God had been too good for her to become a slave to the father of sin by worshipping Satan with a lie. When she accepted Maeyl’s proposal to marry him, she knew it was a package deal; she would have to accept his daughter as well. Eventually, she figured, she could, but in the meantime, she had come up with the ol’ “fake it until you make it” master plan. Seeing as how drama class had not been one of her electives in high school, she didn’t know how believably she could play the role, so before she was found out, she might as well come clean now. And if Maeyl chose not to go forth with the marriage, then so be it. Besides, going into a marriage based on a lie was not a good foundation to build upon.
“You’re so excited about becoming Sakaya’s other mommy that you’re speechless, huh?” Maeyl asked Tamarra.
“Maeyl,” Tamarra started, her head down, eyes locked on her fumbling fingers. “About Sakaya and becoming her stepmother and all, I—”
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The blaring horn from the car behind them interrupted their conversation.
“Oh, shoot!” Maeyl looked up in front of him. “Green light.” He drove off. “Speaking of green light, Sasha said that Sakaya’s doctor gave her the green light to go ahead and enroll into regular pre-school. No special educational needs classes or anything. Just regular schooling with regular kids.” Maeyl beamed. “I wish I could find that woman who laid hands on Sakaya and prayed for her after the doctor diagnosed her with symptoms of autism. Her obedience to what the Lord told her to do changed my little girl’s life. That woman laid healing hands on my child and changed the course of her life. It’s a miracle. My Sakaya is a miracle, and I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.”
“Not even me?” Tamarra thought the color would drain from her oak-with-gloss-finish complexion. It was times like these she wished she wore makeup in order to add a little color to her face. She nervously ran her fingers through her short, natural hair that she’d started growing out.
“Excuse me?” Maeyl wasn’t sure if he’d actually heard the words come out of Tamarra’s mouth.
Tamarra couldn’t believe the words had actually come out. She’d only meant to think the words, not speak them out loud. She looked over to see Maeyl give her a quick glare. He looked at her as if she were a stranger. She felt awful. She wanted to tell Maeyl the truth about how she felt about his newfound daughter, but not this way. Not so crude and blunt.
She looked up and silently said to God, Forgive me, Lord, for I know exactly what I’m about to do. She then looked to Maeyl. “I said ‘Not even me.’ Not even myself… Not even I would trade Sakaya for anything in the world.” Then came the fake laugh. “Ahe-he.”
Maeyl exhaled. “Sweetie, you don’t know how good it makes me feel to hear you say that.” He leaned over, keeping his eyes on the road, twisted his lips, and planted a kiss on Tamarra’s cheek. “That’s why you’re one of my favorite girls.” He then happily drove up the road.
Tamarra turned her head in disgust. Already she’d gone from being Maeyl’s favorite girl to just one of his favorite girls. Now she couldn’t help but wonder who ranked the highest. Who was Maeyl’s most favorite: her or Punky Brewster back there?
Tamarra shook her head in shame. She was a grown woman. She couldn’t believe she was comparing herself to a little girl who was just a month shy of turning four. But what was even worse, she knew that if she kept living this lie, she’d spend the next fourteen years competing with this child as well. She wouldn’t have peace and security in her and Maeyl’s relationship until the child turned eighteen and headed off to college.
The entire situation was driving her stir crazy. She should have gotten out of this relationship when she could, before Maeyl proposed and she accepted. That day she met him at the park with the intentions of breaking things off, she should have just told him. But before she knew it, he’d proposed, she’d accepted, and he’d slipped that beautiful ring on her finger.
Tamarra looked down at the two carat diamond engagement ring. On the day he’d given it to her, the bling on it had her caught like a deer in headlights. It was so beautiful. She’d never had a ring that beautiful. Not even that low down, cheating, having a baby on the side ex-husband of hers had invested in such a gem.
I wonder if I break off the engagement if I’d have to give the ring back. Tamarra flushed that gold-digging thought out of her head quick, fast, and in a hurry, not even knowing where it had come from. She’d never had that type of mindset before when it came to men, so what was going on inside that head of hers now?
She might not have known what was going on inside her head, but she definitely knew what was going on inside of her heart. Too bad her head and her heart just couldn’t get on one accord. Why couldn’t her heart feel the same way about Maeyl’s little girl as it did for the man himself? Perhaps she could just fast and pray, asking God to work on her heart so that eventually it would.
With their wedding date set for late spring/early summer, she knew she only had a few months to get it together. Was that enough time to fall in love with Maeyl’s daughter just as easily as she had fallen in love with him?
Chapter Four
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” the familiar voice spoke over the soft music. “I know you are probably more than surprised to see me right about now.” He gave Deborah a mischievous look. “But you didn’t think I’d give up that easily, did you?”
Deborah stood in what she now knew to be the dining room in the house. Her mouth hung wide, the opening for words to march out. But none came. Not a single one. Then finally, she was able to speak. “I… I can’t believe this. Wha…what have you done?”
He looked down and helped himself to one of the roses that sat in a vase in the middle of the dining room table. “Isn’t it obvious?” He slowly walked toward Deborah while smelling the rose. “I’ve fallen in love.” He extended the rose to her.
At first she just stood there staring down at the rose, still in awe at the sight before her. There were roses, dozens of them, in vases all around the room. There were flickering candles, scented ones. Deborah inhaled: vanilla candles. A bottle of sparkling cider sat in an ice bucket next to the roses on the dining room table. There was a place setting for two. It looked to be fine china and silverware. The flutes at each setting waited to be drenched with the non-alcoholic chilled beverage. The laced table cloth, a slightly dingy white, looked as though it might have belonged to his grandmother, probably the china too.
She met her hand with his, momentarily taken in by the delightful ambiance. Deborah quickly snapped out of her vanilla-scented trance. She demanded her hand take its rightful place by her side without the likes of the rose.
“Still up to your same old tricks again, huh, Mr. Chase?” Deborah asked with a glare, shaking her head. “First your little stunt at Family Café and now this.”
“Deborah—”
“Miss Lewis,” she corrected him.
He relented with a smile. “Okay, Miss Lewis. I’m not sure what you mean by my little stunt at Family Café. I remember you rambling something about me arranging a bogus meeting. I didn’t know what you were talking about then, and I don’t know what you are talking about now.”
He wasn’t lying. He had no idea what she was talking about because he hadn’t been involved in setting up any bogus meeting. Right before she’d left for her sabbatical, Deborah thought he’d gotten someone to pretend to be a prospective client just so she would agree to a meeting. With every intention of meeting this so-called prospective client at Family Café, Deborah was shocked when Lynox showed up. Initially, she thought he’d tricked her. When she later learned