Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
NATALIE
“Hi. How was dancing?” I gave Violet a smile, expecting one in return. Instead, I got the death glare. The same one she’d sent me when I’d wrung my wet sweater out over her head on our first day together.
“What’s wrong?” Maddox slid from his seat and took a step toward her.
Violet sent her glare his way, then spun around on a gold slipper and ran away.
What the hell? I stood, my mouth falling open.
“Violet!” Maddox called but she was already gone. “Shit.”
He jogged in the direction she’d gone, toward one of the restaurants, and even though the crowd had thinned from earlier, there were still enough people that they swallowed her up.
I scurried in my heels to catch Maddox who was blocked and slowed by a family coming out of the restaurant.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I reached his side. I pressed in close to his arm, keeping pace as he squeezed by people and kept pushing forward .
“I don’t know. I thought she was having fun.” His head swept back and forth, searching for his daughter. “Violet!”
I inspected every piece of red I spotted, hoping it was her dress, but wherever she’d gone, she’d done it with the intention of disappearing. Why? What was wrong?
Maddox kept walking, down a hallway that led to an exit door. He tested the handle. Locked. “Damn it.”
“She must have gone into the restaurant and we passed her.” I turned and hurried back that direction, bypassing the hostess as I searched between tables. I weaved through them, seeing Maddox the next row over doing the same.
When we reached the wall of windows that overlooked Main Street, I found Maddox already backtracking.
Where would she go? Why would she run away from us? Had something bad happened at the party? Was it because I’d been sitting with her dad?
He didn’t wait for me as he ran out of the restaurant, headed to the other across the lobby. I did one more sweep of the hostess station, checking beneath the counter, then rushed out, meeting Maddox at the base of the staircase.
“Anything?” he asked.
“No. What’s going on?”
He raked a hand through his hair. “She does this.”
“Does what? Run away?”
He sighed and nodded. “She gets mad at me or her feelings get hurt, and she’ll run off and hide. But it’s always at home. She’s never done it in public before.”
“Why? Was it because we were sitting together?”
“It has to be.” The worry on his face cracked my heart. “Fuck.”
“We’ll find her. Where does she normally hide at home?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never found her. She hides and comes out when she’s ready. One night, she hid for six hours. ”
“Oh, hell,” I muttered and looked around the lobby. We did not need Violet hiding here for six hours.
If she had backtracked and snuck away from us, she probably would have gone upstairs. She might be mad, but she’d likely stay close to the party where there were familiar faces mixed in with the strangers.
“We’ll find her.” If we had to interrupt the party and enlist the guests to help, then so be it. “We’d better divide and conquer.”
Maddox nodded. “You go upstairs and start searching there. I’ll talk to the managers of the restaurants and see if they’ll let me into the kitchens. It wouldn’t shock me if she snuck in with the waitstaff.”
“Good idea.” I spun and hurried up the staircase toward the party.
There were so many people in the ballroom it was nearly impossible to see if she’d gone in there, but I did a lap around the outer edge of the space, looking between legs and under tables. When I saw no sign of her or her red dress, I hit the dessert table and loaded up a plate with the biggest piece of chocolate cake I could find.
So far, sugar and bribery had been key with Violet. There was no point in changing tactics now.
My stomach twisted as I walked out of the ballroom, glancing down the staircase. Maddox stood beside the last step, talking to a woman in a pantsuit. There was so much fear and anxiety written on his face that it hurt to look at him as he spoke.
“Violet, where are you?” I headed for the hallway across from the ballroom. Thankfully, The Baxter wasn’t a huge hotel. The top floors were only accessible with an elevator keycard, meaning she couldn’t have gone too far.
Unless she’d snuck in with someone who had a card .
“She wouldn’t do that.” Would she?
Violet and I had been doing so well. Then I’d screwed up by flirting with Maddox. And I knew better, damn it.
I knew better.
How many women had Cathy fired over the years for this very thing? Three or four? There was a professional line I should never have crossed, no matter who the man was.
The first door down the hallway opened to a sitting room. When Violet and I had explored earlier, she’d peeked inside. Maybe she’d crawled under one of the couches. I pushed the door open, glancing inside, but instead of seeing Violet, I found Stella.
And her bare breasts.
“Oh my God.” I tore my eyes away. “Sorry.”
Stella gasped and pushed at the broad-shouldered man whose mouth was latched on to a nipple. Then she scrambled to right her dress as the man glanced over his shoulder.
“Natalie?”
“Heath?”
I looked between the two of them, my mouth hanging loose. “I wasn’t here. I didn’t see anything. You two, um... have fun.”
My face was aflame as I closed the door. Better me walk in on them than Violet.
I moved to the next room—the men’s restroom. I eased the door open and carefully peeked inside. The urinals were empty but I checked the toilet stalls too.
The bathroom’s door swung open as I was checking the last stall, and I spun around, nearly spilling the cake in my hand.
“Uh...” The man coming in had already unzipped. His entire body froze when he spotted me.
“Sorry.” I avoided any and all eye contact as I walked past him, keeping my gaze on the floor and not the organ peeking out from a pair of green silk boxers. “Wrong bathroom. ”
The women’s restroom was my next stop. There were no ladies at the sink and the first three stalls were empty, but the last one’s door was closed.
I crouched, looking for a pair of shoes. There were no feet dangling from the toilet, so I shifted, peering through the small gap by the door’s lock.
And there it was.
Red.
Thank God.
I sighed and walked to the counter, hopping up on its edge. If it took more than two minutes to flush Violet out, I’d drag her out of here if necessary. Somewhere in the hotel, Maddox was worrying. But I’d rather avoid a scene and the chance of completely alienating this little girl.
So I took the fork I’d put on the plate with my cake and dove in, refusing to think about eating in a public bathroom. At least this one was clean.
“Yuuuuum,” I moaned and chewed. “This is the best cake I’ve ever had in my life. It’s new. They just put it out on the dessert table. Want to come out here and have a bite?”
Silence.
“Suit yourself. I’ll eat it. It’s so good, I doubt there will be any left when we go back to the party. It’s got fudge frosting.”
Silence.
Wow, this girl was stubborn.
I forked another huge bite and let out another moan. “So. So. Good.”
The rustle of a skirt and the click of shoes on floor tiles before the door squeaked open.
“You’re gross.” She harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Gross? Why am I gross?”
The tiara had come loose somewhere during her escape and was askew on her updo. She’d never looked more adorable. And sad. My heart ached for the sad. “You’re just like all of the other nannies. All you want to do is kiss my dad. That’s gross .”
So she’d stormed off because I’d been talking with Maddox. And because I did want him to kiss me. Shit .
I set the plate aside and jumped off the counter. “Do a lot of nannies have crushes on your dad?”
“All of them,” she muttered.
“Want to know a secret?”
She didn’t answer but there was a flicker of interest in her expression.
I waved her over, then gave her the cake as a peace offering.
She took it and went to the counter, trying to climb up between the sinks to sit like I’d been. But with the height and her dress, she couldn’t boost herself up.
“Let me help.” I hoisted her up, and when I had her seated with the cake on her lap and a bite in her mouth, I resumed my own perch, hooking my ankles together and letting my feet swing.
The room had been designed so that as the door opened, anyone passing down the hall couldn’t peer inside and see anything but a tiled partition. It wasn’t the most elegant of places to talk, but with just the two of us in there, it was at least private and quieter than taking her to the ballroom.
“What’s your secret?” she asked, her cheeks bulging and a chocolate crumb on her lip.
“I had a major crush on your dad when he was just a kid. All of the girls did.”
“You knew Daddy as a kid?”
“In high school. When we were teenagers. I went to school with him and your uncles. Did you know that?”
She shook her head .
“Your dad was a nice boy. And now he’s a nice man. Girls usually get crushes on the nice ones.”
“Boys are weird.”
“Yes, they can be weird.” I laughed. “But someday you’ll meet a nice one and maybe have a crush on him.”
Her face twisted and she looked at me like I’d cracked.
“I do have a crush on your dad, Violet. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. And it doesn’t have to mean anything. I’m still your nanny and your friend.”
“He loves my mom.” There was no confidence in her voice as she spoke the words, only the heartache of a girl who hadn’t quite come to terms with her parents’ split.
My chest ached because once upon a time, I’d been that little girl too. “I don’t know how your dad feels about your mom, honey. Have you asked him?”
She shook her head, using the fork to poke at the cake. “She didn’t send me a Christmas present. I checked under the tree and all of my presents are from Dad and Nana and Papa.”
Ouch . Yeah, Cece was a bitch. No wonder Maddox was so frustrated with her. “Do you miss her?”
Violet shrugged. “She didn’t come and see me at Christmas last year either. She promised to take me ice skating and lied.”
I’d been around enough seven year olds to know that a broken promise was equivalent to a lie. And they delivered the biggest hurt. “Does she lie a lot?”
“All the time.” Her chin started to quiver. “Now we’re moving here and she’s never going to see me.”
I was off the counter and in front of her before her first tear fell. Taking the plate and setting it aside, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close as she cried.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered when her breathing evened out except for the occasional hiccup. “Can I tell you another secret? ”
“Yeah.” She leaned away and the sadness on her face was familiar agony. This girl was breaking my heart.
“I only had a dad when I was your age.”
“What happened to your mom?”
I swiped my thumb across her cheek. “I think maybe she was like your mom.”
“Oh.” Her chin fell.
My mother had left Bozeman when I was five, moving to North Carolina with the man she’d been sleeping with behind my father’s back. Of course, I hadn’t realized that at the time. Not until Dad had told me the truth on my fifteenth birthday.
When Mom had left Montana, she’d taken everything important with her except a little girl.
And an old 1969 mint-green Volkswagen bus.
Magdalena.
That bus was all I had left of my mother. Maybe it was foolish to cherish it like I did, but it was more mine now than it had ever been hers.
“There are moms like ours in the world,” I told Violet. “I’m sorry you got one of them. But girls like us are lucky too.”
“How?”
“Because even though we don’t have the best moms, we have the very best of the best of the best dads. Don’t you think?”
“I guess,” she murmured.
She’d see, later in her life. She’d realize that Maddox adored her and would do anything to ease some of the pain.
“Want to know something else cool?” I asked, earning a nod. “I have a mom now. And she’s the best of the best of the best. Her name is Judy. She became my mom when I was twenty.”
“Twenty?” Ancient to a little girl.
“Yep. I was twenty. She met my dad at a restaurant in town. Dad and Judy started talking and then they started dating. And kissing.”
“Kissing is gross.”
I giggled. “Judy and my dad kiss all the time.”
“Eww.”
I pushed a lock of hair off her forehead. “I’m okay with the kissing because she married Dad and asked if she could be my mom. I love her a lot. Do you know why I love her so much?”
“Why?”
“She makes the most amazing chocolate cake. Better than this one.” I tapped her plate. “She always remembers Christmas presents. And because she loves my dad with her whole heart.”
Judy had never married or had children before she’d met Dad. She’d told me once that she’d come to terms with her life as a spinster —Judy loved her Regency romance. But it just hadn’t been her time. She’d been waiting for Dad to find her. She was younger than him by a decade, but because of their love, I believed in soul mates.
“Judy makes my dad happy, and since all he ever wants is for me to be happy, I feel the same way about him. Like a circle. We want what is good for each other. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah.” Violet nodded.
“I think that’s all your dad wants for you. Just to make sure you’re happy. Maybe someday, you’ll be okay if he finds his own Judy.”
She thought on it for a long minute, her forehead furrowed. “Are you a Judy?”
“No, I’m a Natalie. And though your dad is nice and I still have a teensy, tiny crush on him, right now I think we should not worry about Judys and go find him. He was freaked out when you ran away.”
“Very freaked out.” A deep, soft voice came from the doorway. Maddox strolled inside, and whatever fear he’d worn in the lobby was nearly gone, probably because he’d been listening at the door for a while.
“Sorry, Daddy.” Violet flew across the bathroom, a streak of red, shooting into her father’s arms.
He picked her up and held her tight, letting out a long breath and closing his eyes. “Never again, Violet. Don’t you ever run away from me again. You scared me. If something happened to you... never again. Promise.”
“I promise.” She nodded and buried her face into his shoulder. “Sorry.”
He held her tight, then let her go and set her on the floor. “Want to dance with me? You haven’t danced with me tonight.”
She nodded and took his hand, letting him escort her out of the bathroom.
I picked up the plate of decimated cake and followed, giving Maddox a wink when he glanced over his shoulder.
“Thank you,” he mouthed.
“You’re welcome,” I mouthed back.
The party guests were none the wiser to our drama. Music blared and people laughed, enjoying their Christmas Eve.
Maddox took Violet straight to the dance floor, twirling her twice before picking her up and touching his nose to hers. Then he danced with her through the crush of couples, not once letting her feet touch the floor.
He was a good dad. The best of the best of the best.
And he needed her more than I wanted him.
The decision to stay away was the right one. Timing was not on our side. So with that resolution in mind, I went to my happy place.
The dessert table.
Eating one last piece of chocolate cake, making tonight the most sugar-filled night of the year—not even on Halloween when I ate one piece of candy for every twenty that I handed out could top this.
Judy was on a health kick at the moment, even through the holidays, and she’d warned me there’d be no chocolate cake after our Christmas dinner tomorrow. So tonight I indulged, in the sweets and in Maddox, watching from my spot against the wall as he danced with his daughter.
Hours later, midnight chimed on the grandfather clock in the hallway and people slowly began to drift out of the ballroom.
Maddox hadn’t let go of Violet the rest of the night. The fright from earlier had rendered me useless. When I’d offered to take over, he’d told me he had her. When I’d told him I’d leave, he’d asked me to stay close.
Violet seemed to have forgiven me. She’d even held my hand while people had come to talk to her father. Maybe she’d scared herself a bit too with that stunt.
Around one o’clock, she began to yawn. Maddox picked her up, holding her like she weighed nothing while he continued visiting. And with the deep murmur of his voice, she drifted off against his shoulder.
“She’s out,” I told him, yawning too. “I don’t blame her. I’m an early bird, not a night owl. I think I’ll take off, unless you need me to stay.”
“No, we’ll get out of here too.”
I followed them out of the ballroom, smiling at Hannah and Keith who stood sentry by the doors, bidding farewell to their friends.
Maddox kissed his mother’s cheek. “See you at home.”
I collected my coat from the check room where I’d left it earlier, and shrugged it on, pulling my car keys from my pocket .
“Brr,” he said, wrapping his jacket around Violet as we stepped outside.
Fresh snowflakes fell from the dark sky. They quieted the street and blanketed the sidewalk.
It was magical. The perfect scene for a farewell.
“Thank you for inviting me tonight.”
“Can we give you a ride home?” he asked.
I jingled my keys. “I’ll be fine.”
The white specks of snow clung to his dark hair. The faint streetlights made his features stronger. More handsome. His blue eyes were like sapphires, glowing bright as he stepped closer.
Foolish as it was, I hoped for a kiss. Just one before I walked away.
His breath tangled with mine in white wisps in the frozen air. He leaned in and my heart leapt. Then his lips were there, the faintest brush against mine before he was gone. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.”
I smiled at him, then looked to Violet, sleeping happily in her father’s arms.
I wouldn’t fall for a client. Not again.
And for her, I’d walk away.
So I took one step backward, then another and whispered, “Goodbye, Maddox.”