Anything To Be With You

13. Im A Mom

I'm A Mom

Dani

It’s almost ten at night on a Friday and I’m still filtering through the emails from today, figuring out which ones he needs now, and which ones can wait.

The desk phone rings, and I debate on whether to answer it. By the fifth ring, I cave. "What you want?"

"Office." Luke says.

I groan, dropping my head back before dragging my tired ass into his office. I just want to finish and go home. I half ass knock as I walk in.

"Close the door."

I blink at him. "Why? It’s just us in here."

"Cleaning staff will be here shortly," he says.

"So?"

"They don’t need to hear this."

I do as he asks. When I turn back around, I get a really good look at him. His hair’s all disheveled, his suit jacket is off, sleeves rolled up displaying powerful forearms. Tie loosened, and the top two buttons undone, showing some blond chest hair. Not a lot, but enough.

I squint at him. Is that…is that a tattoo peeking out from under his sleeve? No, not stick-up-my-ass Luke Archer. I wave a hand at him. "What’s all this you’ve got going on?" I question.

He runs a hand through his hair.

Sweet chubby cheeked baby Jesus!

He looks up at me and I take a step back. Stress is written in the lines of his face, in the hard set of his jaw and the thinning of his lips.

Still hot though.

"I need your opinion on something," Luke states.

My hand flies to my chest and I gasp. "You need my help?" I start fanning my face and batting my lashes. "Why, Mr. Archer. I am nothing if not flattered."

He grunts. "Daniella, I’m in no mood for your smart mouth."

I drop my hand and walk around the desk. "What do you need?"

I lean over his shoulder and can’t help but smell him. God, he smells delicious. I take a deep breath, not ashamed one bit.

"Joni's case. She had emailed all of Doug's text messages between him and the multiple women he had been sleeping with throughout their marriage. According to Doug's lawyer, he's saying that Joni stole Doug's phone and hacked it, changing those messages. Joni says that his phone is still hooked up to her tablet and that's how she found all the messages. I need to know if that's possible to hack a phone and change text messages." Luke mutters.

I read over the messages. "It’s quite possible that she could’ve hacked his phone, but I’m not the greatest with this kind of thing. You’d have to speak with the women that received the messages to verify whether or not they were in fact sleeping with him."

He drags his hand through his hair again and a whimper escaped from me.

What is wrong with me?

"I’ll get started on that now," Luke says.

I look at the clock. "It’s almost ten-thirty. Call them Monday." He needs to back away from this case and start fresh.

I leave his office with Luke behind me, but instead of going home, he heads into the breakroom and back out with his mug. His shoulders slumped, dragging his feet. I step in front of him.

"Daniella, let me pass," he says.

I take his mug and place it on my desk. "Grab your shit, time to go home."

Luke shakes his head. "I have too much to do." He goes to grab his mug again, but I slap his hand.

"Daniella." He says shocked.

"Do it Monday." I order.

He crosses his arms over his remarkably broad chest, widening his shirt where the buttons are undone and glares down at me. Placing my hands on my hips and taking my mom stance—the one where Mason knows he is in major shit—I clear my throat and look at him. He cocks an eyebrow but doesn’t back down.

"Luke, grab your shit and let’s go."

Heat flashes in his eyes and he takes a step forward. It feels like he’s going to argue with me, but instead, he reaches out and moves a piece of hair behind my ear. My skin tingles where his fingers brushed and my body flushes.

I glance up into Luke’s ice blue eyes. All the stress that was there earlier has been replaced with something akin to interest. "Okay." He heads into his office without another word.

I grab my purse and wait for him by the elevators. When he locks up, I hit the button.

"You alright?" I ask stepping onto the elevator, hitting the button for the parking garage.

"Yeah." Is all the response I get.

The doors close and the elevator jerks then stops. The lights shut off and the emergency ones kick on.

"You’ve got to be shitting me." I mumble to myself.

Luke reaches over and hits the emergency button, but nothing happens. "I'm going to call maintenance."

My heart kicks against my ribs and I start to sweat. Stuck in an elevator. My fear has come true. I begin humming my favourite song to calm myself and text Mason to tell him what’s happening.

Me: I’m stuck in an elevator with Archer

Bubba: bahahahahahaha!

Me: shut it

Bubba: that’s ur favourite thing in the whole wide world. I know how much you love elevators

Me: if I get cut in half when I’m rescued, I’m coming back and haunting your ass

Bubba: okay but if the hydro bill goes up cause ur flickering the lights I’m going to salt and burn ur bones *carry on my wayward son*

Me: ha!

My heart slowly returns to its normal pace. Leave it up to Mason to take my mind off of what’s happening and get a song stuck in my head.

"Maintenance is sending someone over, but it might be a bit of a wait. They only have two guys on call and this isn't the only stuck elevator in Toronto tonight." Luke states, putting his phone away.

"Of course," I say sarcastically as I sit down on the floor, kicking off my heels and stretching my legs out. I wiggle my toes. I love my buckle dress boots, but my God, do they ever pinch my toes after a while.

To take my mind off the fact that I am stuck in an elevator, I pull my purse onto my lap and dig through it until I find my baggie of goodies. Last thing I need is to go into a full-blown panic attack in front of my boss.

"Hungry?" I ask.

Luke looks down at me. "No."

"You sure? I’ve got candy." I shake the bag at him.

Luke glances at the bag, then back at me.

"It’s the good candy too. Not the shit you find in your grandma’s purse," I say, shaking the bag again.

When he says nothing, I open it and dump everything out on the floor like its Halloween night and you’re looking for the good stuff in your kids candy bag.

"I’ve got some Tootsie Rolls, Rockets, Jolly Ranchers, War Heads—don’t touch those," I pick them out of the pile and keep going. “Mini Mars, Snickers and Kit Kat bars, Caramels.” I tilt my head back to look at him. "Pick your poison, but not the War Heads. Those are Mason’s favourite."

Luke looks at me like I have three heads. "No. Thank you."

I shrug. "Suit yourself." I grab five Rockets, Tootsie Rolls and Jolly Ranchers before stuffing everything back in the bag. Archer sits next to me against the wall.

"Why do you have a baggie of candy in your purse?" he asks.

I unwrap a Jolly Rancher and pop it in my mouth. "I’m a mom."

"And?"

"And I need to keep snacks on me. Always. For when Mason gets hungry."

"Isn’t your son seventeen?" he questions.

I nod, crunching down on the cherry candy. "Yes, and he is always hungry. That asshat didn’t get as big as he is by not eating."

I hold out a Tootsie Roll and to my surprise, Luke takes it. Unwrapping the chocolate goodness and popping it in his mouth. Using some serious side eye, I watch him.

His head’s resting against the wall, eyes closed. His jaw, covered in five o’clock shadow, is working on that Tootsie Roll and my mind goes to what that jaw would feel like against the skin of my inner thighs.

Why is it so hot in this elevator suddenly?

I start singing the alphabet in my head, trying to get rid of the picture of Luke between my thighs. When that doesn’t work, I pinch my arm. But all that does is add a red mark. I need to spend more time with my vibrator because stubble on a mans face should not make me all hot and bothered.

I stare over at Luke. His face is tight with stress or annoyance. Or both. It’s hard to tell with him sometimes. Reaching over and lifting his rolled-up sleeve to get a better look at the tattoo. I can see half a moon and what looks like a bird but that’s all before Luke yanks his sleeve back down.

"Daniella," he warns.

I exhale and throw up my hands. "Just trying to lighten the mood in here." I say, laying down on the tile floor and using my purse for a pillow. Maybe if I have a nap, by the time I wake up, we’ll be rescued. Or I won’t wake up at all because the cable snapped and we plummeted to our deaths.

"Why are you laying on the floor?" Luke asks after a moment.

I roll my eyes, lifting my head to look at him. "Because." I snap back.

Luke’s sigh blows stray hairs off his forehead. I smile sweetly at him and drop my head back down.

"Daniella," he calls.

I smack my hands over my face. "I’m freaking out, Archer. I’m freaking out, and I’m trying to take my mind off it." I say from behind my hands.

"Why are you freaking out?"

"I have an irrational fear of getting stuck in an elevator and when I’m being rescued getting sliced in half because they didn’t turn the power off and the elevator moves." I admit, feeling my face burn with mortification.

"That would never happen," Luke states.

"You don’t know that. What if when it starts back up, the cable snaps and we plummet to our deaths." I voice one of my biggest fears.

"The chance of that happening is very slim." Luke reassures and lays down on the floor with me. It makes this feel more intimate than it should be.

"But it could." I utter.

Luke stretches one arm over his head and rests the other on his stomach. He looks more relaxed than he did a few minutes ago. "I’m not going to lie and say it won’t, but it’s highly unlikely."

The car drops suddenly, I scream as my stomach plummets to the floor and slam my eyes shut. Large hands cradle my face.

"Daniella, look at me."

I keep my eyes shut tight and attempt to shake my head. The car jerks to a stop again and the emergency lights flicker.

"Sweetheart, look at me," Luke’s voice is soft, but the tone is one of authority.

Slowly, I open my eyes, finding him on his side, watching me with concern. "You’re okay. The car has stopped again." His thumb brushes over the scar on the side of my face.

I swallow thickly. "Keep me talking, o-okay? Help me keep my mind off what’s happening."

Luke’s ice blue eyes roam over my face. "What would you like to talk about?"

He’s being so comforting and sweet. This is not the Luke Archer I know. This must be a case of body snatchers, why else would he be acting so…caring.

I exhale and ask, "why is this case stressing you out?"

Luke drops his hands and scratches his forehead. "I can’t talk about the case."

"Why not?"

"Client confidentiality."

"You do realize that, one: you asked me to read over part of the case not long ago, and two: I’m the one who types everything up," I give him a pointed look. "Do you really think I’m not reading every. Single. Word." I raise my brows.

Luke closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, rolling onto his back. "It’s a giant game of he said/she said and neither one of them are letting up." he says and rubs a hand along his jaw, the scratching of his stubble sends a shiver down my spine.

"She caught him cheating, he says she was the cheater. She has proof, he says she hacked his phone. It’s just a lot of back and forth between myself and Doug's lawyer."

"Now you have the numbers for all the women, you can get the correct story from them," I yawn. This floor is starting to become way too comfortable.

"Yeah." Is all he says.

Lifting myself onto my elbows, I glance over at him. His eyes are closed, long thick lashes fan his cheekbones. His body’s relaxed, he looks…peaceful.

God, he’s beautiful.

"Stop staring at me, Daniella." He opens one pale blue eye.

"I wasn’t staring. I was trying to figure out if I could suffocate you with your jacket," I say with a smile.

Luke shakes his head and closes his eye. "You do that and you’re out of a job."

I snort. "Nah. I’ll just Weekend at Bernie’s ya. No one would be the wiser."

Luke chuckles and my stomach drops. Who would ever think a sound could do that.

"Until my body starts to decompose, and the smell becomes too much for you to handle," he replies.

I slap him on the arm and laugh. My fear slowly fading away. Luke is kind of funny. "Well, looks like Mr. hard ass has a sense of humor."

"I always did."

"Could’ve fooled me."

He shrugs one shoulder like it’s no big thing, however, that small grin on his lips tells me otherwise.

"Tell me about that praying mantis woman that slapped you the other day," I say.

His eyes fly open, and his head turns slowly towards me. "No."

I sit up fully. "C’mon Archer. Tell me about her. It’s obvious that you two have some sort of history."

He scratches his stubble and looks up to the ceiling.

"I’ll tell you about Mason’s sperm donor." I offer.

I wait to see if he’s going to take the bait but after a few minutes I give up and lay back down next to him.

"Her name is Sarah," he finally says. "We dated for four years, and on the night I was going to propose, she showed up with the guy she had been cheating on me with and told me she was leaving."

My jaw drops.

"Closed our joint bank account and cleaned out our apartment while I was at work."

Oh. Oh wow.

"He left once the money was gone, and now she calls me every few days in an attempt to wear me down, so I’ll take her back."

Anger and sadness fight inside me. That was a bitch move on her part and it kind of explains why Luke is a dick sometimes. I wasn't the nicest person after my breakups either.

"What a bitchface."

He chuckles. "Yeah."

I exhale slowly. "Mason’s sperm donor was a horrible guy, who dropped me the minute his daddy told him to, and I haven’t seen or heard from him since. Which is a good thing." I blurt out.

Luke hisses under his breath. "Sorry."

I wave him off. "Don’t be. I had help from my parents and my best friend Erin. Mason knows about his father but has no interest in meeting him." Which I am grateful for every single fucking day.

"It mustn’t have been easy for you."

"Honestly, if I didn’t have help, I don’t think I would have survived."

Luke shifts, moving closer to me. "Is his father still alive?"

I shrug, brushing his shoulder with mine. "As far as I know. Like I said, Mason has no interest in meeting him, so I haven’t been actively looking." I cross my feet at the ankle and stretch. This floor is horrible on my back, but I am enjoying being close to Luke and not fighting.

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"Oh, God," it takes me a minute to remember. "He left after Mason's first birthday, however we passed him at the Eaton's Centre when Mason was four." I huff. "He didn't even look our way. He acted like he didn't even know who we were."

"Is he the one who gave you those scars and burn marks?" Luke questions.

I freeze, my heart in my throat and my stomach in a puddle on the elevator floor. I try to avoid this question as much as possible. I hate the looks of pity and the ‘so sorry that happened to you’ bullshit.

"No." I lie.

Luke gives me a look but doesn’t push the issue. "Does he pay any type of child support?"

I relax at the subject change. "Fuck no. His family never acknowledged Mason. Said that he was someone else’s child," I snort. "He looks exactly like his father. Has my hair and eye colour though. And personality, thank fuck. Josh was a dick."

Luke touches my thigh and my body sings at the contact. "Talk to Mark on Monday.”

"What for?"

"He might be able to get you some backpay on child support."

I give him a questioning look. "You think he’ll help me?"

Luke nods. "It is his job."

I blink at him a few times before smiling. "Thanks Tinman. I guess you do have a heart after all."

Chuckling, he turns his head to me. "You really need to stop talking to Carrie."

I giggle. "No, I like that girl. We’re going to become BFFs and she’s going to tell me all about baby Lucas," I clasp my hands under my chin. "Maybe even show me pictures. And then we’re going to have sleepovers and give each other makeovers and—"

Luke covers my mouth with his hand. "Please don’t."

I lick his palm, and he yanks his hand away like it’s on fire. "Ha ha. Mason taught me that when he was eight. Gross right?" I laugh.

Luke wipes his hand on his pants. "Very."

"Mason taught me some really gross things over the years. Did you know that if you wet tape, peel off the adhesive, and mush it together, it looks like boogers?"

"That is disgusting."

"Right! Mason was a gross kid." I laugh. "But he’s my baby and I love him to death. No matter how gross he is."

"You are a strange woman, Daniella," he says, a smiling tugging at his mouth.

I grin and close my eyes. "And you love every moment of my strangeness."