Kathie DeNosky - The Kincaids - Southern Seduction

Lily suddenly caught her breath. Did Daniel know about all this? Was he aware that her father had bought the home he was supposed to own one day and could that be the reason he had become interested in her to begin with? Had he hoped to somehow use his association with her to get the Beauchamp mansion back into his family?

Frowning, she nibbled on her lower lip. She didn’t think that was the case. He had told her on more than one occasion that he loved the new condo he’d bought after his divorce. It was close to the Addison Industries office building and within walking distance of Charleston’s French Quarter.

Trying to unravel her tangled thoughts, Lily jumped when the phone rang. “Hello Matt,” she said, recognizing her brother’s office number on the caller ID.

“Lily, could you do me a favor and watch Flynn one night a week for the next several weeks?” Her brother sounded rushed and she could only imagine the tremendous amount of stress he was under after hearing that Jack Sinclair was going to be in control of The Kincaid Group.

“Of course,” she said, smiling. “You know how much I love my nephew.”

“Great. RJ and I are going to be working late for who knows how long and I’m trying to line up babysitters,” Matt explained.

“What nights do you need me?” Lily asked. She loved spending time with Flynn and found that playing with him had inspired some of her best illustrations.

“Are you free Thursday evenings?” he asked. “Laurel is watching him Mondays and Kara has Tuesdays and Wednesdays covered.”

“That’s fine. What about the weekends?”

“He’s going to spend Friday nights and all day on Saturdays with Mom.” Lily heard him shuffle papers and realized Matt was trying to work and arrange child care at the same time. “I’ve already told RJ that Jack Sinclair can wait on the reports he wants until hell freezes over if need be, but Sundays are mine with Flynn and I’m not going to give that up for Sinclair or anyone else.”

“Good for you,” Lily said, meaning it. “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

She heard her brother sigh heavily. “Not unless you can figure out a way to add several more hours to the day.”

“Sorry, Matt, but I don’t think anyone has figured out how to do that just yet. What time do you need me on Thursday evenings?” When he named a time, she added, “Please take care of yourself. Whatever is going to happen, it’s not worth sacrificing your health.”

“Thanks, sis,” he said, sounding tired. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

After ending the call, Lily started to return to her worktable to try to get something done, when the phone rang again.

“Good afternoon, sweetheart,” Daniel said cheerfully. “I’m about five minutes away. Would you like to start setting the table for lunch?”

“Daniel, I’m not sure—”

“Have you eaten yet?”

“No, but—”

“Then set the table,” he said, breaking the connection.

Lily stared at the phone in her hand for several seconds before placing it on the desk to go set the table. She thought about calling Daniel back and insisting that he respect her wishes to be left alone. But she did need to talk to him and try to find out how much he knew about the sale of the Beauchamp mansion to her father as well as try to find a way to tell him about the baby.

Maybe then she would know more about what kind of battle her father had gotten her into with the Addisons. And how Daniel was going to react when he learned about the baby.

As Daniel steered his Mercedes around the Kincaid mansion to the carriage house in the back, he couldn’t help but smile. After having lunch with Lily, she had asked him to stay for a bit so they could talk, but he’d had to decline because of an afternoon meeting with the president of the dockworkers’ union. He had, however, managed to convince her to let him pick her up after the meeting for a trip to check out the most recently renovated exhibit at the aquarium, then have an early dinner at the little bistro she loved in the French Quarter. As far as he was concerned, that was progress in getting things back to the way they had been before his mother’s dinner party.

Parking the car, he hesitated before opening the driver’s door. Everything had been going great between them until the night of the party. But immediately afterward, Lily had decided to be conveniently busy whenever he asked her out. Could his mother have possibly said something to Lily that evening, causing her to have a sudden change of heart about seeing him? Or had the thirteen-year difference in their ages suddenly become a problem for her?

He dismissed the latter thought outright. Surely he would have had an indication if age had become an issue. They both enjoyed most of the same things and there had never been any sort of gap in conversation when they discussed the kind of music they liked to listen to, the books they had read or type of movies they preferred. No, the problem had to have been generated by his mother. He narrowed his eyes. It wouldn’t surprise him if she had said something to insult or hurt Lily. In the past, when Charlotte Addison felt that someone was beneath her, she had never hesitated to let that person know all about just who she was in the pecking order of society. On more than one occasion, he had witnessed her boasting about her family pedigree and the fact that the Beauchamps were considered to be in the highest echelon of Charleston’s social order.

But when could she have had the chance that evening to talk to Lily alone? He had purposely tried to keep Lily at his side throughout the evening, anticipating that his mother might say something insulting. And he had been certain that given the chance, she would. Not only was The Kincaid Group the chief rival of Addison Industries, his mother seemed to have a huge problem with Reginald Kincaid in particular.

As he got out of the car and walked toward Lily’s door, Daniel decided that by dinner he fully intended to have his questions answered and things straightened out between them. Then at his earliest possible convenience, he would confront his mother and firmly suggest that she mind her own business and stop meddling in his social life.

“I see you’re ready to go,” Daniel said when Lily stepped out of the carriage house before he reached the door.

“Actually, I had just returned from checking on my mother to see how she’s doing when I heard you arrive,” Lily said as she walked toward his car.

“How is your mother faring?” he asked, knowing the entire family had been dealing with one shock after another since their ordeal began.

“Momma is holding up surprisingly well,” Lily said, frowning. “It makes me wonder if she might not be in a state of shock and everything that’s happened will come crashing down on top of her later.”

Opening the passenger door, Daniel helped her into the car, then walked around to slide into the driver’s seat. “Sometimes grief brings out a strength in people they never knew they had,” he suggested, suspecting that might be the case. With a quiet grace about her, Elizabeth Kincaid had always impressed him as having the heart and soul of a steel magnolia lying just beneath the surface of her soft-spoken, genteel exterior.

“I think you might be right,” Lily said. “It’s like she’s become the rock that the rest of us are leaning on.”

Reaching over, he covered her hand with his. “And don’t forget. I’m here for you too, sweetheart.”

Lily gave him an odd look before she finally nodded. “Thank you, Daniel. I appreciate your compassion, but as I’ve told you, I’m going to be fine.”

Neither had a lot to say on the drive to the aquarium and Daniel hoped that the exhibit he wanted to show her would help relieve some of her tension and stress. “When I heard the plans for renovating this area of the aquarium, I knew it was something you would enjoy,” he said as he bought two cups of shrimp from Gilligan’s Shrimp Shack not far from the entrance to the exhibit.