23. Sterling
Istared at Cecelia in disbelief. “You don’t really mean that,” I said.
“Yes, I do.” She shook like a nervous fawn on unstable legs.
In a single move, I was on my feet and crossed the small space to her. Georgie squealed as I tucked her under my arm like a football. Reaching out for Cecelia, I grabbed her around her back and pulled her against my side. She braced her hands against my chest. I searched her face, looking for the truth in her eyes.
“You’re a terrible liar,” I said.
She closed her eyes and leaned into me. We stayed like that for a long moment, and then she moved as if she were dancing. She took Georgie and carried her back to the car seat. “I’m going to miss you.”
She placed a kiss on the baby’s head and began strapping her into the car seat.
Sitting back on her heels, she looked up at me. “I’m going to miss you too. You have to go.”
“Do you honestly think you can get rid of me this easily?” I demanded.
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t want to get rid of you, Sterling. I have to. Don’t you understand?”
I held my hand out to her and helped her to her feet. She wouldn’t look at me. I tipped her face up to mine with a finger under her chin. Brushing my lips over hers and then kissing her on her brow, I muttered, “I understand, but I don’t like it.”
She wrapped her arms around herself and turned away as I picked up Georgie’s car seat. I looked at her back, longing for her to turn around. “Cecelia.”
She only shook her head and would not turn around.
With a heavy breath and a tightening in my chest that felt like loss, I carried Georgie out of the small apartment. Once outside, I pulled out my phone. “Pick us up. We’re outside.”
The driver wouldn’t be far. The car pulled up as we reached the sidewalk. Once the baby’s car seat was strapped in, I sat back. Cecelia should have been with us. This felt too much like defeat. And I wasn’t going to accept this was the only option we had.
“Step one,” I began out loud.
“Sir?” the driver asked.
“Talking to the kid,” I said.
“Yes, sir.” The intercom clicked off.
“Where were we? Yes, step one, I need to secure your custody. At least to the point where Cecelia doesn’t think there is a threat of the agency snatching you away from me. Step two, I really do need to find you a nanny. But I’m not hiring someone from that agency Peggy Stanholt suggested. I don’t trust her to not put a spy in our lives. So, where does that leave us?”
Georgie fussed. She was right, we weren’t in a strategically good position. Not if the very agency that put Georgie with me was somehow a threat to my keeping her.
I hit the intercom. “Take us to Highland Park Village.”
“Very well, Sir.”
When we arrived, the driver assembled the stroller as I unbuckled the car seat.
Georgie and I spent the evening shopping. I had an idea of what I needed. I assumed I would find it all at the shopping center. Georgie and I stopped for what was more of a late snack than a dinner. I discovered she seemed to enjoy lobster bisque and a variety of cheeses and breads.
“You’ve been holding out. I think it”s time Wayne started making my old favorites again. You can eat my food. I am not exactly a fan of chicken nuggets.” I spoke to Georgie as if she completely understood me.
When our shopping was finished, I called the car to come pick us up. “I need a phone.”
“How do you mean, sir? I can take you to your service provider’s retail location.”
“Yes, that.”
By the time we arrived home, I had a gift to package up for Cecelia, and Georgie was fast asleep. Wayne waited for our arrival at the elevator to unload the packages.
“Did you have a successful outing?” he asked.
“Did I get everything done I intended? No. But Georgie and I did not run into any issues, and we even successfully found food. So, that was a success.”
“Shall I unpack everything?”
“No, just put it on the table in the kitchen. We can deal with it in the morning. I need to get Georgie into bed.”
“Then I will wish you a good evening now, and I will see you in the morning,” Wayne said as I carried Georgie down the hall.
She fussed slightly before calming back down. I sat with her for a long while, gently patting her back, soothing her to sleep. How had this tiny little person come in and changed everything in such a short amount of time? I would do anything to protect her. And to think I didn’t even know of her existence a few short weeks ago.
Reluctantly, I left her bedside. I tucked the baby monitor into my pocket, but I knew her patterns now. She would sleep for a good, long while.
I began rummaging through the packages, getting everything set up the way I wanted. The longest part of the entire process was wrestling the phone out of the thick plastic shell case. I set the account to my credit card and programmed my number into it.
Wayne kept a corner of the kitchen set up like a home office for himself. I raided his supplies and found paper. Writing the note was easy.
I’m not giving you up. Don’t give up on us. My number is programmed. There is no reason anyone at your job needs to know.
I folded it and tucked it in against the phone. I carefully unwrapped the tote bag I purchased and placed the phone in the inner pocket before rewrapping everything meticulously. In the morning, Wayne would arrange for the gift and some flowers to be delivered.
All I had to do now was wait. I was not particularly a patient man, and this was going to chew at my resolve. Eventually, I made my way to bed. Tomorrow was going to feel like a very long day.
In the morning, Georgie woke me. We did our routine, a clean diaper, a warm bottle, snuggle time, and back to sleep for a few hours before beginning the day. Wayne had arrived by the time we were both dressed and ready for the day.
“More nanny candidates today, Mr. Sterling?” Wayne asked.
“Thank you for the reminder. I need to cancel those. Could you arrange to have this delivered along with some flowers to Cecelia? Her address is on a note page under the gift bag. Time it so that it arrives after she has gotten home after work.”
He nodded, and I took Georgie with me into my home office. I had calls to make and appointments to cancel. Georgie was a disruptive assistant. She smashed her hands against the keyboard of my laptop and tried to grab my phone out of my hands. If I put her down in her bounce toy, she complained that I was ignoring her. Everything took longer than it needed to. My foul mood was reflected by the baby, and neither of us had a very nice time. We were both cranky and whiny.
The day dragged, and it was an eternity of time before my phone rang with the one call I had been waiting for.
“Cecelia,” I said as I answered the phone.
“Sterling, what have you done?” she asked.
“Don’t you like the gift?”
She laughed. “Thank you, the tote bag is very thoughtful. But I think it cost more than I spent on my car.”
I laughed. “You can’t keep carrying everything in your arms.”
“What am I going to tell them at work?” she asked.
“I don’t understand,” I said. She wasn’t making sense. “It’s a tote bag. You could have bought it yourself.”
“No, Sterling, I couldn’t have. This bag costs more than I make in two months.”
“Does that mean you aren’t going to accept it?”
“What?” she practically shrieked. “It’s not every day someone just gives you an Hermès bag. Hermès, really? I should tell you I won’t accept it, but I do love it. And the phone…”
“There is no way they can trace the phone. If you leave it at home, your work won”t even know about it,” I explained.
“I know, but why?” she asked.
“Because I want to talk to you, and you won’t call me on your own phone even with my phone number in those files you carry around.”
“Work,” she said.
“Exactly. I gave you the phone, I gave you my number. They can’t claim you did anything wrong. I’m the one out of line here.”
“You’re not out of line.” She giggled.
I missed that sound. I missed her.
“I liked the flowers too.” Her soft voice reached through the phone and went straight to my groin.
“Are you going to let me see you again?” I asked.
“You know I have to say no.”