“Indeed you are,” he said to Ivy.
“Her tiara is new,” Meagan told him, noticing how excited her daughter was perched in his arms. “We got it yesterday. She saw it at the pharmacy and insisted that she had to have it. She has some real tiaras that Candy has put away for her. But she isn’t allowed to wear those yet.”
“Real?” he asked.
“They’re not diamonds or anything. But they came from Candy’s old beauty pageants, so they’re real in that sense.”
“Someday Ivy will have lots of diamonds.” He bounced her. “Won’t you, princess?”
Ivy didn’t respond to him. She was too busy watching a rambunctious group of boys who’d come out of the face-painting booth with superhero masks artfully painted around their eyes.
Garrett turned his attention to Meagan. “My brothers already got their food. Carol did also, but she’s eating for two. She said it was an excuse to go back for seconds.” He smiled and then shrugged, as if his knowledge of pregnant women was limited. “I haven’t eaten yet. I was waiting for you and Ivy.”
“That was nice of you.” She appreciated how courteous he was. “But before we load up on barbecue, can I meet Jake and Carol and Max?” She couldn’t eat until that was over.
“That’s fine.” He gestured to a stretch of lawn past the volleyball courts. “They’re out that way. We’re not using any of the picnic benches. We brought a blanket and folding chairs for our group.”
Meagan noticed that lots of families had done that very same thing. People were scattered all over the grass.
Suddenly Ivy exclaimed, “Me!” and pointed to a little girl with stars and moons on her cheeks. “Me! Me!”
“Do you want your face painted?” Meagan asked her.
Ivy nodded so hard that she looked like one of those toy bobbleheads.
Meagan certainly didn’t want to deny her daughter the magic of being made up. “Do you mind if we take a detour?” she asked Garrett. “Then I can meet everyone and we can eat?”
“Sounds good to me.” He headed straight for the booth, hauling the little bobblehead with him. “It’ll be fun.”
They got in line, and Ivy squirmed in Garrett’s arms, impatient for her turn.
Thankfully, there was an entire crew of makeup artists doing the work, so they didn’t have to wait long. The artists themselves were dressed like fairies, their skin glowing with pixie dust.
Illustrations of the types of designs that were available for Ivy’s age range were presented to her. Arms and ankles could be decorated, too. But Ivy didn’t know what she wanted. She was more interested in the fairy who was going to paint her.
“Ella,” the toddler said, her eyes wide with enchantment. Apparently, she thought that the young woman’s costume was real.
A lump formed in Meagan’s throat. Ever since she’d shown her daughter the tiny statue that had come from Garrett’s mom and told her its name was Ella, Ivy had begun calling all fairies that. Meagan glanced at Garrett and a moment of silence passed between them.
Then Ivy said to the fairy, “Me Prinny Iby.”
Meagan translated. “She’s Princess Ivy.”
The artist smiled. “How about a design with ivy leaves?” She demonstrated where they would go. “And some hearts and diamonds, too?”
Meagan approved of the suggestion. So did Garrett, it seemed, with the way he was grinning at Ivy. But he’d already mentioned diamonds earlier.
The process was quick and easy. Within no time, Ivy’s face was decorated with just the right amount of shimmer to match her drugstore tiara.
The fairy held up a mirror, and Ivy gasped at her new reflection. Clearly, she was delighted with how she looked. Meagan felt great, too, seeing her daughter so happy.
Ivy waved goodbye to the makeup artist, and they were on their way. But Ivy didn’t want to be carried anymore. She insisted on walking on her own between Meagan and Garrett and holding both of their hands. When she decided that she wanted them to swing her, she jumped in the air, leaving them little choice but to accommodate her.
Garrett chuckled. “She’s got us right where she wants us.”
Meagan laughed, as well. Her kid definitely had a superior attitude. “She’s the princess, and we’re her court.”
“So you’re the lady-in-waiting and I’m the knight?” He held tight to Ivy’s hand and turned his admiring gaze on Meagan. “I’m really glad that you’re here with me.”
Her heart fluttered. “So am I.” She was having a brilliant time, and the day had only just begun.
Nine
As Garrett steered Meagan and Ivy toward his brothers, Meagan geared up for the meeting.
She spotted Jake, looking like a modern-day rebel with his stylishly messy hair and dark sunglasses. His adoring wife, Carol, was an attractive strawberry blonde with a radiant glow. Meagan remembered how it felt to be big and round with a babe in her belly, except that she’d cried through most of her pregnancy, worrying about her child’s future.
She noticed how content Jake and Carol seemed. They were seated next to each other, as cozy as could be. It appeared that they’d already finished their lunches and disposed of their plates.
On the other side of Jake, however, was a vacant chair with a paper plate of half-eaten food on it. Meagan assumed it belonged to Max, even if he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The edge of the napkin tucked beneath the plate was fluttering in the breeze, like a bird attempting to take flight—a symbol, perhaps, of Max’s elusive personality.
Meagan shifted her gaze. The other vacant chairs were for her and Garrett and Ivy. The one for Ivy was smaller and designed for a child. Garrett had thought of everything.
He made the official introductions. Jake and Carol stood to shake Meagan’s hand. They said hello to Ivy, too, and gushed over her painted face.
After the greeting, Meagan spoke directly to Jake, telling him how sorry she was about what she’d done.
He accepted her apology, his manner kind yet casual. They exchanged a smile, and that was that. It was over. She didn’t need to mention it to him again. It almost seemed too easy. But she didn’t mind. Easy was good.
“What happened to Max?” Garrett asked his brother.
Jake motioned with his chin. “He’s over there, talking to Lizzie.”
Curious, Meagan glanced in the direction of where Max was. He was engaged in conversation with a beautiful woman, a tall, slim redhead who looked like a socialite, a high-society type Meagan would never come across in the real world. Or a world that didn’t involve Garrett and his brothers, she amended.
After a few minutes, Ivy turned restless. She climbed onto Garrett’s lap and then onto Meagan’s and then onto her own chair. But that didn’t last long. Soon she was sitting on the blanket, dumping her toys into a pile and moving them around. One of them was a monkey with a pink bonnet on its head and a pacifier in its mouth.
Carol asked her, “May I see your baby?”
Ivy inched forward and gave it to her.
Carol rocked the stuffed monkey and said, “I’m having my own baby. For now, it’s in here.” She patted her ballooning belly. “It’s a girl. Like you.”
Ivy’s little mouth formed a giant O, and she moved closer to examine Carol’s stomach. Jake showed Ivy how to glide her hand around to make the baby kick. When it happened, Ivy burst into a fit of giggles, making the adults laugh, too.
“Have you chosen a name for your daughter?” Meagan asked the expectant parents.
Jake replied, “We’re going to call her Nita Shivaun. Nita is a Choctaw name so we chose it to represent my family, and Shivaun has Irish origins so we picked that to honor Carol’s family. Both sets of her maternal great-grandparents were from Ireland.”
“It’s a pretty combination.” Meagan liked the way it sou
nded. “What does Nita mean?”
“Bear. We’ve been getting so many teddy bears as gifts that it just seems to fit. We had a lot of Irish names in mind, but we liked Shivaun because it’s the Irish form of Joan, and Carol’s mother’s name was Joan.”
“I named Ivy after a princess in a book I read. Her full name is Ivy Ann.”
“She’s beautiful,” Carol said, studying Meagan’s daughter, as if she were wondering what her own mixed-blood child was going to look like.
Jake’s wife returned the monkey, and Ivy placed it on the blanket, putting the plush primate down for its nap. She patted its furry head and gave it a ridiculously noisy kiss. Meagan got all warm and gooey inside, watching her precious girl pretend to be a mommy.
Then, as Max came walking over to them, Ivy looked up and boldly asked, “Who you?”
The returning brother smiled, checking out her glittery ensemble. “I think the real question is, who are you?”
She leaned back on her haunches and repeated what she’d told the fairy. “Me Prinny Iby.”
“In that case, I’m Mad Max.” He made a funny face. She laughed and mimicked him, scrunching up her features, too. He didn’t seem concerned at this point what her actual name might be. Or what his was, for that matter.
But Ivy cared. She said to Garrett, “Him Maddy,” just in case he didn’t know who his oddball brother was.
“He sure is.” He bumped Max’s shoulder. They were standing side by side.
Max certainly had an unusual charm about him, Meagan thought, with his longish hair and pitch-dark eyes. Although he was built like a runner, he had some obvious muscle on him. His arms were cut, like Garrett’s. No doubt he had hot-guy abs, too. All three foster brothers were tremendously fit.
Max turned to Meagan and said, “I remember seeing you at the accountant’s office, but we never actually spoke.” He nodded toward Ivy. “She’s rather cool—this sparkly daughter of yours.”
“Thank you.” She prepared for the apology. “I’m sorry for the trouble I caused. I never should have taken what didn’t belong to me.”
“It’s all right. You did your time. And now you’re friends with Garrett.” Max glanced at his brother. “He used to keep me from getting my ass kicked when I was a kid. I couldn’t defend myself very well back then, and he always came to my rescue.”
“You can fight your own battles now,” Garrett said.
“Yes, but you were there when I needed it most.”
It seemed clear that Max still regarded Garrett as a man who deserved to be honored. Meagan couldn’t agree more. She said to Max, “He’s been kind to me and Ivy, too.”
When a hush came over all of them, Garrett said to her, “What do you think? Should we get our food?”
Meagan nodded, trying to keep a casual air. She wasn’t supposed to be admiring Garrett more than was necessary.
He scooped Ivy into his arms. “Come on, princess. It’s time for some barbecue.” To everyone else, he said, “See you in a bit.”
As the three of them headed for the buffet, Meagan glanced at Garrett. “I liked hearing what Max had to say about you.”
“I liked it, too. Max doesn’t always say what he feels. Sometimes he just stays quiet. He does have a close friend that he confides in, though. Lizzie always lends him her ear.”
“Lizzie? You mean the glamorous redhead he was talking to earlier?”
“Yep, that’s her.”
Meagan couldn’t help but wonder precisely what that relationship entailed. “Are they friends the way we’re friends?”
Garrett leaned in close and lowered his voice. “If you’re asking me if they’re sleeping together, then the answer is no.”
“How do you know they aren’t?”
“Because they’ve openly discussed not being together. They think it’ll ruin their friendship if they hook up.”
“How long have they known each other?”
“Since their senior year in high school. By then, Jake and I had already graduated and left foster care, so Max was more or less on his own. He tutored Lizzie for one of her classes, which is how they got acquainted. They weren’t from the same social circle. She was rich and beautiful and hung out with the popular kids, and he was a poor, skinny nerd who’d never even been to a school dance. But deep inside, they had things in common.” Garrett paused. “Inner turmoil. Secrets they shared.”
“We’re sharing a secret.”
He stopped before they reached the buffet, keeping their discussion private. Ivy clung to him, with her painted face shining sweetly in the sun.
He said, “Our secret is different, Meagan. Ours is...”
Romantic, she thought. Sexual. Everything Max and Lizzie’s wasn’t. “You’re right. It’s not the same.”
After a second of silence, he asked, “Are we on for tomorrow? Did you get Candy and Tanner to babysit for you?”
“Yes.” She would be coming to his house, spending a portion of the day with him. “It’s all set.”
“Where did you tell them that you’re going?”
“To a work meeting. I told them that I’m baking a pie for it, too. That people are bringing treats.”
He lifted his brows. “Is that going to be a pumpkin pie?”
She smiled. “Why, yes, it is.”
“That’s awesome.” He paused. “But how long is this meeting supposed to last? How long are Candy and Tanner expecting you to be gone?”
“I mentioned that some of us are staying afterward to reorganize the tack room, letting them know I would be gone most of the afternoon.”
“Smart thinking.”
“Thanks.” It was as good a lie as any, and she wanted to make the most of her stolen moments with Garrett, when they could be totally alone.
Unlike now, she thought, as they resumed walking toward the buffet, immersing themselves in the crowd.
Busy as it was, the rest of the picnic went splendidly. After they ate, they took Ivy on a train ride, where she made choo-choo sounds the entire time.
Later, Garrett convinced Meagan to get her ankle painted. He suggested a blue rose and a yellow daisy twined together. She loved the significance of it, the language of flowers she’d told him about alive in the design.
During one quiet moment, after her ankle was complete, he whispered, “I wish I could kiss you. Here, in front of everyone.”
His admission struck her as sweet but frightening, too. Her feelings for him were spinning like a top, and she’d already warned herself to keep their affair in perspective.
So she leaned over and said, “You can kiss me tomorrow when we’re alone.” She sucked in her breath, trying to keep herself steady. “As much as you want.”
* * *
On Sunday afternoon, Garrett kissed the daylights out of Meagan—on every part of her body. They’d already had sex. Hot, mind-blowing sex. He wanted to do it again. But for the time being, they leaned against the headboard, balancing plates on their laps and eating the pumpkin pie she’d baked and brought to his house. He’d topped his with a mound of whipped cream, and it tasted delicious, as decadent as a dessert should be.
“I keep thinking about yesterday,” he said.
She tucked her feet under the blanket. “In what way?”
“About how tough it was to keep my hands off you.” He searched her gaze. “Maybe we should just start seeing each other openly.”
She put her plate on the nightstand. Her pie was half-finished. “You want to break our secret?”
“We’re both consenting adults.” He didn’t know how long they could pull this off, coming up with stories, lying to the people closest to them. “With all of this sneaking around, our families might suspect what we’re up to, anyway.”
“We can always deny it.”
“We shouldn’t have to deny anything. We have a right to do whatever we want.”
She fidgeted with her hands, locking her fingers and then releasing them. “What about public perception?”
“You mean other employees at the resort?”
She nodded. “I don’t want anyone thinking that I’m trying to profit from our affair. That I’m using you for your money or trying to find a way to embezzle from you again.”
“We’ve already made our friendship public and no one is accusing you of that now. Besides, there are only a handful of people who even know about the embezzlement, and they haven’t been gossiping about it.”
“I’ll bet they will if they discover that we’re lovers.” She fidgeted again. “And who knows how long we’ll be doing this?”
“Long enough, I hope.” He hadn’t gotten his fill of her, not by any stretch of his imagination. “I’d be happy to see you—” he raised his fork in the air “—and your pie, every day.”
Her voice turned soft. “Really?”
“Yes, indeed.” Every day and every night—which sounded excessive, even to him. But he couldn’t help it. He wanted to spend as much time with her as he could. “Here’s an idea. If you’re not comfortable about doing this openly, maybe you can just tell Tanner and Candy the truth. Then you can be with me without having to lie to them anymore.” He pressed her to consider it. “Just think about what a relief that would be.”
“Yes, but it could create other problems, too. Once Tanner knows what I’ve been up to, he’s not going to like it. He’ll probably worry about the effect he thinks it’s going to have on me.”
“I’m not out to hurt you, Meagan.”
She sighed. “I know. But what about my track record and how easily I get attached? I’m already concerned about that.”
“You’ve only had one relationship to speak of. That hardly constitutes a track record.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No.” Not to him, it didn’t. “And I’m nothing like Neil, so how bad can it be, getting attached to me?” He wanted her to care about him, just as he was beginning to care about her. “We’ve got something special going on here.”
Single Mom, Billionaire Boss Page 11