by Zuri Day
“All of this sounds amazing, Nick, but I don’t yet understand the urgency or why I’m here.”
“Because the designer we hired walked out. Last week. Couldn’t keep pace with CANN’s lofty vision, or take the pressures of a somewhat demanding boss—” Nick paused, Sam smiled “—and an increasingly tight deadline.”
“What’s happened to shrink the timeline?”
“Demand. The PR and marketing have been minimal but extremely targeted. Christian’s wife, Lauren, designed the brochures and the job she did was outstanding. We knew they’d attract interest, but the response was far beyond what we’d planned. Instead of a slow rollout with an expected thirty to forty-five percent vacancy, almost eighty percent of the properties have already been booked. Including the ones that are not yet finished.”
“That’s impressive.”
“And with the abrupt departure of our designer, problematic as well.”
“So what you’re saying is...the work she started on these homes needs to be finished?”
“Her work wasn’t entirely up to our standards. You may be able to work your magic and salvage a few of the properties. Others will most likely need to be stripped and totally redone. Still more you’ll have the pleasure of designing from the ground up. The homes were completed to the point of being an interior designer’s blank canvas.”
“Sounds major. How many homes are we talking?”
“Counting the properties in Hawaii and the Bahamas, twenty-three total.”
Sam took a deep breath. That was a lot of designing, even for her. “And what’s the desired completion date?”
Nick looked at his watch. “As of this morning...less than twelve weeks.”
“Whoa!”
“Exactly. That’s the urgency and why I called you.”
“And why you didn’t want your assistant to get into it.”
“I didn’t want you to get scared off before the entire scenario could be laid out. Because we know what a massive undertaking this is, and the immense pressure that will come from pulling it off, we’re willing to compensate the designer who can handle the impossible with an equally unique offer.”
Nick then laid out the compensation package, one so lucrative that not to accept would be stupid, insane, not even an option.
Still, she hesitated. “Can I think about it?”
“The employment package I’ve designed has never been offered to anyone,” Nick responded. “Anywhere. Ever.” Barely veiled frustration crept into his voice.
“No question the opportunity is amazing, but...”
A raised brow was Nick’s only response.
“There are personal matters I’d need to consider, logistics that would have to be thought out.”
“It’s a phenomenal offer,” Nick said, a slight frown marring his handsome face as he eyed her intently. “What’s there to think about?”
“I have a son.”
Crap! Did I say that out loud?
Nick’s expression, subdued as it was, suggested that she had. The one thing she hadn’t planned to share with Nick had just tumbled out before she could stop it.
“You have a child yet divorced the father? It’s none of my business, but that had to be tough.”
Sam nodded. It’s all she could do.
“How old is he?”
“He’s four,” Sam replied, wishing the floor beneath her would turn to quicksand and swallow her whole.
“A boy, huh? I had no idea. Given all of the travel that’s required, that adds a bit of a wrinkle that I didn’t expect.”
His eyes narrowed as he thoughtfully rubbed his chin. Sam could almost see his mind turning.
“We can add a childcare allowance to the package, work out an acceptable live-in arrangement so that your son’s life isn’t disrupted.”
“That’s an expensive suggestion and only a partial solution. Trey’s life has already been upended with the move from Africa to America. I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be either leaving him with a virtual stranger or dragging him all over the States. I’d planned to put him in preschool for a bit of routine, stability. I don’t know, Nick...”
“Given what I’ve just learned, I agree, Sam. It’s a big ask. But I can’t think of anyone who can do what needs to be done in the time that’s required. Someone I trust. An award-winning, formerly sought-after designer whose skills I’ve seen firsthand.
“Listen, a large part of the charity my mom runs is geared toward helping children. Her network is filled with the best au pairs, teachers, tutors, childcare professionals, you name it. If you’d like, I can give you her number or have her call you. She can help you work something out, something beneficial for both you and... Trey, is it?” Sam nodded. “She can help with an arrangement in the best interest of both you and Trey. Don’t let single motherhood be the reason you don’t take the job.”
Sam asked for a day to think about it, then left—translated, “escaped”—Nick’s office. Accepting this meeting was a very bad idea, even worse than she imagined. Nick thought her having a child was the biggest challenge to working with him? No, the gargantuan one was that Nick was Trey’s father...and didn’t know it.
Two
“I didn’t know Sam had a kid.”
That was Nick’s greeting later that day after walking into his twin brother Noah’s house unannounced.
“Good afternoon to you, too, bro.”
“You knew and didn’t tell me?” Nick eyed Noah as he crossed the living room and plopped on the couch.
Noah shook his head. “No idea. How’d you find out?”
“During her interview for the design job.”
“So you called her, huh? How’d that go?”
“Not as I’d planned. Because we need her like last week, I offered an employee package too generous for anyone to refuse. She asked for a day to think about it.”
Nick laid out the package details.
Noah sat back, his look one of amazement. “What’s there to think about?”
A lazy grin crept onto Nick’s face. “That was my question exactly. And how I found out she’d become a mom.”
Noah’s phone pinged. He picked it up, tapped the face, then returned a quick text. He looked over at Nick. His expression changed. “How’d she look?”
“Sam? Better than the last time I saw her.”
“The costume party, right?”
“Catwoman,” Nick replied with a slow nod, allowing his mind for the briefest of moments to return to that night. Him, as a GQ Superman in a tight-fitting royal blue tux, red muscle shirt, and black-and-red mask. He’d been at the party for about an hour when he felt an energetic shift in the room. Samantha Price. The award-winning interior designer who’d flitted on the outskirts of his social circle for years. He flirted. She teased. As they’d always done. This time, though, he asked her to dance. After three minutes of slow dancing they left for CANN Casino Hotel and Spa, North America’s only seven-star hotel and the jewel of Las Vegas. For the next twelve hours they stirred up enough electricity to light up the Strip. It was an unforgettable, mind-blowing night, when one sexy Catwoman became that Superman’s kryptonite.
His twin, with whom he shared everything, was the only one he’d told.
Noah reached for his phone, viewed the lit-up screen. “You never saw her after that, right?”
“We were supposed to get together. But she left town, remember?”
“Vaguely.”
“She met a prince and obviously started a family. Her body still looks amazing. I couldn’t believe it when she told me she’d had a child.”
“So the royal family is moving to America?”
Nick shook his head. “They’re divorced.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Nick nodded. That was an institution the Breedloves didn’t belie
ve in. He probably should have felt sorry, too. But he didn’t.
“How old is the kid?”
“Four.”
“Boy or girl?”
“Boy. His name’s Trey.”
“What type of father would let his kid, especially a son, move to the other side of the world, divorce or no?”
“I thought the same thing. She clearly didn’t want to talk about her personal life so I dropped the subject.” Nick thoughtfully rubbed his five o’clock shadow, remembering the encounter. “She was different though, no doubt. Distant. Guarded. Not at all the carefree woman I remember.”
“Having had to deal with whatever was bad enough to end her marriage, that can be understood. Maybe she was hoping they could have worked it out. Stayed together for the child’s sake at least.”
Noah’s words reverberated. Worked it out. Stayed together for the child’s sake. Nick didn’t know how he felt about that.
“That design job is a beast with a time schedule from hell. I don’t see her being able to do it. Not with a child.”
“That definitely complicated the situation. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The room fell silent. Nick looked up to see Noah’s speculative gaze.
“What?”
“Are you sure this is about getting the homes completed before summer?”
“Absolutely.”
“It has nothing to do with Sam and the fact that she’s single again?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
They both laughed. “I’m focused on work, bro.”
“I can understand that,” Noah replied. “Plus, those Anderson twins are probably giving you all that you can handle.”
“A gentleman never kisses and tells.” Nick stood and headed toward the door.
Noah got up and walked toward him. “Where are you going?”
“I have a meeting.”
“With whom?”
“The only person who can help me with the childcare dilemma.” The brothers looked at each other and both said, “Mom.”
Nick climbed into his flashy McLaren, sped down the road and spun into the circular driveway of his parents’ estate in nothing flat.
“Mom!”
Helen, the housekeeper who after all of the decades she’d been employed there was more like an aunt, greeted him in the hallway. “Hello, Nick.” The two shared a hug. “She’s in her new favorite place.”
“The solarium. Thanks, love.”
Nick walked to the back of the home toward the newly added indoor/outdoor paradise that spanned a great length of the home. He walked over to where Victoria was engrossed in weeding a bed of vibrant plants. He sneaked up behind her and kissed her cheek.
“Oh!” Victoria swatted him. “You scared me!”
“Good thing I wasn’t a burglar,” he teased. “Did you have a chance to work on what I asked you or have you been here all morning, communing with nature?”
Victoria pulled off her gloves and set them on the rim of the wooden box before crossing over to a canvas-covered divan. “Your multitasking mother managed to do both.” She poured a glass of lemon water and held up the pitcher.
“Please.” She filled a glass for Nick and handed it to him. “Thanks.”
“I ran across a picture of Sam online.”
By “run across” Nick knew Victoria had scoured the internet to the edges of the earth to find out what she could about her.
“She’s gorgeous, son. Those deep brown eyes. That flawless skin. Stunning.”
“Yes, she’s attractive.”
“And married to a prince. Why is she back here and working, with a child to care for?”
“Those details aren’t our business, Mom.”
“I was just curious. I’d imagine her child is equally beautiful. Does he look like her?”
“How would I know?”
“She didn’t show you a picture?”
“It was an interview, Mom, not a social visit.”
“Still, son, it’s a rare mother who doesn’t offer up pictures of her children at the slightest opportunity.”
It would be even rarer if one such mother didn’t begin another round of internet sleuthing to find one.
“Any success on finding contacts I can pass on to Sam?”
“I’ve asked Hazel to pull together a list of possibilities.”
“Your new assistant?” Victoria nodded. “How is she working out?”
“No one will ever top Lauren’s skills, but Hazel is a close second. She’ll compile a list of names and agencies and forward them to you by end of day.”
“You’re amazing.”
“I try.”
Nick stood. Victoria followed suit.
“I’ve got more work to do.” He kissed her forehead and pulled her in for a hug. “You’re a lifesaver, Mom. Thanks.”
“Keep me posted on how it all goes.”
“I will. Love you, Mom.”
“Love you more.”
Nick returned to his car and immediately called Sam. It would have made more sense to wait until he’d received the list, but he wanted to hear her voice now.
“Hello?” Sam sounded breathless, liked she’d rushed to the phone. A thought flashed about another time when heavy breathing occurred, but he immediately shut it down.
“Sam. Nick.”
“Hey, Nick.”
“Good news. I’m about to solve all your problems.”
“You know them all?”
Nick laughed. “You have that many?”
“A few.” No laughter. “Is this about the job? You said I had until tomorrow, right? I still haven’t made up my mind.”
“If part of the indecision is about childcare, a solution is on the way.”
“It is?”
“Yep.”
“So...let me guess. In addition to being a vice president in a multibillion-dollar corporation, you own a childcare center?”
“No, but I know...hey. What are you doing?”
“Right now?”
“Yes, right now.”
“On the computer, research stuff. There’s a lot to do to get settled.”
“I bet. Where are you staying?”
“South Vegas, temporarily.”
“I’m headed that way. Let’s discuss the childcare solution I’ve come up with over dinner.”
“I can’t do that. I need to get dinner for...for my son.”
“That’s no problem. Bring the little guy, too. I know a kid-friendly spot not far from our hotel. You and Trey can meet me there.” Silence fell as Noah exited the freeway and headed toward CANN Casino Hotel and Spa, a towering landmark anchoring one end of the Las Vegas Strip. “Sam, you there?”
“Yeah, um, I’m here. Thanks, but no. I’m going to run us through a drive-through and get right back online. What’s the name of the daycare center? I’ll check out their website.”
“All of your options are being compiled. I’ll have them later today. With the long hours and frequent travel, the list will most likely include au pairs or child assistants with degrees in child education. That way if Trey travels with you, he’ll still stay on course with his preschool studies. I think the best candidate would be someone who can look after Trey and whatever temporary households you establish wherever you’re at.”
“Sounds awesome, Nick, but even with your company’s amazing offer, I’m not sure I could afford an arrangement like that. Her salary, airfare, extra lodging, food. It would be a huge expense.”
“You’re right. I thought about that, which is why her employment would be a part of your package. She’ll be employed by the company and, like you, would be given a company card for travel and other expenses.”
“Wow. This is... I’m speechless. Where
would you find such a person? How...”
“Mom. Plain and simple. She’s a better problem-solver and negotiator than a top corporate exec, including my father. Including me. The people on the list have been pre-vetted and most likely were recommended by someone Mom personally knows.”
“I... I don’t know what to say.”
“That’s easy. Say you’ll be by my office tomorrow to complete the paperwork. You can meet the au pair, sit with our real estate executive to help you with housing and get ready for a trip to New York next week.”
“Whoa, Nick, slow down. You’re throwing a lot at me. It’s almost too much.”
“You can handle it.”
“I appreciate your confidence but with all of the amazing designers out there, why are you doing all of this to get me?”
“That’s simple, Sam. Because you’re the best.”
“How can I argue with that?”
“You can’t.”
Why did Sam’s laughter make Nick feel like beating his chest and unable to wipe the grin off his face?
“I don’t know, Nick. This is a lot to think about.”
“You still have a few hours. Why don’t you stop by the office tomorrow, say three o’clock?”
“Okay.”
“See you then. And Sam?”
“Yes?”
“Just so you know. When I see you tomorrow, the only acceptable answer to my job offer is yes.”
Three
Sam reached the hall at one end of the living room, turned and retraced her steps back to the fireplace on the opposite wall. She’d paced this way for the past fifteen minutes. Talking with her cousin, the one who’d graciously taken in her and Trey after their abrupt stateside return. Making her case.
“I can’t take this job, Danni. There’s no way!”
“There’s no way you cannot take it. That job is everything you need right now. With childcare included? Girl, please.”
“This isn’t about the money. It’s about...” Sam looked toward the hallway where her son shared a room with his cousin. She went to sit by Danielle and lowered her voice. “This is about Trey. I can’t imagine what would happen if Nick ever found out.”