Tom doubted it, but chose not to say anything. Reine didn’t need to know about his and Ari’s complicated relationship. She didn’t need to know that her father was a pitiful excuse for a parent and a partner, who had been absent from her life for too long.
“We should get you to the house,” he said, “you must be tired and it’s cold out and if your mom knew you were missing—”
“She knows,” said an icy voice, one that made Tom’s sphincter tighten and stomach clench. He turned towards it.
“Hello Stella,” he said coolly, nodding towards the immaculately put-together woman who stood languidly in the doorway.
She ignored him — her gaze settled on Reine. “Hello, Small,” she said, and her voice was missing the frostiness she usually inflicted on Tom. “Are you all right?”
Reine nodded. “Hi Stellie.”
Stellie,thought Tom in shock. His daughter called the great Stella SnowStellie? He was certain if he’d dared to address her asStellieshe would have his balls on a plate for supper. If she could find them, that was. Whenever Stella Snow was around, they retracted so far back into his pelvis a good surgeon would struggle to get to them.
“Your mother is frantic about you,” Stella carried on lightly. “It was very naughty of you to sneak out of bed like that.”
“I needed to talk with my father,” Reine replied sagely, and Tom watched as Stella nodded, seemingly completely unsurprised.
“Well, everyone is looking for you. Come on. I have a pack of chocolate Leibniz in my bag. You can have one on the way to the house.”
“How did you find her here?” Tom asked, and Stella glanced over at him, her face falling into a sneer.
“Well, I just followed the scent of gormless desperation and the tracks of a man whose structurally unsound face weighs him down,” she replied. “You should have brought her back to the house the second she turned up here. Her mother is a wreck.”
Guilt flooded through him. “I know. But I just... I’ve never had the chance to...” he trailed off miserably. He gave a long sigh. “I didn’t know, Stella. I really didn’t.”
“Well, Jawline, that much was evident,” Stella said with a shrug. “You’ve had five minutes of parenting though, and the woman who has had nearly eight years more is in a state because she thinks her daughter is missing. Take her back to the house,” she gave him a keener, more searching look. “Sort out your mess.”
“I will,” he promised, coming to a stand and pulling Reine up into his arms. “Come on, Reine. Your mom is missing you.”
Reine reached over to Stella, who was holding out a biscuit in her hand. “Don’t tell your mother,” Stella warned. “You know she’s not keen on you having chocolate.”
Reine grinned at her, crunching the chocolate-covered cookie into her mouth, and Tom looked at Stella with interest as they started to walk.
“How did you meet Reine?” he asked her. “You seem to know her well.”
“The small and I get along splendidly,” Stella replied bluntly. “Whenever Luis De León works on a wedding dress for a ceremony where I’m the photographer, the small is invariably with him. We have a lot in common, the small and I.”
“Like what?” Tom asked in disbelief, shifting Reine in his arms. How could his young, innocent daughter have anything in common with the icy Stella Snow?
“My mum was a single, working mother too,” Stella said with a shrug. “She was overworked, overtired and overwrought, just like Ari. I don’t like children as a general rule, but the small and I, well... I know just what she’s going through.”
Tom felt guilt hit him again. “I should’ve been there for Ari. I should’ve been there for both of them.”
“You’ll be there now,” Reine offered, and Tom felt his heart skip a beat.
His daughter was beautiful, cleverandkind. She was the best of them both. He hugged her tightly to him.
“Yeah,” he said, “I’ll be there now. All the time.”
But on hearing his words, Stella turned to him sharply. “Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep, Jawline.”
“I intend to though,” Tom argued.
Stella looked at him long and hard. “Maybe you feel that way now, but then maybe things will change. My own father was a malingering and steaming pile of garbage. He said things like that. Children remember when you break a promise. Don’t bethatfather, whatever you do.”
“I’m going to be there,” Tom said again, firmly. “I’m going to be there.”
“Fine.” Stella nodded. “But I’ll wait and see.”
