by Marie Force
“So that’s what this is?”
“This is me doing a favor for a dear friend. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“There are ways you can do this favor without ever laying a hand on her.”
“I’m well aware of that, as is she. We’ve agreed that we prefer the time-tested method of conception over the laboratory version.”
Emmett pauses for another long moment before he says, “Does she have representation?”
“She’s arranging that today. Shall I have her lawyer get in touch?”
“Um, sure, that’d be good.”
“You’re not bowling me over with your enthusiasm.”
After another long pause, Emmett says, “Despite our close friendship, you’re still one of my bosses, Jasper, and my job is to protect you, the other principals and Quantum itself from exposure. I wouldn’t be doing my job as your counsel if I didn’t tell you I think this might be a bad idea. As your friend, I fear it won’t be as simple as you make it out to be, and I worry you’re getting into something that could be disastrous for you on a number of levels, not the least of which is that Flynn will kill you if he ever finds out—and people you consider close friends may offer to help him.”
I listen to what he has to say, and even though I don’t agree, I appreciate the place it’s coming from. Indeed, we pay him to look out for our best interests, and that’s all he’s doing. But his warnings aren’t going to convince me to rescind my offer. I’d never do that to Ellie—and besides, I’m looking forward to it too much to even think about reneging.
“I understand what you’re saying and why you’re saying it, but I’m set on this. If you’re concerned about being put in an odd position with Flynn, I can get someone else—”
“No. You’re not getting someone else.”
“Very good, then. We’d like to get the details sorted this week. I know you’re swamped after vacation, but I’d appreciate a swift resolution.”
“No problem,” he says, though I can tell he still isn’t happy about it.
No matter. He doesn’t need to be happy. He just needs to make sure it’s all set up the way we want it.
“Once I hear from her attorney, I’ll draw up the papers and set up a meeting for all of us on Thursday. Will that work?”
Three days. I suppose I can wait three more days if I have to. “That works. Thank you.” I get up to leave, but I feel his gaze on me as I go. If I’m being truthful, I probably would’ve said the same stuff to him if the roles were reversed.
The hallway is deserted, so I take a chance and knock on Ellie’s closed door, and when she calls out to come in, I duck in before anyone can see me. Yes, I’m aware that I’m being somewhat silly, but our plan feels fragile and tenuous. I’m terrified of something messing it up—like her brother catching wind of it and freaking out before we can consummate our plans.
“Hi,” she says, giving me a curious, adorable look. “Just dropping in?”
I realize I’m leaning against the back of her door, acting as if I’ve escaped from something. Reaching for my lapels, I adjust the fit of my bespoke suit coat and try to find some of my legendary cool. I’m so rarely rattled that the emotion catches me off guard. “I saw Emmett.”
“And?”
I drop into her visitor chair, my gaze drawn to the photo of her with her parents that sits on the credenza behind her desk. Today, Ellie is wearing a pretty floral silk blouse and her hair is down. She’s lightly tanned from the trip, and the dusting of freckles on her nose is so damned sweet.
“Jasper? Are you all right?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to stare. You look quite lovely today. Well, every day, but today in particular.” I sound like an utter prat. When she asks me what an utter prat is, I realize I’ve said that out loud. “It’s slang for idiot.”
“Ahh, well, you’re not an idiot, but you are acting sort of strange.”
I comb my fingers through my hair, looking for a way to expend some of the energy rattling around inside me. “Emmett threw me for a bit of a loop.”
“Why? Does he disapprove?”
“He didn’t say so in as many words, but the gist was that I may regret signing away full custody of a baby who hasn’t even been conceived yet.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t worry, I haven’t changed my mind about that or anything.”
“That wasn’t the part I most expected him to object to.”
“Well, he did mention the possibility of Flynn and others I consider close mates conspiring to murder me.”
That makes her laugh, and the husky, sexy sound catches J.T.’s immediate attention. I cross my legs, hoping to squash the blood supply, but J.T. is a persistent bugger when he sets his mind on something—or someone.
“Have your attorney contact him. He promised to get it done this week.”
“I’ll have her call him today.”
“I’d like to take you to dinner tonight.” I hadn’t planned to say that when I came in here, but I need to see her away from the minefield that is the office. I need more of her, and that need isn’t just coming from J.T. It’s bigger than that, a thought that makes my heart beat a little faster than usual. What the bloody hell is wrong with me?
“Oh, um, sure. I can do that. I have to get Randy from my parents’ house, but I could go after that.”
I decide to get out before J.T. blows up into a full-on cock stand that she’ll surely notice. “Great. I’ll pick you up at your place at eight.” I’m out the door before she can reply or see what being around her has done to me. Christ, I’m a wreck, and I haven’t even touched her yet.
Chapter 4
The second Jasper leaves my office, I’m on the phone with the woman who handles all my waxing needs. I’ve been going to her for years, but she’s usually booked solid weeks in advance. This is one of those instances in which the Godfrey name comes in handy. She’s done for the day at five thirty, but agrees to see me after hours. I have no idea whether “dinner” is another of Jasper’s euphemisms, and I need to be ready just in case.
His invitation demolishes my concentration for the rest of the day. I sit in on several meetings with my team to go over the sort of details I usually wallow in when it comes to my work. Today, I can’t be bothered. All I can think about is the way he looked this morning in a navy suit coat that had obviously been handmade for him, his hair brushed back off his forehead the way he wears it to work, his cheekbones prominent, his skin tanned from the vacation and his golden-brown eyes—
“Ellie?” My assistant, Dax, looks at me with raised brows. He’s a hipster, from the top of his curly head to his black-framed glasses to the stud earing, formfitting T-shirt hawking a band I’ve never heard of, and his lanky frame. He’s also frighteningly efficient, and I’d be lost without him. “You with us?”
“Yes, sorry, what was the question?”
“We’re talking about the location shoot in Helsinki. Kristian and Hayden had a few questions that we’re working on getting answered.”
“Right, Helsinki. Okay, what’ve you got?”
The meeting ends a short time later, and my team files out, leaving me alone with Dax.
“Where are you today, boss lady?” he asks. “Still on vacation?”
“Maybe,” I reply with a sheepish smile. “It was a good vacation. I have to leave at four today. I’ll catch up from home later.”
“Sure, no problem. I’ll be here late.”
“I appreciate the long hours you’ve been putting in lately. It hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
“Are you kidding? My friends are so jealous that I work here, and I love it so much it hardly feels like work.”
I hired him after he interned with me while attending UCLA’s film school, and he’s made himself completely indispensable to me over the last two years. I need to talk to the principals about a raise for him. “Appreciate it.”
I return to my office, wade through the swamp that is my email box and acknowledge that J
asper has succeeded in ruining me for the rest of the day. At three, I let Dax know I’m leaving and head out to pick up Randy at my parents’ house.
On the ride to Beverly Hills, it occurs to me that I need to get my shit together. I can’t afford to blow off work to focus on baby-making and sexy Brits. I’ve got too much to do and too many people counting on me to get flaky. Besides, I’m going to need to support this child I plan to conceive, so screwing up at work isn’t on my agenda.
Tomorrow I’ll go back with new focus and give the job my usual attention. But today… Today’s a bust. I arrive at my parents’ place and see my sister Annie’s Mercedes SUV parked outside. I hope she’s brought the boys. Inside, Ada, our longtime housekeeper, greets me with a kiss.
“Nice to see you,” Ada says. “How was the trip?”
“Fantastic. The return to reality, however, is not so great.”
“Ah, give yourself a break. You’ll get back in the groove. Are you hungry?”
“I could go for a little snack.”
“Coming right up, honey.”
“You’re the best, Ada.” She’s worked for our family since we were kids, and we adore her.
“You all say that when you show up hungry,” she says, laughing as she heads for the kitchen, calling over her shoulder, “They’re out back.”
Though it’s only in the low seventies today, my nephews are in the pool that my dad keeps heated year-round for his grandkids. Connor, Annie’s oldest at seven, is jumping into the deep end with his mom and my dad standing watch as Mason, age four, and Garrett, age two, splash around the stairs in the shallow end with my mom watching them.
Connor lets out a yell when he sees me. “Auntie El, watch this!” He performs a perfect cannonball that soaks my father, who laughs.
“That was a ten,” I tell my grinning nephew when he resurfaces. His blond hair is plastered to his head, and his missing front teeth are adorable.
“Watch me spit through the hole in my head!”
“I’m watching.” I laugh when he shoots the water through the gap. “Enjoy that while it lasts.”
Mom holds out a hand to me. “Welcome home, honey.”
I take her hand and bend to kiss her cheek, which is hidden under a huge straw hat. The scent of Joy, the perfume she’s worn all my life, tells me I’m home. I kick off my shoes and sit next to her, feet in the pool.
“How was the trip?” Dad asks.
“Horrible. We hated it.”
“Don’t say ‘hate,’ Aunt El,” Mason says. “It’s a bad word.”
“You’re absolutely right, and I’m only teasing. We loved it.”
“I’m so jealous,” Annie says from her perch, seated at the center of the pool with her feet in the water. “Our unencumbered siblings jetting off for fun in the sun while Aimee and I are stuck at home. No fair.”
A sharp stab of pain in the vicinity of my heart takes me by surprise. If only my sister knew how badly I want to be encumbered. “Don’t give me that baloney. Flynn told me you and Aimee are using the house over spring break.”
“That’s more than a month and a half from now,” Annie says, sighing.
“That’s what you get for enrolling your kids in school,” Dad says with a teasing grin. “I told you you’d regret that.”
“You also told us we should homeschool, as if that’d ever happen,” Annie replies.
“Are you off today?” I ask her.
“I worked this morning while the monkeys were in school and preschool. I’ve given up on working afternoons.” She runs a small law practice from her home, working around the boys’ schedules.
“She brought them here to burn off excess energy,” Mom adds. “Which is just fine with us.” Garrett comes up the stairs on chubby little toddler legs that I want to bite. He’s so damned cute. Mom removes his swim vest and wraps him up in a big beach towel, mindless of the fact that he’s probably getting her wet. My parents are magnificent, hands-on grandparents, and I can’t wait to see them with my child.
Garrett pops his thumb in his mouth, his eyes heavy as he stares at me.
I lean over to kiss his soft cheek, and he giggles.
“Are you still good for Saturday night?” Annie asks me.
“I can’t wait.” The boys are sleeping over at my house while their parents go to a wedding in Santa Barbara.
“You’re the best aunt ever,” Annie says.
Though I know she’s sucking up to me because I’m going to watch her kids, the compliment goes straight to my heart. Being the best aunt ever to all my nieces and nephews is very important to me. “I invited Ivy and India to come help me,” I say of Aimee’s daughters, who are seven and nine.
“Good call,” Annie says. “You’ll need crowd control.”
“Tell the girls your news, Stel,” Dad says. He’s got his arms propped behind him, his demeanor casual, but I pick up on some unusual tension between my parents, who are, without a doubt, the happiest married people I’ve ever known.
“What news?” Annie asks. Even though she’s wearing sunglasses, I can see her brows narrow into what we call her lawyer mode.
Mom adjusts the towel to protect Garrett from the late-afternoon sun. “I’ve been offered a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.”
“What does that mean?” Annie asks for both of us.
“Your mom would have her own show, five nights a week, for two years,” Dad says. “It’s a huge honor.”
“You’re moving to Vegas?” The words are out of my mouth before I can take a second to contemplate what I’m saying or how I’m saying it. How can my parents be moving when I’m about to have a baby?
“Nothing has been decided yet,” Mom says. “I’ve received the offer, and your father and I are talking it over. There’s a lot to consider.” She snuggles Garrett in closer to her as Mason works his way onto her lap, too. Even Connor has gone quiet as he swims in the shallow end. Life without Grammy and Pappy here whenever we need them? Unimaginable! “I can’t fathom living away from my family for six months a year.”
Six months a year? I can see Annie’s what-the-fuck expression even with her sunglasses covering her eyes. They can’t live in Vegas for six months a year! No way. And yes, I realize I’m nearly thirty-six, but I see my parents a couple of times a week. Our family is close. We always have been. The thought of them living out of state for half the year makes me slightly nauseated, especially in light of my plans. How can I have a baby without my mom nearby to talk me through every aspect of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood?
“What do you think, Dad?” Annie asks.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for Mom, and she’s sacrificed many opportunities to raise kids and support my career. Even though neither of us is super eager to live in Vegas, I’m leaving it totally up to her. I’ll go where she goes.”
Underneath the perfect-husband response, I sense his tension. He doesn’t want to go, and I can’t blame him. His kids and grandkids are in LA. He doesn’t want to be away from us, but he’s being supportive of her.
“When do you have to decide?” I ask.
“Not for a couple of weeks yet, so don’t fret. We’ll figure it out.”
Don’t fret. Right. How will I think about anything else until she decides?
The sliding door opens, and Ada comes out with snacks and Randy, who bolts toward me the second he sees me, smothering me with dog love and the wet, sloppy kisses that I adore. He’s a mixed breed of unknown age and origin who I rescued from a local shelter. His head is white, his body is brown and black and his paws are almost as huge as his heart, which belongs entirely to me—and my dad, who spoils him rotten when I’m away.
“Hey, sweet boy.” Hugging him close, I kiss his cute face. “Did you miss your mama?”
He responds with a sharp bark that makes the boys laugh. We swear he understands every word I say.
With the weight of my mother’s news hanging over us, I help Annie get the boys changed, and we enjoy cheese,
crackers and fruit along with Ada’s special homemade lemonade that I’ve loved all my life. She makes it for me to take home, and I spike it with vodka, not that I tell her that. I bet she suspects, though. Not much gets by the beloved housekeeper who helped to raise the Godfrey kids. She’s just back from an extended trip to Puerto Rico to visit her family. It’s the first real vacation she’s taken in years. My parents insisted she go for two months, which is how she managed to miss Flynn’s wedding.
Randy and I head home in the late-afternoon Los Angeles traffic, my thoughts racing with the possibility of my parents splitting their time between LA and Vegas. I didn’t think anything could get my mind off baby-making with Jasper, but my mom’s news has me reeling. And of course that makes me feel selfish. Dad is right. Mom sacrificed a lot to raise us and support his career. She put her own successful singing career on hold when Annie was born and didn’t go back to performing until Flynn was in high school.
Surely she deserves this opportunity to headline her own show. I vow to support whatever decision she makes, no matter how it might affect me, but the thought of them being so far away from us for months on end leaves me with a sick feeling in my belly.
Randy bounds into the house and heads straight for his water bowl, parched after hanging his head out the window all the way home. I get him settled and then head out to my appointment, which is a couple of blocks from my house, so I walk.
They know me at the salon and spa I’ve frequented for years, and the receptionist waves me through to the waxing area, where Bryn, my longtime friend, greets me with a hug. In her mid-twenties, Bryn is petite with hot pink hair, multiple studs in her ears and one in her nose, and sleeve tattoos on both arms. She’s one of the coolest girls I know.
“Look at how tan you are!”
“I’m not tan. I have a few more freckles.”
“Well, for you that’s tan. Come on in.”
Bryn talks to me like we’re out for drinks while she waxes my legs and bikini area. In deference to my plans, I go for a full Brazilian.
“Got a hot date?” she asks when we’re finished.
“Something like that.” I’m not sure what you’d call what I have planned with Jasper, but “date” doesn’t seem like the right word.