Page 28 of The Billionaire's Accidental Daddy Duty
Mandy, the self-proclaimed expert on all things Declan Noble, had come up with her own theory. She was convinced that the most eligible bachelor in London had finally met the one. I barked out a laugh. Mandy wasn’t all wrong. Declan had a new interest, for sure. Joey occupied every minute of his free time. And that was the real reason why Declan had decided to stop going to the Crucible.Something that made me strangely happy. Of course, I hadn’t developed feelings for my hot boss. But the thought of him kissing another woman made my insides twist into a knot. With a sigh, I touched my fingertips to my lips. I let my mind play the same movie for me. The one where Declan kissed me like I was the last woman on Earth.
Groaning, I dropped my head into my hands. As it always did, desire swirled at the apex of my thighs. I wanted more of that—his hands on me, his mouth… I wanted him—even if he didn’t feel the same about me. That much was painfully obvious. In the past three weeks, he had spent a great deal of time avoiding me. Whenever Joey went down for the night, Declan would turn icy and distant. Little by little, I’d figured out how to tamper down all the feelings bubbling in my chest and the incessant need to be someone important to him.
I stared at his perfectly chiseled nose and straight jaw. The picture on my screen showed him at a coffee shop in Midtown. He sat alone, doing nothing. He seemed so comfortable to be by himself. I loved how confident and grounded he was. That wasn’t something I’d learned about him while pouring over all the tabloid pages. In the time I had spent playing his babysitter, I had come to know the real him. He was so much more than the sexy playboy reporters wanted him to be.
“Why do I keep doing this to myself?” I asked Joey, who blinked slowly with sleepy eyes, flashing me a lazy smile.
My heart melted a little, then squeezed tight. The painful reminder of all the things I couldn’t have, like Declan, like a baby, a family.
“Do you mind if I join you?”a woman asked.
“What? Nothing.” I tossed my phone in the stroller next to Joey.
The sun shone in my eyes as soon as I lifted my gaze. I squinted to see who wanted to join my pity party. When Louisa’s face came into focus, my jaw dropped. She wanted to sit with me? Why? I had seen her around the park twice before. Both times, I had managed to get away unseen and find a spot hidden from the main path. Today, I had been so distracted by Declan’s latest photo, I hadn’t noticed her come in.
“You look like the cat who drank the milk.” She chuckled, sat next to me, and wiggled the stroller closer to her.
“No, I wasn’t. I was just reading the news.” I adjusted Joey’s blanket. He had already fallen asleep for his after-lunch nap. “I’m sorry, can I help you?”
What I wanted to ask was, why are you talking to me? Louisa had spent the entirety of our school years pretending I didn’t exist. Come to think of it, both our families spent a great deal of time pretending the other didn’t exist. Dad, in particular, never wanted to talk about what had happened with his first wife. The effect trickled down to my sister and me. We never asked questions. For example, why was Louisa only a few months older than me? We were in the same grade growing up. It was all so obvious to us, so why not talk about it?
She blew out a breath, then adjusted her baby’s blanket. Like Joey, he was sound asleep, too. “I talked to Nicolas. He told me you were working at Windsor Financial.”
“Oh, that’s just temporary. I wasn’t stalking you or anything.”
“I know that. He explained.” She glanced down at her hands. “He said you wanted to get to know me.”
“Oh,” I said again because I had no idea what else to say. Sure, I had fantasized about hanging out with my half-sister many times, but honestly, I never thought this would actually happen. Maybe Dear Prudence, the advice column Louisa used to work for, was right. All I had to do was ask the universe.
“You wrote to Dear Prudence, didn’t you?” She shook her head. “You’re sister-sister.”
“Maybe.” No point in lying now. “I mean, yes, I am. I did write to her. I was actually surprised she responded. I lost count of how many letters I wrote.”
Did I write every one of those hoping Louisa would see them someday? Maybe.
“I wrote the response piece.” She smiled at me. “It reminded me of you. Our situation. As soon as Nicolas told me about your new job, I connected the dots.”
“What? I had no idea.”
“I can be a big chicken sometimes.”
“I saw you here before. I wanted to talk to you, but I chickened out.” I raised my hand. We could both be chickens sometimes.
“Same.” She pointed at herself, nodding. “I didn’t know you had a baby.”
“No, he’s not mine. I’m just um…watching him for a day.” I tried to lie to protect Declan’s privacy, but then remember Louisa had seen me at the park before with a baby. “For a few weeks.”
“Okay.” She shrugged. “You don’t want to tell me.”
“It’s not that. It’s not my place tosay.”
“I knew it.” She scooted up on the park bench and turned to me. “Declan is up to something. No, wait. He’s in trouble. Is he in trouble? If he is, we can help.”
I met her gaze. A tiny bubble in my chest swirled back and forth, like a giddy butterfly. For the past several months, I had written many letters to Ida, hoping to get my half-sister’s attention. What was it Ida had said about sending my intention out into the world?
Set it and forget it.
She had been right.
