“Oh, you don’t have to do that. You stay at Carlton’s home. No need for you to have to live in my little hovel when you can lay your head in his big home.”

“No, Gran. It’s my pleasure. You’d be doing me a favor. I need some time and a space to clear my head and think some things through, anyway. If I can’t do it on a Caribbean cruise with the two of you, then I might as well do it in the place where I was raised.” She smiled ruefully. Two weeks at Gran’s house would be perfect.

“Are you and Carlton having problems? You could always come with us on the cruise, Peanut. Do you want us to call the trip off to help you?”

Troubled by the sudden worry in Gran’s voice, Latonya forced an upbeat tone into her own. “I know, Gran, and thanks. I just need some time to think things through, and I wouldn’t want to put a damper on your vacation.”

“Okay, Peanut. Just know you’ve got family, and we care.” Gran sounded hesitant.

Making her own voice more chipper than she felt, she said, “I know, Gran. Listen, let me go get myself and the boys ready so we can meet you at the dock.”

“All right, baby. I’ll see you then.”

Latonya hung up the phone feeling more on edge than she thought she would. She knew that her stay at Gran’s house was just the beginning of her separating from Carlton. She would spend two weeks at Gran’s, sleeping there at night and visiting with the boys when Carlton left for work, and she would find a place of her own.

Clearly, things weren’t going to change between her and Carlton. The sooner she realized that and moved on, the better.

Chapter 29

Carlton spent the entire day and part of the evening handling one crisis after another at Harrington Enterprise. He regretted that he hadn’t even had a spare moment to at least call and check in with Latonya to see how she was feeling. He knew he needed to find a way to get her to see that he was serious about courting her and wasn’t going to let his hormones get in the way of them taking it slow.

He was thinking about the best way to go about that when his grandfather walked into his office.

“How’s it going, son? What are you still doing at the office?”

“Things have been crazy around here. Are you sure you really need to retire? We could have used you around here today.”

“No, Harrington Enterprise is up to you and your boys to run now. I stayed longer than I should have because of what happened with your dad. But I have every confidence that the family business is in good hands now. I plan to spend more time at home in the Bahamas.”

Carlton smiled ruefully. His father’s share in the corporation officially became his when he turned twenty-one. Knowing that the future of Harrington Enterprise was up to him and his children left him feeling a strange sense of awe. “Well, the boys would certainly miss their great-grandpop if you stayed away too much.”

“Speaking of the boys, why aren’t you home spending more time with your family?” Grandfather chastised. “I heard you had a date with your wife last night.”

Carlton wondered who hadn’t heard about his date with Latonya, and he also wondered what his grandfather was up to. Grandfather rarely mentioned Latonya without an agenda. Eyeing the elder Harrington wearily, he responded, “Yes, we had a date.”

“Well, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you with her? You two are going to try to work it out, aren’t you?”

“We are going to try. I just need to take it slow this time. I don’t want to mess things up by rushing her.”

“Nonsense, she loves you!” Grandfather snapped.

Carlton narrowed his eyes. “What is with you, Grandfather? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were encouraging me to work things out with my wife.”

“I am. I have done you wrong, son, and I need to clear things up.” Grandfather’s eyes welled up and he took a deep shuddering breath. “I lied to you about Latonya. Son, the kiss I saw between Jeff and Latonya was far from a passionate embrace. It was a peck on the cheek and a quick hug of greeting.” Grandfather sighed before he finished in a somber voice. “I told you to come and pay attention to your marriage because of what I saw and sensed in Weatherby, and I thought it would be a good way to make you get rid of her before she caused havoc the way your mother did. I offered her money to leave when she came back to the house after you kicked her out. When she wouldn’t take it, I threatened her life and the lives of her grandmother and Cicely.”

Grandfather’s words came out in a rushed tirade and Carlton felt the air escape from his lungs with each confession.

Carlton’s response came out in a series of questions that were just as quick as Grandfather’s rant. “She came back? Do you mean to tell me that you never saw her kissing another man? You lied to me? You sowed a seed of doubt where there was none and made me kick my wife out on the street while she was pregnant with my son? You threatened her life?”

“I’m sorry, son. I never would have told you to throw the woman out. She was little Carl’s mother and seemed to be a decent one. Once you did throw her out, I used it to get rid of her before she did something that would take you away forever. I was wrong. She loves those boys more than anything. I’ve watched her with them.”

His tone softened. “She’s a good mother. She’s not like your mother…not like that Anastasia.” He hissed the name out. “Latonya loves those boys. Any fool can see that. In spite of everything…I can see now that the woman loves you, too. I’m admitting that I was wrong, not because I hope that you will forgive me, but because I want the two of you to work things out for those boys’ sake.”

The fact that Grandfather brought up the one woman that the old man hated the most let Carlton know how seriously he wanted to be taken. Grandfather never mentioned Carlton’s mother; they never discussed Anastasia, ever.

He’d never allowed himself to think about what it meant that he’d never been able to talk about what happened between his parents to the man entrusted with his care.

As a fifteen-year-old boy who’d suffered the tragedy of losing both parents, who’d grown up listening to them scream at each other, and seen his mother in the passionate embrace of too many men who were not his father, he’d needed to talk with someone. But there had been no one. So, he’d bottled it all in.

Though he felt betrayed, he knew he couldn’t entirely blame Grandfather. Carlton was the one who had kicked his wife out. But Carlton knew he would never forgive his grandfather for threatening her life. Threatening her life while she carried his child!

Carlton felt his jaw set harshly. The hardening in his heart toward the elder man standing in front of him felt out of place. But he knew that it would be a long time before it went anywhere. “I think it would be a good idea for you to go back to the Bahamas. I want you to stay away from me and my family.”

“Carlton, please, I only wanted to spare you—”

“You wanted to spare yourself! It has always been about sparing you. Do you think that you were the only one hurt by my parents’ fiasco of a marriage? I was only a kid. And I hurt, too. I never thought I’d be able to love until I met Latonya. When she came into my life, she made me believe that I could have it all. And you ruined that with your threats and lies. The three years that she was gone were the darkest years of my life. The only thing that held me together was our son. Those three years didn’t have to happen because she had come back. You sent her away and made her afraid. I will never forgive you for that!”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, son.” The elder Harrington turned and left the office.

Carlton watched him go with an angry glare before deciding it was time to go home to his wife.

He finally made it home well after nine in the evening. Carlton planned to once and for all acknowledge his part in their breakup and apologize. He also wanted to tell her that he loved her more than he could ever put into words. He wanted her to be able to look him in the eye while he exposed his soul in order for her to believe him.

Hoping that it wasn’t too late for them, he searched the house for her. After the night that they’d shared, he knew that their bodies were still in tune and meant to be together. But how would she react to his love? Could she ever grow to love him? Would she accept his apology? All of his fears and doubts and questions made him search all the more vigorously. When he couldn’t find her anywhere else, he looked in her bedroom. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door only to find the bed crisply made and no sign of Latonya.

Carlton made his way to his sons’ bedrooms, thinking that she must have gone to sleep while reading to them the way she often did. When he got to Terrence’s room, he found the bed empty and his heart dropped; he felt its rapid beating in his gut and bile rose in his throat. A bad feeling started to overcome him.

Racing to little Carl’s room, he found his sons sharing a bed. However, Latonya wasn’t with them.

Terrence lay sleeping, but little Carl’s eyes were still open.

“Hi, Daddy.” His son spoke in a hushed voice. “Terry was scared and crying because he thought Mommy wasn’t coming back. I told him that Mommy said she was going to see us every day even though she wasn’t sleeping here anymore.”

Carlton’s heart dropped to his feet. Kneeling down by the right side of the bed, closest to his eldest son, he asked, “Where’s your mother?”

“We went to see Great-Grandmama and Aunt Cee Cee and the big boat. I wanted to get on the big boat, but Mommy said I couldn’t go this time. She’ll take me and Terry another time.”

Gripping the mattress so tightly he could no longer feel his own hand, Carlton forced himself to calmly ask, “Did your Mommy get on the boat, Carl?”

His son let out an exasperated sigh. “No, Daddy. Only Aunt Cee Cee and Great-Grandmama this time. We’ll go later.”

Carlton let out a deep breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. “Is Mommy home now?”

“No. She said she needed to go away for a little while. But that she’ll be back to see us during the day. To play with us and read us stories. But Terry was sad. I told him not to be sad because Mommy said she wouldn’t leave me again. You remember, Daddy, right?”

Carlton patted his son’s head and kissed him on the cheek. “I remember. Go to sleep now and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night, night, Daddy.”