Page 47 of The Billionaire's One-Night Stand Nanny
“No,” he said, shaking his head. His hair was slightly damp but carefully combed, his tie just a little loose under his collar. “I have a little time. I’ll eat with you this morning. Both of you.”
He smiled. He was still smiling when Maddie arrived, bouncing over to me to fling her arms around my waist, erasing the imprint of Ryan’s fingerprints from where his touch had lingered on my sensitive skin.
“Hi, Flora!” she said, excitement pitching her youthful voice even higher than usual. “I missed you!”
Ryan winked at me over the top of his daughter’s head.One Walker missed me during the week, and the other during the weekend.“You’ll see Flora all day, Maddie,” he said, scooping eggs onto three plates. “Don’t I get a hug?”
“You aren’t taking me to look at dresses today, so…no,” she said with a giggle, and I took her by the shoulders, holding her at arms’ length.
“But it’s your dad who will be paying for the fabric when inspiration strikes…” I hinted.
She sighed, lifting her shoulders and letting them fall in an exaggerated shrug. “Fine,” she said with a smile, crossing over to her father and giving him a tight hug, too.
“Thanks, Lovebug,” he said, going to ruffle her hair and stopping himself just before his hand touched down on her head. “Now, can you get the three of us some forks and napkins while I get coffee?”
I grabbed the plates of toast and eggs, bringing them to the breakfast table. Three plates: Ryan’s, Maddie’s, mine. I was standing behind my chair, thinking about whether I should get out the butter, when Ryan approached, standing just behind me. Nottooclose–notsuspiciouslyclose–but close enough for me to feel his presence, to want him closer. His hand held out a large mug. “Your coffee, Flora.”
“Oh,” I said as he set it down at my spot. It was exactly the right shade of deep caramel that I liked. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” he said.
Maddie chattered away, oblivious to anything out of the ordinary, as the three of us sat for a short breakfast together. I was sure her father knewhercoffee order, too–steamed milk with vanilla syrup, no coffee at all. And sitting here comfortably with the two of them, eating toast and drinking perfect coffee, after kissing him…
It had felt dangerous, that kiss. The fear of getting caught.
But this…
I wasn’t sure this part wasn’t the dangerous part.
* * *
The fashion museum was even better than I had expected. I’d scrolled through the online galleries before reserving Maddie and myself tickets, but nothing could compare with seeing the clothes on display in person.
Andthatcouldn’t compare to the awe and wonder on Maddie’s face as she rushed from mannequin to mannequin, brown eyes wide to take in every little detail.
“Wow,” she’d said, again and again. “Look at this!Wow.”
And, very, very sweetly: “Can you help me make something likethis?” Thethisin question at this moment was a hand-beaded floor-length gown in barely-there silk chiffon. “It looks like if a raincloud was a dress,” Maddie murmured. “Like a rain goddess’s dress.”
I smiled to myself. Fairies? Too babyish. But goddesses?Verygrown up. And also, way,waybeyond my rudimentary sewing capabilities. “The plaque says it took ten thousand hours to sew on all the beads,” I pointed out. “I don’t think you haveten thousand hoursto spend beading, do you?”Let alone the attention span, I didn’t say.
“No,” Maddie said, shaking her head. “Definitely not,” she added. “Plus,you’reonly here for like, three more weeks.”
I opened my mouth to contradict her–then realized with a swooping, plummeting sensation in my stomach that she was right.
“Someday I want to make something as beautiful as that,” she whispered at last, and then she was off to the next mannequin, leaving me standing open-mouthed, staring sightlessly at the raindrop shimmer of a hundred thousand beads.
She would. I believed her. If she kept up her sewing lessons, practiced her sketching, and held on to that dreamy imagination, Maddie had the right drive–and, of course, the right connections–to make any wish come true.
My wish was that she’d remember me when she was grown up and famous. It had to be. I didn’t have the right to wish for anything more than that.
CHAPTER23
Ryan
“Ryan! The man of the hour!”
It was rare that Barrett arrived at Bankworth before me. Even if we both left straight from work, it was likely that I’d arrive before six and he sometime after eight. But tonight, he was here early.
