“The timing’s crap, I agree,” I said, “but I can’t understand why it’s being blown out of proportion the way it is. I figure we just tell them the truth and let the public decide.”
“Fuck no!” Larry said, his voice rising. “Shit, Liam, that wouldn’t make anything better at all. It’ll give the impression you’re sowing your oats all over the city and that this is the first in a long line of motherless kids showing up at your doorstep.”
“So, what’s your idea?”
“Let me handle it,” Larry said. “We’re going to call the biggest paper and give them the story. That you were in a long-term relationship that was kept from the public, and that Lizzie was the result. We don’t have to go anywhere further than that. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to be seen looking in the windows of a jewelry store next time you’re downtown. Get the press’s hearts a little warm at the thought you’re about to propose.”
“It’ll never hold up,” I said. “What, I’m keeping the mother of my child a prisoner in my basement?”
“Well, it’s not like we know where she is,” Larry retorted. And he was right. I’d sent numerous texts to Mel, and had called her number, only to find it was disconnected. I’d sent Larry over to her apartment, but her neighbor said she’d cleared out, leaving the last month’s rent unpaid. I’d made sure that was settled with the landlord. It seemed like the right thing to do, I told Larry.
“I’m going to do a little searching, and I’ll see if we can’t get someone to stand in as the kid’s mom for a few weeks,” Larry went on, despite my protestations. “You don’t need to be seen with her in public or anything. Just get the media off the scent. We need to deal with this quickly.”
He hung up. I ate my breakfast, insisting on two more cups of coffee before I felt I could take on my day. Joanna brought Lizzie down to me after her bath, and I sat with her in my arms before I left for work.
“All this fuss for you,” I said, softly. But looking down at her, I knew that I wouldn’t have changed anything. She was my daughter, my flesh and blood. That was the most important thing.
“What we need is a nanny,” I said to Joanna. “These night feeds are killing me. Start looking for qualified, discreet nannies who could look after Lizzie during the week, and I’ll take the weekends. I need to be on top of my game in everything right now. Have you seen the papers?”
“Yes, Sir. I glanced at them before you woke up,” Joanna said, truthfully. “It’ll blow over.”
“I sure hope so. In the meantime, let’s get some help for both of us,” I said, and I kissed Lizzie’s soft forehead and gave her back to Joanna. “Have a good day, girls. I have to go face the music.”
As I drove to the office that morning, I thought about how my life had changed in the blink of an eye. Things would never be the same. I thought back to how life used to be when my only worries were soccer scores and getting the grades I needed to make my parents proud. I thought about how, by now, Mom and Catherine would know about Lizzie. I needed to call them, but I didn’t want to have to face their reaction. These days, we barely spoke to each other, but I figured they should really be told about the new addition to the Wilde family.
While I’d never spent too much time dwelling on it before, I realized now that there was something missing in my life; a person I could truly confide in and trust one hundred percent. While Larry was a good lawyer and loyal to the company, he certainly wasn’t the kind of guy I’d talk to about things that had been playing on my mind. Shawn, my friend from Oxford, had been in New York for a few days with his wife, Annabelle, and we’d had a coffee, but hardly made plans to meet up again.
I sighed. I knew there was only one person I wanted to speak with, the one person who’d understood me all those years ago. Surely it couldn’t have been a coincidence that here she was once more, back in my life after so long? And looking so damned beautiful, too.
No, I wasn’t going to wait for Elle to call me. Time waits for no man. Besides, I’d never been one to hang around when I saw something I wanted. Seeing Elle had stirred something inside me that I needed to investigate further. Life was changing so quickly, but I needed to start taking control of things.
17
________
ELLE
“Did you feed Cat?” Colin called as I got out of the shower that evening.
I opened the bathroom door and a cloud of steam escaped down the hallway. “Hey,” I called. “I didn’t hear you come in. I’ll be out in a second.”
Pulling my bathrobe around me, I walked into the living room to find Colin putting down food for Cat. I didn’t bother telling him that he’d already been fed. It could be our little secret.
“You’re home early,” I said. “Didn’t it go well with Brandon?”
“The guy’s dating me. Of course it went well. But I had a feeling that you needed me here.”
“What?”
Colin shrugged. “You didn’t answer my calls and you didn’t reply to my texts. I just wondered if you had a problem with your parents.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” I said, and he opened up his arms and gave me a hug. “I can’t believe you came home just for me. Brandon must think you’re tied to my apron strings.”
“Well, you know what they say: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. We’ll go out tomorrow instead. Come on. Talk to me.”
My best friend had possessed some kind of sixth sense for these things ever since we were in school. I don’t know how he did it, but he always managed to know when something was wrong and the best way to fix it. So, although I’d been planning on wallowing all night in my own feelings over seeing Liam again for the first time after so long, I didn’t have to. I told Colin about that morning in the store as he fixed me a cup of tea and brought it to over to the couch where I was sitting.
“Whoa,” he said, in a low voice. “That’s not what I was expecting at all. Was he as gorgeous as ever?”
“Yes,” I groaned, burying my face in a cushion.
“Oh, that’s even worse,” Colin groaned. “Nothing like your past love coming back to haunt you with the same chiseled cheekbones and sexy grin.”
He gazed out into the distance, and I prodded him. “Hey!” I cried. “Stay with me!”
He smiled, snapped out of the reverie of high school Liam Wilde again. “So, did he talk to you?”
“It gets worse,” I said, and I relayed how I’d seen him pushing a stroller and in it was his beautiful daughter. “He told me the mom’s not in the picture, but how can I believe that? I don’t know. That baby was so cute, though.”
“Well, he won’t be too hard to track down,” Colin said. “He’s always in the paper for something. The guy’s a regular Bruce Wayne. You should try calling his office and speaking to him again.”
“I don’t need to do that,” I replied. “I’ve got his number in the pocket of my jacket.”
With his mouth dropping open, Colin pointed to the hallway. “Go this instant and get those numerals right now,” he ordered. “You’re calling him.”
“No, I’m not,” I said. “Don’t be ridiculous. He probably only gave it to me to be polite. I’m overthinking everything. It doesn’t even make any sense that it’s bothering me so much. There have been plenty of times that I’ve bumped into someone we went to school with, but none of them had me behaving like a complete idiot. I need to get a grip.”
I said the words aloud more for my benefit than for Colin’s. I did need to get a grip. The paper on which he’d scribbled his number was still neatly folded and exactly where I’d placed it, as I hadn’t looked at it since. It sounds crazy, but I’d always been good at memorizing phone numbers. I didn’t want Liam’s floating around my head.
That evening, Colin could do nothing to convince me to even send as much as a text to Liam. Instead, he went out and bought me a tub of my favorite ice cream and we spent the night watching chick-flicks.
~~~
A couple of days later, Colin sent me a
link to a news website, and I was shocked to see that Liam was on the front page. The photograph of him pushing the stroller must have been taken the day I saw him; he was wearing the same pale blue t-shirt and dark jeans. I spent so much time zooming in on his face and his beautiful, strong arms that I almost forgot to read the article.
I was surprised to see that the baby had been born from a surrogate. I wouldn’t have imagined that of Liam at all. There were no details about the baby or when she was born, and I realized that by seeing her tiny little face as she slept peacefully while her daddy chose all her new clothes, I’d been one of the privileged few to ever lay eyes on her. Photographers would be clamoring for any photo they could get. As far as we all knew, Liam Wilde was the most eligible bachelor in New York. He was like a prince in a fairytale, and everyone in the land wanted to know about his life.
Moving from one article to another, I tried to get as much information as possible. I have no idea why I relied on the spurious words of journalists to give me the story when I could have had the truth straight from the horse’s mouth. Nobody seemed to know any of the facts, and some even hinted that Lizzie’s mother was a famous movie star who hadn’t been seen in public for a long time.
It was difficult for me to concentrate at work that day, and more than once I looked up when the door to the store opened to see if it was him. I know I could have called him, could have stopped being so stubborn and simply spoken to him as a friend, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Because, if I was completely honest with myself, I knew that I wasn’t over him.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen it written, or heard it said, that you never get over your first love and, in my case, it was absolutely true. In the ten years since Liam had walked out of that beautiful hotel room overlooking the lake, I’ve never met anyone who made me feel like he had. I don’t suppose any romance at twenty-eight could make a person feel like they did when they were eighteen, but nobody even came close.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and for a split second, I thought it might be Liam, but then I remembered that he didn’t have my number. I slipped the phone out to see it was my mom. I sighed. I didn’t need this right now, but I answered anyway.
Half an hour later, my mood had been brought down even lower and I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep my store-manager-smile on my face for the rest of the day. Thankfully, Megan seemed to notice that I wasn’t myself, and she took over.
“Go have a long lunch,” she said. “Lesley won’t be back for the rest of the week, and I know you have plenty of work to do upstairs.”
She may only have been little more than a kid, but she knew exactly how to make me feel better. She always did a great job of looking after the store, too, so I knew that it was safe in her capable hands as I headed upstairs. I sat at my desk and did little more than stare into space for a while before I pulled open my bottom drawer and took out something I hadn’t opened in a long time.
My sketchbook of designs had lain dormant for far too long. With a little time to myself, I opened the cover and picked up a pencil. I sketched out the shapes and patterns that had come into my mind over the past few days, and before I knew it, I’d filled two whole pages with new designs. I could imagine sourcing the fabric for them, carefully cutting and sewing the material before pinning it to a real live model who’d walk down the catwalk while people cheered and clapped and took photographs.
It was a pipe dream, though. It was never going to happen. I was never going to be able to afford to quit working for Lesley and launch my own label. If the call from my mom was anything to go by, I wasn’t going to be able to afford to do anything for the next twenty-five years of my life.
I was kidding myself to think that I could ever call Liam and pick up again like old friends after ten years of silence. I didn’t want him to know what a disappointment I’d become, both to him and to myself. Without thinking, I found that I’d slipped my hand down the neck of my shirt and was turning the pendant around in my fingers. The pendant he’d given me.
Wallowing was not something I liked to do often. But I was content with sitting in my melancholy state for a little longer, which I would have done were it not for Megan calling me on the phone from downstairs at four-thirty that afternoon.
“Miss Evans?” she asked, greeting me in the way she always did when there was a customer present.
“Yes Megan,” I replied. “What’s up?”
“There’s a gentleman here to see you,” she said. “Shall I tell him you’ll be right down?”
Colin. It had to be Colin. He’d probably popped in on his way over to the theater and brought me a sandwich. I couldn’t bring myself to think that perhaps it might be someone else. Someone who’d been on my mind far too much lately.
I checked my reflection in the mirror and rolled back my shoulders. Whoever was asking for me, they were going to get the best Elle Evans there is.
My heart skipped a beat as I entered the store through the big glass doors and saw Liam standing there. Boy, did he look as sexy as ever. Broad-shouldered, in a crisp white shirt with large black cufflinks, he stood with his hands on his hips, smiling as he saw me.
“Hello, stranger,” he said, and he kissed me on the cheek. He smelled as good as he looked.
I forced a stiff smile and glanced at Megan. “Can you give us a moment?” I asked.
She nodded and grabbed her purse. “I’ll go get a coffee,” she said. The store was quiet. It was rush hour, and most people were heading home.
Once we were alone, I looked at Liam. “Everything okay with the clothes?” I asked.
“They’re amazing,” he said. “She looks beautiful in them.”
“I’m so pleased,” I said. I could feel that I was standing there like a rigid schoolmistress. Anything was better than collapsing into a quivering wreck, which was what I really wanted to do.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Liam asked. “It’s been a couple of days. I thought I’d have heard from you by now.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve been so busy.”
The door opened, and a customer came in. “Sorry,” I said, “I have to help this lady.”
“No, they can wait their turn,” Liam said. “I’ve come over here to talk to you because I’ve given you my number and you haven’t called me and frankly, I’m a little surprised. Don’t you want to talk to me?”
“Of course,” I said, softly, and at that, he cut me off before I could say another word.
“Fine. Then I’ll meet you back here at eight,” he said. “I’m taking you for a drink.”
What could I say? I wasn’t about to make a scene, and it seemed I didn’t have much of a choice. I managed a nod, and he grinned, kissed me on the cheek again, and left in a cloud of sexy, spicy cologne.
The woman who’d entered the shop gazed after him and then looked at me. “Could I have one of those to take home, please?” she asked.
I blushed and went over to see if she needed any help.
18
________
LIAM
When I saw her waiting outside the store that evening, at eight o’clock on the dot, I was taken back to the night of our very first kiss. The same long neck, the same dreamy pose, lost in thought as she watched the traffic go by. I didn’t want to stay too long at the side of the road; the media were like sniffer-dogs. Just a whiff of me in the area, especially picking up a beautiful woman, and they’d be around the car like Bluetick Coonhounds, sniffing out their prey.
I put down my window. “Hey there,” I called. She looked at me and walked over to the car. I leaned over and opened the passenger side. She got in.
“Sorry I didn’t get out,” I said. “But I’m sort of fresh meat for photographers right now.”
“I’ve noticed,” Elle said, wryly. “I saw the papers.”
I shook my head. “Don’t believe that shit,” I told her. “They’ve completely got the wrong end of the stick. Anyway, are you hungry?”
I was. I hadn’t eaten since my breakfast that morning. Most of my day had been spent in meetings, rescuing the Grassington project. I’d succeeded, but the investors weren’t too happy. It was going to take a lot of work to get the board back in our corner one hundred percent, but I knew we’d get there.
For now, I was just happy to have Elle in the car. She smelled amazing, the fresh scent of her perfume making me think of summer days. She was wearing a sexy cream dress that cut above her knee, and her pale skin glowed in the early evening light. Her hair was up in a clip, and I found myself thinking about how it would look if I let it free to fall down her shoulders.
We drove to my favorite bar, a little but well-known place tucked away in the center of Manhattan. I stepped out of the car and went around to Elle’s side. The valet was there immediately, and I handed him the keys. At the top of the steps, the doorman opened the door for us and held out his hand. “Good to see you again, Mister Wilde,” he said.
I shook the proffered hand and slipped him a hundred-dollar bill. “I’d like a little privacy right now, if that’s possible,” I said. “No photographs or requests for selfies, please.”
He tapped his temple, as though tipping an invisible cap to me. “Got it,” he said, and he radioed through to the inside. By the time the door closed again, we were already being ushered to a private lounge. In there, Elle gasped at the sight of two well-known singers, deep in conversation. She squealed and grabbed my arm.
“Is that…?” she cried, and I grinned and nodded.
“Yes,” I said. “Come on, let’s sit down.”
FIRST LOVE_A Single Dad Second Chance Romance Page 11