Star Promise (13 page)

Being the dad of a headstrong, slightly bent little girl was a tough gig, and I knew from experience that tightening his grip on her would only make it harder. All I could do was keep reminding him of that.

“She didn’t need you today,” I said gently. “That’s probably going to start happening a lot.”

“You were the one who was intent on keeping her safe and shielded from the big bad world,” he replied. “What changed?”

I couldn’t adequately describe the feeling of seeing my daughter fearlessly and confidently shut her tormentor down, but I tried. “She made herself safe.”

Adam held the corners of the quilt and threw it out across the bed. “I just want to do right by her, Charli,” he complained. “Sometimes I feel like I get it wrong.”

“Sometimes we both do,” I replied. “But not today.”

Every now and then, the tie I wore to work started to feel like a noose around my neck. On days like that, just being in the office took effort.

Despite the fact that I’d forgone breakfast with my kid to make an early start, I’d hardly made a dent in the pile of paperwork on my desk. By mid morning I was fast losing the will to live, and could feel a headache coming on. Resting my elbows on my desk, I closed my eyes and kneaded my temples.

“Rough morning?”

When I looked up and saw Charli, the ache in my brain disappeared in an instant. I went a step further than asking her to close the door. I asked her to lock it.

“Why?” She flashed me her deadliest grin. “Are you trying to hide me?”

I walked over and cornered her against the door. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting you all to myself.” I slipped my hand behind her, turned the lock and kissed her – far more suggestively than I should have.

Charli eventually pulled away, which was for the best. My mind was getting creative, and so were my hands.

She held me tightly, presumably to stop my creeping hands. “Back to my original question,” she said. “Are you having a rough day?”

I leaned down, brushing my next words across her lips. “Not any more.”

Charlotte gave up holding me at bay. She linked her arms around my neck and pressed her body against mine before kissing me twice as dangerously as I’d just kissed her.

Without breaking the embrace, I walked her toward the window and lowered her onto the couch. “Glad you locked the door?” I whispered in her ear.

Her laugh combined with a breathy moan that made my head spin. I’d wanted her even before she arrived, and now that she was in my grasp, I decided that the couch in my office was the perfect place to have her.

Charli decided otherwise. The layers of her soft skirt got caught between us as she grabbed my hand. “Don’t you want to know why I’m here?” she asked.

I slipped my other hand between her knees. “You mean this wasn’t it?”

She wriggled out and pulled herself together, tugging her dress back into place. I straightened my tie, pretending to do the same thing. “I need to talk to you about something,” she said.

Whatever it was had to be serious. She’d never left work and come all the way downtown to see me before. “Talk to me.”

“I’m late,” she said simply.

I’d heard those words only once before, when I was least ready to hear them. Things were different this time. First, I knew what it meant. Second, I wasn’t scared. And third, I was excited. “Seriously?”

Her nod was cut short by my hug. “Ow! Adam, I need to breathe.”

I leaned back to give her space. “I’m sorry,” I told her, grinning like an idiot. “No, not really,” I amended, lurching forward again.

“Don’t get too excited,” she warned. “I’m not sure.” Just when I thought I was getting the hang of the whole girl-versus-boy dynamics, she upped the ante. Apparently late doesn’t always equal pregnant.

“Well, can we find out, please?”

“That’s why I’m here,” she replied, grabbing her purse. After a long moment of rummaging, she pulled out a pregnancy test. “I thought we could find out together. I just need somewhere to pee.”

I could feel the wry smile that crossed my face. “I know just the place.”

Charlotte is nearly a foot shorter than me, which meant rushing down the corridor at my pace was practically a sprint for her. The reason for my urgency was a good one. Commandeering my father’s office was only going to work if he wasn’t in it, and I knew he was attending a board meeting that morning.

Slipping past Tennille at the reception desk was easier than expected. She was on the phone at the time, and judging by her giggle, it was a personal call.

I usually dreaded entering the double doors at the end of the hall, but at that moment nothing but excitement flowed through me.

Charli was excited too, but I suspect it had nothing to do with peeing on a white stick. When I ushered her inside, she headed straight for Dad’s chair. “Nicely done, dauphin,” she crowed.

“I can’t be the dauphin,” I replied, laughing. “The eldest son of the king is the dauphin, not the youngest.”

“No worries,” she said unperturbed. “We’ll just have to do away with Ryan – poison his cologne or something.” She followed up with a wicked smile that I desperately wanted to kiss.

I only held back because I knew it probably wouldn’t stop there – even at the risk of being sprung by my father. I pointed to the dark oak panelled wall to her left. “Go,” I ordered.

Charlotte looked at the wall. “Go where?”

I waved her over. As I pushed on a panel, a concealed door swung open, exposing the bathroom hidden behind it.

“A secret door?” she quizzed me. “Who are you people?”

“I don’t know about the rest of them, but I’m yours.” I took her face in my hands. “I’m the father of your babies,” I announced with the reverence it deserved. “I’m also your partner in crime, so if you could please hurry up and do what you need to do, we won’t go to jail.”

Whether she believed it was a possibility or not, she did as I asked, slipping into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

The only fault with the plan was that I was left alone in the king’s chambers. Feeling anxious for two different reasons, I paced my dad’s office, occasionally stopping to gaze out the windows that took up the whole length of the room.

I didn’t need the view to remind me that New York is an enormous city. Being there can sometimes make you feel small, and on a bad day, insignificant. I never felt that way any more. As far as I was concerned, I was a giant. The life I’d created with my girls was a good one. It was the other things I had going on that were small and insignificant.

It seemed an eternity before the panelled door swung open again, and even longer before Charlotte spoke. “Performance anxiety,” she explained. “It took a while.”

“Now we wait?”

She nodded. “A couple of minutes.”

The urgency to get out of Dad’s office had all but disappeared. I took Charli by the hand and led her to the couch near the window.

“We should go,” she mumbled. “I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

I directed my smile at the window. “I’m not worried,” I replied. “If we have to wait, I’d rather we do it in style.”

Charli shuffled closer. “You’re my hero, Adam,” she teased. “Brave and defiant. I’m glad you’re my baby-daddy.”

I whispered my next words against her hair. “That doesn’t mean I won’t blame you if he catches us, Coccinelle.”

We were quiet for a while. Charli seemed engrossed in the view. I had trouble taking my eyes off her. The last seven years played out in my mind in less than a minute, trying to pinpoint the moment we grew up and became adults who were capable of raising a child and planning another.

We didn’t even look like the same two love-struck kids we used to be. Charli wore heels to work and her hair was always neat. Vintage Charli was far more casual and blithe than the well put together woman sitting next to me. The change in me was almost the opposite. I’d started out wound far too tightly, determined to control every single aspect of my life. I didn’t live that way any more, and the tie I wore to work was rarely straight because of it.

We’d found a happy medium, and as far as I was concerned, our struggles were over. Ballet lessons and making nonsensical deals with my four-year-old were always going to trump the life I used to think I wanted. And my heart thumped a little harder at the realisation that we might be on the edge of more magic.

The view from Jean-Luc’s office was as good as any in the city, and from the forty-third floor the streets below almost looked peaceful.

Adam was doing a good job of appearing calm, but I wasn’t buying it. It was impossible not to compare this moment to the last time I peed on a stick. The circumstances were different, but the look in his eyes was the same.

I knew better than to question it. Adam had been ready for another baby since Bridget was a year old. He wasn’t concerned about a positive result – that was exactly what he was hoping for. He was worried about a negative one.

“Boy or girl?” I asked out of the blue.

Adam frowned. “I’m not sure. Will the answer be written on the stick?”

“I’m just curious. Would you like a boy or another girl?”

“I don’t have a preference.”

I leaned closer, pinning his face beneath my hands while I studied his eyes. I didn’t have a preference either. All I wished for was another healthy baby who shared her father’s lovely cerulean eyes. I kept the thought to myself. “She might be twice as shady as Bridget,” I warned. “Then what?”

I pressed my thumb into his dimpled cheek as his smile broadened. “Boarding school,” he replied.

I could’ve taken five tests in the time we spent discussing the pitfalls of raising shady daughters. I put an end to it by reminding him that time was well and truly up.

As I reached for my bag, Adam grabbed my hand. “Wait,” he said, squeezing my fingers. “I want to tell you something first.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“We’re good either way, alright?”

“Better than good.” I smiled, trying to reassure him. “We’re perfect.”

I handed him the test without even looking at it. I was more focused on him and how incredibly nervous he’d suddenly become.

I knew the result before the words came. His shoulders sagged infinitesimally, telling me all I needed to know. “Negative,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

I wasn’t sure what he was apologising for, or what I should say in reply. The feeling of disappointment shouldn’t have been this strong. We’d been trying to get pregnant for two months. Compared with the waiting game Alex and Gabi played, it was a miniscule amount of time.

“Next time,” I said quietly. “It’s early days.”

Adam gave me a smile that I knew was false. “And we get to keep trying,” he said. “Win–win.”

I smiled back, just as fraudulently. “Always an upside.”

He dropped the test back in my bag and pulled me into his arms. My body sagged against his.

“I love you, Charlotte,” he whispered before kissing the top of my head. “And all the crooked babies we’re going to have together when the time is right.”

We got out of the king’s office as stealthily as we arrived. Adam reluctantly let me go at the elevator. I headed back to the gallery feeling a strange tinge of sadness that hadn’t been there earlier that morning.

I was dealing with a tinge, but jumping the gun had crushed Adam. It didn’t feel good and I already knew it wouldn’t happen again. Until I was absolutely sure I was pregnant, there would be no more peeing on sticks in his presence.

The rest of the morning passed in a blur of boring paperwork, an evil but necessary part of my job. Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any less enjoyable, I received a blunt text from my father-in-law.

– Lunch?

If that was his idea of an invitation, it sucked.

– I’m at work

– I’ll come to you

He was cruising for a snarky reply.

– Great. You can bring me a sandwich.

As expected, his reply took forever, and my eyes didn’t leave my phone while I waited for it.

– No sandwiches.

– Turkey on rye, please. No tomato.

Jean-Luc didn’t reply, which was the first indication that I’d won. The second came when he turned up an hour later carrying a bag of sandwiches.

“Oh,” I crooned, taking the bag and peeking inside. “My favourite. How did you know?”

“No games today, Charli,” he grumbled. “I am not in the mood.”

His demeanour made me wonder if he knew I’d made use of the facilities in his office that morning. I tried to think of a quick defence, but he had other things on his mind.

“Where is Adam?” he demanded, following me to my desk.

“At work, as far as I know.”

Jean-Luc momentarily forgot his line of questioning when he realised we were dining in. “Here?” he asked.

“I can’t leave. I’m the only one here.”

He looked seriously inconvenienced, but pulled up a chair and sat down. I didn’t care. I already knew lunch was going to be miserable.

“He’s not at the office,” he told me.

I handed him a sandwich. I was at a loss. Maybe Adam was more disappointed by the morning’s events than he’d let on. My first instinct was to find out where he was and go to him. My second was to stay and defend him against his father.

“I don’t know where he is,” I said strongly. “Maybe he just needed some time out.”

“Adam doesn’t have that luxury,” he snapped. “I don’t tolerate unreliability from any of my employees.”

There was very little in life that Jean-Luc did tolerate.

I dropped my sandwich into the wrapper and brushed my hands. “Why don’t you just call him and ask him where he is?”

“It’s not up to me to chase him.”

“You think that’s my job?”

“No, Charli,” he replied quietly. “I just want you to talk to him. He listens to you.”

I stared at him, and was immediately struck by his worried expression. Adam looked exactly the same whenever he thought Bridget was running off the rails.

“You think he’s off track,” I said, thinking out loud.