hoffa’s remains.

He stood in the mirror and straightened his tie. The salesgirl at the mall had been right when she’d suggested that he wear the red tie against his white shirt and navy blazer. With the khakis that he’d added to the ensemble, he didn’t look like a man who’d spent the last decade of his life in a tortured relationship with Jack Daniels and Jim Beam.

Smoothing back his hair one final time, he opened the door and was greeted by the hot, white flash of a camera lens. Additional news vans raced down the street and soon, the entire avenue had been blocked off. Inwardly, he was smiling, but outwardly, William expertly fabricated an expression of pure shock. He wildly glanced around at all the cameras and shielded his face as reporters ran forward.

“William Riley?” They all seemed to say in unison.

“Yes, I am William Riley,” he answered. “What is all of this?”

“Haven’t you been watching the news, William?” A woman in a black blazer and purple top asked.

“Do you know Sommer Hayes?” A slightly older gentleman asked.

William’s eyes settled on the woman. He knew how these things worked. For the last two weeks, he’d seen how the world could go from loving someone, namely Austin, to turning him into a martyr. And although he loved his son, this was the very thing that he’d warned the boy against. History was like a bell curve. Just because people were now accepting mixed relationships and gays could marry in some places, it didn’t mean that things would not eventually return to status quo. Gays once ran rampant beforehand in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, but look at what had happened there.

His eyes trailed over the woman’s brown skin and long lashes.

“I’ll talk to you,” he said, turning to the gentleman. “What do you want to know?”

The man smiled triumphantly. “Good to hear. Richard Morrison from Sports Tonight. First, have you been watching the news?”

“I have,” William replied, twiddling his thumbs. “Can’t say I too much like what you all have been saying about my boy.”

“But that same boy of yours had us all convinced that you were dead. Do you have any comments about his relationship with the woman now identified as Sommer Hayes?”

“Like what?”

“Like, did you know about it?”

“I haven’t talked to Austin since he was about thirteen years old.”

Richard seemed surprised. “Is it because he found out about the conviction?”

“I was never convicted, so get your facts straight,” William shot back. “And I’m not sure when he found out about that. We haven’t talked since I was run out of Yearwood.”

“What do you mean run out of Yearwood?” Richard continued to question.

“I mean, it just so happened that a relative of the mother of the boy who died lived in Yearwood and recognized me one day at the market. She threatened to blow the story wide open if I didn’t leave town, saying something about how she couldn’t stand living just a few stree
ts over from me. By then, my wife had already found out and filed for divorce.”

Richard’s brows came together. “Henry Cartwright.”

“What?”

“The boy who died, his name was Henry Cartwright.”

“Anyhow,” William continued, waving away the assertion, “I don’t have anything more to say at this time. I’ll only tell the whole story if I get the chance to sit down with my son, daughter, and ex-wife.”

“And what about
Sommer Hayes?”

William scrunched his nose. “I don’t need to talk to her.”

“But she’s the mother of your grandchild.”

“Allegedly.”

Richard’s face flushed as he struggled to quell his anger. “If I can ask one more thing, Mr. Riley?”

William nodded.

“Austin has been mum about this issue for three weeks. Since his request for privacy outside of the church in Yearwood, his camp has been trying to appease us with rehearsed responses. Sommer Hayes has also seemingly disappeared. No one has been giving us a straight answer. In your opinion, why do
you
think Austin failed to introduce the world to his daughter’s mother, but readily displayed his daughter?”

William stuffed a hand into his pocket and pretended to think for a minute. He knew that his next few words were crucial, so he decided to choose them wisely.

“Well,” he began, “Even though we haven’t spoken in over fifteen years, I still know my son. I know my boy. He’s a man cut from the very same cloth that his father was cut from. I mean, these things are delicate in this day and age with Civil Rights and Affirmative Action and whatnot. And men, we were made to procreate. To spread our seed. Sometimes, one of those seeds take root. You can’t help who it’s with. But you’ve seen the baby. Olivia. She’s a doll. She’s a part of him. He had to show
her
off.”

Richard further suppressed his disdain for the man standing in front of him. “So, are you saying that Austin is ashamed of
Sommer’s race?”

William held up a hand and headed back towards his front door. Richard started after him, but William whistled through his teeth, bringing a snarling Gus to the front of the house.

“No more questions,” William restated. “Like I said, I won’t answer anything else unless I can talk to my family. Any further questions can be answered through my lawyer. At least, once I get one.”

He
ushered Gus inside and then slammed the door shut behind him. Never did he think that answering a few questions could result in this type of a rush, but even his hands were shaking. Now, all he had to do was wait.

Years ago, when Austin was in middle school, he’d gotten detention for some foolish display of reciting poetry and tossing a rose at
Sommer’s feet during recess. Clarita Waters, his teacher at the time, had called the house to let him and Emma know about Austin’s behavior, and that Austin stole the rose from her cherished anniversary bouquet. Emma had actually found the display “cute,” which had been her exact terminology, but he’d been furious.

So, that day after school while Emma and Arielle were away, he’d taken Austin out back to teach him a lesson.
Then he’d explained to him about the complexities of the world and that, although it might feel uncomfortable to think about at first, having feelings for someone who wasn’t White would ruin his chances at ever being successful, as well as his chances for upward mobility.

He’d assumed that the boy had listened to his advice when, during draft day, it had only been Arielle and Emma there with him. He was even more proud when he’d seen the relationship between Austin and Jessica as Jessica had been an
ideal choice for a mate. But now, he’d gone and messed up. He’d fallen back into Sommer’s trap and had let her use him in an attempt to raise her social status.

William looked down at Gus. “They’ll get me that interview w
ith Austin, Arielle, and Emma. The news people, they just have a way of working these things out. Maybe then I’ll be able to get Austin to put his head back on straight to provide financially for his daughter, but then move on to build a real family. Arielle didn’t listen and ended up having four half-breed children with that Black boy, Justin. Bet he’s not doing a damn thing with his life right now.”

He scratched behind Gus’ ear. “I tried to warn those kids, but they’re hardheaded just like their mother. You’d think a little bit of education would help, but
just like all those years ago, they think they know everything. Now, look at how everything is unfolding, Gus, and tell me, who do you think was right?”

Gus whimpered, walked to the other side of the room, flopped down onto his bed, and placed a paw over his nose.

*****

             
“Thanks for picking us up on such short notice, Walt,” Sommer thanked, slipping into the black town car.

             
“You don’t have to thank me, Sommer,” Walt replied, waving in the rearview mirror at Olivia who was wide awake and strapped into the car seat next to her mother. “I’m just relieved that you were able to avoid those reporters. Those people are too nosy for their own good. They need to leave you and Olivia alone.”

             
“I wish they would too Walt,” Sommer agreed, “But Austin hasn’t released any further public statements and I’ve been hiding out at Arielle’s for the past three weeks. The only thing that prevented them from finding me there was Arielle’s sharp tongue and Justin’s law degree. That didn’t mean that they still weren’t parked on the street like a police protective detail.”

             
Walt shook his head. “So, are you telling me that you weren’t able to even go outside while you were at Arielle’s?”

             
“Only in the back,” Sommer answered with a sigh. “If it weren’t for the huge trees in their backyard, we wouldn’t have even been able to. Three weeks and you’d think that these people would have had their fill, but it’s as if the wound is only being dug deeper.”

“They want blood,” Walt declared, staring the engine.
“They want Austin to come out and explain himself. But I don’t think that this is such a bad thing.”

             
Sommer’s brow shot up. “How’s that?”

             
Walt peered into the side mirror as he pulled out into the departing lane. “I think that what you and Austin have is a chance to spark some important dialogue in this country. For people to look at themselves and wonder either why they can’t accept that Austin genuinely does love you, or why they are disturbed by your relationship. I have lived a lot of years and I’ve seen plenty of things, but sometimes I still have to find a newspaper somewhere to make sure that I’m truly living in the twenty-first century.”

             
Sommer looked out onto the moving landscape. “I can only imagine what you’ve seen, Walt.”

             
“And there’s even more world for your eyes to see, youngin,” he added with a chuckle. “Then even more for Olivia who hasn’t seen a full year on this Earth yet. Muhammad Ali once said that ‘it’s not the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.’ Now, think about the world that you’d like for Olivia to grow up in and then ask yourself: would you rather toss that pebble into a river and watch as it creates ripples, changes throughout the current and throughout time, or would you prefer that it stay in your shoe, bothering you for years to come?”

             
He briefly met her eyes in the rearview mirror and Sommer swallowed tears as she studied the sheer innocence of her daughter’s face.

             
“Thank you, Walt,” she answered with a grateful smile. Walt returned the gesture and winked at her, and then turned his attention back to the road.

*****

              “So, you’re telling me that Alexandrina told you about Sommer, and then you told Kyle?” Austin asked Jessica from across his kitchen counter.

“Yes,” Jessica answered with a pert nod.

“And you think that Kyle was the one who gave the scoop to that tabloid reporter, Luke Maisley?”

“Luke is always writing stories about Kyle, some of which I’m sure Kyle hand-fed to him.”

Austin paused as he pieced the information together. “It makes sense since Kyle is from Yearwood and would definitely know that my father’s still alive. What doesn’t make sense is the connection between you and Kyle. How do you two know each other?”

             
Jessica lifted the steaming cup to her lips. Even after everything she’d done to him, Austin had still been enough of a gentleman to offer her a warm cup of tea.

             
“We did a magazine shoot together a couple of years back. He asked me out a few times but he seemed like the type that would wander, so I turned him down.”

             
Her gaze fell into her cup as she prepared herself for a rebuttal about her also being the type that wandered. However, it didn’t come and she found that slightly disappointing.

             
“But why would Kyle want that information to come out?” Austin asked. “We’ve never had any bad blood, so I don’t get why he’d mastermind an entire smear campaign against me.”

             
Jessica shrugged. “I can’t answer that either, but he seemed pretty upset when I mentioned Sommer’s name. Did they date, maybe?”

             
Austin shook his head, but then realized that he wasn’t certain. He’d assumed that Kyle’s flirtation towards Sommer and his defensiveness that night at her mother’s house were part of Kyle’s Lothario-style personality: the man wanted nearly anything with breasts. However, there was a possibility that it could have gone deeper than that.