by Claire Adams
Renée stared at me for a long moment, looking torn between disbelief and fury. Then, she spun on her heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind her hard enough that the glass rattled.
I massaged my temples, feeling the beginnings of a headache. Already, my good mood from that morning had evaporated. And a glance at my watch showed me I had only five minutes until my first meeting.
I took a few deep breaths and then went to quickly glance over my notes before heading to the conference room.
Chapter Thirty-One
Lexi
When Andrew had first told me he had a private yacht, for some reason, I'd thought that he was joking. Of course, it only made sense, given that he also had a private jet, but where the jet was in some ways practical, the yacht just seemed like an unnecessary splurge.
When he suggested that we take a family outing on the boat for Independence Day, I had hesitated. But after being assured of all the ways that Emma would be safe on the yacht, I'd caved.
I was glad for it now, too. The weather was beautiful that day, and Emma was thrilled to be out on Puget Sound.
I was pretty thrilled as well. Andrew's yacht was just as swanky as I might have expected, with a full bar, a few staff members, and plenty of food for a whole army of people. But other than the staff, it was just the three of us there, having a nice and relaxing day together.
Andrew got the grill going midway through the afternoon and had burgers cooking up in short order. “Can I get you another drink?” he asked me, noticing that my iced tea was empty.
I smiled at him. “I can get it,” I told him. “You just keep those burgers cooking.”
“Relax,” Andrew said, plucking the glass out of my hand. “I have to go inside and grab a few more things anyway. It's not a problem to refill your drink on the way.”
“Can't argue with that,” I said with a laugh, settling back down on the reclining deck chair, soaking up the sun.
Not that I really ever tanned all that much, but it was cozy and warm there, and I was going to take full advantage of it. Emma was off with Janice, trying to spot dolphins at the front of the yacht. I could watch them from a distance, but it was “me” time at the moment.
I watched as Andrew headed inside the yacht with my glass, thinking as he went that I was starting to love the man.
Wait, what? I wondered where that thought had come from. I was starting to like Andrew more and more, the longer we stayed with him, but I didn't know when I had jumped from “like” to “love.” The more I thought about it, though, the more it felt right to me.
It was exactly what I'd told him, once. After Emma was born, I looked for dads for her, rather than just looking for good boyfriends for myself. But Andrew wasn't just perfect with Emma; he was also a gentleman when it came to his interactions with me. And although he'd once been incredibly rude to me and so commitment shy, I started to see those things change.
He’d cut back on work and spent more time with us, and he was friendly whenever he did. He had come up with a couple ideas for our family days, even, although I had a sneaking suspicion he had probably asked Janice for recommendations on places that Emma might enjoy.
Whatever changes he made in his life, I enjoyed them. That said, I knew I had to be careful. I could sense that Andrew was still holding back, that he was still worried about committing to this. He still hadn't said that he loved me, and even though his actions hinted at that, it could also be simple affection. We had been living in his house for a while now. It was only natural that he would start to feel affection for me since Emma was our daughter. It didn't mean that he wanted to marry me.
“Stop thinking so hard,” Andrew said as he handed my newly-refilled glass back to me. He gestured around. “This day is supposed to be about relaxing and having fun.”
I laughed and rolled over on my stomach so that I could watch him better from my chair. “I am relaxing and having fun,” I promised. “Anyway, aren't you the king of over-working? I would have thought you would understand when someone was overthinking.”
“I understand it, of course,” Andrew mused. “But I don't want to see you doing it, today.” He lowered his voice, glancing around to see if there was anyone who might overhear us. “If you're having a hard time shutting off your brain, I could take you on a tour of the yacht.”
The way he emphasized the sentence left no doubt in my mind as to what that tour would entail, and I shivered despite the heat of the sun.
I smiled up at him and shook my head. “Not now,” I said. “But maybe later. I want to enjoy the sun for as long as I can.”
“You should put on some more sunscreen,” Andrew said, glancing towards the crystal-clear sky. “Want some help?”
“Sure,” I agreed, surprised that he would ask.
I sat up, and he sat on the lounge chair beside me, gathering my hair in his hands and then carefully moving it over one shoulder. His hands were warm, strong, and sure as he began to massage sunscreen into my shoulders. I made a soft noise, and he paused, hands drawing away.
“Sorry, was that too hard?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“No, it's just, I didn't realize I was going to be getting a massage out of having you apply sunscreen,” I admitted, biting my lip as my face flushed.
Despite the smell of sunscreen lingering in the air, there was something undeniably sensual about the feeling of his fingers as they pressed into my skin, kneading out the tension that I hadn't even known was there.
“Just making sure that it's rubbed in properly,” Andrew said after a momentary pause. If I had to guess, he sounded sheepish, but I couldn't picture him being anything other than cool and confident.
He slowly resumed his ministrations, taking far longer than he actually needed to lather up my back and shoulders. The moment was broken, though, when I turned to face him, and he swiped a stripe of sunscreen down my cheek.
I giggled and reached up to rub in the mark. “Thanks,” I told him.
“Anytime,” Andrew said. He glanced over to the grill and swore, suddenly leaping to his feet and going to flip the burgers.
“Don't worry, I'll eat these ones,” he promised.
I laughed and stood up, stretching and moving over to his side to inspect the damage. They weren't too burnt, but there would be a definite charred taste to them. “Give them to Emma,” I suggested. “She'll need hers cut up anyway and doused in ketchup, so we'll just cut off the burnt parts and she'll never know the difference. She usually doesn't end up eating much of her burger anyway. She likes the bun and the chips the best. And Janice's pasta salad.”
“Good idea,” Andrew said, already starting to fix a plate for Emma.
“Emma!” I called, waving an arm as she looked back at me. She flounced back over to us, followed by Janice.
“Did you see any dolphins?” Andrew asked.
“No,” Emma said, her face falling for a second. “But I seed the water monster!”
“The water monster?” Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow at Janice, who just smiled at him.
A little while later, we were all fed, and it was starting to get dark. Andrew joined me on my lounge chair and curled into my side as we watched Emma coloring pictures and singing cute, tuneless songs about how much she loved boats and being on the water.
“This is great,” I said to Andrew.
He stirred and blinked, as though his mind had been a million miles away. “It is great,” he agreed, squeezing his arms around me briefly. “And the fireworks are about to go off.”
I hummed in agreement. “I can't remember the last time I came down to see the fireworks,” I admitted. “I didn't want to bring Emma down when she was too young because she used to be really jumpy when it came to loud noises.”
“Emma mentioned that she hadn't seen fireworks before,” Andrew said with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.
I frowned at him. “What did you do?”
He laughed, holding up both his hands. “You're g
etting to know me too well,” he said. “I paid for the fireworks show tonight.”
“You what?” I asked.
“I just wanted to make sure that Emma got the chance to see the very best fireworks show ever. To make this night really special. So, I donated a substantial amount of money to the city council, with the stipulation that it all went into tonight's celebration. And when they weren't sure if they could do that, I added a little extra money and said that they could keep the extra money if the money that I had originally agreed to donate went to the fireworks show tonight.”
I laughed. “Emma has a pretty generous dad, doesn't she?” I commented.
I leaned in to kiss him, appreciating the gesture. It was another of those things that I wouldn't have expected from him. I was pleased to hear that he wanted only the best for our daughter.
I sighed and settled in his arms, watching the evening grow darker. “It's funny how things work out for the best, isn't it?” I asked, thinking of where I'd been a year ago on the fourth of July.
I'd had a seasonal sales job at a local shop that got a lot of tourists in during the summer. I'd hardly had time to spend with Emma, and I'd been exhausted whenever I did have an hour or two of time for her. We hadn't gone to the fireworks because I'd been working late on the fourth. Misty had been watching her.
And now here we were, just a year later, sitting on the yacht of one of the preeminent businessmen in the city and waiting to watch the fireworks from one of the best seats possible.
“Things always work out for the best, even if you didn't realize this was the way that things were going to work out,” Andrew agreed, watching Emma. He turned back to me. “I'm really glad you're here, in my life.”
“I am too,” I told him softly.
It was on the tip of my tongue to spill that revelation that I'd had earlier, about loving him, rather than merely liking him, but just then, the fireworks began to go off. It was probably for the best anyway. I wasn't sure that either of us were ready for those declarations just yet.
Emma jumped up and squealed as she watched the bright explosions of blue and green and gold as they sparkled across the sky.
“Boom boom!” she yelled, continuing to jump up and down.
Watching her as I sat there in the arms of this wonderful man, I couldn't picture my life getting any better than it already was. In fact, I was happy enough that I could feel tears in my eyes. Tears of joy. I might not have a job, and I might still be dependent on Andrew for everything from food to a place to live, but it felt like we were cobbling together a family, and I'd wanted that more than I had allowed myself to realize.
“Hey,” Andrew said softly, his long fingers coming up to brush away one of my tears as it traced a slow line down my face. “Are you okay?”
“Perfect,” I choked out, laughing. “The fireworks are beautiful.”
Andrew stared down at me for a long moment, his palm cupping my cheek. “So are you,” he said, and it should have been cheesy, but somehow it wasn't.
He kissed me, and I felt my heart swell with happiness. I wished that things could stay like this, forever. Just us, our family, there on the yacht, watching fireworks in the warm evening twilight. I was pretty sure that I'd never been so happy before in my life, and I wanted to hang on to it.
Andrew pulled back, breaking the kiss, but he continued to hold me close as we returned to watching the fireworks and our daughter's delighted antics.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Andrew
I couldn't help whistling as I headed out to my car that evening. We were on track to pull in record profits that quarter at Orinoco, and I'd had a couple afternoon meetings that day which had gone exceedingly well. Couple that with a few great days off the previous weekend, where Lexi and I had taken Emma camping for the first time, and I was really starting to realize how great my life was.
That was, until I got close to my car, one of the last ones in the parking lot that evening because I did have to work late some nights, and saw someone lurking there waiting for me.
I immediately pulled out my phone, planning to call security. It could just be one of my coworkers wanting to discuss one last detail before we headed home for the day, but I doubted it. It could also be someone having trouble with their car and needing help getting home for the night. But I doubted they'd be waiting here for me if that were the case. They'd be more likely to wait by the exit to the building.
Whoever it was, they were there waiting for me specifically. And I feared it meant they might try to mug me, or even kidnap me and ransom me.
Or worse, that they've kidnapped Emma and Lexi and are looking for you to pay to find out where they were, I thought.
I forced myself to walk forward with measured steps, knowing that if I showed how worried I was, things could escalate quickly. But I breathed out noisily when I realized who was really there, lurking in the shadows next to my car. I should have known. Fucking Renée.
“You psycho bitch,” I swore. “You've gone too far this time. What the fuck are you doing? Stalking me?”
“Of course not,” Renée said, tossing her hair casually back over her shoulder. She stepped closer to me. “Anyway, it's good to see you, too.” She sounded sarcastic, as though she really expected there should be any reason for me to welcome her presence here.
“Get away from my car,” I spat. “I'm going home.”
“You should take a look at what I've got first,” Renée said, waving around a file folder.
“I don't give a shit,” I told her, incensed. “Whatever it is that you think you've got there, you can shove it up your ass. Stay the fuck away from me and my family. And if I see you near my company again, I'll have no choice but to call the police and get a restraining order.”
I didn't really want to do that. The paperwork would be messy, and I knew that the tabloids would be all over it. Renée came from a wealthy family, and I respected her father quite a bit. I knew that he wouldn't want to see his daughter's reputation ruined. But it was getting to the point where she was leaving me no choice.
“Just read it, would you?” Renée snarled, shoving the folder against my chest so that I had no choice but to accept it.
I rolled my eyes and flipped it open, making a big show of glancing through it.
“I had a private investigator do a little digging,” Renée told me. “Of course, it was hard to find someone willing to bend a few minor laws and do what I required, but once I found the guy, it was almost too easy. You're being conned.”
“Oh, am I?” I asked, deciding just to humor her so that I could finally go home and get some peace and quiet.
“The private investigator was able to get some hairs to do a little DNA testing,” she said. “And I, of course, had plenty of samples of your hair on the clothes that you left at my place.”
I stared at her, wondering where she was going with this. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was even later than I'd told Lexi that it would be. I was rapidly getting impatient.
“She set you up,” Renée said triumphantly. “You aren't the father of that brat. The bitch is just trying to extort money out of you, and you're playing right along with it! This isn't the first time, either. At least once in the past, she's been arrested for fraud. Not in the state of Washington, of course, but my private investigator was able to find out everything about her.”
I sighed and pressed my fingertips to my temples. “I don't believe a word that you're saying,” I told her. “Especially since a simple DNA test would, in fact, prove if Lexi was conning me or not, and she knows very well that I have all the resources to have one ordered and expedited. She wouldn't have been stupid enough to try it.”
“That's all part of her scheme, though,” she crowed. “You didn't actually get the DNA test done, did you? She tells you that you could, and you assume that she would only say that if the brat truly was yours. But then you never actually go through with the paternity test, and you never find out that she's conni
ng you.” She shook her head. “To be honest, I didn't realize what a scam she was running until you made that comment about how I was just mad that her skills were better than mine and that she'd been able to trick her way into your life. If you hadn't said that, I might never have uncovered all of that evidence.”
“This is hardly evidence,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Sure, you got some guy to pull together what you claimed was Emma's hair and my hair. And I’d like to know how the fuck you got it. For all I know, you're the one trying to con me.”
“Don't be ridiculous,” Renée said, and for a moment, I wondered if she actually believed the words coming out of her mouth. Especially when she continued. “I know that you and I are over. You made that quite clear the last time I saw you, when I came to your office. I understand that. But I still care about you. We were friends first, remember? Before we started dating.” She ignored my concern over the validity of the hair sample. It wouldn’t be too hard to get, but it was disturbing nevertheless.
“What we were can hardly qualify as friends,” I said acidly.
“Whatever you want to call it then,” Renée said, rolling her eyes. “We ran in the same circles. We grew up together. We had a relationship long before we were dating. I don't want to see you get conned, especially not by some girl from the wrong side of the tracks. You always were too nice to people.”
I couldn't help laughing at that one. “That's the first time I've ever been called that,” I said. I shook my head. “Renée, we're never getting back together. I don't care if you think you can be nice to me or remind me of what we used to have. Whatever game you think you're playing, just stop. And take this stupid folder back. I'm not going to carry around the evidence of your lunacy.”
“For the last time, Andrew, it's not lunacy,” Renée said, her mood starting to swing back in the other direction. She put her hands on her hips, refusing to take the folder. “Look, I'd go to the police myself, but you're the only one who can really testify to her fraud. But you need to go to the police.”
