“Why would I do that?” he asked.
“Because your brother has arranged a docent tour at the museum for Chelsea.” She lifted her wrist and noted the time. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if we caught up with them?
“At the museum?”
For a smart guy, he was sometimes unbelievably thick.
“Yes, John. At the museum. If you want to see Samantha, that’s where she’ll be. With Chelsea.”
His eyes darted around the office as he considered her offer. Jen was curious about his reaction to Samantha’s mothering role and whether he’d balk at the prospect of spending time with a seven-year-old.
Gently reminding him that he’d met the girl, Jen started dropping a bread crumb trail.
“Chelsea took second place in her age category at the company bowling tournament. You handed out the trophy, remember?”
She was nothing but proud of him when he scowled. “Yes. She wore a Lloyd t-shirt, and Samantha took a million pictures. Instagram mostly.”
Jen’s brows shot up. Was he saying he followed Samantha on Instagram? Holy fried bologna! This was huger than huge. John Lloyd and social media did not have any sort of relationship. He only had an Instagram account because his aunt forced the issue so he could stay in the loop with what his cousins were up to.
John’s interest in Samantha was obvious, but he was such a social mess that Jen worried it’d take forever to get him on the right page. But this thing was further along with him than she realized, and suddenly, church bells clanged in her head!
Oh, the possibilities! John and Samantha were perfect for each other.
His frown took her by surprise. “Why is Ryan involved? Is there something I should know?”
The ah-ha moment as she picked apart his weird mood shift was quite the eye-opener. He was jealous of his brother. Best that she take all the air out of that worry.
“He’s not interested in her, John. You know how Ryan is. A friendly conversation uncovered a shared passion. Chelsea is crazy into science and stuff like that, and he has a connection in every dusty library and exhibit coast to coast.”
He accepted her explanation and explicitly added, “I think his interest lies elsewhere.”
Her eyes lifted. What was he referring to? For the briefest moment, she suspected he was messing with her, but John wasn’t socially skillful enough for something like that. Or was he?
She ignored the fact he was studying her like a microscope slide and got down to it. Next Wednesday couldn’t get here soon enough. Two important meetings and a critical conference call would force her into work at the start of the week, but then she had ten days of glorious, uninterrupted vacation time lined up.
Loving her job and caring about John were admirable qualities, but she was human too and needed some goddamn downtime.
On or off? John wondered as he checked his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Leaving his tie on felt stuffy, but it felt weird to take it off during a workday.
What did someone wear to a day at the museum? Was he overdressed?
Didn’t matter. Pfft. It wasn’t like he owned a pair of jeans. Plus, all his work clothes were standard power suits. Casual wasn’t his thing.
“No tie it is then,” he murmured to his reflection.
Back at his desk, he spun toward the windows in his big leather chair, brought up a search window on his phone, and typed, ‘What interests a seven-year-old?’
Most of the search results focused on gift giving, but he found one about child development with the information he was hoping for. Presumably, a kid Chelsea’s age was curious, had a long attention span, good language skills, and enjoyed creative pursuits. All things considered, it seemed to him like a day at the museum was tailor-made for a second grader.
My god, he was nervous.
By expecting Samantha to be at work, he found a surprising truth inside his disappointment. He just didn’t liked things to be the same every day—where Samantha Matthews was concerned, he had a more personal interest and corresponding letdown to her absence.
He liked her.
A lot.
Why else was he so eager to ditch work on a Friday and prowl around a museum with a kid? A kid who might not like him.
“Are we ready?” Jen asked when she snuck up on him.
“This is a bad idea,” he grumbled.
“No, it’s not,” she replied.
John almost chuckled. Her answer was standard. She’d never ask why. Not when he was being a complaining jerk. That approach wasn’t her style. In a lot of ways, Jen was the anti warm and fuzzy person. She didn’t care much for nonsense and wouldn’t cater to it.
“Come on,” she snapped. Making one of those ‘get moving’ hand gestures, she prodded him toward the door.
Was it weird that he obeyed?
Oh, most definitely.
Was it even weirder that he displayed a case of the sulks as he moped his way to the elevator?
Absolutely.
He waited till they were alone in the elevator to say anything.
“What if the kid doesn’t like me?”
“John, she’s seven. Hardly a menace.”
“You’re missing the point.”
Jen examined her reflection on the shiny elevator wall and wiped a finger on her teeth. “No, I’m not.”
Her nonchalance exasperated him. He was trying to focus on the heart of the matter, and her refusal to let him bellyache cut him off at the knees. She also wouldn’t argue the point.
Great.
In the limo, she chatted with his driver and made a bunch of sports references that flew over his head. He kept touching the buttons near his collar, wishing he’d left the tie on.
His cell phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket, but she snatched it from him before he could answer. She looked at the screen.
“Who’s Arthur?”
“My dentist.”
She turned the phone all the way off and handed it back.
“Rule number one.”
He blinked and held his breath.
“When you spend time with a woman—”
“Samantha,” he cut in. “Not any woman. Samantha.”
Jen nodded and appeared to manage a smile. “Yes, Samantha. When you spend time with Samantha, you don’t multitask. Understand?”
“No phone?” he asked.
“Now see,” she replied with a bit of a bite. “That’s such a guy response. Right away, you made it about you. And the phone.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Yes, I know,” she drawled. “Which is why you must pay attention, John. It’s not about you or your damn phone. It’s about Samantha. If she’s a priority, then you have to treat your time with her accordingly.”
He frowned and worked on the meaning of her words.
“You wouldn’t order a steak dinner in the middle of a business deal.”
“Oh,” he confessed with an apologetic face. “I get it. Thank you.”
“My pleasure, Mr. Lloyd. Now, let’s discuss Chelsea.”
His heart did a crazy rumba in his chest. The kid made him nervous.
“Rule number two. The kid knows more than you do. Accept it and make the most of the situation. And above all, don’t forget that if you want her on your side, how you treat her mother is key.”
“She’s never had a father,” he murmured.
“No,” Jen replied.
“And they’re very close.”
His comment required no answer.
They continued in silence while he took everything he knew, squished it together with what he didn’t know, and tried to find his way. His goose would be cooked without Jen.
The traffic around the museum was a nightmare. The driver explained it was always a mess when the schools had a day off. He never thought about stuff like that and realized how rarefied his life was when they pulled up to the V.I.P. entrance with no problem.
His brain flooded with a million questions. Did Samantha have a c
ar, or was she a subway and bus rider? Where did she live? And how about childcare for Chelsea? He helped raise funds for an after-school program last year and remembered the stories of families with working parents who jumped through all sorts of hoops to accommodate school schedules and care arrangements. He’d set up a sponsorship to support the program’s stretched budget.
The idea that Samantha might struggle bothered him greatly. She was mother and father to her daughter and worked a full-time job with hours that extended beyond the normal school day. She was such a happy, vibrant people person with more responsibility than many. How did she do it?
As they entered the building and he reached for his non-existent tie for the tenth time, Jen stuck close to his side and told him what she was doing when her phone came out and she started texting.
“Let me find out where they are so we don’t wander aimlessly.”
He kept her in his line of vision but moved to a digital screen with a video presentation of the museum’s current exhibits. Seeing that the Gregory Lloyd Foundation sponsored one of the permanent displays surprised John, though he knew his mom and aunt were active in philanthropy. What better way to do good and spend a fortune of their husbands’ money?
“Okay. Second floor. Behind the rainforest adventure.”
He was a nervous wreck by the time they found the rainforest and started searching in earnest.
Ryan was the first to come into view. He looked up as they approached, and John noted the warm smile he gave Jen.
“Over here,” he called out.
A woman nearby with long, wavy hair turned when Ryan spoke. It was Samantha—only a version of the woman he’d never seen before.
Nearly stumbling over his own feet, John was sure his face froze in shock when he got a good look at her.
At the office, she was always neat as a pin and looking exactly as you’d expect someone who worked on the executive floor. Hell, until now, he hadn’t even known how long her hair was. Even at the casual business events they took part in, she was in control of her situation. The woman in front of him gaping with flabbergasted shock was another thing entirely.
Dressed in jeans that threatened his sanity and a clingy t-shirt, he didn’t know where to look and not end up getting his face slapped because the curves that usually left him hot and bothered now robbed his brain of polite activity.
Her boobs in the plain white shirt gave off an in-your-face vibe that scrambled his thoughts. And holy god. Those hips. That ass.
John gritted his teeth. How long had it been since he got laid? A year? Two? He couldn’t remember. No stranger to sexual impulses, he simply prioritized his sexual needs rather far down on the list, preferring the uncomplicated and straightforward relationship he had with his hand. Right this second, though, that option held little appeal. Not when a veritable goddess was right in front of him.
“Oh, Mr. Lloyd,” she stammered. Biting her lip, she blushed and curved some hair behind her ear. “This is a surprise.”
Feeling awkward and tongue-tied when it hit home that she wasn’t expecting him, Jen slid in with an enthusiastic comeback and saved him from twisting in the wind.
“A good one, I hope! The foundation is thinking about funding an educational program. John and I stopped by to get a sense of the current exhibits. Imagine our surprise when Ryan texted to say he was here.”
His assistant stepped back as if she’d just delivered her lines in a play and pushed him forward with nothing but a look. It was his turn at bat.
He took a deep breath and hoped he wasn’t making a mistake. “Samantha, how nice. Please, call me John.” The sound of Jen’s reminder to smile exploded in his head, so he tried for something suave, but the look on Ryan’s face suggested he hadn’t even gotten close.
Goddammit. He ran a global company. People quaked in their shoes when he took over a deal. A simple, human conversation shouldn’t be that hard. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Um, where’s Chelsea? She’s here too, right?”
Thinking he was clever lasted two seconds, and then Samantha’s face froze. She arched a brow at Jen, and then gave Ryan a withering stare.
Okay. Shit. Where was the miscalculation? John rewound every word and looked for the blunder. When he found it, his inner narrator scoffed at his stupidity. How the hell would he know Chelsea was at the museum too if this was a surprise encounter?
Ryan took over and acted like nothing was amiss.
“She’s in front of the green screen right now so the digital techs can drop her into a video showing her running from dinosaurs. Not enough room for all of us, so we’re waiting here.”
“Dinosaurs?” Jen laughed. “Do they have a video for grown-ups? Maybe running from an overflowing laundry basket?”
Samantha laughed, and the amusing comment broke the ice. But he wasn’t fooled. For now, he was there on sufferance.
He knew this drill. When Jen looked at him and fiddled with her earring, he was supposed to make conversation.
“Does Chelsea’s school take field trips? Has she been here before?”
The hallelujah chorus rang out in John’s heart when Samantha lost her aggravation at being so obviously ambushed and offered a genuine smile.
“I’m on the field trip committee! It’s our job to find stuff the kids will enjoy while they learn too. We went to the pretzel factory at the start of the school year and twisted our own knots. The rainforest exhibit here is so popular that large groups have to book far in advance.”
Two swinging doors flew open and a bundle of excitement came barreling toward them while a museum staffer followed.
“Mommy, Mommy! I had to run and run. Like this!”
John chuckled when the exuberant seven-year-old demonstrated running in place while she waved her arms in terror. Ryan joined and made a howling noise and pretended to be the animal chasing her. Chelsea giggled hysterically as her mother looked on with a wide, happy smile.
“I remember you,” she said to him when the giggling stopped.
Some part of him did a touchdown dance that the little girl remembered him from a company gathering.
Samantha stepped up to her daughter and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Sweetie, this is Mr. Lloyd. He’s Mommy’s boss.”
Needing no prompting before stepping forward to shake his hand, the young child impressed John. Wow. Did kids still do that? He was glad because nothing irritated him more in business than a limp handshake and dodgy eye contact.
“Hi,” she said. “You gave me my bowling trophy. It’s on the mantle at home.”
He shook her little hand and struggled to keep a rein on his composure. Chelsea Matthews was a charming miniature of her mother. The only difference was eye color. Samantha had warm brown eyes, but her daughter had dusty blues.
“John likes to bowl too,” Ryan told her. Chelsea looked back and forth between them curiously. Ryan laughed and said, “Oh, hey! Didn’t we tell you? John is my brother.”
“That’s so cool,” she chirped with real glee, thereby causing his nervous stomach to calm.
And just like that, the kid forgot all about him and concentrated on her mom as she launched into an exuberant explanation of how a green screen works. Samantha listened attentively. The indulgent mom-smile when she swept Chelsea’s hair off her face struck John straight in his heart.
A museum employee came bustling toward them wearing a broad smile and waving something in her hand. “You’re all set!” She handed something hanging from a museum lanyard to the excited child. “This is a flash drive,” she told her. “Your dinosaur adventure is on it.”
Chelsea proudly declared she knew what a flash drive was and thanked the pleased museum worker so effusively that the woman bent over chuckling and gave the kid a hug.
When she straightened and looked at the adult squad, she made a face and drily murmured, “I wish all the kids who came through here had half her enthusiasm.”
From there, they moved from exhibit t
o exhibit, stopping along the way for visits to the museum’s workrooms and holding spaces. At first, Ryan kept the conversation going, but slowly, the atmosphere thawed, and before too long, they were all acting like kids. Even Jen. His surprise reminded John to stop making blanket assumptions about people. Those impressions overrode his natural curiosity and kept him from being friendlier. If he wanted to know more about his assistant or Samantha, all he had to do was be good-natured and engage in human-to-human conversation.
Decked out in protective gloves and shoe covers, they got an astonishing behind-the-scenes look at the impressive dinosaur exhibit. Chelsea’s long-drawn-out, “Wow,” was filled with wonder when they each got an opportunity to touch a real dinosaur bone, and he had to admit he had the same reaction. One simply didn’t get a chance to fondle dinosaur bones every day.
Samantha remained close to him while Jen and Ryan straggled behind. He caught himself in a stuffy, unapproachable Prince Philip moment with his hands clasped behind his back and quickly adopted a friendlier pose after detecting Jen’s polite but obvious cough. Despite some minor gaffes, he’d chatted amiably throughout the morning with everyone in their group and anybody they interacted with. He was feeling mighty good about it, too.
When he and Ryan with Chelsea in the middle approached some scaffolding around an archaeological simulation, he saw Jen and Samantha wave for their attention, point at the restrooms, and dash off.
John smiled. His mom said that women took bathroom breaks in pairs for a reason. He wasn’t sure what she meant or what the reason was, but that didn’t stop him from finding some circumstantial humor to laugh about.
The door to the ladies’ room wasn’t completely shut before Samantha pinned Jen to the spot with a blazing glare.
“What the hell, Jen!”
She didn’t hide her sigh or pretend not to know exactly what had upset Samantha.
“Are you mad? Shit. You are, aren’t you?” She answered her own question and winced. “I’m not usually so clumsy about these things, but dammit, John makes my job so hard with all his issues.”
“This is part of your job?” Samantha jeered. “Stalking employees on their days off?”
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