2. Cara
Chapter two
Cara
Riley looked up at me with his dark-blue eyes, brows furrowed.
“Um…” My mind was still racing. Had he seen me? I didn’t think so. Had he seen Riley? Maybe. But as long as he hadn’t seen us together, he couldn’t possibly make the connection. I had to stay out of his view. I could not allow Ellis Benton to see me. Without me next to him, Riley was just another kid.
What was he doing there? With a dry mouth, I checked the back of the brochure again, and sure enough, I found the logo of Horizon Electronics printed on the back, where the sponsors of the event were named.
I cleared my throat. “Honey, I… I need to go to the bathroom real quick. Why don’t you grab another orange juice and make yourself busy?”
Riley shrugged, still giving me a weird look. “Yeah, sure. Okay. But don’t stay away too long, okay? They announce the winner in ten minutes.”
“Yes, sure, sure.” I hurried away, looking over my shoulder, making sure Ellis wasn’t nearby. “Don’t get into any trouble. I’ll be right back.”
Keeping my head down, I pushed my way through the crowd, heading straight for the women’s bathroom. I hated leaving Riley alone like that, but I couldn’t possibly be there for the announcement of the winner. If Ellis saw me and Riley together, if he figured out Riley was my son—no, I needed to wait it out in a safe place and then grab Riley and leave the building as soon as it was over.
I pushed the doors open and walked into a well-lit bathroom that looked more like a modern spa than a public toilet.
The door fell shut behind me. I leaned against a marble sink and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Cara?”
I jumped. In my fear-induced haze, I hadn’t even noticed I wasn’t alone in there. When I realized who had said my name, my stomach dropped. Years had passed, but it was her, no doubt. The auburn hair, the blue eyes, the light dusting of freckles—Ellis’s little sister, Harper Benton, all grown up.
She walked toward me with outstretched arms. “Oh my God, Cara. I can’t believe it. It’s so good to see you again!”
Before I could say anything, Harper pulled me into a bear hug. I was stiff as a board, but when she released me and beamed up at me with those dark-blue eyes, which ran in their family, I couldn’t help but smile.
I had nannied plenty of kids to pay my way through art school, but feisty Harper had always been one of my favorites.
She was no longer a kid, though. She was eight when I last saw her, before I left the Benton family estate in the middle of the night. Now, she was an inch taller than me. The cute little girl with freckles and a tooth gap had turned into a very beautiful young woman.
“Hey, Harper,” I choked out, trying to sound casual. I had to tread carefully—very carefully. Harper herself wasn’t a threat. Neither of the Benton siblings were, as long as they didn’t realize who Riley was.
“What are you doing here? Do you have a kid in the contest?”
I could hardly claim I wandered in because I have such a strong interest in middle school art, but telling her too many details could be dangerous, too, so I bent the truth just a bit. “Yes, my son is a contestant. Riley. He’s… eleven.”
Eleven—that would put his birth far enough from my last encounter with Ellis that no one would suspect anything. At least, I hoped so.
“Wow. You have a kid of your own now. How cool. But of course you would. You already had a lot of practice with me and Brooks, right?”
I sure had. I’d spent almost six months as a full-time, live-in nanny at the Benton estate, taking care of Harper, then eight, and her five-year-old brother, Brooks. The Bentons owned the massive tech company Horizon Electronics, producers of household and entertainment electronics, including the PocketQuest 4 Riley wanted so desperately for Christmas. They were incredibly wealthy, so the pay had been amazing. The money I earned there was supposed to allow me to finish art school without any more financial worries. But then the oldest son Ellis returned from Cambridge over the summer, and my life had taken a very different path.
But Harper didn’t know that. Her father, Carlisle Benton, owner of Horizon, had made sure nobody knew what had happened, not even Ellis himself. To Harper, I was just her beloved former nanny, so I did my best to keep up that front.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in an attempt at small talk.
She pointed at the tag on her chest marking her as one of the judges. “My family sponsors this event. Dad wants me to participate more in the family affairs now, so he made me do this whole judge thing.” She rolled her eyes, clearly not thrilled about her father’s idea.
I smiled. Harper had always been spunky.
“Speaking of which… I think the award ceremony starts soon, so I need to go. Put those ribbons on some middle schoolers.”
I nodded, relieved that the conversation had gone by without any catastrophes.
Harper hugged me once more before she hurried away.
Just as she was about to reach the door, she turned around again. “Oh, by the way, Ellis is here, too. Do you remember Ellis? You met him when he was home from university that one summer, right? In case you want to say hi…”
“Oh… yeah… sure,” I said, forcing my face into a smile. “Yes, sure. I will say hi if I run into him.”
Harper seemed satisfied with that, because she waved and headed back out into the lobby, leaving me behind alone.
With shaky legs and clammy hands, I grabbed the edge of the marble sink and took a deep breath, steadying myself. My face looked pale in the polished bathroom mirror, and my pulse was still racing.
Running into Ellis was the last thing I’d expected to happen that day.
Ellis. The first man I ever loved. The only man I ever loved.
The brief glimpse I caught of him before diving behind the wall was enough to make my heart ache. He looked different. His shoulders were wider and his hair shorter, but he was still unmistakenly my Ellis.
A part of me wished I could walk up to him, talk to him again, hear his warm voice, and look into those blue eyes that he shared with my son—with our son.
But that was too dangerous. His father, Carlisle, had been very clear, and you didn’t cross a man like Carlisle Benton. Just the mention of the name of the tycoon made me feel like that scared twenty-one-year-old again.
If I wanted to keep Riley safe, I had to stay away from him, Ellis, and even Harper, even if that meant missing out on the award ceremony.
I cracked the door open a bit and saw that the crowd had already gathered for the big announcement.
Riley was somewhere out there, nervous, anxiously waiting for his mom, while I was hiding in the bathroom like a coward. I hated the feeling, but I couldn’t risk it, so I resigned myself to following the ceremony by peeking through the crack in the door.
A woman with a microphone made a little speech full of empty phrases like “Each and every one of you is a winner today” and “We are so proud of all the effort you have put into your pieces.”
Then they started announcing the winners backward from tenth place. I paid little attention because, obviously, my Riley was not in tenth.
A girl named Ava Williams won fourth place, and a Jackson David got third.
I inched a little closer to the door, making sure I could hear clearly.
Charlotte Martin had come in second place.
I held my breath as Charlotte received her round of applause, and I could see Harper handing her a certificate and a blue ribbon.
“And now the winner.” The woman with the microphone gave a long pause as I clenched my fists in nervous anticipation. “The winner of the yearly Emerald Valley Middle School Art Fair is… Riley Shepherd. Riley, congratulations. Please step forward.”
My heart soared. He had won! Oh, how I wished I could hug him right then.
I silently damned Carlisle Benton for ruining yet another important moment in my life as I listened to the crowd cheering for my son. Riley was looking around, searching for me in the audience, but I couldn’t risk it, not with Ellis and Harper right there.
I waited until the crowd had dissipated before I headed out into the lobby again. I spotted Riley right away, holding his blue ribbon and an envelope, walking toward the women’s bathrooms, probably looking for me.
When he saw me, he sped up his steps. His face was flushed, but his brows were furrowed.
“Where have you been? You missed it, Mom.” He sounded accusatory, and I had no excuse I could give him for my absence, so I just pulled him into a hug.
“Sorry about that, baby. But first place, I’m so proud of you.”
“They took a picture of me for the newspaper. Man, I can’t believe you missed it. Why did you take so long?”
“Don’t ask. I’ll make it up to you. I promise. Let’s get out of here.”
“Already? They said there would be a buffet. I’m hungry.”
“Screw the buffet. Believe me, you wouldn’t like that fancy food, anyway. How about we go to McDonald’s?”
His face lit up at the suggestion. “Can I have soda with my meal?”
“You can have everything you want. Stuff your face until you burst out of your pants. You earned it.”
I wrapped my arm around him and ushered him out of the building, eager to put as much distance between us and the Bentons as possible.
That had been a close call.