Chapter 6
DAREK
Iwoke up at five thirty, the way I always did, my internal clock refusing to acknowledge that I’d given myself permission to sleep in. I didn’t have any phone calls with clients overseas that required me to wake up early. The day was relatively light.
But I couldn’t sleep.
I lay there for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling and thinking about the woman sleeping in the guest suite.
Liza had been here less than twenty-four hours, and already the house felt different. Not better, necessarily, just different.
I got up, showered, and dressed in slacks and a plain white tee. My dress shirt in the closet, I would put on after breakfast. Then I headed downstairs to make breakfast.
I pulled out eggs, bacon, and bread. Set a pan on the stove and turned on the heat.
There was something meditative about cooking breakfast. It centered me in a way that even working on boats sometimes didn’t.
The smell of bacon and coffee quickly filled the kitchen.
I poured myself a cup, held it in one hand, and flipped the bacon with the other.
Liza walked into the kitchen just as I was pulling the bacon out of the pan. Her hair was down, falling past her shoulders in waves, and she was wearing yoga pants with an oversized sweatshirt that had “Save the Whales” printed across the chest. No makeup, no artifice. Just Liza.
She was beautiful.
I shoved that thought aside and focused on the bacon. “Morning,” I said. “Coffee?”
“God, yes. Please.” She moved into the kitchen like she wasn’t sure if she was allowed. “I didn’t expect you to be up. Or cooking.”
“I’m always up early.” I poured her a cup and slid it across the counter. “Cream and sugar are there if you want them.”
She doctored her coffee, heavy on both cream and sugar. I watched as she took a long drink. Her eyes closed in something that looked like religious ecstasy.
“Good?” I asked.
“I haven’t had real coffee in months. I’ve been drinking instant. The cheap stuff that tastes like burned dirt.” She took another sip. “This is amazing.”
“It’s just coffee.”
“It’s real coffee. That’s not ‘just’ anything.”
I started cracking eggs into the pan. Scrambled, because that was what Daisie liked. I preferred over easy, but it was a pain in the ass to do both ways. I had gotten into the habit of making breakfast the way she preferred.
Liza watched me work. I could feel her curiosity. Finally, she said, “I’m impressed you know how to cook. I kind of expected there to be a butler or a chef or… I don’t know, staff?”
“We have a cleaning service that comes twice a week. That’s it.
” I stirred the eggs. “I realized I was working too much, spending all my time at the boat yard or in the office. Daisie was eating dinner with a nanny more often than with me. So I made some changes. Hired managers to handle the office work, cut back my hours. Now I make breakfast every morning, and we eat dinner together every night.”
“That’s really good parenting.”
“It’s me trying to be a better dad than I was six months ago.” The eggs were done. I scooped them onto a plate and started buttering toast. “I figured if I’m going to ask the court to give me full custody, I should probably actually be present in my daughter’s life.”
“Makes sense.”
“Can you grab the plates from that cabinet?”
She pulled out plates and opened drawers until she found the cutlery. It was good for her to learn her way around the kitchen. In fact, she was going to need to be familiar with the layout if we were going to sell the idea she lived with us.
Daisie burst into the kitchen still in her pajamas, the stuffed whale tucked under her arm.
“Good morning,” I greeted her.
Daisie looked a little uncomfortable when she spotted Liza.
“Daisie, show Liza how we set the table.”
I watched as Daisie put the whale on the table and then showed Liza where everything went. I couldn’t help but notice the way Daisie looked at her. With interest, yes, but also with something that looked like hope. Like maybe this woman might stick around.
It made my chest ache.
My little girl needed a woman in her life. I had known that for a while now. I knew she was thinking about her mother. I did my best, but there were things I couldn’t give her. Perspectives I didn’t have. A mother’s love.
I would never forgive Sasha for leaving our daughter.
Never. I didn’t care what kind of identity crisis or quarter-life awakening or whatever bullshit excuse she’d come up with.
You didn’t abandon your child. You didn’t leave a four-year-old wondering what she had done wrong and why she wasn’t enough to make her mother stay.
We sat down to eat. Daisie wasn’t her usual chatty self, which meant I had to carry the conversation.
“We have that cocktail party tonight,” I said to Liza. “At the yacht club. Did you find a dress?”
She swallowed her bite of toast. “Yeah. I got one when I went shopping.”
“Good. We’ll need to leave around six thirty. It’s black tie optional, but everyone will be in cocktail attire.”
“Okay.” She looked nervous. “Should I know anything? About the people who’ll be there?”
“Just smile and let me do most of the talking. They’re yacht club members, potential clients, and people I do business with. Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Easy for you to say,” she mumbled under her breath.
I finished my coffee. “You’ll be fine. Just be yourself.”
Daisie looked between us, clearly picking up on the tension. “Where are you going?”
“Just a boring grown-up party,” I told her. “Melody’s going to come hang out with you.”
After breakfast, I got Daisie ready for school while Liza disappeared back to her room. We did our usual morning routine and then headed out to my SUV.
The drive to school was only ten minutes, through the winding roads of Cloudhaven that led from the wealthy estates on the water to the small downtown area where the school was located. Daisie was quiet in the back seat. I just knew she had a lot of questions and was trying to articulate them.
“Daddy?” she said as we pulled into the school parking lot.
“Yeah?”
“Is Liza my new mother?”
I almost choked. Guilt crashed through me like a wave. I hadn’t thought this through. Hadn’t considered how confusing this arrangement might be for a seven-year-old who already lost one mother and was desperately looking for someone to fill that void.
“No, sweetheart. Liza’s just a friend. A good friend who’s going to be staying with us for a little while.”
“Just a friend?” Her voice was small, disappointed.
“Yes. Just a friend.”
“Oh.” She was quiet for a moment. “I like her.”
“I’m glad. I like her too.”
I walked her to the entrance, hugged her goodbye, and watched her disappear into the building.
This was supposed to be simple. A business arrangement to help me maintain custody. But nothing involving a child was ever simple, and I should have known that.
The afternoon passed quickly, and before I knew it, it was time to get home and get ready for the party.
I stood in my bedroom in front of the mirror, adjusting my tie. The suit was custom-tailored, Italian wool, the kind of thing you wore when you needed to impress people. I looked like a billionaire yacht builder. Exactly what I was supposed to look like.
I wasn’t looking forward to this. I had been to a hundred events like this one, schmoozing with clients and club members, making small talk about boats and the market and whatever other inane topics rich people discussed.
Usually, I could tolerate it. Tonight was a performance.
I was about to parade Liza around as proof I had my life together.
I was proving to the world I was a stable, relationship-worthy man who definitely deserved to keep custody of his daughter.
“Darek?” Liza’s voice called from down the hall. “I need help.”
I headed to her room, knocking before I entered. The door was open, but the space already felt somehow off-limits, like I was intruding on territory that belonged to her now.
“In here,” she called from the closet.
I found her standing in front of the mirror, wearing a dress that made my brain temporarily stop working.
It was dark green, almost the color of deep ocean water.
It showed off her shapely, womanly figure.
The woman wasn’t one of those rail-thin women that survived on celery.
My eyes raked over her and stopped when I saw the zipper was only halfway up her back.
I could see the black bra and immediately thought of boobs.
Fuck.
I needed to get my head straight.
Liza was trying unsuccessfully to reach the zipper.
“I can’t get it,” she said, sounding frustrated. “Don’t look.”
I almost laughed. “I can’t help you if I don’t look.”
“Just be a gentleman about it.”
“I’ll do my best.” I stepped closer. “You might need to bend forward a bit.”
She did, and suddenly I could see way more skin than was appropriate. The curve of her spine, the expanse of her back, smooth and pale and absolutely not something I should be noticing about an employee. Because that was what she was, technically. An employee. This was a business arrangement.
I grabbed the zipper and started pulling it up. It caught on the fabric, and I had to tug. She made a small noise, something between a gasp and a laugh.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “It’s stuck.”
“Just get it up there. I tried this on two days ago. It fit. I didn’t eat that much.”
I placed my other hand on her back to pull the fabric together. The instant my hand touched her skin, we both jumped. It was like getting hit by an electric shock. I tugged again, and this time it gave, sliding up and sealing away all that skin I had the urge to lick.
I didn’t step back immediately. My hands were at her waist. I found myself running them up her sides and felt the way she shivered slightly under my touch.
She was clearly into it. I could see it in the way her breathing changed, the way she leaned back slightly toward me.
It would be easier to sell the fiction if we had kissed before.
If there was actual chemistry between us that we could draw on at the party.
That was what I told myself, anyway. We needed to know each other’s lips.
Who went left and who went right? Where did we put our hands? The basic logistics of a casual kiss.
Our eyes met in the mirror. Then she turned fully, and we were inches apart. I could smell her perfume, something light and clean, like citrus and ocean air.
I leaned in. She leaned in.
“Why are you hugging weird?”
We sprang apart like we’d been electrocuted.
Daisie stood in the doorway of the closet, looking at us with innocent curiosity.
“We’re not hugging,” I said. I felt like she had just busted us buck naked and going at it like rabbits. “I was just helping Liza with her zipper.”
“Oh.” Daisie looked at me and then apparently decided I was telling the truth. “Melody’s here. She brought cookies.”
“Great. That’s great.” I cleared my throat and stepped away from Liza, who looked flushed and flustered. “We’ll be down in a minute.”
Daisie skipped away, and I stood there with Liza in the silence that followed.
And now it was awkward.
“You look beautiful,” I said, breaking the silence. “Good choice on the dress.”
She blinked. “Oh. Thank you.”
I was an idiot. No wonder I was single.
“We should go,” I said.
“Of course.”
I forced myself to step out of the closet where the air felt less charged and I could maybe remember how to think clearly.
It was going to be a long month.