Chapter Seven #2
Sammy had followed his eyes and almost immediately her heart went out to the child sitting on one of the long grey sofas in the lobby, next to a man she recognised as one of the lawyers from the other side.
Adele was a pretty little thing, with long dark hair caught in two braids which ended in pink ribbons, neatly tied into bows.
They matched her dress and her shiny patent plastic shoes.
She was sitting ramrod straight, her hands folded on her lap and next to her was a bright pink bag.
Not a backpack but a handbag. Her face was small and serious and she looked terrified.
Leo hadn’t seen her for well over a year.
Suddenly, the enormity of his undertaking was brought home to him.
This wasn’t a deal. There was no company involved, no stock market to follow in the wake of a deal, no factory that might or might not need to be closed, no redundancies to be handled and workforce to be relocated.
This was a living, breathing child and he tensed.
Sammy felt it. He had faltered. No one would have noticed, but she did. She looped her arm through his without looking at him, took a deep breath and headed directly for the little girl who was primly sitting on the grey sofa.
‘Hi.’ She ignored the lawyer, who had risen and taken Leo to one side so that they could have a confab.
‘I’m Sammy.’ She knelt down so that she was on eye level with Adele.
She was accustomed to young children. She was comfortable around them and she knew how to make them feel comfortable around her.
It was part and parcel of being a good teacher.
Leo watched her. The lawyer was busily telling him about the arrangements that had been secured for the day and the outcome of the long meeting they had the day before.
Leo heard everything but his attention was riveted to the woman kneeling in front of the little girl.
All her natural warmth was on show. She was very tactile, was resting her hand on Adele’s arm, and he could see the way the child was being drawn into whatever she was being told.
Compared to her, his girlfriends of the past, with their frantic self-absorption, now struck him as somewhat brittle.
There was an earthy, engaging and entirely uncontrived sexiness about his fake fiancée that kept turning him on. He dragged his attention away to finalise details of handing Adele back to the lawyer and then, lawyer gone, he joined the twosome, standing above them until Sammy straightened.
Introductions were made. Adele stared at him with huge navy blue eyes and noticeably cringed back.
‘What now?’ Leo asked roughly, on the back foot for the first time in his life.
Sammy gave Adele’s hand a tiny reassuring squeeze.
‘Leave it to me.’ She stood on tiptoe and impulsively kissed the side of his mouth because he looked uncertain and weirdly vulnerable and she liked that.
She liked knowing that, for the first time in his life, probably, he wasn’t quite in control of a situation.
They had Adele for lunch and the remainder of the afternoon, and Sammy allowed the little girl to choose what she wanted to do.
They lunched at a popular restaurant where everything was geared towards children, from what was on the menu to the colouring books and games they could enjoy while they waited for their food.
Then they went to the Melbourne Aquarium.
‘Do you do stuff like this often?’ Sammy asked casually at one point during the day, and Adele shook her head and whispered that sometimes Sarah would take her out but mostly she stayed in and played with her toys.
‘Sarah?’
‘The girl who looks after me,’ Adele said. ‘Nana Gail doesn’t have much time because she goes out a lot and she’s busy all the time.’
Leo tried to involve himself but he was so clearly making an effort that it had the opposite effect of scaring Adele away.
The bigger the effort he made the more alarmed she seemed to get.
And the more frustrated he became. By the end of the day, there was a tentative hug from Adele for Sammy and a polite handshake for Leo.
Pink plastic bag dangling on her tiny wrist and feet beautifully turned out because, she had confided haltingly, she did ballet lessons three times a week because it suited her grandmother who met friends for early evening drinks then, she looked like a miniature queen politely bidding one of her subjects goodbye.
‘Well, that was a complete fiasco,’ was the first thing Leo said as they headed up to the suite. ‘I need a drink. Actually, scratch that. I need several drinks.’
Sammy was on a high. She had had a wonderful time.
She had been as nervous as a kitten about meeting the lawyers, about meeting Gail and about the whole pretend charade, and Adele had been a shining light, returning her to her comfort zone.
And it had felt good to find herself in the leading role for the first time, rather than tumbling around on a roller coaster ride into which she had suddenly been plunged.
‘It wasn’t a fiasco,’ she said, stepping into the lift and then turning to him as they were whooshed up to their suite. ‘It went really well.’
‘It went really well for you,’ Leo amended, lounging against the mirrored panel, thumbs hooked on the waistband of his jeans. ‘You’re obviously a natural when it comes to children.’
‘It’s my job. Besides, I really liked her.
She’s been through a rough time. That’s why she’s so quiet and scared.
I can’t imagine what it must have been like having two very young and irresponsible parents and then, when they’re no longer around, having to cope with a grandmother who clearly doesn’t particularly want her around. ’
‘You’re really...’ He looked at her, head tilted to one side until colour crawled into her cheeks.
‘I’m really what?’
Leo opened the door with his key card and pushed it, stepping back so that she could brush past him. She smelled of sun and the outside—a flowery, healthy, clean, natural smell that filled his nostrils, making him want to take a step back and close his eyes.
‘Caring.’ He took up where he’d left off.
Over the years, he had heard all about her from his father, who was her number one fan.
It had mostly gone in one ear and out the other.
But he remembered things he had been told now, about how good she was at her job, how popular she was with her pupils, the sort of girl who took in stray animals and nursed them back to rude health.
Privately, it had all sounded like the perfect description of a bore with whom he couldn’t possibly have anything in common.
Pious and saintly, which had always been the image he had been fed, couldn’t have been further from the sort of person who could engage his attention.
But she was nothing like that image he had built in his head. She didn’t set about drawing attention to herself like most women he knew were prone to doing, but she was still curiously capable of holding his attention in ways he didn’t really get.
And she was naturally empathetic. He had seen that for himself with Adele today, if it hadn’t already been apparent.
She was feisty but caring, argumentative and stubborn as a mule but had what it took to gain the trust of a suspicious five-year-old.
She didn’t strut her stuff and blushed like a teenager.
He couldn’t imagine anyone less likely to make a pass at him, even if she wanted to.
She believed in true love and was seriously romantic.
In all respects, she managed to tick none of the boxes that he had always thought counted when it came to women.
But the more he was in her company, the more turned on he was by her.
* * *
Sammy thought that he had succeeded in turning caring into as boring as watching paint dry.
‘You mean I’m dull!’ She laughed off the knot of hurt that tightened inside her.
He was pouring himself something from the well-stocked minibar and she accepted a glass of wine because she was still smarting from the dull as dishwater description she had read into his words.
It wasn’t yet six-thirty. She guessed that the plan would be for them to go somewhere for dinner.
After two nights, she no longer felt awkward about the whole sharing a bed situation.
He seemed to have an amazing ability to detach.
He might tell her that he found her sexy, but he didn’t feel any compulsion to follow through.
Thank heavens, was what she firmly told herself.
‘You’re anything but dull.’ Leo had opted for red wine over his instinctive choice of something a lot harder and he looked at her as he sipped it.
The day’s outing had done great things to her satiny skin, which was fast acquiring a pale gold colour and turning her blond hair even blonder.
The ponytail had disappeared at some point during the day and her hair now tumbled in curls and ringlets over her shoulders.
She was the picture of health, the perfect image of someone who didn’t care about what the weather was doing to her make-up or her hairstyle.
Once he’d started staring, he found that he couldn’t stop and he had to physically turn away and prowl towards the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked a park that was bathed in the last of the sunshine.
‘I just want to say...’ He frowned and tried to locate the right words.
‘What?’ The wine was delicious and Sammy wandered to where he was standing and absently looked outside before turning her attention to him.
‘I want to thank you.’ His voice was gruff and she gazed at him, bewildered.
‘Thank me for what?’
‘You took charge today.’ He drained his glass, twirled it thoughtfully between his fingers and then gently placed it on the squat glass table next to him. ‘Quite honestly, I’m not sure how things would have gone if you hadn’t been there.’
‘You would have... You...er...’