29. Lucy
Chapter 29
Lucy
“ Y ou look beautiful Lucy.” Dante’s mom beamed at me like it was my prom night.
I looked down to see if I was overdressed. I wasn’t sure where Dante planned to take his family, but it was a sure bet the place would be fancy, and by extension expensive. I opted for a plain navy blue dress that highlighted my curves without making me stand out.
“Am I dressed all right? I wasn’t sure where we were going.”
“Oh honey, you are dressed perfectly. Such a knockout, isn’t she Dante?”
My hands balled into fists at my side, but that was my only concession to Dante’s presence. I told myself that it didn’t matter what he thought about me or my appearance. “Lucy looks gorgeous as always.”
My skin heated at his seemingly sincere compliment, damn him. “Thanks,” I muttered and turned away. “I need to help Lena.” It was a weak excuse, but it happened to be true, so I made my escape. “Hey Lena, need some help?”
She nodded. Her curly pigtails swung with the move.
She looked so distraught that I couldn’t help but smile at her small face. “Let’s find you a dress. What color do you feel like wearing?” I took her hand and led her to the closet, filled with more clothes than a four-year-old girl would need before her next growth spurt.
Lena tapped her chin deep in thought before she stepped forward and touched a pale purple dress and then a deep pink one. “This one?”
“It’s beautiful,” I told her honestly. Lena’s clothes were perfect for any stylish little girl, colorful and flattering and adorable. “Now you need shoes.”
She picked out shoes and then tights and I helped her get dressed and fixed her hair.
There was nothing else to be done, which meant I’d exhausted all of my stalling tactics. We piled into another SUV—not the Escalade—and I jumped in the back, as far away from Dante as possible. His father took the front passenger seat while Lucy and Cheryl sat in the middle.
I didn’t belong and I refused to pretend anymore. It was a lesson I was determined not to forget.
But I planned to enjoy every delicious morsel of the food served at the upscale steakhouse Dante took us to somewhere in the heart of Houston. We were shown to a round table and I sat beside Lena to help her, because that was my role here, nanny. Not friend and not family.
Employee.
I played the role of observer for the night, watching everything, and what I saw made it harder to want to keep a physical and emotional distance from Dante. He was grumpy because that was his default setting, but he was also charming and affectionate with his parents, just as he was with Lena. There was an easy affection between all four of them, they touched freely and easily, laughed together, and teased each other good-naturedly.
It was a nice side of him to see, or at least it would have been if I wasn’t so determined not to care. I shouldn’t have had sex with him—again—last night. It was a mistake, even if it was the most enjoyable, satisfying mistake of my life. The things he made me feel terrified me because it was deeper than sexual satisfaction. It was more than chasing orgasms, more than satisfying a physical need, and it was that more that I refused to address.
“So Lucy, tell us about yourself.” Cheryl’s question pulled me not just from my reminders to stop thinking about her son, but from my role as silent observer. “Where’re you from?”
I put a smile on my face and turned to Cheryl. “I’m from Georgia, a town just outside Atlanta.”
“A southern girl,” Sam said with a smile. “That explains why you’re both sweet and sassy, just like my Cheryl.” He looked at his wife with such affection my heart lurched a little and I had to look away.
“Are you single?”
“Mom,” Dante growled. “That’s Lucy’s personal business.”
I frowned. Why did he care? “I am. Very single and no plans to change it anytime soon.” I smiled at the slight frown on Dante’s face at my words.
Cheryl leaned forward with sympathy in her eyes. “A recent bad break up?”
“Sadly, no. It’s hard to meet people in my line of work. Most of the people I spend time with are parents and small children, so no dating prospects, and when I’m free on the weekend I run errands, clean or just chill out.”
“You don’t go out in the evenings?”
The more I talked, the more pathetic I felt. “Not lately. This assignment is a little farther away from the city, so it doesn’t make sense to drive so far and return too late to get a good night’s sleep.” Yep, sad and pathetic about summed it up. “What about you two, how long have you been married? You seem like newlyweds.”
It was the perfect question, because it allowed me to slink back into oblivion while hearing all about the love story of Cheryl and Sam. The retelling of which had the added benefit of making Dante uncomfortable.
“It was lust at first sight, but I held on long enough to get her to fall in love with me.” Sam concluded with a chuckle.
“What a wonderful story!” It gave me hope that I would someday find what they had together, even if that day was so far into the future that it wasn’t on any calendar yet.
“Daddy doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Lena said completely out of the blue.
Dante’s brows dipped into a frown. “What do you know about girlfriends?”
She giggled. “All princesses have a boyfriend before they become princesses, Daddy.”
I smiled to myself as conversation swung from me to Dante and his nonexistent love life. Mr. Unflappable was in the hot seat and I enjoyed every single moment of his discomfort.
Until talk turned to him finding a wife.
Talk about swift karma.