His hand moved up my back and gently rubbed me, his touch warm and affectionate.
“I don’t want to get up.”
“Neither do I.” He pulled away so he could look at me again.
“The second we walk out of here, my daughter is going to be a cockblock again.”
He chuckled. “A cockblock?”
“She hogged you all night long. It was ridiculous.”
He smiled. “I thought that would you make you happy.”
“It did, but I was also over it.”
“Well, I’m yours a little longer.”
“Yeah.” I continued to feel his stubble with my thumb. “How was last night for you?”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Baby, you’re the best I’ve ever had, even when we have to be dead silent.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said with a laugh. “But thank you. I mean with Lizzie…my parents.”
“Oh,” he said, grinning at his assumption. “I had a good time. Your dad reminds me of my dad. You know…warm.”
“Yeah, he is.”
“I thought it went well, and I’m happy to do it again.”
“That’s great.” Wow, this really was a dream. My daughter brought us closer together, not further apart. “Would you want to get breakfast with us and go shopping?”
“Shopping for what?”
“Clothes. I try to do something with her outside the house every weekend.”
“Sure. I don’t need any clothes, though.”
“You can hold our bags for us instead,” I teased.
He smiled. “I’m fine with that. I’m happy to do whatever—as long as I’m with you.”
21
Derek
Emerson left to pick up Lizzie from school, and I continued to work. Now that I wasn’t nervous to be around Lizzie, I didn’t dread the moment of her arrival, and I got back into work without thinking about anything else.
Pierre and Jerome left, so I was alone, moving around the lab to find what I needed to keep working, to run the simulations and troubleshoot everything before we even tried to build it.
The door opened and closed behind me.
“Whoa!” Lizzie’s excited voice echoed throughout the entire lab. “Look at this place.” She walked to one of the tables and started to play with the 3-D model sitting there.
“Lizzie, don’t touch anything.” Emerson grabbed her wrist and pulled it down. “These are not toys, alright?”
“Toys?” Lizzie asked incredulously. “Do you think I’m five?”
“I do when you act like you’re five,” Emerson said.
I stepped away from my laptop and joined them. “Hey, Lizzie. It’s okay. You can touch it.”
Lizzie turned to her mother and stuck out her tongue.
Emerson narrowed her eyes, but it was obvious she was more amused than annoyed.
Lizzie grabbed the model and continued to inspect it. “So, you’re going to build this?”
“It’s just one example. We’ve actually made a few others. This was our first try, though.”
She rolled it over the surface and watched the tires spin. “What’s wrong with it?”
I shrugged. “Just not right. When it comes to stuff like this, you have to think of every single scenario, and some scenarios are just impossible to anticipate until we make an attempt. With this one, we realized the material of the tires was corrosive to some of the elements in the sand, and then there was an issue with the placement of the brakes. Just a bunch of little things.”
“So, you have to do it over and over?”
“Pretty much.”
“Wow, that sounds like a lot of work.”
“Yeah, it can be a pain sometimes. But when it comes to the final product, it has to be absolutely perfect. And in order for it to be perfect, it takes a lot of work.”
“That’s really cool.” She set down the model and continued to look around. “So, you want to show me around, Derek?”
“Sure, Liz.” I walked with her and showed her the different parts of the warehouse, along with the models of the other rockets we’d built. Emerson hung back, like she wanted to give us the opportunity to be alone.
I spent the next hour showing her the simulations we’d worked on because she was so interested in everything, and we got deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of my work. It was technically a waste of time because I should be working on the things that needed my attention, but I didn’t mind it.
She walked to one of my whiteboards and looked at the equations and calculations written there. Her mouth dropped, and she turned to look at me in shock. “This math doesn’t even have numbers.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, it’s a little weird.”
“You know how to do this?” She stepped closer and looked it over.
“Do it every day.”
“What does it mean?”
“Well, this is actually physics. We were trying to understand the way the centripetal force would affect the astronauts inside the shuttle of this particular rocket, since the thruster design is a little different.”
Lizzie looked amazed. “Whoa, that’s sick.”
“Yeah…sick.” I found her terminology humorous since it made literally no sense.
“I can’t wait to take physics.”
I didn’t want to tell her it was probably the most difficult subject because I didn’t want to discourage her. “You can take it in high school, probably when you’re a sophomore or junior.”
“Cool. I’ve got the best tutor, so I’ll ace it.”
My heart suddenly warmed when she said that, because she believed in herself and believed in me, and it just felt good for inexplicable reasons. “Yeah.”
“So, can we see the rocket now?”
“Sure.” We walked back to the entrance, and Emerson tagged along. We got in the golf cart, drove across the asphalt to the hangar, and then parked and walked inside.
The look on Lizzie’s face was unforgettable. “This is the coolest shit I’ve ever seen!” She walked ahead of us and got closer, seeing the engineers work to piece it together, focusing on different parts.
“Wow.” Emerson crossed her arms over her chest. “I never thought in a million years that my daughter would be so interested in science.” She turned to me, giving me a look full of accusation, like I was entirely responsible.
“Most people aren’t interested in science because they aren’t given a reason to be.”
She gave me a soft smile before she watched her daughter get close to the rocket and look high up, forty feet in the air, to its new height.
I stood with my hands in my pockets and admired how hard everyone was working to meet the deadline of the test launch. “So, do you have plans for Thanksgiving?”
“I usually cook for my parents and Lizzie, and we watch Christmas movies while Lizzie looks at all the ads for Black Friday and makes a ridiculously long list of presents that I can’t possibly afford to buy her.” She chuckled. “What about you?”
“My family usually goes to our cabin in Connecticut. Sometimes we get snow.”
“Oh, that will be nice.”
“My parents asked me to invite you and Lizzie to come.”
She slowly turned back to me, surprised by the offer. “Really?”
“I told them you would probably have your own plans on Thanksgiving, so we thought we could have another celebration on Friday…if that’s something you’d want to do.”
She pivoted her body toward me entirely, her eyes incredulous. “Your parents are willing to cook Thanksgiving dinner and then do it all over again the next day just for Lizzie and me?”
“Well, they’ll cook on Thanksgiving because it’s a holiday, but on Friday, they’ll probably have a chef do it, so don’t feel bad thinking you’re making a ton of work for them.”
“Still, that’s really sweet.”
“Who doesn’t like two Thanksgivings?” I asked. “So, is that a yes?”
Even though a ton of my e
mployees were standing there, she moved into me and kissed me on the mouth, her arm wrapping around my shoulders as she pulled me close, blanketing me in affection like she couldn’t care less what anyone thought. “I’d love to.”
Ryan didn’t mention Kevin again.
After our last conversation, that finally seemed to be the end of it.
Kevin had his chance to talk to me, and now that he knew how that conversation would pan out, his curiosity should be satiated. And I made a very valid point with Ryan, so that shit was finished.
Ryan sat across from me at the bar, the snow coming down outside the window. We were in a booth right up against the glass with a view. “Snow came early this year.”
“Yeah, it’s gonna be cold this winter.”
“Thank god we work inside, right?” He turned back to me. “Will you be able to test your rocket in these conditions?”
“The winter isn’t the problem, but we wouldn’t launch in the wind or snow.”
He nodded then grabbed his beer. “It’s so cold I actually wish my beer was warm.”
“That’s fucking gross.” I laughed because when I imagined steam coming from his beer, it seemed so ridiculous.
“Yeah, good point. So, you’ve been getting along with Emerson’s daughter pretty well?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “She’s great.”
“Really? I have no idea what twelve-year-olds are even like.”
“Well, Lizzie is very smart, has an attitude, is interesting, easy to talk to… She’s like an adult, honestly. She obviously doesn’t know as much as an adult, but she’s really good at conversing with people, just like her mom, so I think that’s why it’s so easy for us to get along. I took her to my compound so she could see my research and the rocket, and she was really into it. She’s developing an appreciation for math and science, which is pretty cool.”
“That is cool,” he said with a nod. “So, is she a genius like you?”
“I’m not a genius,” I said quickly. “And who knows? Maybe.”
“She’ll be in no time if you keep tutoring her.”
“I plan to.” I looked out the window and saw the frost building up in the corners.
“So…you see yourself as a stepdad?”
I turned back to him. “I told Lizzie I’m just interested in being her friend. So, I don’t think that’s where her head is at.”
“Well, I think Emerson probably feels differently, right?”
She wanted me to have a relationship with Lizzie because she said they came as a set. I had to love them both or lose them both. “I guess, but that label feels weird to me. I can just be her mother’s boyfriend. I mean, she’ll be thirteen soon, and do thirteen-year-olds really need stepfathers?”
“I just mean Emerson is probably eager to settle down and get married and all that. Why else would she want you to get along with her daughter?”
“Well, her daughter is the most important thing in her life. I think that’s the bigger issue.”
He nodded. “Well, do you see it going that far?”
“What going how far?” I asked.
“You know, wedding bells and all that.” He drank from his beer.
“Of course I do.”
Ryan stilled as he stared at me, as if he’d never expected me to say that in a million years. “Dude, like four months ago you were stuck on Fleur—”
“I’m not going to marry her tomorrow. But yeah, someday.”
“She’s gotta be hooked on you pretty bad. Sexy billionaire guy who’s good with her daughter? You’re like a dream come true for her.”
And she told me that every day.
“Does that bother you?”
“What?”
“That’s she’s obsessed with you. I’ve seen you two together, and you can just tell by looking at her…she’d meet you at the chapel tomorrow if you asked.”
“Why would that bother me?”
“Just seems intense, is all.”
I shook my head. “I like that she’s like that.”
“Fleur and every other woman were like that, and it drove you up the wall.”
“Yeah, but it’s different with Emerson. I like that she wears her heart on her sleeve, that she doesn’t play games, that she shows me how much she loves me every single day and doesn’t take me for granted. We’ll be making love and she’ll tell me she loves me, we’ll be doing nothing at all and she’ll say that she wants to be with me forever, just stuff like that. I can see why other guys would be annoyed with it, but I like knowing how she feels. It doesn’t bother me. Besides, I already knew she felt that way before she even said it because she shows it.”
“That’s pretty romantic.”
I drank my beer.
“I’m happy for you. I’m glad you found her.”
“Yeah, that makes two of us,” I said with a light chuckle, finding the last ten years of my life to be a complete waste. My walls were so damn high, and I never let anyone in—not even my own family. Now, I somehow felt even safer…even though all my walls were gone.
“So, we’re all getting fitted for our wedding clothes on Saturday. Can you make it?”
How many more times would I have to see that fucking cunt before the wedding? “Of course. What are we wearing?”
“I think suits are too stuffy. Just some gray slacks, a collared shirt, and a vest.”
“Do you know what you’re doing for the wedding yet?”
“Her uncle has a house out in the Hamptons. It’s not super swanky like the Hamptons, but it’s got a pretty good amount of space in the back so we can do a ceremony there. I mean, it’s free, and free is good because I spent all my goddamn money on that ring.”
“She loves it, Ryan. The wedding will come and go, but that diamond will be on her hand forever.”
“True.”
“When is this happening?”
“We were thinking in the middle of December.”
“A winter wedding.”
“Yeah.”
“Why not wait until the spring or summer?”
He shrugged. “We don’t have a lot of money to do anything big, so it doesn’t make sense to wait just to do what we’re already doing. And she just wants to be married because we’ve been together so long. It’s not like we’re going on a honeymoon anyway.”
I kept my secret because bringing it up casually wasn’t the way I wanted to share my gift to him and Camille. “You knocked her up, didn’t you?”
He chuckled. “Nah. Not yet anyway.”
“Does she want to have kids soon?”
“Yeah. Says she’s getting old.”
“Yeah, we are getting old. But you guys will be great parents.”
“Yeah, and those kids will be supermodels if they look like us.” He drank from his beer.
“Maybe if they look like her…”
He narrowed his eyes at my taunt but didn’t argue. “Yeah, who am I kidding?”
“Mom said we’re going to have Thanksgiving with your family?” Lizzie stopped working on her problem and looked at me instead.
“The day after Thanksgiving. A second celebration.”
She didn’t look excited or disappointed by that information. “Thanksgiving has always just been us four.”
“And you’ll still have that.”
She turned back to her problem.
“It sounds like you aren’t too thrilled about it.” I spoke my mind candidly with her now, like she was Emerson or Ryan. I filtered out the cuss words and the inappropriate subjects, but it still felt like an adult conversation.
“It’s not that. I just…I don’t know. I don’t know these people.”
“You get nervous when you meet new people?”
“I guess.”
“Yeah, I know how that is.” I was an introvert by nature, even on my best day. I liked my friends and my family, but once I stepped out of that comfort zone, I wasn’t myself anymore. “My parents are really nice people, so you don’t have to worry
about that. My dad is a lot like me.”
“He is?” she asked, hope in her voice.
“Yeah. So, you’ll definitely get along with him.”
“And your mom?”
“She’s a lot like your mother, actually.” I’d never really noticed it before.
“Will anyone else be there?”
“My brother and sister.”
“Oh, what are they like?”
“Dex is a few years younger than me. He’s a doctor in residency.”
“Whoa.”
“But he’s very friendly. He’s easier to talk to than I am,” I said. “And my sister is twenty-one, so she’s still pretty young. She’s warm and affectionate, but she’s got a big attitude. She’s a small person but takes up a lot of space…if that makes sense.”
“You think they’ll like me?”
“Definitely. My brother has already met your mother, and he really liked her.”
“Well, everyone likes my mom.” She looked down at her problem and continued to think. “My teachers always like her. Well, except Mr. Franklin.” She grinned at the memory.
I smiled too.
“I guess as long as you’re there, I should be okay. If you like me, they’ll like me.”
My eyes softened because she saw us as allies and friends. We had our own relationship, and she trusted me on her own, not because I was her mother’s boyfriend. “They’ll love you, Liz.”
Ronnie pulled up to the curb in front of the store, and I got out. Some of the guys were already standing outside, the piles of snow around them, the sunshine melting the drifts before the next batch of precipitation hit the city.
Brett turned to me. “Hey, man.” He embraced me before he pulled away. “I liked the way you carried Ryan out of there. You must be able to bench like two hundred pounds.”
“Two-ten,” I said with a smirk. “Not that I’m bragging or anything.”
I chatted with the guys outside, and we talked about the bachelor party that made Ryan turn in at ten thirty like an old woman. We talked about the girls they took home, the hangovers, and the wedding.
We eventually moved inside and found Ryan talking to Camille’s brother while Kevin and Donovan stood with him.
The Boy Who Has No Belief (Soulless Book 7) Page 21