Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I pulled it from the back pocket of my jeans, but didn’t recognize the caller.
“Hello…” My voice wavered.
“It’s Lucas. She’s awake, and I don’t know what to do. I need you,” he pleaded. Three magical words, but not spoken in the right context.
“I’ll be right there. Is she still in her crib?”
“Yes,” he snapped, the strain in his tone apparent. He was lost and scared. “J.J. left. I’m all alone.”
“Grab a blanket and play hide and seek with her until I get there.”
“Hurry.” He ended the call, but not before I heard him mutter, “Where’s a damn blanket?”
“Whoa,” I said to Tessa. “He’s in baby S.O.S. mode.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Tessa said, her eyes soft with concern.
“Me too.” I gave her a hug and trudged out the door on a mission to help the baby, not the man. He needed this slap of reality across his chiseled Ivy League jaw.
I flew through the doors of his building, figuratively speaking, and approached the doorman’s station.
“Mr. Shaw’s nanny,” I said, yanking my suitcase behind me, not stopping to get a reply. Up the elevator I went. I hopped off on Lucas’s floor, realizing I didn’t have a key. Great. I didn’t see the typical home in the suburb doorbell either, so I knocked on the hard wood until my knuckles hurt.
The door creaked open, and a man I didn’t know greeted me. He looked familiar, at least his blue eyes did, but the smile on his face was painted on like the Joker’s. Lucas never let a smile reach his eyes, let alone grin from ear to ear. He even had a laugh flickering in his gaze.
Was he in complete freak-out mode? Or had I walked into an upside down universe?
“Lucas, are you okay?” I wanted to place my hand on his forehead and check his temperature.
“She loves ties,” he spit out between laughs. “Come see.”
He grabbed my hand, dragging my suitcase and me across the threshold. I dropped the handle to my luggage and tagged along with him to the makeshift nursery.
“Watch.” Lucas bent over the crib, his tie dangling in front of Esmé. Her hands and feet moved in excitement when the tie came close to her hand, then she wrapped her fingers around it and pulled. She laughed, and Lucas followed. Tears pooled in my eyes as I witnessed the magical connection between father and daughter. I hoped she moved from a bundle of trouble to a child of joy—his joy.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him she learned this trick from J.J., and that we needed to keep an eye on her. She had skills in flirting with men.
I stood next to the crib and wiped my eyes as Lucas played with his daughter. I’d never seen a more beautiful sight in my life. He didn’t let go of my hand, making me a part of the moment. One I’d never forget.
27
Lucas
I’d waited for years to confront my father about my mother. The tension and resentment between us started the night I confessed I took the wife he knew away for good. The disdain in his eyes never faded, it only grew harder with time. The old saying about time healing all wounds didn’t apply to our family.
My father kept me close for one reason; I blocked his path for even greater wealth and power. I had a part of the company he controlled, and he wanted it all.
Today, I gave it to him with my offered arrangement, requiring him to relinquish his stronghold over my mother. If he and the courts agreed, I would be able to get her out of their house where he had imprisoned her for twenty years, and she would never want for anything ever again. I had no doubt he would accept my deal, though I warned my attorney to prepare for my father’s response at the last second of the last hour on Friday.
When I came home to an apartment full of life and activity, not the usual silent solitude, something remarkable happened. A small fissure split open when unconditional love slapped me across the face. The crack appeared when my own baby reintroduced me to something I’d forgotten, happiness and laughter. I didn’t deserve it or her love, especially when I’d shown her nothing but distant coldness and kept her at an arm’s length in my life. I treated her like a business deal I needed to have filed away and tended to by staff.
But I couldn’t escape this foreign feeling residing in my chest. It ached along with the muscles on my face from all the smiling.
“Lucas, get your hot dad bod in here. Esmé needs to eat, and I can’t wait much longer.” A wicked grin swept over my face. Maggie thought I was hot. If she only knew the thoughts I had about her body and what I’d like to do to it.