“I hope you’re able to use it to make your dreams a reality.”
I’m the wife of a man who makes a shit ton of money. We certainly don’t need the funds that would come from the sales of a bestseller, but he never discourages me from finishing uni or chasing my dream. He wants me to be a successful writer, but mostly he wants me to do what makes me happy and I love him for that.
“Thank you for encouraging me.”
“I always want you to live your best life, mo maise.”
“I know you do.” And there is no life better than this life with him and Ava Rose.
“We have another gift for you, and I’m certain that you’re going to love it even more than this one.”
“I don’t know how it could be better than this one.” I hold up my laptop. “This is pretty freaking awesome.”
“I’ve been dying to tell you about this. I was so close to blurting it out. In fact, I almost let it slip a time or two.”
What in the world could it be? “You’re killing me, Hutch.”
He places another gift in front of me and I tear into it, filled with excitement like a child. Because I sort of do feel like a child. I didn’t grow up having Christmas mornings like this. But I keep that to myself. I don’t want to put a damper on the happy time we’re having.
I lift the top of the box and inside are several pieces of baby-pink fabric. And I’m confused. “I don’t… these are very pretty, but I don’t know what they are.”
“I’m going to have Ava Rose’s nursery moved to the room across the hall from our bedroom. These are some swatches that the interior designer sent over for you to look at. You get to choose the colors, the design, the theme, everything.”
“Aww, Hutch.” I clutch the fabric against my chest. “This makes me so happy.”
“I thought it might.”
“Are you doing this because you want her back in her bed instead of ours?”
“I love her, but she’s hell to sleep with.”
Ava Rose squirms until she wedges herself sideways between us. Her feet always end up on Hutch and he takes a good kick to the face almost every night.
“I know you’re the one who takes the brunt of it every night. I understand. And I can live with her being across the hallway.”
Out of sight, out of mind. That was the idea behind the placement of Ava Rose’s nursery a year ago, but so much has changed since then. This little girl isn’t meant to be unseen and unheard.
She is meant to be held, kissed, and loved. She is meant to be held, kissed, and loved by me. I am her mother. And I couldn’t ask for a better gift than that.
“I have a gift for you too.”
“The enormous one that somehow magically appeared behind the tree since last night?”
“Yeah. But you’ve got to help with it. It’s heavy.”
“What in the world is this?”
“Tear off the paper and see.”
When the paper is gone he looks at the six-foot mirror—which I plan to prop against the wall in our bedroom—and he grins. He grins big. “Please tell me you bought this so we can relive our time at the castle.”
“Yesss. You remember.”
“I may forget a lot of things but what we did in front of that mirror will never be forgotten.”
“You like it?”
“I love it. Best wife ever.” He reaches out and grabs me by the waist. Pulling me into his arms, he kisses my face and the side of my neck. “Grrr… I fucking love it and I can’t wait to try it out.”
“Me too.”
I turn in his arms and together we watch Ava Rose playing with one of her new toys. “This is the best Christmas morning I’ve ever had. I don’t want it to end.”
“It’s the best one I’ve ever had too. And we have all morning to enjoy it,” he says.
“I’ve never been happier.”
“This is only the beginning of our happy life together, mo maise. We have so much more happiness ahead of us.”
“I know. And I look forward to spending every day of my life with you and Ava Rose.”
Hutch squeezes me in his arms and kisses the top of my head.
“I was thinking about cooking breakfast. Maybe some biscuits and gravy? We haven’t had that in a while.”
He moans against my ear. “Mmm… that sounds good.”
“Just biscuits and gravy or do you want bacon and scrambled eggs too?”
“I want it all.”
I don’t know what I was thinking. He always wants it all.
“Do you want your coffee now?”
The doorbell rings and I turn in his arms to look at him. “Are you expecting someone?” he asks.
“No.” Who the hell would I be expecting?
“It’s probably Mrs. McVey coming to see Ava Rose,” he says.
Mrs. McVey loves our girl as much as we do. There’s no doubt about that. “I bet you’re right. Go let her in before the poor thing freezes out there.”
Ava Rose frowns when Hutch leaves the room and crawls to me, holding up her arms. “Muh… muh.”
“It’s okay. Daddy is coming right back.”
She’s been going through a phase lately. We can’t walk out of the room without her fretting. One of us has to be in her sight at all times. Separation anxiety, I guess, but I don’t mind. I love that she feels safer when she’s with us.
“What are you doing here?” Hutch’s voice carries into the living room, and his tone tells me that he’s not happy.
Shit. That is not Mrs. McVey at the door.
58
Maxwell Hutcheson
Mother. Fucker.
“What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean what am I doing here? It’s Christmas morning. I want to see my fiancé, of course.”
“I told you I was spending Christmas with my family.” And I bought myself a month of Blair-free time. Or so I thought.
“But you aren’t going to Clarissa and Gus’s until later so your morning is free, right?”
“I’m spending the morning with my daughter.” And my wife.
“She’s my niece, and she’s going to be my daughter soon. I should spend Christmas morning with her too.”
“No.” I’m taking a chance by rejecting her but I don’t care. I won’t let her ruin this day for us.
“What do you mean no?”
“This is our special time.”
“You don’t want me here?”
How can she possibly think I would? “No, I don’t.”
“Is someone here?”
I say nothing, contemplating the shite storm that would erupt if I told her the truth.
Lou has been back in my life for two months. Two months is a long time for pretending. Living a lie is exhausting and I’m tired of it.
Blair pushes past me and I follow her to the living room. I’m ready for this. I’m prepared for the fight that is about to happen.
“Muh… muh… muh.” Ava Rose is crawling across the living room floor toward the hallway leading to our bedroom. Calling out for her mum. Lou.
Where did Lou go?
“There’s my lassie,” Blair says as she goes to Ava Rose, picking her up. “How are you, my angel?”
Ava Rose looks at Blair, her bottom lip quivering, and bursts into a full-on tantrum. And I don’t blame her. I have similar feelings when it comes to Blair.
I hold out my arms. “Give her to me.”
Blair turns, holding my child out of my reach. “She just needs to get used to me.”
Ava Rose screams and reaches for me. “Da. Da. Da.”
“You’re scaring her. Give her to me.”
Blair ignores my demands, bouncing Ava Rose up and down on her hip, and the urge to place my hand around the bitch’s throat grows stronger as my daughter’s screams become louder.
“I’m not fucking with you. Give her to me. NOW!”
Blair’s eyes widen and she turns, holding out Ava Rose. “Fine. Take her.”
I cradle her in my arms and she tightly clings to my shirt. “Don’t ever do that to her again.”
“She’ll get used to me if you’ll stop coddling her.”
I don’t want Ava Rose to ever spend enough time with Blair to get used to her. “She’s a bairn. She needs coddling to feel safe. And you’re the last person on earth who needs to tell me how to care for my daughter.”
Blair sighs. “Will you please just let the nanny take her so you and I can have a pleasant Christmas morning?”
“Mrs. McVey isn’t here and even if she was, I wouldn’t ask her to take Ava Rose. I want to be with my daughter.”
Ava Rose looks over her shoulder at Blair. As if someone cues her, she vomits and the spit-up splatters on Blair’s shoes and pants when it hits the floor. I couldn’t have orchestrated it better if I’d tried.
“Fuck,” she yells. “These shoes are brand new.”
Ava Rose jolts in my arms and begins to sob loudly when Blair raises her voice. “I want you to leave.”
“Come on, Max. She’s a baby. Babies cry.”
“She wasn’t crying before you got here. In fact, she was quite happy. We both were.”
“That’s a rude thing to say to me.”
“Well, you should easily recognize rude when you hear it since it’s a language you speak fluently.”
Blair holds up her palms. “Both of you are clearly having a bad morning. I’m going.”
Thank fuck.
“I’ll see you tonight when you bring her to Mum and Dad’s.”
I hug Ava Rose and kiss her forehead, swaying back and forth. “I’m so sorry for that, baby. Da is so sorry.”
I hear the front door open and close and I call out to Lou. “She’s gone.”
Lou comes to us and takes Ava Rose from me. “Do you have any idea how difficult it was to not come out here and kill her?”
“I have a pretty good idea.”
“I understand we’re doing this because it’s what your legal counsel told us to do, but everything about this feels wrong.”
“I know, and I couldn’t agree more.”
“What do we do from here? Because I can’t let her do that to Ava Rose again.”
“I don’t know. Let’s just get through the holidays, and we’ll figure out something after the new year comes.”
“If I can make it that long without killing her.”
“Speaking of the new year. We’ve been invited to a New Year’s party.”
“We’ve been invited? As in you and me?”
“Well, technically, I was the one invited but only because they don’t know you’re my wife.”
“I assume you’re telling me about this party because you want to go?”
“I’d like to. I think it would be fun. And you’d get to meet some more of my friends and their wives.”
“How are they going to feel about you showing up with a new wife they know nothing about?”
“No worries. It’ll be fine.”
“You don’t think anyone at this party will expose us?”
“Trust me. There won’t be any problems with these people.”
“Okay. That’s all you have to tell me about it.”
I pick up Ava Rose’s hand and use it to pat Lou on the shoulder. “Mum mum,” I whisper in my best baby voice.
“Yes, baby Ava?”
“Da is hungry.”
“He still wants breakfast?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll cook for Da under one condition. He has to clean up the puke on the floor.”
Dammit. I knew that was coming.
I groan. “I must really want your biscuits and gravy to agree to that.”
“Well, somebody’s gotta do it.”
“Aye, the one who should have to do it is gone.”
Lou kisses the top of Ava Rose’s head. “And thank God for that.”
“I’ll clean up in here and then I’ll come feed her while you cook breakfast.”
“Deal.”
We make a great team.
59
Caitriona Hutcheson
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to go to this party with you?” It feels extremely risky to expose ourselves to clients who have contact with Thomas Lochridge.
“The Breckenridges aren’t typical Lochridge clientele. They’re my friends and they want to meet my wife.”
“You told them we were married?”
“Aye, I did when I accepted the invitation. I also made them aware of our need to keep our marriage secret.”
“They must be very close friends for you to confide in them something so important.”
“The Breckenridges are loyal people. They’d never betray my confidence, same as I would never betray theirs. Believe me when I tell you that no one understands the importance of concealment more than they do.”
“That’s an odd thing to say about friends.”
“They are my friends and that means they will be your friends. But never ask me or them about their secrets. It isn’t safe to be privy to their private matters.”
I know Hutch deals with clients who have questionable backgrounds, but I’ve never dreamed that any of them might be unsafe. “Are you in danger?”
“Not today and not in the foreseeable future.”
That’s not a no. “Nothing about that statement is reassuring.”
“I’m safe, mo maise. Nothing is going to happen to me, and that’s all you need to know.”
“Is Brady friends with the Breckenridges?”
“He is, but he won’t be there tonight. He’s closing on an arrangement with Cora for a three-month companion.”
“I didn’t take Brady for the long-term kind of client.” He seemed to be happy having a different girl every time.
“He was content until he saw how happy we are.”
“And now he wants what we have?”
“Everyone wants what we have.” Hutch grins. “Minus the pain-in-the-arse former in-laws.”
“I guess it makes sense that he would let Cora do his matchmaking. She’s been choosing his inamoratas for him for years.”
“She knows his preferences well.”
Cora is good at what she does, which is why it was important that she knew about the behavior of her son. I told her about his attack on me, not to mention releasing Inamorata information to Blair. In Cora’s line of business discretion is her highest priority.
“I wonder if I know her—Brady’s match.”
“I don’t think you do. She’s new. Never had a client before.”
New inamorata. No former clients. Three-month arrangement. “That sounds familiar.”
“Very familiar. And I’m hopeful for him. He’ll make a good husband for some lucky lass.”
It worked for us so who’s to say that Brady didn’t just meet his future wife.
Speaking of wives. “Who will I be meeting tonight?”
“Oh, let’s see. Sin and Bleu. Mitch and Shaw. Jamie and Ellison. Kieran and Westlyn. Leith and Lorna.”
Ten of Hutch’s friends all at once. That’s a little daunting.
Cora taught me how to converse with the wealthiest and most influential men in Scotland, but this feels different. “I’m nervous about meeting them.”
“Why would you be nervous?”
Hutch and I live in a bubble. Aside from his family and Brady and staff, I don’t know the people in his life. “I’m your wife, but I’m nothing like the people you associate with on a daily basis within your Maxwell Hutcheson world.”
“And thank fuck for that. I would never want you to be like the people in my Maxwell Hutcheson world. I want you to be like the people in my Hutch world.”
“I want to be myself with your friends, not speak or act the way Cora taught me. But I also don’t want to embarrass you by being simple.” I have the ability to give the performance of a lifetime. I was taught by the best, but I don’t want to be fake if these people are going to be my real friends.
“Mo ma
ise—” Hutch takes my hands in his. “Being unpretentious doesn’t make you simple. It makes you real and genuine. That’s all I ever want you to be.”
Doubt creeps into my mind. I will it to go away, but it’s a part of me deep as my soul. “What if they don’t like the real me?”
“That’s not even a possibility. You’re the most lovable person I know.”
I’m his wife. He has to say that. “I’m the most lovable person to you. Everyone else in the world doesn’t feel that way.”
“I think you will get on quite well with all of the wives, especially Bleu and Ellison. They’re American.”
I wasn’t expecting that. “From where?”
“I don’t recall, but they do have accents similar to yours.”
Southern girls? You don’t run into those in Edinburgh every day. “Have they lived here for long?”
“Several years. I’m not certain how long.”
My mood just shifted from worried to enthusiastic. I suddenly don’t feel as though I’ll be quite so out of place with these people. But I’m a little confused by their dynamics. “A pair of sisters married a pair of brothers?”
“No. Bleu’s husband, Sin, and Ellison’s husband, Jamie, are cousins. Mitch and Sin are brothers. Kieran and Shaw are brother and sister. Jamie and Westlyn are brother and sister.”
Wow. That’s not confusing at all. “They believe in keeping it in the family, don’t they?”
“No doubt about it. The Breckenridges keep the family tree well pruned.”
“Their family… is that like a modern-day clan thing?”
Hutch chuckles. “That wouldn’t be an entirely wrong way of looking at it.”
He’s being vague. I assume that means I should stop asking questions.
I stand tall and smooth the front of my dress. “Do I look all right?”
“Stunning as always.”
“Complimentary as always.”
“A husband should tell his wife how beautiful she is and often.”
“You certainly do that.”
My past has made me quite the cynic. It hasn’t been easy but I’m in a place where I’m finally able to accept Hutch’s compliments. I believe him when he says I’m beautiful because I know that’s how he sees me.
Beautiful Illusions Duet Bundle: Eighty-One Nights and Beautiful Ever After Page 36
