Mr. Elliott Finds a Family
Page 24
“What does he want?” Beth Ann’s heart was pounding hard.
“DirectTech.” Christian pronounced it like it was the end of the world.
Beth Ann blinked and asked again, “What?”
“Max wants DirectTech,” Christian said heavily.
“Is that all?” Beth Ann asked, relief flooding through her.
“What do you mean, is that all?” Christian looked annoyed.
“Give it to him,” Beth Ann said simply.
“What?”
“Give it to him. We don’t need it. I never wanted it anyway.”
“It’s not your company to give away. It’s not my company to give away. It’s Bernie’s.”
“Find a way. DirectTech did everything it was supposed to do,” Beth Ann said seriously.
Christian looked warily at the woman who had just agreed to become his wife. “What?”
“It brought you to us.” She smoothed back her daughter’s hair. Bernie snuggled deeper into his arms. “Give Max DirectTech with our blessing and get him to sign lots of documents saying he’ll never, ever think of trying to get custody of Bernie.”
“It really means nothing to you,” Christian asked. He brushed his finger over her cheek.
Beth Ann shook her head, clicking her tongue impatiently. “You are the densest man, I’ve ever met. DirectTech, your money, your privilege aren’t real. This—” she gestured around her “—is real. You are real. I’m real. Our love is real. If DirectTech is eating you alive, then I want you to give it up, let it go, because we have far more than any software company can offer. You promised me.”
“I promised you.”
Beth Ann nodded, her eyes serious. “You told me you would do anything in your power to protect us, even if that meant giving up your name or your money. Did you mean that?”
Christian felt love move through his body. “Yes, I meant that.”
“Then walk away from the software company. Don’t walk away from us.”
“Never,” Christian whispered as he pulled her close, shifting Bernie’s weight so he could kiss Beth Ann. How had he ever thought he could walk away? He had finally found himself a family. Forever.
EPILOGUE
Two years later.
RAAAH! Raaah, raaah! Raaaahhh!
Beth Ann groaned and woke to the wail.
“Mommy, mommy, mommy! Iris is crying!” Bernie informed her, her button nose right up against Beth Ann’s.
Beth Ann squinted at a blurry child and croaked, “I hear her. Thank you, Bernie. You can go back to sleep.”
“No, I can’t,” Bernie said logically. “Iris is crying too loud.”
“I’ll get her,” Christian whispered from the other side of the bed. Beth Ann felt the bed creak as he got out. “Go back to sleep, Bernie,” he instructed the four-year-old.
“I will if you carry me!” Bernie wheedled.
Christian lifted Bernie up and carried her to her room, talking soothingly as they went down the hall.
He put Bernie back into the daybed and kissed her on her forehead, a hairline scar barely visible. He searched around and found Fluff jammed between the iron bars and the wall. He reached down and pulled him free.
“I told you she was crying just like you asked, Daddy,” Bernie said proudly as she accepted the bear from him.
Christian kissed her again, tucking them both in. “Thank you for being such a good big sister.”
BETH ANN heard Christian and Bernie talk and smiled sleepily. She was exhausted. She now had more sympathy for Carrie, understanding why she’d been so crabby while she was pregnant. At least, Beth Ann had had Christian participating in every stage of the pregnancy. Beth Ann felt truly blessed. Although he had resigned as the CEO of the company, he still kept his hand in most of the business through the extensive telecommunication system he’d set up. The bungalow wasn’t quite the same bungalow.
To accommodate his electronic needs, they’d added on another room, made the kitchen bigger and even though Beth Ann initially had protested replacing the old swamp cooler with central air-conditioning, it was something she, grudgingly, appreciated in her last weeks of pregnancy, during the uncharacteristically hot May they’d just experienced.
With the recent slump in computer stocks, rumor had it that Maximilian Riley was working harder than he ever had before just to keep DirectTech afloat. And Bernie remained no wiser that she was almost the heiress to the floundering company.
Christian gently lay little Iris next to Beth Ann.
“Hey, there, sweetie,” Beth Ann greeted the infant.
Little Iris stared up at her, her mouth puckering when she was presented a breast. She latched on and suckled quietly.
“I’ll take her back when you’re done,” Christian said as he crawled back into bed.
“She can just sleep here,” Beth Ann said, shifting closer to him, using his broad chest to support her back. He wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her against him, then gently caressed the nearly bald top of Iris’s head. Iris continued to suckle greedily, her eyes closed.
“You’ve got a long day ahead of you.” Christian squinted at the clock. “You should get as much sleep as you can.”
Beth Ann nodded in agreement, but said, “I don’t think I can sleep anymore.”
“You’re excited.”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“You should be. You’ve earned this. What time did Fred and Glenn say they were coming?”
“About noon.”
“Good. You guys go ahead and make sure everything is perfect. I’ll bring the girls about five. We’ll go to dinner before your show opens.”
Beth Ann smiled and put her hand on her husband’s face. Her very own show in a real gallery. Her husband. Her girls. She snuggled Iris closer to her. There was no place like home.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5119-2
MR. ELLIOTT FINDS A FAMILY
Copyright © 2000 by Susan Kimoto.
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