Flirt (Chasing Hope Book 1)

by Lavinia Leigh

  “I thought she didn’t know anything about me.”

  “Well, she asked me who Sugar Boy was.”

  “You make me sound like some sort of lollipop.”

  Emmeline raised her eyebrows and then stifled a grin. “Anyway,” she continued, trying to maintain control, “maybe we can make arrangements to get you two together. I mean, if you want to meet her.”

  “Are you sure it’s time? I’d like to meet her, but I want to make sure you are a hundred percent sure.”

  “We have to stop sneaking around like this. I feel like I’m hiding my boyfriend from my parents. That kid, I tell you, she’ll be an adult before I will!”

  “She sounds like quite the character.”

  “You have no idea,” Emmeline muttered, shaking her head.

  “Where does she like to go?” he asked. “Maybe we can take her to her favorite place, we’ll stack the deck in our favor.”

  “You aren’t nervous, are you?”

  “I’d be stupid not to. She’s your kid, and I want her to like me. That’s the final test, isn’t it? I have a feeling that if she doesn’t like me, then we’re done.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do, to be honest. It would definitely make things uncomfortable. She’s always going to be my first priority. Millie didn’t end up with the life she was supposed to have with her father dying so young. It’s hard for her, even if she doesn’t know many details of what went on before she was born, and then what happened after that. She doesn’t really have grandparents. My parents are on the verge of freaking out every time they’re near her. Either they come on too strong and it’s too much, or it’s cold stony silence. Don’t even get me started on Nicholas’s parents. That’s a disaster that I don’t think we have time to go into.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  “Worse.”

  “What does Millie like to do?”

  “Right now, she’s pretty obsessed with movies. She carries her video camera around with her all the time.” Emmeline had given in a month ago and said yes to Callum’s begging to let him buy Millie a proper video camera. It seemed wrong to keep saying no to Callum, who really wanted to do it for Millie, especially when Emmeline couldn’t really afford it herself. It was a little detail she hadn’t told Joel, although she didn’t understand why herself. Joel knew that Callum was a big part of their lives.

  “Are you sure she’s seven?”

  “It would explain a lot if she wasn’t.”

  “Listen, the travel company that I’m working with is filming a short vlog for the website. It’s not a big deal, but there will be a director there, and video equipment. What do you think if I make arrangements for you guys to come and meet me there? I have a short piece to do about traditional local cuisine, which should only take an hour or so to film.”

  “Seriously? I think she would love it.”

  “Yeah, and then we can take her out to dinner. I know this great restaurant where they put out all kinds of raw ingredients, then you pick what you want, choose the spices, and then they cook it for you. It’s kind of fun, and there should be lots of variety for her.”

  Emmeline grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I can’t even believe that you’re real! What are you doing with me?”

  Joel leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. “It’s you I should be saying that to. You are the most fascinating person I’ve ever met. You’re strong, and determined, and real. I’ve met so many women who are just putting on a façade, or insist on playing games. You have never tried to be anything other than who you are. I appreciate that more than you can imagine.”

  “I’m not very good at being anyone else. I don’t even have the energy to try and play games. Let me have a nap, and I’ll see what kind of games I can get up to.” She winked, then checked her watch. “Crap, it’s time for me to go.”

  “So soon.” He pouted.

  “Yes, but you make those plans and then we can all hang out together, lots!”

  He kissed her goodbye and she jumped back into the car. She got back to Millie’s class with hardly a minute left to spare. On their way out, Emmeline carefully approached the subject again.

  “You remember when you were asking me about my friend?”

  “You mean, Sugar Boy?” Millie sung the last two words in a taunting manner.

  “Yes, him,” Emmeline said, suddenly exasperated. “I was thinking that we should do something fun together. What do you think?”

  “Will he bring candy?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Good, I don’t want him to get diabetes.”

  Emmeline laughed.

  “When do I meet him?”

  “He has to film something for his work. It’s not a movie or anything, it’s just him talking about some of his favorite restaurants in the area, I think. It’s pretty close to a real movie set, so he thought maybe you’d be interested. I told him about you wanting to be a director when you grow up.”

  “Yes! Maybe the director there will discover me.”

  “I’m sure it’s not going to be like that.”

  “You never know. I think I should bring a video camera, so he will know I’m serious.”

  “I think that would be just fine.”

  Emmeline called Joel when she got home and told him that they were officially in. They made plans for Millie to meet him at his office after she was done with school the following Friday. Millie was beyond excited.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The following week promised a lot of excitement. On top of Millie and Joel meeting, Millie’s musical theater class had just been told that they needed to come up with a simple audition piece for the following week. Much to Millie’s delight, the instructor decided that they were doing well enough that they would be putting on a musical. Together they had settled on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The instructor explained that he would be awarding parts based on the auditions. Each participant was required to recite a passage from the play and sing a song of their choice. Millie had promptly announced that she wouldn’t be auditioning for a role. Rather, she was going to direct the play. The instructor promptly disagreed, and gave her the same assignment as the rest of the class.

  Millie, clearly annoyed that Director Anthony had dismissed what was obviously her calling, went back and forth from stomping around the house to scribbling ideas into a notebook that she later confessed were detailed plans on how to change his mind. All the while, she insisted that she wasn’t going to audition for any ol’ stupid part. Emmeline finally had to put her foot down and told Millie to come up with something. This meant she had to endure several nasty glares while listening to Millie sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” putting a rather dramatic emphasis on the line, “Where dreams come true!” It came out as a shout, but Emmeline was satisfied that at least she would have something to present at the audition. Millie had memorized the passage she was supposed to recite a few hours after receiving the script. At least they didn’t have to work on that. Millie strongly felt that knowing the script inside and out was in the job description of being a director. Emmeline caught her reading and re-reading the script. She had no worries there.

  Between Millie’s excitement at getting to meet a real director and her despair at having to do an audition piece for her theater group, her daughter couldn’t talk of much else. Neither could Emmeline. It was stressful to think that these two most important people in her life would finally be meeting. She went back and forth between regretting her decision and wishing that the day would come. Millie didn’t seem to care about meeting Joel as much as getting to spend time around the director and cameras. Emmeline kept trying to bring her expectations down, sure that it wouldn’t be as big a deal as Millie thought it was going to be. She had hoped it would be just a fun little activity that they could do together, and the emphasis would be on the meeting. It was turning out to be the opposite, making Emmeline sure she handled the whole thing wrong from the beginning. But she was stuck now. Sh
e couldn’t change her mind about it even if she wanted to without breaking both their hearts. Several times during the days leading up to their meeting she needed to stop and take some deliberate deep breaths to calm herself down.

  The question of what would she do if they didn’t get along haunted her every minute. She even Googled parenting advice on the subject. There seemed to be just as many experts claiming you shouldn’t introduce your child to a new boyfriend until you were talking about marriage as there were experts claiming it was best for them to meet early on in the relationship. Emmeline and Joel were not at the point where they were talking about marriage, but Emmeline didn’t want to hide him from Millie either anymore. Maybe it would be different if she were separated from Millie’s dad and could date on the weekends when Millie was away with him. If only that were the case.

  Pernella’s advice was simple. “Ignore everyone and do what your heart is saying. You like this guy, he seems decent. Millie’s strong. Stop second guessing yourself.”

  Emmeline knew Pernella was probably right. It still didn’t make the nerves go away. The question was, how deep was she really in with Joel? Was she prepared to say, “I love you”? Did he feel like that about her? It wasn’t totally clear yet. All she could say with a hundred percent certainty was that she thought about him all the time. When she heard his voice, her body tingled with joy. She always wanted to be around him, hear what he had to say, feel his hands caressing her. Something could be very real between them. But Millie came first.

  Why does it have to be so complicated? she screamed to herself. She was so mixed up she didn’t know what to think or feel.

  Thursday was Millie’s audition; Friday was the meeting with Joel. Emmeline couldn’t wait for Saturday!

  By the time the sun rose on Thursday morning, both of them were completely frazzled, and Emmeline still couldn’t convince Millie that participating as a character in the play was an important step toward being a director. They got into it again on the way to class that evening.

  “You just need to understand that it’s important to know about all parts of the theater if this is what you really want to do. You have to understand it from the actor’s point of view as well.”

  “Mom, you don’t get it. It’s not the same as when you were a kid!”

  Emmeline looked sideways at her daughter. This was the first time anyone had accused her of being old. Kids! She was grateful when they finally got to the theater and hoped that the instructor would have a better chance of convincing Millie this was a good thing. Emmeline normally didn’t stay for class, but stuck around at the back of the theater in case Millie got a little out of hand. Besides, the students were free to leave after their auditions. Next week, they would start fresh on the play after everyone was designated their parts.

  The argument over whether Millie should be the director of the play continued the moment she hit the stage to present her audition.

  “Please wait to speak until you get to the microphone,” her instructor said from the red velvet chairs in the front row of the theater. He scratched his head, covered in lush salt and pepper hair, with a pen.

  Millie closed her mouth and did as she was told, walking to center stage, then began her well-rehearsed defense. There was no denying the passion in her voice.

  “I have spent lots of hours thinking, and I feel that spending time learning how to act is not a smart idea. I have read everything I can and watched all the director’s commentaries on all my favorite movies, and now I think that I am ready…”

  “I understand where in the theater your aspirations lie, but we all must start somewhere. You need to either present your audition or leave the stage,” Director Anthony said in no uncertain terms.

  “But…”

  “You’re not the director, I am the director, so you have to do what I say,” Anthony answered through a forced smile. Emmeline felt sorry for him, but not so secretly admired Millie’s ambition and strength. There were so many times she looked at her little girl and wished she could be more like her. Millie went after what she wanted with everything she had, without fear, while Emmeline got stuck in her own head. She knew what she wanted—she wanted her own bakery. She wanted Joel. She wanted to start a life with both of them—but relied heavily on flimsy excuses to keep her from doing it.

  “But I told you,” Millie said from center stage, continuing her argument as Anthony tapped his clipboard. “I don’t want to be an actress, I want to be a director. That’s why I’m here. I don’t know why you won’t just let me do it.”

  “You’re seven!”

  Millie stared blankly.

  “Because, in order to be effective as a director, it is beneficial to understand the stage from the actor’s point of view.”

  It was nice for someone else to back Emmeline up by saying the same thing. Millie made a face, and then took an exaggerated breath before she recited her passage from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. For a moment, she was completely transformed into Verruca Salt, and Anthony Von Stuz was left speechless.

  “Can you keep going?” he finally asked.

  “Sure, if you want.” Then Millie recited the next three pages of lines—not only Verruca Salt’s, but everyone else’s, in character. “Is that enough? I can sing the next song too if you’d like?” she finally asked, hands on her hips.

  “Brava, Brava!” Anthony shouted, standing up while clapping, letting his clipboard fall forgotten to the floor. “You shall be our Verruca, and a marvelous one at that. You did exactly what I needed you to!”

  Millie looked at him weirdly, clearly not understanding the fuss. She hadn’t accomplished what she had set out to do at all! Emmeline almost thought she’d cry, she was so proud, and ran around to the back of the stage where she caught Millie stomping down the stairs.

  “Angel Face, if only you could see yourself. You really are good. You’re going to be fantastic in the play.”

  “You’re my mom, you’re supposed to say that,” she grumbled. Millie didn’t seem ready to let go of what she wanted just yet. Emmeline could practically hear the wheels grinding in her daughter’s head.

  Whether Millie was ready to accept it or not, the whole thing went better than expected. Hopefully the meeting with Sugar Boy would be the same.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  By Friday morning, Emmeline was a pile of nerves and ended up breaking her favorite coffee cup. The introduction had to go perfectly. This was entirely new territory. What would she do if Millie hated Joel? It was hard for her to even think about what that would mean. How could she be with someone who her daughter hated? How could she let her kid decide her future love life?

  Ginny was so curious about the whole thing that she spontaneously decided she had to come up for the weekend.

  “Besides,” Ginny said on the phone as they were making plans a few hours before the meeting, “if it goes bad, you might need a bit of support. Not that I think that anything will go wrong, but just in case. Besides, I really need to see this guy who captured my best friend’s heart.”

  “He sorta has,” Emmeline answered shyly. It sometimes was hard to believe. For so long she could hardly think about having a relationship, and now she was practically glowing with the mention of Joel’s name.

  “Well, it’s about time. I’ve been telling you for years, you’re beautiful and young, you should go out more.”

  “Frankly, I’m just amazed that anyone would want to be a part of my crazy schedule. Fingers crossed that everything goes well. It’ll make it so much easier if we can all spend time together, and I’m no longer trying to hide us from Millie.”

  “Do you regret not introducing them earlier?”

  “No, I wanted to make sure there was something real between us first. Truthfully, I’ll be so relieved when all this is over. It’s hard being single all the time, seeing everyone else go out, getting married, moving on with their lives, and I’m here with nothing changing. It would be really nice to have someone at the en
d of the day to talk to, snuggle with, watch movies. That sort of thing. Everyone needs something from me. It’s exhausting. It’s nice having Joel around. He doesn’t need anything from me. It’s refreshing.”

  “So, how serious are you two?”

  “Serious enough. We’ll see how it goes with Millie. I feel like I can’t let myself settle a hundred percent into the relationship until they meet. I mean, Millie is everything. And she’s never had a male figure around, other than Callum. This is different.”

  “I am really proud of you for actually going after this. I know how hard everything has been for you, and you haven’t closed yourself off from a relationship.”

  “Like Pernella?”

  “Yeah, that was my one worry when I first suggested going there. That she would rub off on you, and you’d never be open to anyone else.”

  “Pernella is Pernella. I have a feeling that she never really loved her fiancé in the first place, and used it as her excuse. Either way, no one in the world is like Pernella. She is a beast unto herself.”

  “Tell me about it. I’ll be there around ten. Keep the door open for me,” said Ginny.

  “Always is,” Emmeline said and she hung up the phone.

  She wanted this day to be over so much. She tried to not let Millie see how anxious she really was, although she was sure that she knew. Millie spent the whole morning before school talking about her first chance on a film set. Emmeline still couldn’t figure out why she wanted to make movies and not be in them. Didn’t most people want the opposite? Millie always did things her own way. At least that kept life interesting.

  Emmeline was waiting outside the school when the bell rang, signaling the end of the day, and Millie came running out. Somehow, she had changed her clothes. Instead of her brown dress with the flowers, socks, and runners, she was wearing a silver sparkle skirt that Emmeline had never seen, along with Emmeline’s white scarf. Dark purple lipstick was smeared along her lips, staining her cheeks and chin.