Nydia sat on the side of the bed. “I’m going to give you a Tylenol to help you with your headache.” She handed the girl the glass of water and shook a gel out of the bottle and into her outstretched hand, watching and waiting for her to swallow it and follow with the water. “The tea is still a little hot, so wait until it cools before you attempt to drink it. I’m going to sit on the window seat until you fall asleep. I’ll call you tomorrow to see how you’re doing, so let me know if you need me.”
Kendra managed a small smile. “Thank you.”
Nydia kissed her forehead before she walked across the bedroom to the window seat. Reaching into her tote, she took out the magazine dedicated to southern living she’d purchased in the airport and settled down to read an article about comfort food classics. As a transplanted New Yorker she wanted to absorb as much as she could about her new home state.
She didn’t have to wait long for Kendra to fall asleep. Nydia left the window seat and pulled the sheet and lightweight blanket over the girl’s shoulders. She never would have imagined that at thirty-three she would claim an eleven-year-old daughter. And she didn’t want Kendra to relate to her as her stepmother, but her mother. Nydia knew she would never be able to replace Valerie and would never attempt to fill the void left by the woman’s death, but she wanted to be there and support Kendra until adulthood.
Nydia returned to the kitchen to find Lamar leaning against the countertop with a cup of coffee. “She’s sleeping.” He stood straight, his light brown eyes meeting hers. “I’d like for you to wait until Jasmine has her baby to talk to Kendra about us getting married.”
A slight frown appeared between his eyes. “Why wait?”
“I don’t want the news of our engagement to throw shade on Jasmine and Cameron’s big event.”
Lamar nodded. “When do you want to make the announcement?”
A smile parted her lips. “What do you think of Valentine’s Day?”
His smile matched hers. “That’s perfect. When do you want to go and look at rings?”
Nydia rested a hand on his forearm. “Easy there, sport. We have time.”
“What’s your ring size?”
“Five.”
Lamar’s smile grew wider. “I think I can remember that.”
Going on tiptoe, Nydia kissed him, inhaling and tasting coffee on his lips. “Come walk me to the door.” Lamar took her hand, lacing their fingers together. It was a new year, she now lived in a new state, and in the coming month she would become a fiancée.
She opened the door to Jasmine’s minivan, slid in behind the wheel, and waved to Lamar as he stood on the sidewalk waiting for her to drive away. He returned her wave as Nydia checked her mirrors and pulled away from the curb. She liked driving the vehicle and knew it was only matter of time before she had to purchase a car to get around the city. And Nydia realized she couldn’t live with Jasmine and Cameron, nor would she move in with Lamar before they were married, and living with Hannah or Tonya was not an option. And the inn wasn’t ready for her to move in there. That meant she would check back into the Louis LaSalle until she married.
* * *
Nydia stared at the rain sluicing down the windows in the hospital’s waiting room. When she’d mentioned to Cameron that she was moving out and checking into the hotel, she got to see another side of the wealth manager who always appeared so calm and in control of everything. He told her in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t leave his wife now that she was so close to giving birth to her baby. He told her that Jasmine had come to emotionally depend on Nydia more than she did on him. This revelation had shocked her because she hadn’t been aware of any tension between the couple, who appeared to be very much in love, but then she did not know what went on between them behind closed doors. In the end she agreed to stay, up to and including the time when they baptized the baby.
Nydia enjoyed living in the renovated warehouse designed ultimately for living and entertaining. Cameron had hired a cook and house- and groundskeepers, which meant there was little for Jasmine to do except relax and count down the days to when she would become a mother. Most mornings and afternoons found them relaxing and taking their meals in the loggia, where a man-made waterfall and tropical foliage turned the rear of the house into a jungle oasis.
The baby shower had come off without a hitch. When she and Cameron escorted Jasmine into the elder Singletons’ home and she saw the expression on Jasmine’s face, Nydia knew her friend was totally shocked. Jasmine, not wanting to know the sex of her baby beforehand, had decorated the nursery in green and yellow pastels.
The invitees had presented her with gift cards, car seats, crib sheets and blankets, dozens of onesies, bibs, bath products, sweaters, hats, booties, and colorful and musical crib mobiles. Everyone dissolved into hysterics when Cameron’s brothers gave him a clothespin and more than ten cartons of disposable diapers in sizes ranging from newborn to toddler.
Tonya and Gage had commandeered the kitchen to prepare a buffet feast that had everyone complaining that they had eaten much too much. The children were relegated to another part of the mansion once the adults were served potent libations, and the ribald jokes flowed as freely as the lethal concoctions.
During the celebrating Nydia had watched Lamar staring at her, and she wondered if he was recalling the time when his wife was pregnant with Kendra. She was still ambivalent about giving Lamar another child, because when she married him she planned to embrace Kendra as her own. And raising a teenage girl, especially one who’d known and lost her biological mother, wasn’t going to be an easy endeavor. Being an aunt was wholly different than stepping into the role as mother, confidante, consoler, and occasionally disciplinarian. Nydia regarded herself as fun-loving and easygoing. She would encourage debate, but knew unequivocally she would never entertain disrespect, especially not from a child.
“Nydia, she had a girl.”
She turned and stared at Cameron. He looked as if he had been the one to go through labor; she noticed lines of tension bracketing his mouth and red, swollen eyes that indicated he’d been crying.
“How is she?”
He ran his fingers through his gray-flecked light brown hair. “She’s good. The baby is beautiful.”
Nydia hugged the new father. “Of course she would be. Have you decided on a name?”
“We agreed to Sabrina Maya Singleton.”
“That’s a name for an actress.”
