Page 32 of Secret Baby
"Vicki, you look pretty." Clara's smiling face greeted her as Vicki straightened out the back. "Dad will like you better than Belle, I just know it."
Vicki knelt down and pressed her foot into her washed Prada shoe. "What was that?"
Clara put her hands behind her back. "Nothing."
Vicki crossed her arms. "Do you not like Belle?"
Clara smiled and swayed on her feet. "I like you more."
Vicki stood. She couldn't smile that her daughter liked her, but her entire body felt lighter. Colt hadn't heard this conversation, and he'd get defensive again. She smiled. "Let's go, sweetheart."
With a huge smile on her face, she held her daughter's hand and walked out the door. Colt waited in the kitchen area with his muscular back turned. She licked her lips and then imagined his entire body naked. She must be blushing for how she thought, and she tried to ignore her reactions. "Dinner is almost done. Let me get everything on the table. Go sit with Clara."
He whiffed the air as he turned toward her. With a sly grin, he added, "Doesn't smell like you burned anything."
She shrugged a shoulder, and then winked at Clara. "Sit. Wait and be surprised."
"You never could cook, and certainly didn't know how to turn on the stove."
He'd see. Colt leaned over and whispered something to Clara. Their daughter giggled, and he led the girl to the table.
With a raised her eyebrow, Vicki held her tongue and slipped on oven mitts. She gave him a saucy grin, and intended to prove that Vicki Morgan knew how to take care of herself. She held her head high and retrieved the juice.
She brought over cups and the juice for the table. Smoke wafted in the air as she sniffed. She broke into a run, opened the oven door, and the smoke made her cough.
Tears formed in her eyes, and she grabbed the tray with the food. Her ears rang with Colt's laughter from behind as he came to the kitchen to help. She swatted at the air to clear out her lungs as he found a towel and took out the charred remains of her dinner. It was black, not even brown. She ran her hand through her hair. She had worked all day on that. Then she dramatically dropped her shoulders. "I added a hundred degrees, I guess. At home, I never screw up like this."
"Excuses, excuses. Shall I call for a pizza?" Colt said, and picked up his phone from the counter.
The char-grilled lasagna didn't strike her as appealing. She nodded. "I'll have appetizers and vegetables steamed while we wait."
Colt spoke to whoever answered the phone while she cleaned up the mess. She closed her eyes, said a little prayer, and then finished.
Moments after he'd hung up, he spoke to their daughter as she picked out a bowl and added the steamed edamame.
Without instructions, Vicki added the sea salt, and asked, "Want me to add the salt?"
Colt smirked at her, but didn’t say anything about how she asked him as she did it. "Not particularly, princess. Bring it over here."
Darn. He made her nerves jitter sometimes.
"Daddy, I'm the princess," Clara added fast.
"No, you're the royal pain." Colt blinked, and his cheeks turned red. "Vicki's always been the princess."
Vicki bit her lower lip. How she'd screwed up dinner made no sense. "I'll take 'Your Royal Highness' from you, Marine."
Her face was still warm. She'd messed up dinner, but she refused to fight at their last meal as one family. She pasted a smile on her face and dragged her feet over to the table.
"You keep trying to prove you can cook. You don't have to do that. We're good either way." Colt told everyone, "I ordered the pizza. Sit and I'll get the drinks."
With a shrug, Vicki plopped in her seat and sipped her water. She swallowed then asked, "How did you take John in Alice's life? Our family is screwed up."
"I still think your father hurt you all, in different ways. John was ignored. You were trained to be a prize. Peter was raised to be exactly like your father, which meant he probably dealt with your father the most."
Vicki's skin went cold. He placed the edamame in the middle of the table and added an empty bowl for the shells next to it, as he continued, "My sister and my mom fought a lot when she was a teenager, but our family was nothing like yours."
Colt's opinion on her family was insightful, and she could only see the truth in every syllable. She tried to think of something she could do for his family. "Alice had me in her corner."
