Show My What You Got Read online

  Heidi’s grip on my hand tightened. “You couldn’t have known she would just bail on you guys, but even if you had known, it’s not like you could have kept her against her will.”

  “I know, but her leaving still hurt Millie, and that was the last thing I ever wanted to happen.”

  Before Heidi could reply, the door opened and Millie stepped out to show off a dress that was so yellow it was like it had been made from the sun itself.

  My hand separated from Heidi’s in the same instant, but thankfully, Millie’s eyes were cast down towards the dress as she spread the skirt with her hands. “I love this one. I definitely want this one.”

  “It looks great on you,” Heidi said.

  I chuckled and gave my head a small shake. “I wonder who she might have gotten that particular style from, all brightly coloured with sunflowers on it.”

  Heidi shrugged, but the corners of her lips tipped up. “No idea.”

  Millie laughed and bounced back into the room when I told her she could have the dress. Twenty minutes later, arms laden with even more shopping bags, we finally left the shop.

  Heidi looked down at Millie as we walked over a crowded bridge that led to the entertainment section of the mall, thankfully leaving the shops behind. “I have one more surprise for you. Consider it a late Christmas present. I think you’re going to love it.”

  Millie looked up into Heidi’s eyes with such adoration that I could practically feel it coming off her. “Really? You do? Another Christmas present? This is the best day ever.”

  Seeing her so joyful for an entire day? I thought she might actually have a point about that, even if we had shopped all day. Nothing could be better than seeing her like this, and I had Heidi to thank for it.

  Chapter 26

  Heidi

  Early this morning, I’d been thinking about the day ahead. The prospect of spending time with Millie and Archer for a whole day had lit up all my nerve endings with a rush of excitement.

  As I lay there, I thought back to Archer’s invitation and how he’d dropped everything to come and help me when I needed him. I wanted to return the favour, in a manner of speaking. Obviously, I wasn’t going to return it in the same way with Millie spending the day with us, but I wanted to do something nice for them.

  Plus, I loved spoiling children. A few Christmas’s ago when I’d spent the holidays with Bonnie’s family, I’d fallen in love with her little cousins and watching them revel in the presents they’d gotten. It had sparked something in me, and while I didn’t have any of my own kids to spoil, this year, I could spoil Millie.

  It had taken less than five minutes of scrolling through ideas on my phone before I’d landed on the perfect one, and I couldn’t wait to see what she would think of it. As she stared up at me now with those gorgeous blue eyes, all rounded and pleading, I gave myself a mental high-five for having thought ahead.

  “What’s the surprise?” she asked, her gaze never leaving mine. “Please, please, please tell me.”

  “That’s not really how a surprise works, sweetheart,” Archer said, but I could see that he was curious too. He tilted his head and shot me a questioning look. “It’s not more shopping, is it?”

  “Nope.” I smiled and motioned for them to follow me. “We should probably go put the bags in the vehicle first, though.”

  Archer stopped walking. “So whatever this surprise is, it’s in the mall?”

  “Near enough that we can leave the SUV parked here.” I nodded, rolling my lips into my mouth to keep myself from smiling. “Let’s go put the bags away.”

  “If you say so,” Archer said, starting to trail after me. All the way to the parking lot, Millie was chomping at the bit to know what the surprise was.

  By the time we walked back into the mall after having taken the purchases of the day to the SUV, I rummaged through my handbag and made a show of looking for something. Millie stopped dead in her tracks, watching me with rapt attention as I withdrew three shiny pieces of paper that I’d collected earlier under the pretence of having to go off to find a bathroom.

  “I got us tickets to Disney on Ice.” I fanned them out between my fingers and held them up proudly. “The performance is starting in fifteen minutes.”

  Millie’s jaw dropped. Then she let out a piercing sound and ran to me. “You’re kidding. I’ve always wanted to see that.”

  “Really?” I smiled as I wrapped my arms around her narrow shoulders to hug her to me. “I’m so glad you haven’t already been. I was a bit worried that you might have.”

  “Even I’ve heard it’s a show one can watch more than once,” Archer commented, but he was smiling too. “You really didn’t have to do this, but thank you.”

  “I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. I like being around you guys and I appreciate that you invited me out with you.”

  “We love being around you, too.” Millie grinned radiantly. “Thank you for the tickets.”

  “No worries, baby girl. Now let’s go before we miss anything.” Tiny fingers looped around mine, and I looked down to see Millie had taken my hand. I wrapped mine around hers, too.

  As we walked, she took Archer’s hand with her other one and it struck me once again that anyone who walked past us would think that we were a family. I knew we weren’t, and I wasn’t going to delude myself into thinking that we ever would be, but it was nice to think about for now. Comforting after my Christmas ordeal.

  When Archer and I were like this, I’d come to realise that I didn’t think of him as a client anymore. The realisation had helped me to relax and to see him as more than that because he was so much more than that.

  In one facet of his life, he was my client. But he was also a father, a son, a boss, a friend, and a pretty damn decent lover. Although I never thought I’d even think about him, he had a big, soft heart buried deep down inside and I enjoyed getting glimpses of it here and there.

  Soon enough, the party would be over and I’d probably never hear from him again. As much as I didn’t want to think about it, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t true.

  More than ever after seeing my mother, I was determined to make the best of the tiny sliver of time I had left with them. I’d managed to put the looming expiry date of whatever this was between us out of my head by the time we got to the entertainment centre.

  There were people everywhere, little girls sitting down to have their faces painted or waiting in line to buy a tiara. Millie’s eyes went as wide as they could go as she took it all in. She didn’t even have to ask Archer before he was walking us over to the counter selling the tiaras.

  “Which one would you like, baby?” He looked at Millie and waved between all the options, but then his gaze lifted and fell on mine. “I hope you know which one you want, too.”

  It felt like I should roll my eyes at the suggestion, but I couldn’t. The little girl I had been was still in there somewhere, and she was jumping up and down at the thought of becoming a princess. “I mean, of course, I do. I’ve had a long, long time to think about this.”

  Millie pointed out a glittery silver tiara with large pink stones inlaid in it, while I went for a much more understated one with regal “emerald” stones on the front. At the very last minute, I turned to face Archer. “What? You’re not going to get one? They have a whole selection for the princes over there.”

  “I’m no prince,” he muttered, but Millie was watching him expectantly, so he pointed at a very simple golden plastic crown and added it to ours before he paid.

  Grimacing as he put it on his head after handing us ours, he narrowed his eyes at me. “If anyone gets a picture of this, my reputation will be ruined.”

  “If we don’t get a picture of this, my day will be ruined,” I said, smiling as I extracted my phone from my bag. I knew that he was referring to reporters or anyone else who noticed him, but I pretended not to. Besides, it wasn’t like I was planning on selling the photo to anyone.

  Archer came to stand in between Millie
and me, eventually even managing a smile for the selfies. With her arm around my shoulder for the picture, he leaned in to whisper in my ear. “You owe me for this, princess.”

  My head tipped back as I laughed and I had to grab my tiara before it slid off. “Sure, sure. Whatever you want. This would have been worth it.”

  “We’ll see.” There was a flash of heat in his eyes, letting me know exactly where his mind had gone. A shudder of anticipation ran down my spine, but I shut it down. Disney first. Everything else could wait.

  “Can I pay you back for the tickets?” he asked in a quiet voice as I put my phone away.

  “Absolutely not,” I insisted with a roll of my eyes. “Besides, you’ve kind of already paid for them with the commission I’m getting for your party.”

  He chuckled. “Fair enough.”

  As we found our seats, the arena darkened and one of the hosts walked onto the stage a minute later. “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we celebrate what’s possible as six Disney heroines spark the courage inside us all.”

  I smiled in the darkness. Then my smile widened even further when I felt Archer’s hand slide into mine at my side. I settled in to watch what I knew all the way to my bones was going to be a spectacular performance and I wondered if the host was right, if watching this show was going to spark some kind of courage in me. Like the courage to tell Archer that I didn’t really hate him anymore. Not at all.

  After that random thought, I lost myself to the magic and felt all swoony by the time it was done. We rose from our seats, and suddenly, Millie was next to me giving me another hug.

  “This was the best Christmas present ever,” she said, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. Over the top of her head, I caught Archer watching us with an odd expression on his face.

  Filled with the giddiness of the show and being told that I’d gotten a billionaire’s daughter the best present ever, I stuck out my tongue at him.

  Whatever had been going on inside his head to have put that expression on his face must have lessened because he managed to give me a half smile. But something was still bothering him. I just couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what it could be.

  Chapter 27

  Archer

  “Welcome back to reality,” Hugo said, grinning as he walked into my office. “Merry Christmas. How was it?”

  “We had a good time.” Barring the argument with my mother about Heidi. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair, clutching the strands at the back of my neck. “Yours?”

  “It was great.” He shut the door behind him with a decisive click and ambled over to the couch, cocking his head as he looked at me. “You look stressed about something.”

  Lowering my hands, I shook my head. “Not stressed exactly. More exasperated than anything else. What made your Christmas so great?”

  A smug smirk tipped the corners of his lips upwards. “I had to fill up my car on the way to lunch. There was this pretty girl at the servo who gave me my coffee at half price.”

  “You’re hitting on girls even at service stations now?” I teased, arching a brow at him. “You’re incorrigible. It takes, what, five minutes to fill up your car and grab a coffee from inside? Surely, even you can keep it in your pants for that long.”

  He laughed, shrugging his shoulders as he relaxed onto the couch. “I can’t help it, mate. I was my usual, irresistible self, and obviously, she just couldn’t resist.”

  “I’m sure that’s exactly how it happened.” I wheeled my chair out from behind my desk and crossed the room to grab two bottles of water before going over to join him on the couches. Sitting down kitty-corner from him, I handed over his water. “Here. You can have this for free and you didn’t even have to flirt with me to get it.”

  He cracked the top and let the bottle hang in front of his lips as he said, “Some of us will take every dollar we can save. If we save it by smiling at people, what’s the harm?”

  “No harm.” I grinned. “Except if you led her to believe that half-price coffee was going to lead her into your bed.”

  “I got her number.” He lifted his shoulders again, a self-satisfied grin spreading on his lips and his blue eyes shining brightly. “I would have called her anyway, whether she had given me a discount on the coffee or not. I told you, she’s pretty, so scoring her number was like an extra little present anyway. The fact that she gave me a discount on the coffee tells me that she has a good heart, too. Double whammy.”

  A pretty girl with a good heart. The description conjured up images of Heidi in my mind. Of her laughing with Millie, of the warmth of her hand in mine throughout the entire two-hour performance of Disney on Ice, of her brilliant smiles and soft body against mine.

  She was more than a double whammy. She was every whammy. I didn’t even care if that wasn’t a real thing. It was to me, especially when it came to Heidi.

  Which is why you have to be careful with her, I reminded myself. Another sigh fell from my lips. Why did this whole situation with her have to be so fucking complicated?

  Although I had suppressed the urge to clutch at my hair again, Hugo noticed the sigh and narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s going on with you, mate? You said were exasperated. Why?”

  “Heidi spent the day with us yesterday,” I said, blinking back the memories that saying the words brought on. It had been a good day, even if I had been bored shitless during the shopping part of it.

  Questions arose in Hugo’s gaze as he widened his eyes to prompt me to continue. “We took Millie shopping for clothes, which she loved. After we bought half the damn mall and the girls got their nails done, Heidi surprised us with tickets to Disney on Ice.”

  He scrunched up his nose. “I don’t get why that’s exasperating. It sounds like you guys are getting close. What’s exasperating about that?”

  “It’s not Heidi who’s exasperating. It’s my mother.” I flashed back to the icy steel in her eyes when she’d pulled me into the kitchen on Christmas Day. “I’m over thirty, I built the top financial firm in the city from the ground up, and my child is in primary school, but she still thinks she can tell me what to do.”

  “What do you mean?” His lips pursed.

  “Millie told her about taking Heidi ice skating on Christmas and she threw a bloody wobbly about it. Seriously, her tantrum was worse than any Millie has ever had.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t she like Heidi?”

  “She’s never even met her.” I threw my arms out to my sides, shaking my head as I took a deep breath. “But she’s not happy that Millie has not only met her, but has spent time with her.”

  “Why not?” He frowned. “Heidi seems like a nice enough girl. You’re into her, and that day we spent together at the rugby, Millie seemed to like her too.”

  “Millie does like her.” I shot him a glare. “But I’m not into her, not like that.”

  Actually, now that I thought about it, wasn’t it exactly like that? I’d slept with her twice now, had countless meals with her where very little business had been discussed, even if that had been the reason we had eaten together. I enjoyed spending time with her outside of the bedroom and she’d met my daughter.

  “Fuck. Okay, maybe I am into her. It doesn’t change anything, though. If anything, that makes it worse. If my mother were to find out that I was, she’d throw a wobbly so bad the whole damn city would be able to hear her.”

  Hugo’s gaze flickered away from mine and his hand came up to scratch his beard. “It makes sense that she’s protective. She’s got a good reason for it. Millie is her only grandchild, after all.”

  “Millie’s also my only child,” I argued. “I don’t understand why my mother thinks I would ever do anything to hurt her. I’d never let anything happen to her.”

  “Of course, you wouldn’t,” he said, then put up his hands and showed me his palms. “I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but your mother is very involved with Millie. If she’s overprotective, it’s because she thinks she’s
doing what’s best for her.”

  “By trying to dictate to me who is or is not allowed in my daughter’s life?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I hear you, mate, but I’m sorry. I don’t agree with you. I understand that she’s very involved with Millie and that she wants to protect her, but does she really think it’s necessary to protect her from me?”

  “Well, when you put it like that.” He sighed and dropped his hands, picking up his water again. “Look, you’re a good dad. You’ll do right by Millie. I know you will, but take it easy on your mother. She’s only trying to have your back. She always does.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. My mother might have been a force of nature, but she’d always used that force for good with us. “Yeah. You’re right. Maybe I overreacted. It doesn’t feel like I have, but maybe what I’m feeling is wrong. I just don’t know anymore.”

  Chapter 28

  Heidi

  “Excuse me?” I bit out into the phone, my heartbeat slowing in my chest. My blood cooled in shock, but my temper flared and heated it right back up. “What do you mean we have to change the menu?”

  The vendor on the other end of the line cleared his throat, his voice an octave or two higher than usual. “We can’t serve the abalone, so we’ll have to substitute it with something else.”

  “Why can’t you serve the abalone?” I was aware that I was just about growling at the man, but we’d had the food locked in for weeks.

  It was one of the first things I’d finalised for Archer’s party.

  The menus had already been printed and were sitting in a neat stack on my conference room table, ready to be transported to Archer’s building when we started setting up in a couple of days’ time.