“Good. Then you know he’s in good hands.”
So it wasn’t just the accident she was thinking about. Ethan wasn’t entirely sure if this was a good or a bad thing.
“How are you feeling about the ring…about me asking Vanessa to…to be your stepmother, I mean,” he continued, reaching for her hand. “She’s been in our lives for a while now, and you know she really loves you, loves reading with you and taking you to dance class and everything. It would be nice to be a family again, don’t you think?”
Daisy took a long sip of her chocolate and stirred the marshmallows with her finger. “Yeah. Being a family would be nice.”
“Of course, you and me have always been a family too,” he said, and suddenly overcome with emotion, he had to pause before he could go on. “I remember,” he said, turning over her hand in his and opening her palm, “I used to hold your tiny hand in mine and marvel at how much the same and yet how different the lines in our palms were.” He traced his index finger over the lines while Daisy listened attentively.
He knew she adored hearing stories about what she was like as a baby. All children did, but perhaps Daisy even more so because all those stories tended to feature both of her parents together.
“You and I share so much, inside and out. You’ll always be my baby girl, but I can see you growing and changing every day—becoming more and more of the person you are. It’s been…it’s been so wonderful and yet…hard sometimes without your mum,” he said, his voice faltering a little. “But I love being here for you, buttercup, and I want you to know that I wouldn’t change a thing. I just… Look, I’m probably not making any sense.” He ran a hand through his dark hair, wondering why all this felt so surreal now, when back at Tiffany’s, it had seemed so right. Covering her little hand with his big one, he continued, “Just know how much I love you. You will always be my number one girl. But maybe now, as your mum used to say, webothneed to trust ourselves and try something new.”
Chapter 5
Rachel Conti loved New York at Christmas.
Although a visit to the city was always a treat, at this time of year, Manhattan was truly at its finest—all decked out in sparkle and full of holiday cheer.
As she sat drinking hot chocolate and looking out the window at the lights of the skyscraper opposite her SoHo hotel, she was mildly sorry she hadn’t gone whole hog and booked somewhere farther uptown like the Plaza—or at least a place with views over Central Park.
It would have been so much more romantic, especially as it was forecast to snow tomorrow. But when making the reservation, Midtown was all Rachel had been able to afford.
She and Gary were merely two of the hordes of NYC visitors at Christmastime, and most of the better hotels were either fully booked up or way too expensive.
She wished her boyfriend would finish up his shopping and come back soon. He’d spent a lot of time out and about today—even longer than she had. But since they were only here for a few days, she supposed she could hardly blame him for wanting to prolong the New York experience for as long as possible.
Rachel couldn’t help but wonder about what he might have chosen as a gift for her this time. Since they’d only been together a couple of months at the time, she had given him the benefit of the doubt the previous Valentine’s Day when she’d gotten one of those gift-shop single chocolate roses wrapped in colored foil. Then, on her birthday a few months later, she’d been disappointed again when he’d presented her with a bottle of perfume and a gift certificate for a well-known discount clothing store.
Useful, certainly, but hardly thoughtful, considering, though she’d figured Gary just wasn’t the type who went for grand gestures or over-the-top sentiment.
Still, maybe this time he would really step it up? After all, she had gotten him this magnificent trip as a birthday gift; surely he would rise to the occasion now in return.
Not that she’d had ulterior motives, despite what Justin, the head chef at Gillini, the bistro Rachel co-owned back in Dublin, seemed to think.
“Ooh, that’s quite an investment,” he’d teased. “You hoping he makes a big one too?”
As well as an employee, Justin was a friend, and while Rachel was used to his direct, sardonic manner, even she was taken aback by this.
“Don’t mind him,” soothed Terri, her best friend and business partner. “Just becauseheneeds an ulterior motive to do something nice, doesn’t mean everyone does.”
Rachel sensed that her friend too had been somewhat taken aback by her generosity, particularly when she and Gary hadn’t been seeing each other that long. But despite his best attempts at hiding it, Rachel knew that Gary’s business was going through a tricky time, and since hers was booming, she’d wanted to do something to help cheer him up. There was nothing more to it.
They’d had a wonderful trip so far. Last night, they’d gone to seeThe Lion Kingon Broadway, and tonight they planned to go out to a steakhouse nearby for a relaxing Christmas Eve dinner and a couple of drinks before coming back here and… Rachel smiled.
She supposed she’d better start getting ready. Gary had said he’d be back around seven, though knowing his timekeeping, she still had a half hour or so to spare.
Stepping out of a quick shower and into a suitably festive red dress, Rachel looked herself up and down in the full-length mirror.
She smiled, remembering how, as a teenager, she had hated her petite frame and not being supermodel tall, but now she loved the way her just-curvy-enough hips offset her distinct waist and more-than-a-handful breasts, as Gary called them. A direct result of her Sicilian heritage, as was the relatively uncommon combination of dark hair, blue eyes, and sallow skin.
Her boyfriend had something wonderful up his sleeve; she could feel it. She didn’t want something grand or expensive, just something thoughtful, something carefully chosen especially for her.
Fastening her strappy, four-inch silver heels and intentionally bending over to make sure her breasts were secured inside the plunging neckline of the dress, Rachel decided to lay out Gary’s gifts on his pillow for him to find when they returned from dinner later.
An hour later, she had rearranged the packages several times, ordered wine from room service, eaten three cookies from the hotel minibar, and touched and retouched her lip gloss over and over.
But that was Gary, chronically late and always pushing the limits. And while it was mostly endearing, this time it was kind of irritating.
