Chapter 10
I had to admit to myself as I arrived at the Petroleum Club that the day off from everything, spent at Milk + Honey had been worth it. Bobby had sprung for what the spa called “the ultimate retreat.” He had a black car pick me up at nine in the morning and for the next eight hours I was in heaven: full body scrub, a massage so thorough and long-lasting that I was fairly certain the therapist had managed to extract every one of my “knots” in the process. Then came the sauna, facial, manicure and pedicure, lunch served by the spa, brow wax, eyelash tint, and a number of other things I had never even dreamed that a person could go to a spa and have done. I sipped flavored water, I relaxed, and even though I did think about Tanya and Mom from time to time throughout the day, I knew they were both just fine back at home. I had absolutely nothing to worry about, and for the first time in years, I felt utterly relaxed.
Then, just when I’d thought that it was done and I would have to hurry home to figure out what to wear to my dinner with Bobby afterwards, one of the aestheticians came into the room where I was relaxing and half-dozing, carrying a long, flat box and another smaller box that I recognized as a shoebox, both bearing the logo for Nordstrom. “Mr. Clawson had these delivered an hour or so ago,” the aesthetician told me. “He said that if there is any issue with fit, please don’t take offense--we had to make the best possible guess at your sizes from the clothes and shoes you wore here.” I stared at the woman in surprise but assured her that I wouldn’t be upset.
The dress was gorgeous, a deep green with black lace overlay, and the shoes that went with it were an exact match. Tucked in with the dress was a pair of panties and a bra, and there was a part of me that was a little piqued at the presumption of buying me lingerie, but I saw a note pinned carefully to the tissue paper protecting everything. Mr. Clawson wasn’t sure whether you would have the right kind of foundation garments to wear with the dress I selected based on his specifications, so I included items that would suit. Enjoy your evening! -Your Personal Shopper, Claire.
So he’d gotten a personal shopper at Nordstrom to put everything together for me, and I could just picture him trying to relay the right information to make sure that everything would fit properly. It was a little creepy to think of the people at the spa checking my clothes--down to my bra and panties--for sizing information, but the overall gesture was sweet, and I was pretty sure the outfit that Bobby had purchased for me cost at least as much as one of my paychecks. I thought I might be able to sell the dress and shoes after I’d done with them, but then knew that I never would: even if they’d bring me a couple hundred dollars as a windfall, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to do it, even if I never saw Bobby again. Besides, it’s always good to have a quality dress and pair of shoes in case you get invited to some fancy event, I’d told myself as I slipped into everything. Of course, it fit perfectly.
When the chauffeur told me where we were going, I had another little burst of trepidation. I’d been expecting a dinner at a fancy restaurant, but anyone who knew anything about anything in Houston knew that the Petroleum Club was about as luxe as it was possible to get. Membership was extremely limited, and while no one I knew had a definite lock on the price of dues, it was pretty widely known that they were expensive indeed. I was grateful for the dress and shoes that Bobby had sent, because I was fairly certain that nothing I owned would possibly be good enough for the venue. Since all of the members were either in the oil industry in some way or were connected to it in some way, that told me that Bobby’s inheritance probably included some related field; and that meant that he was probably worth even more than I’d thought.
The elevator opened on the 35th floor, and I saw Bobby waiting for me, his back turned as he looked at some display the club had set up in the foyer. He was wearing a suit, tailored, and it took me back to the night we’d first met; I thought the suit he was wearing now was probably even more expensive than the tux he’d had on that night, more finely made. Apparently he had gained even better taste. He turned around, hearing the elevator and me stepping off of it, and I saw that he’d chosen a tie in the same dark green as my dress. We matched.
“Did the personal shopper pick out your tie, too?” Bobby grinned.
“She did, in fact,” he admitted. “And I see she did a good job with my complicated directions.” He looked me up and down slowly, admiring the view.
“I am a little bit concerned about how she got my measurements, but I guess it’s better that she picked something out that fits me perfectly,” I told him.
“She had me ask the people at the spa to write down the sizes of what you’d worn in, and I suspect she got someone to sneak a few actual measurements to be sure,” Bobby said. “I guess I didn’t think through how creepy that would be.”
“If you’re used to tailors and personal shoppers, it probably doesn’t strike you as weird for a stranger to know your sizes and measurements,” I conceded. “And I’ll admit that if you’d gotten me a dress that didn’t fit I’d probably be a bit offended--especially if it was too big.” Bobby chuckled.
“Yeah, my personal assistant, Kara, made it clear that if I did get your sizes wrong, it was way better to guess too small than too large,” he told me. He offered me his arm. “Shall we go in?” I felt a little giddy as I accepted it, leaning just barely against him.
The main dining area was sumptuous, but not ostentatious, with a little dance floor and calm little tables with white, pristine cloths on them. About half the tables were occupied, and a hostess escorted us to the one that Bobby had reserved, smiling pleasantly in the same way that pageant ladies did--not exactly vacant, but unendingly patient. We sat at one of the smaller, more intimate tables just in time for a band to get started, playing golden oldie standards but not too loud, and looking around me I could tell that we were probably two of the youngest people in the club who weren’t staff.
“Kind of brings back memories,” I pointed out as we settled in with our menus. Bobby looked up from the wine list and nodded.
“Yeah, I actually specified that I wanted you to have a green dress because…”
“That’s the color I was wearing the night we met?” I hadn’t thought about that, but it was true.
“Yeah. Probably silly of me, but you looked so incredible in it, I thought that if you didn’t already have fifty dresses that color you should at least have one, really good dress like it now.” I smiled in spite of myself.
“I actually don’t own anything as nice as this, so it’s a pleasure to have something that won’t make me stick out like a sore thumb here,” I said.
“I think you could probably manage to make yourself fit in anywhere,” Bobby told me. Our waitress came to the table and I studied the menu a bit frantically.
“Would you like to start with some champagne, maybe?”
“I think that sounds good, what do you say, Sienna?” I glanced at Bobby.
“Yeah, that would probably be good--but I don’t want to get super drunk tonight,” I cautioned him. Bobby grinned at me.
“I seem to remember you saying something similar the night we met,” Bobby pointed out.
“And neither of us got super drunk, did we? Just fairly tipsy,” I countered.
“So champagne to start, and I think I would like the oysters bienville,” Bobby told the waitress.
“I’ll have the crab cakes,” I said quickly.
“Do you know what you want for your main courses, or should I give you both a little time?” Bobby looked at me for a moment and smiled slightly.
“Please tell me you’re stuck between two options,” he said. I chuckled and nodded.
“Yeah, I’m actually torn between the Chilean sea bass and the steak and lobster,” I admitted.
“I will get the seabass, you can get the steak and lobster, and we’ll share; just like the night we met. How about that?” Bobby grinned more broadly.
“I think that sounds like a deal,” I told him. The waitress took the orders d
own, asking how I’d like my steak, and then left us alone.
“Did you think, five years ago, that you would end up at a restaurant with me, having dinner like this?” I looked at Bobby for a moment.
“No, actually,” I said. “When you didn’t call or text me or anything, I just kind of figured that you wanted to keep things to the one night.” Bobby’s eyes widened.
“Wait--how was I supposed to call or text you?” I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t have your number, you never gave it to me. I didn’t even know your last name.”
“The note I left, I did give you my number,” I told him. Bobby stared at me in shock.
“The note?” I nodded.
“Yeah, I left it where I was sure you’d find it, because I had to leave early. I’d been planning on leaving the wedding early, so I’d agreed to a brunch shift at the dining hall on campus,” I said. Bobby still looked baffled. “You didn’t see the note.” It wasn’t quite a question.
“No, my alarm went off and I barely had time to get out of there and make my plane,” Bobby said. “I overslept.” I closed my eyes and thought to how much it had stung that Bobby had never contacted me, never even called, all those years before; and then, a few weeks after our hook-up, my need to get in touch with him had gotten much more urgent when I’d realized I had missed my period.
“So that explains it,” I said, opening my eyes. Bobby looked crestfallen.
“You left me a note? Really?” I nodded.
“Yeah, I left you a note with my phone number, saying I’d like to kind of see if there could be something between us more than just a random wedding hook-up,” I said.
The waitress brought the champagne and opened the bottle for us, and I thought about how things had played out. If Bobby hadn’t overslept, if I hadn’t had to leave early, what could have happened between us? “At least it seems like things have ended up well for you, though,” Bobby said once we were alone again. “I mean, Tanya’s a great kid. You seem to have settled down pretty quick after that night. I still can’t really imagine getting married, much less raising a child.”
That was when I realized: Bobby had no idea that Tanya was his daughter. Was it my responsibility to tell him? I’d decided years before, when I had no hope of getting in contact with the man who’d gotten me pregnant, that I wasn’t going to reveal to anyone who the father of my child was. I was going to keep him anonymous, and stick with a story that I wasn’t sure of the name of the guy, and had no way to get in touch with him. It was at least somewhat true, and even if it had resulted in people painting me as a careless slut, it had kept them from trying to make me track Bobby down. Was I willing to trade that in? Was I morally obligated to?
“Tanya was one of the best things that happened to me, even if it’s been tough sometimes,” I said. “It kind of forced me to get serious about everything, you know?” Bobby nodded.
“Yeah, I have sort of a deadline on those kinds of things,” he said. “It’s kind of a condition of keeping my inheritance, and I’ve basically decided to live things up as much as possible before I have to settle down or lose it all.” I blinked at that, and sipped my champagne to cover up the fact that I was a little disappointed. But then, why shouldn’t Bobby want to enjoy being a rich bachelor for as long as possible?
“Well Tanya is still delighted with Bearamy the Great,” I told him. “I don’t think you could have found a better present to endear her to you for at least the next six months.” Bobby laughed.
“You know, I was thinking, it might be fun--with your permission of course--to take her on a toy store blowout,” Bobby said.
“What?” The appetizers arrived and the waitress put them between us; both the crab cakes and the oysters were large enough portions for two people, so it was a good idea for us to share them both.
“Well, I enjoyed giving her the teddy bear so much that I kind of hoped I could maybe take you and Tanya and your mom to a place like Toys to Love, and just let her pick out anything and everything she wanted,” Bobby suggested. I stared at him for a moment, feeling my cheeks heat up. He’d doubtless noticed that the apartment wasn’t exactly full to the brim with toys, and the furniture was shabby, and he had heard what Tanya had had to say about how hard her mother worked. I was sure he had good intentions, but his intentions tasted a lot to me like pity.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I wouldn’t want that at all. I appreciate that you want to spoil my little girl, but you’re only in her life for right now--and when you set a child up like that everything I would be able to do for her in comparison is going to seem…” I bit my bottom lip. “I can provide for my daughter just fine.”
“I didn’t think any differently,” Bobby said, frowning in confusion at my rejection. “But if the idea is a bad one, I take it back.” I sampled some of the crab cake and tried to get my reaction under control. If he had been someone else, some billionaire who wasn’t unwittingly the father of my child, would I have been so offended by him offering to take her on a shopping blowout? I didn’t think I would. I took a deep breath and decided to steer the subject to something else. The food was too good for me to spend the night feeling bitter.
Chapter 11
I was sure that after things had gone awkward on the subject of me taking Tanya on a shopping spree, the whole night was going to go south; but once I got Sienna talking about other things, she loosened right up. Of course, the champagne and food helped a lot. We shared our main dishes just like we had the first course, and when the sherbet came out to clear our palates before the cheese course and then the dessert, I could tell that Sienna was impressed.
“Do you eat like this every night? I’m not sure I could maintain anything like decent shape if I did,” Sienna commented, while we waited for our desserts to arrive. I’d ordered another bottle of champagne to go with the creme brulee and the souffle we’d chosen, and we had coffee coming as well.
“No, I don’t eat like this every night at all,” I told her. “Most nights, if I’m eating alone I try to keep things simple.”
“You know, it occurs to me that I have no idea what a day in the life of a billionaire is like,” Sienna observed.
“I think it probably varies a bit from one to another,” I pointed out. “But for me, I get up, have some breakfast, maybe take care of some business stuff from ten until one, get lunch, meet with people, go out for drinks or hit the gym, make some calls in the evening, and just kind of do whatever else I feel like the rest of the night.” Sienna stared at me for a moment.
“How much of your time do you actually spend working?” I shrugged.
“Probably about twenty or thirty hours a week,” I said. “Really, most of the business is taken care of by the boards of the different companies my uncle owned. I have to sign paperwork from time to time, attend some board meetings, and now of course I go to charity events.” Sienna shook her head slowly.
“I can’t imagine working that little,” she told me. The waitress brought our desserts and champagne and coffee.
“To be honest, I never actually thought I would get a lifestyle like this,” I admitted. “I didn’t know that I was supposed to be my uncle’s beneficiary, and while my dad was well-off, I’d expected to just sort of continue in his footsteps, working in finance.”
We enjoyed our desserts together and drank the half-bottle of champagne, and I realized that when we finished our meal, that was going to be it. The night would be over, and I didn’t really have any call to ask for another date with Sienna, or any indication that she’d be interested in going on another date. I racked my brain, trying to figure out a way out of the quandary. I’d just counted on a nice night out with a gorgeous woman, but I’d enjoyed talking to Sienna more than I ever expected, the same way as I had the night we’d met. She was every bit as funny, confident, and assertive as she had ever been. Probably more than she was back then, seeing as how she’s a single mom, I thought. I wondered how that had happened; had she hooked up with another guy
after me and he didn’t do the right thing? It would have had to have been either right before she met me or right after, considering Tanya was five. I remembered that Sienna had mentioned breaking up with a boyfriend shortly before the wedding, the night we’d met. Maybe it had been that guy, and she’d just been too proud to tell him.
“Sienna, would you be willing to come back to my place?” I set the spoon I’d been using to eat the creme brulee down and held up one hand to forestall her denying me off-hand. “I don’t mean like, in a sleazy way.”
“Okay, in what way, then?” I could tell she was suspicious.
“I just don’t want tonight to be over,” I said. “It sounds so cheesy, but I’m having a really good time talking to you, just...being around you, and I know that if we finish things here, there’s a good chance that it’ll just end like that. That you won’t want to have another date with me, or that things will just get complicated.”
“If you’re having such a great time, why would you think I wouldn’t go on another date with you?” Sienna sipped her coffee and ate the last bite of the raspberry souffle.
“Because I think you think I’m not serious enough,” I told her. “And probably you’re right. But tonight you’ve got a one-time deal where you don’t have to be the great mom. You don’t have to make sure that Tanya is up in time for school tomorrow or anything like that.” I’d gotten Kara to call the hospital and arrange for a paid day off for her the next day, not even intending to invite Sienna to my place; just because I’d wanted her to have another day, a day that she could just be at home and relax. The hospital would just quietly pay her what she would have earned for the day, after letting her know that she wasn’t needed to come in.
Reunited: A Billionaire Secret Baby Romance (Lost Love Book 2) Page 7