Page 86 of Recipe for Temptation

“We’re having a girl!” he announced.

“For real? Aw man, congratulations!” Michael pulled him into a backslapping hug that Manning returned, his body vibrating with ecstatic laughter. After exchanging a few more thumping back slaps, they let go of each other and grinned.

“I thought you guys wanted to wait to find out. What changed your mind?”

Manning grinned. “It was an accident. During Taylor’s ultrasound this morning, the technician slipped up and called the baby ‘she.’ Taylor squealed. I jumped to my feet. The girl started apologizing profusely, but we were so damn happy we didn’t even care. We just started hugging and crying— er, I mean, Taylor was crying. I was just?—”

Michael laughed. “Don’t even try it. You know you were crying, too.”

Manning beamed, on top of the world. He and Taylor had been through hell to find their way back to each other. No one deserved more happiness than them.

Grinning, Michael affectionately patted Manning’s cheek. “So you’re about to be a girl dad, huh?”

“Yessiree.” Manning grinned even harder. “You know I love my little roughhousers. But there’s just something about having a mini Tay Tay running around. Just melts my heart, know what I’m saying?”

Michael smiled. “That little girl’s gonna have you wrapped around her finger.”

“I know,” Manning agreed on a sigh of defeat. “Baby girl’s gonna be spoiled rotten.”

“Thoroughly rotten. Have you guys picked out a name?”

“Yeah. Malia.”

“Malia.” Michael’s smile softened. “That’s beautiful. Good choice.”

“We think so, too.” Manning shoved his hands in his pockets and bounced on his heels like he couldn’t stand still.

Manning chuckled. “Did you see Pipsqueak? He’s here with Reid. Go say hello while I check on things in the kitchen.”

“Aight.” Whistling cheerfully, Manning sauntered off to the dining room while Michael headed to the kitchen. He was prowling around inspecting plated meals when his phone buzzed.

He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the screen. His face broke into a grin when he saw the profile picture of him and Mama Wolf. It was taken during a family visit to her home in Savannah. He was nine that summer, and in the photo, he and his great-grandmother were sitting on her big wraparound porch. She was hugging him, squeezing him hard enough to make him laugh. Every time he saw the photo, he could almost smell the cinnamon and roses on her skin, could almost feel the sultry Savannah breeze.

He thumbed the answer button as he left the noisy kitchen. “Hey, Mama Wolf,” he said affectionately. “How you doing?”

“I’m good, baby.” The familiar warmth of her voice flooded his ear. “We’re on our way to a children’s hospital, so I can’t talk long. I just had to call and tell you that I was able to watch your season premiere.”

“Yeah? What’d you think?”

“Oh, you already know what I think. It was wonderful, baby,” she said, a thread of excitement in her voice. “Your new apprentice is such a delightful young lady. I’m dying to learn more about her.”

“Don’t ever say you’re dying, Mama. You’ll make me panic.”

She cackled. “Hush, boy. You know what I meant.”

Michael grinned, walking back into his office and dropping into the chair behind his desk. “What do you want to know about Reese? She’s an ob-gyn from Houston. Her parents have been happily married forty-six years. She has a younger sister that she adores. She volunteers at a battered women’s shelter. She?—”

“Makes you smile,” Mama Wolf said softly. “She makes you laugh. She makes you feel like a teenager again. And when you look at her, Michael, she makes you wonder just where she’s been all your life.”

Michael felt his throat tighten with emotion. “You got all that from watching an hourlong show?”

“That and more.” He could hear the smile in her voice.

He was almost relieved when Manning came through the door, laughing as he plopped down in the visitor’s chair facing Michael.

“That white boy must like sistas, the way he’s— Oh my bad, I didn’t notice you were on the phone.”

“Is that my Manny?” Mama Wolf asked excitedly.

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