15
________
ELLE
Colin picked up on the second ring. “Hey,” he said.
“Oh, the Deadwood stage is a-rollin’—”
“Calamity Jane,” he said, immediately. “Come on, Elle. You’ve got to pick harder ones than that.”
His knowledge of musicals was so extensive that I don’t think there was a single show tune that he didn’t know. Every time I called, I sang a different number down the phone, and he always had it within seconds. Even some of the earlier Sondheim stuff, which isn’t easy to do at all.
“Sorry,” I said. “I’ve been a little rusty of late. I just called to see what you want to do for dinner tonight?”
“I was going to text you,” Colin said. “I’ve got another date with Bradley tonight.”
“Ooh,” I said. “Isn’t that number three?”
“Yeah. I think I sort of like this guy.”
“Does that mean tonight’s the night?”
“Tonight-was-the-night on date number one, honey,” Colin said. “You know I have absolutely no shame. And believe me, I wasn’t about to wait. I knew from our first kiss that the guy had the most beautiful cock in the world.”
“Hang on,” I said, lowering my voice so that my customers wouldn’t overhear me. I could imagine that talking about beautiful penises wasn’t what a shopper wanted to hear in a Lesley Banks store.
“How on earth can you tell that just by a kiss?”
“You can tell so much by a kiss,” Colin said, dramatically. “If he has soft lips, so that it feels like kissing a rainbow, and you just want to stay there forever, then you know that there’s a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow, if you know what I mean. I think it’s all to do with confidence. If he’s confident, it’s because he’s got a nice dick.”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s absolutely no correlation.”
“Think about it,” he went on, and I could hear the sound of traffic down the phone. He was probably walking toward the theater for rehearsal. “Think of all the guys you’ve ever had sex with.”
“That won’t be too difficult,” I said, wryly. “I’m pretty sure I can count them on one hand.”
“Right. Now, think back to how good they were at kissing.”
There was a woman browsing a rack of baby girl’s dresses at one end of the store, and another one to her right, with a sweater over her arm, trying to choose between two different shirts. “I have to go,” I said to Colin. “I’ve got customers who need help.”
“Think on it,” he said. “I bet you’ll find I’m right.”
I went over to ask the woman looking at the shirts if she needed any assistance but she only smiled and shook her head, declining the offer. I asked the woman in the kid’s section the same question, and she smiled, too.
“My granddaughter’s christening is in three days,” she said. “I can’t decide whether I like the pink or the purple. I want to get her something for the party afterward, once she’s out of the lace dress.”
She dug into her purse for a picture of her granddaughter. With huge blue eyes and blonde curls, she looked like a little angel.
“Well, you know, it might be an unpopular choice, but I really like the blue,” I said. “This powder blue color would look beautiful on her, especially with eyes like that. I think we tend to choose pinks and purples for girls, but I honestly believe girls can pull off blue and boys can look so cute in pink.”
She seemed surprised, but when she looked at the dress, she nodded. “I think you’re right,” she said. “I’ll take it.”
At that, the bell in the store rang, as a man walked in pushing a stroller. I only glanced at him for a second. “I’ll be with you in a moment, Sir,” I said, breezily, and I rang through the woman’s purchase and gave her her shopping bag. She smiled and thanked me as she turned to leave.
Now it was time to give my attention to the man who’d come in. Lesley Banks doesn’t have a menswear section, so I presumed that he must be shopping for his wife. He had his back to me as he was looking at the baby clothes. I peeked into the stroller. Inside was the tiniest, most beautiful little thing I’d ever seen in my life. I was pretty sure my uterus skipped a beat at that moment, and I’m sure I made a strange ahhh noise because he turned around. I quickly took my gaze from the baby and smiled up at him.
At that second, I was sure I’d pass out in shock. My smile turned into a frown, and I clamped my hands over my face. Grinning down at me, ten years older but more handsome than he ever was, if that was even humanly possible, was Liam Wilde.
“Oh, my God, Liam,” I said, my voice barely able to rise above a whisper. And I had no idea why, but there were tears in my eyes.
“Hey, Elle. I’m sorry to have startled you,” he said, grinning. “Come here.”
He put his arms around me, a little tentatively, and I froze against his chest. I must have felt as stiff as a corpse, although I didn’t mean to. He broke away from me, still smiling, but I found myself unable to smile back. I could only stare at him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Shopping for clothes,” Liam said. “This is a boutique, right?”
“Yes, of course,” I said. “I didn’t mean to sound rude. Are they for your daughter?”
“Yes,” Liam beamed, and he stepped aside so that I could look at her again. He seemed so proud, and I couldn’t blame him. She was so cute, with a head full of dark hair, just like his.
“She looks like you,” I said, forcing a smile. I didn’t know why, but I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I tried to be as professional as possible. “With her so tiny, she’ll be growing out of things in an instant. You might want to look at this great new range. The fabric is so accommodating that she won’t just get one wear out of it. It’ll grow with her.”
“Well, I don’t mind if she only wears it once,” Liam said. “She deserves the best.”
“I’m sure she does,” I said. “Is her mom enjoying a little free time while her daddy takes her out for the day?”
“Well, her mother isn’t in the picture anymore,” Liam said, but he didn’t seem upset. “It’s just Lizzie and me, going it alone.”
“Lizzie? That’s—”
I had to stop myself. I nearly said “that’s from Pride and Prejudice,” but instead, I just said, “that’s beautiful.”
I had to move quickly before I stared at him for too long and before too many of the memories I’d buried deep down inside came floating back to the surface. I was still in a daze and I had to force myself to get a grip and snap into professional mode, fast.
“She’s got your dark hair,” I said. “Which means she’ll look adorable in pretty much anything. Blonde babies tend to want to stay away from whites, yellows, creams, and beiges because it washes them out, but she has darker skin tones, so she can pull anything off.”
Ugh. I was babbling like an idiot. I moved from rack to rack, showing him practically all of Lesley Banks’ baby wear. And would you believe it, he bought pretty much everything I showed him. “I hope you’re on commission,” he said.
I wasn’t, unfortunately. I knew that his baby budget was probably limitless. As much as I’d tried not to think of him at all over the years, it had proved impossible, particularly in New York.
When Patrick Wilde passed away from a heart attack at the young age of fifty-six, it meant that Liam had been thrust into the world he’d been groomed for earlier than planned. He’d hit the ground running, though, and even started his own company, Wildebeest, on the side. From the little I knew about the financial world, it seemed that the days of hostile takeovers and larger firms just swooping in to take over smaller ones, had gone.
Now, it was all about e-commerce. The real money, Liam had proved, was in taking over web companies, and kick-starting new online businesses.
His face was plastered all over the magazines that Lesley read to
keep abreast of changing markets. More than once, I’d gone to bring her a pot of her favorite jasmine tea, only to find Liam’s face greeting me as I entered, Lesley’s face being burrowed in yet another finance magazine. He’d won Young Entrepreneur of the Year in his first twelve months as chief executive of Wildebeest, and yet still managed to keep Wilde Mergers and Acquisitions afloat as well.
Clearly, while he might have broken my heart by leaving me the day after our only night together, his time in England, particularly Oxford, had clearly done him no harm whatsoever. If anything, he’d come out of there with all the skills he needed to take over the world. And the confidence, too, although he’d had that in spades for as long as I’d known him.
I couldn’t dwell on the past for too long, especially as he was right here, in the present, piling all the baby clothes onto the counter for me to ring through for him. It must have taken at least half a tree to produce the receipt, which I neatly folded up before handing it to him.
“Can you get me a piece of paper, please?” he asked, and I tore out a page from a notepad and handed it to him.
“This is my number,” he said, writing it down. “My house phone and my cell. Give me a call. It would be really great to catch up with you. Maybe we could go for a coffee sometime?”
His eyes were just as serious, just as intense, as they ever were, and I took the paper from him, folded it up, and put it in the pocket of my jacket.
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll just have to check when I’m free.”
A flicker passed over his face, and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped. It’s always driven me crazy when people do that. I made the mistake of pressing him about it. “What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just a little surprised. You don’t seem to be too keen on having that drink with me,” Liam said.
“And I’m surprised you’ve got time to spend with me,” I retorted. “From what I’ve read in the papers, you’re a very busy man, building your empire.”
It was a low blow, and we both knew it, but he was ever the gentleman, and instead simply nodded slowly and put his wallet back in his pocket.
“You know, a long time ago, I met a beautiful girl who judged me too quickly,” he said. “And I told her about a quote from Axl Rose. ‘We take it for granted we know the whole story. We judge a book by its cover and read what we want between selected lines.’”
“How did she respond?” I asked.
He smiled. “She learned to look at the person inside,” he said. “I was hoping that she still might.”
There was no denying that he had a way with words, even when he was borrowing from someone else. “I’ve got your number,” I said.
“And I hope you’ll call me,” he replied before he left the store with his beautiful baby daughter and several bags of expensive clothes.
As I watched him walk away, I felt the urge to call Colin. I needed to talk to my friend, so he could advise me on what the hell I should do next. But I knew Colin had a date that evening, and I wasn’t about to ruin it for him with my own drama.
I thought back to what he’d said earlier. About the best kissers being the ones with the nicest ‘equipment’. I didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on it, but when it came to Liam, Colin was absolutely spot on.
16
________
LIAM
How does the movie line go? “Of all the gin joints in all the world, she walks into mine.” Well, it was a store, rather than a gin joint, and I was the one walking in, but you get the picture, I’m sure. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw Elle working there.
Usually, in these scenarios, I’d think about how she hadn’t changed a bit, that she was still the same girl she was ten years ago but I’d be lying. She had changed. She was no longer a shy girl who hid behind her long hair. She was confident and alluring, and she strode across the floor of that boutique as though she were Lesley Banks herself.
Her auburn hair had always been one of my favorite things about her, and this too seemed to have become even more beautiful now since I’d last seen her. It was thick and wavy, and she’d scooped it up to the back of her head, with just a few loose strands casually floating on either side of her face, framing it perfectly. I’d had to resist the urge to tuck a strand behind her ear as we’d stood in the store, but something told me she wouldn’t have appreciated it.
I was so thrilled to have seen her, so happy that she was one of the first people who’d met Lizzie, but I was surprised to see that she didn’t seem too happy to see me. From what I recalled, we hadn’t left on bad terms; quite the opposite, in fact. I remembered that one of the last things I’d said to her was to tell her that I loved her, and she’d said the same to me.
On the bookshelf in my room, where I kept all my most treasured books, was the dog-eared copy of Pride and Prejudice that she’d given me as a gift, just after our first and only night together. I’d taken it off the shelf and opened it more often than I could count, and it might sound hard to believe, but it meant more to me than the first edition that I’d grown up within the family house, and which now sat in my own house, albeit in a very secure safe.
Taking it out of the view of prying eyes had been Larry’s idea. I’d never understood the rationale behind it, had never quite come to terms with the idea of purchasing priceless works of art or memorabilia, books or ornaments, only to have them locked away so they were never looked at and appreciated. My lawyer was so convinced that everyone was out to take a piece of me and that nobody could be trusted.
“They’re just things, Larry,” I’ve told him, time and again. “What’s the point of having anything if it’s only going to be kept under lock and key? Life’s too short to just own things for the sake of it, without ever enjoying it.”
But then he’d remind me that he was only looking out for my best interests and that I should think about what my father would have wanted. That always killed the conversation, mostly because I knew that Dad would always have wanted to do things differently than me. While I wasn’t bothered if it all disappeared tomorrow, Dad was obsessed with upholding the lifestyle we’d both been born into.
Maybe things would change now that I had Lizzie, I thought. After all, she was the one who was going to inherit everything of mine, so perhaps I’d be less frivolous with my things and more determined to keep them pristine. I wasn’t sure, though. While I wanted to give her everything in the whole world, I didn’t want her growing up spoiled. I would never have said the words aloud, but I didn’t want her growing up like Catherine.
I’d never known that such a tiny person could consume my life so completely. The day I’d been downtown and had seen Elle at the boutique, I’d spent hours buying things that I wasn’t even sure Lizzie would ever need. The blueprints were drawn to build her a proper nursery, and until then, she slept in the crib beside my bed. I was up for every single feeding, every colicky cry, every sleepless hour.
I was exhausted. There was no getting away from it. While I still went to the office three times a week, I found that I could barely stay awake. I was determined to do everything alone, not wanting to draw attention to the fact I had a baby in the house.
As Larry had sternly warned me, it was best my daughter was a complete secret to everybody except for him and the staff at the house. When he found out I’d gone into the city to do a little shopping with Lizzie, he was furious.
“Are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack?” he fumed when he called me on the phone later that night. “You do realize that it’ll be everywhere by tomorrow, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “So I went shopping with a baby in a stroller. I’d already met Shawn and Annabelle for coffee earlier in the day. For all anyone knows, I was simply babysitting.”
“We need to keep a lid on this,” Larry said. “It’s bad for business.”
I frowned. “What exactly is bad for business about my having a
daughter?” I asked. “I wouldn’t be the first guy to own a company and have a family.”
“Yes, but there’s no wife,” Larry said. “It looks bad.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I replied, sarcastically. “I had no idea that we were living in the forties again.”
I could hear him sighing on the other end of the phone. He made me want to sigh, too. I was becoming more than a little frustrated by his opinions.
“Look, just trust me,” he said, eventually. “I know you want to tell everyone about the baby. She’s beautiful. All I’m asking is that we have a little more time so we can be prepared for any backlash to the business.”
Unfortunately for Larry, he didn’t get much time to prepare. A couple of days later, it was on the front page of several New York newspapers, and the second or third page of papers outside of the state and beyond. Billionaire Playboy Has Secret Baby, one headline screamed. Surrogate Child for Wildebeest King read another.
It was Eddie who brought me the papers every morning, and he didn’t say a word as he placed them in front of me while I ate my breakfast. Bleary-eyed from a night of what felt like an hour of sleep, I was soon very much awake. I scoured the stories and couldn’t believe how much bullshit played out within the lines of text. I was about to call Larry, but he got there first; my phone was already vibrating beside me as I reached for it.
“Well, I guess the shit’s hit the fan now,” he said, angrily. “Have you seen this morning’s papers?”
“I’ve got them in front of me right this second,” I replied. “I can’t believe how much of this is untrue. A surrogate? Mel’s not a surrogate. She’s a mom who abandoned her kid, leaving her on my doorstep. They’ve made it sound so fucking sleazy.”
“That’s the media,” Larry said. “Sleazy’s their middle name. We need some damage control. We’ve just had the go-ahead for the Grassington project.”
This made me slam my forehead on the desk. My breakfast remained untouched to my right. The Grassington Complex was a huge investment for us, and one we’d been bidding on for a while. The latest project for Wilde’s M&A and it had been years in the making. The downtown New York office had been sinking for a while, and we’d played the game perfectly, swooping in at the optimum time. If they pulled out now and went with another investor, it would mean not just months of planning down the drain, but years. Even my father had had a hand in the early days of talks.
FIRST LOVE_A Single Dad Second Chance Romance Page 10