by Jane Peden
She heard Olivia laughing now and saw her pointing with JD at a group of teenagers on a speedboat, pulling a boy on a wakeboard behind them.
Olivia had grown up snowboarding, and was no doubt anxious to test her theory that those skills easily translated to the water.
Within days Camilla would be married to Sam. What was worrying her, though, was how she was going to explain to a four-year-old who’d just lost the only father he’d ever known that his mother was about to get married again, to a man JD had met only a few weeks ago.
…
The events coordinator was gushing. Her attitude, Sam noted, had taken an abrupt turn from her initially curt reaction to the impromptu wedding once he pulled out his shiny black credit card and told her price was no object.
They were sitting in her small office finalizing the details when he saw Camilla headed across the lobby. She spotted him and homed in, striding determinedly toward him and looking none too happy.
“There you are, darling,” Sam said. “Mrs. Donnelly, I’d like you to meet my fiancée, Camilla.”
“Oh, call me Margot, dear,” she said, then turned her gaze back again to Camilla’s left hand. “May I?”
Camilla blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“Your ring, sweetheart,” Sam said. “I believe Margot would like a closer look.”
“Oh, Ms. Winthrop.” Margot all but cooed as she came around the desk and took Camilla’s hand. “How absolutely lovely. Please sit down, we were just finishing going over the plans for your special day, but I’m sure you want to be involved in every detail.”
Camilla was holding her hand out with barely controlled civility, while the eyes locked on his were flashing with anger. Was she that offended that he’d left the ring box on her bedside table that morning, with a note telling her that he expected to see it—and no other ring—on her finger? Considering the price he’d paid the jeweler in Miami last week for the large square-cut pink diamond flanked by two white diamonds, she could at least appreciate the fact that he’d bought her a decent ring. His marriage may be a farce, but he’d be damned if she was going to walk down the aisle to him still wearing another man’s ring.
“So,” Margot bubbled. “Shall we review the decisions…ah, recommendations…Mr. Flanagan and I were just discussing?”
“What? No.” Camilla answered without turning her head away from Sam. “I’m sure whatever the two of you have come up with will be just fine. Just lovely,” she amended.
“Camilla loves surprises,” Sam explained, and Margot’s puzzled look softened.
“Well, then, that’s fine. I know you two must be so excited about your big day. Eloping.” She sighed. “It’s so romantic.”
The look his future bride was giving Sam was anything but romantic.
“Camilla,” he said, in the sweetest tone he could manage. “I think all the excitement is wearing you out. Why don’t you go have something to drink on the terrace, and I’ll join you as soon as Margot and I are done.”
“I can wait,” Camilla said.
“We can handle the details later,” Margot said, shooing them with her hand. “You two run along and just leave everything to me. I can tell you’re anxious to have a little time alone together.”
“I certainly am,” Camilla said.
“Thank you, Margot,” Sam said. “We could never have pulled all this together without your expertise.”
Margot preened. “It’s all part of the service we provide.”
As they left the office doorway she called after them. “Don’t forget the fitting at two o’clock!”
Camilla turned back slowly. “The fitting?”
“Margot has kindly arranged to have a number of wedding dresses delivered to our suite this afternoon for you to make a selection.”
“Yes,” Margot said. “And there will be a seamstress there so she can immediately start making adjustments. Now that I’ve had the chance to meet you, I can see your fiancé was right—you’re a perfect size 4, aren’t you?”
“You know my dress size?” Camilla said, looking at Sam.
“Darling, there’s nothing I don’t know about you,” he said, careful to keep the edge out of his voice, not that Margot would have noticed anyway.
“You’re so lucky, dear,” Margot said, “to have a man who knows you so well.”
“Yes, aren’t I?”
“Too-da-loo now! And don’t hesitate to just pick up the phone in your room and dial six if you think of anything else you’ll need.”
Sam steered Camilla toward the terrace while Margot beamed after them.
“Would you mind not holding my arm so tightly?” Camilla hissed.
“Would you mind trying to look a little more pleased to have my hands on you? We’re about to become newlyweds, you know.” He turned, and still in Margot’s direct line of vision, pulled Camilla against him and kissed her. It was the first time he’d touched her since that night in the limo, and he brushed his lips lightly over hers and felt a perverse satisfaction when he felt her tremble.
“Nice to see I still have this effect on you, darling, even when you’re angry.”
“It’s the anger that’s making me tremble, not your clumsy attempts at seduction,” she said.
She looked surprised when he burst out laughing. Damned if he didn’t want to haul her up to their suite and take her to bed right now.
He settled for whispering in her ear. “Maybe your memory has faded from Las Vegas. But I’ll have plenty of time to remind you on our wedding night.”
She actually blushed, but she looked even more furious. They went through the French doors onto the terrace and she waited, staring down at the ring on her hand until the waiter had taken their order.
She looked up then. “How could you?”
“What, you wanted to pick out your own ring?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Since I’ll be giving it back to you in a year, it hardly matters.”
He waited while she fumed.
“You know very well the ring isn’t what I’m upset about.”
“Humor me.”
“Fine.” She lowered her voice. “I’m talking about that little walk you took on the beach with JD this morning. While I was sleeping.”
Of course. He’d been a bit angry himself when he discovered she hadn’t even told the boy about the wedding yet. Had she planned on waiting until she walked down the aisle?
He said as much to her, and she had the good graces to at least look uncomfortable.
“I just hadn’t found the right time yet. I was going to tell him later today.”
“Right.”
He’d stopped by the suite of rooms she was sharing with Olivia and JD, intending to give her the ring in person, and found the child playing quietly in the sitting area. JD had solemnly informed him that he was allowed to get out of bed and play with his toys before Mommy got up, as long as he was very, very quiet and never, ever opened the door to the hallway. Sam had been about to leave and head out for his morning run along the beach when he’d had the sudden urge to invite JD to go with him.
So they’d left a note for Camilla and weighted it down with the “little box” before heading down to the beach.
Sam had thought JD was a quiet child, but suddenly found that he couldn’t stop talking. But when they were looking through shells, and Sam asked him what he thought about them all becoming a family, JD had looked up at him, puzzled.
“Don’t you know about your mom and me getting married?” Sam had asked, shocked that Camilla apparently hadn’t told JD anything.
JD dug at the sand with his toe and shook his head, suddenly quiet.
Sam had knelt down, brushed the hair back from the boy’s forehead, and looked into those bright blue eyes, wide and innocent, the way Camilla’s must have been as a young girl, before that innocence was corrupted by a social climbing mother and a criminal stepfather. Things would be different for his son.
“Your mom and I are getting married,�
� he repeated. “Do you understand what that means, JD?”
The little boy looked up then. “That you’re my new daddy?” He bit his lower lip, frowning.
Sam was about to tell him yes. He wanted to start out the relationship by being honest. Then he remembered what it had felt like when, at age nine, a stepfather had suddenly been thrust into his own life.
“JD,” Sam said, and waited until the child focused his attention. “You already have a daddy, but he’s up in heaven and can’t do stuff with you, right?”
JD nodded.
“So what if you had a second daddy? One down here on Earth, who could take you to baseball games, and…and look for cool stuff on the beach.”
“Have two daddies?”
“That’s right.”
The child had considered, and Sam caught himself holding his breath. Ridiculous that this moment should mean so much. He had plenty of time to get to know his son, to win him over like a reluctant juror. But somehow this moment did matter. A lot.
Then JD had slipped his tiny hand in Sam’s large one, and said, “Okay, Sam. You can be my down-here daddy.”
The power of the waves crashing onto the shore had been nothing compared to the sudden swell of pride and protectiveness that had pushed unexpectedly into Sam’s heart.
As the waiter delivered their drinks and Camilla still sat there, anger emanating from her like a radioactive missile, Sam felt his own annoyance grow.
“You want to tell me why you are so worked up about me talking to my own son?”
“You had no right to tell him about the wedding. You should have discussed it with me first.”
“Oh, the way you’ve discussed everything with me for the last four years?” He leaned toward her. “Things have changed, Camilla, and you might as well get used to it. You don’t make all the decisions about JD anymore.”
“I’m his mother. I know how to talk to him about something like this without upsetting him.”
Sam leaned back. “Did he seem upset when I brought him back?”
“No,” she admitted, “he wasn’t upset.” She paused, then added, seemingly reluctantly, “I can see how much he likes you already, Sam. You’re good with him. Better than I expected.”
Well, at least that was something. Maybe Camilla was starting to realize that what mattered most to him was having the chance to be a real father to JD.
He tried reason. “Camilla. I took my son for a walk. I told him about the wedding. We talked it over, and he’s fine.”
She leaned forward in her chair. “And that’s another thing. You can’t just take him whenever you want. You have to tell me.”
“I don’t need your permission, Camilla, to spend time with my son.”
“Look, Sam, this isn’t going to work if we can’t stop fighting all the time. It’s not good for JD.”
“You’re the one who’s making a big deal about this. JD’s fine about the wedding. He thinks having two daddies is a pretty good deal.”
“I don’t want you to hurt him.”
“For God’s sake, Camilla, you think I would hurt him?”
“I think he’s a novelty to you now. What happens when he starts to depend on you? Are you going to walk away from him, like you walked away from me five years ago?”
“That’s hardly the same thing. JD’s my son. You and I were just two people who had a…casual affair for a couple of weeks,” Sam said, although he knew his two weeks with Camilla had been anything but casual. He could admit to himself that that’s what had scared him.
“It may have been casual to you, but the consequences were serious to me.”
He felt his temper spurt. “Do I have to remind you again that the reason we’re in this situation is that you didn’t bother to contact me when you realized you were pregnant?”
Her eyes flashed angrily at him. “I told you before, that’s not true.” She lowered her voice. “I called you the second I found out, Sam. I was frantic. The first time they said you weren’t available, and I just hung up. Then I called back later the same day and left a message for you to call me.”
Sam tried to remember what was going on back then.
“It must have been, what, a couple months after Las Vegas?”
She nodded. “Almost three months. At first I didn’t realize I was pregnant. Then I think I just didn’t want to believe it was possible.”
Sam leaned back in his chair, considering. Could Camilla be telling the truth? “Things were crazy around there after we’d just opened our practice. A local magazine did a feature on us as up-and-coming eligible bachelors. The phones were ringing off the hook at that point.” And after a dozen or so calls from women who were just calling in response to the article, they’d tightened up the call-screening procedure at the front desk.
“Why didn’t you keep calling? Or send me an email?”
She raised her eyes to meet his. “I couldn’t risk sending an email. What if Danny saw it?”
“So you quit trying to contact me, just like that.”
She looked away. “I called you the day he was born.”
Her voice was low and halting, as if the words were difficult to get out. She finally looked back at him, met his eyes. “The first time I held him, I realized no matter what the risks were to me, I had to let you know.”
What was she talking about? He’d never gotten that phone call from Camilla, either. He shook his head.
“I talked to your secretary. You were in some big trial. She said she’d give you the message.”
“You told my secretary you just had my baby?” He remembered the formidable woman who’d worked for him when they started the practice, and imagined what her reaction would have been to that news. But there’s no way she’d have kept it from him.
“No, of course not. I just gave her my name and asked her to have you call me…on a personal matter.”
Sam shook his head. Dolores had been an old-school legal secretary and prided herself as serving as an effective gatekeeper. Potential clients who stated their business got through. Women who called the office with vague references to a “personal matter” didn’t.
“I never got the message, Camilla.” He spoke gently this time.
Her clear blue eyes were glistening with a sheen of moisture. “You made it very clear to me in Vegas that you weren’t looking for any kind of commitment. And that was what I wanted, too. But I had to try one more time when JD was born. When you didn’t call me back, I told myself that was my answer.”
Maybe she did call him. But four long years had gone by with no other contact from her. Until now.
“What’s important now is JD.” He leaned forward. “I would never—never—do anything to hurt JD.”
“Well, excuse me if I don’t take your word for that.”
“We may only be married as a temporary thing, Camilla, but I’m going to be in JD’s life for the long haul. I’m not one of those guys who sends a child support check when he happens to think about it, and can’t bother to remember his own kid’s birthday.” He heard the bitterness in his own voice and pushed his chair back from the table abruptly. This was about JD, not his own childhood.
“If you interfere with me spending time with my son, Camilla, you’ll be sorry.”
The look she gave him was steel. “And if you break my little boy’s heart, I’ll make sure you pay for it for the rest of your life.”
As she walked away, Sam wished he could believe all that righteous anger from Camilla was really on JD’s account. Everything he’d seen since she came back into his life made him want to believe she really was the devoted, caring mother she appeared to be. But if she honestly cared so much for her son, wouldn’t she have tried a little harder to reach him? She could so easily have given him a chance to step up and take responsibility for his own child.
No, he reluctantly concluded. Camilla hadn’t been concerned at all about her son having a relationship with his father. Especially when that father was a young lawyer
just embarking on a start-up business, who had lots of dreams and lots of debts. She’d had her eye on the money, and the chance to turn an accidental pregnancy into a $10 million trust fund that she controlled. So save your indignation for somebody else, Camilla, he thought. Because he was far from convinced.
Chapter Eight
“I appreciate you following up on this for me.”
Ritchie was drinking his third cup of coffee while Sam finished reading through the papers.
“A prenup makes sense when you don’t know if a marriage is going to work out,” Ritchie said. “It’s obviously a necessity in your case.”
Sam looked up. “So why the disapproval?”
“What you’re doing is wrong. And it’s immoral.”
“Making sure I have my son?”
“Turning marriage into a farce. Taking holy vows when you have no intention of keeping them.”
Sam felt himself getting defensive. “It’s not like we’re getting married in a church.”
“It doesn’t matter. Marriage is a sacrament. You make a promise before God.”
“It’s a civil ceremony on a beach,” Sam said, not wanting to admit that Ritchie was making him uncomfortable. It did feel wrong to make vows he had no intention of keeping—especially in front of JD and Olivia. But what choice did he have? “Look, it’s the only solution.”
“You are going to promise to love and cherish this woman as long as you both live. You don’t love her, and you certainly don’t cherish her.”
“I need to protect my son.”
“So get her to acknowledge paternity. Sign a joint custody agreement. There are other ways to do this.”
Sam shook his head. “She’d never agree to that, and it wouldn’t stop her in-laws from trying to take custody of the child they think is their grandson. The only sure way I can stop them is by marrying Camilla and adopting JD.”
Ritchie nodded. “So by marrying the mother not only do you establish your rights to the child, you also protect the mother from losing him.”
