“I’d like to talk to Cherie. Alone, please.”
Cherie stood up. “It’s all right.”
“Are you sure?” Edwina asked her daughter.
“Do you actually believe I would harm the mother of my child?”
Edwina straightened her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Mama, please. Reese and I need to talk.”
“All right,” she said, walking out of the family room and following Kayana and Leah up the staircase.
Reese waited for Cherie to sit, then sat opposite her. Never had he seen her look so alluring. A few stray curls had escaped her topknot and floated around her neck. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m good. My period stopped, so I’ll probably begin to put on weight.”
“You should let me know when you have your doctor’s appointments, because I’d like to go with you.”
Cherie nodded. “That can be arranged.”
He stared up at the ceiling. “I know everything, Cherie, about you and Campbell, beginning with you attending the same prep school and how he tricked you into becoming a surrogate for his wife.”
“Who told you?”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is I love you, and I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge you. And I knew eventually you would’ve told me everything, but only when you felt comfortable.”
“You’re right. There were so many times I’d thought about it, and after I found out that I was carrying your baby, I planned to tell you just before we went out to shop for an engagement ring. That would’ve given you the option of going ahead with the engagement or backing out.”
“Do you actually believe I would’ve backed out, Cherie? I would’ve married you even if you had a dozen kids. I love you just that much.”
She smiled for the first time. “That’s a lot of babies.”
“Yes, it is. And there would be enough love from both of us to go around for every one of them.”
Cherie pressed her palms together. “I’m not proud that I slept with a married man, and I paid for it by having to give up my baby.”
“That’s your past, Cherie, like Campbell is your past. When he lost his wife and son, he also lost the last thing that connected him to you. He knows it’s over, and that’s why he came here to see if you were the same vulnerable young woman he could manipulate all over again.”
“He wasn’t the only manipulator, Reese.” She told him about the money and jewelry he’d given her. “Close your mouth,” she said when his jaw dropped. “I just want you to know what kind of woman you want to marry.”
“Baby, I like your style.”
“You like that I hustled him?
“You didn’t hustle him, bae. He wanted a child, and surrogates are usually paid for carrying a couple’s baby. And it’s same with becoming a wealthy man’s mistress. Gifts are the norm.”
“So you believe I did nothing wrong?”
“Cherie, it’s not about right or wrong. However, Campbell was wrong for continuing to sleep with you after he married his wife. And when he asked you to have his love child, he knew he had an ulterior motive to take it from you.”
Cherie realized Reese was attempting to absolve her of her past indiscretions, similar to Edwina telling her she’d slept with men for money. Jamal’s father had been Edwina’s first boyfriend, while Cherie’s father had been a middle-aged white widower who had hired her to babysit his children. When she told him she was pregnant and refused to have an abortion, he gave her eight thousand dollars and then moved his family across the country to Oregon. The man who had fathered her twin sons was a college professor she met online. He was into BDSM and paid her to restrain him before having sex. She told her mother she did what she had to do to support her children, and none of the men with whom she’d had relationships were married. Edwina had also been given a chance to find happiness with Parker Shelton. She’d admitted that she and Parker spoke to each other every day, even if it was for only a few minutes.
“Let’s begin again,” Reese said, breaking into her musings.
“What do you want to ask me?”
Going to one knee, he held her hand over his heart. She felt the material of his bulletproof vest under his shirt. “Miss Cherie Renee Thompson, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
