Page 16 of Interview with the Billionaire

She was about to say something else, but Evelyn and Frank approached from behind. Both in their early sixties, they made an attractive couple. Evelyn in her flowing, BoHo style clothes that probably would have fit right in at Woodstock, and Frank in his tweed jacket, white button-down, and pressed jeans coupled with cowboy boots.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Nikki said, hugging her father first and then Evelyn, the woman who’d been more a mother to her than Elizabeth Fairchild ever had, something that Damien would be forever grateful for. Then again, she’d been more than a mother to him as well, and there had been times that Damien wondered if his own mom had sent her to him as a guardian angel.

“Are we the last ones?” That from Jamie, as she stepped in around Jackson, followed by Ryan Hunter, her husband and Damien’s closest friend.

Well, he had been Damien’s closest friend. That was before Jackson. Now, he’d have to say they both filled that role.

Orlando McKee—Ollie—had arrived with them, and while Damien wouldn’t count Ollie in his tightest circle, Nikki definitely did. And today was about family. Jamie and Ollie might not be blood, but they were more family to Nikki than her mother ever was.

“You’re the last,” Nikki told Jamie, then turned to Damien. “Shall we see if Maggie is ready for us?”

Damien’s Journal

Children

I have a niece.

A precocious pixie of a little girl. Veronica Amelia Steele.

She’s clever and sweet and looks remarkably like me. Or, more accurately, she looks like my brother. Her father.

What a long way we’ve come, he and I. From essentially enemies to family-in-name to true friends. To real brothers.

And his little girl is now officially my niece. Nikki and I joined him and Sylvia in court for the final paternity ruling. After which there was much celebration and spoiling of the child.

I confess to a tug at my heart. To watching Nikki and hoping that someday we’d have a little girl or boy who looked at us with the kind of love with which Ronnie looks at her father, and at Sylvia, too, who from what Jackson tells me is not only incredible with Ronnie, but has fallen into the unexpected roll of Mommy with both enthusiasm and skill.

I want that. I do.

But I also know that Nikki may not share that desire. We both had miserable childhoods, but at least I had a mother who loved me. Who left me only because she died. Even now, with so much I can do with the resources I command, I could not have saved her anymore than I can save Nikki from the past that she spent with Elizabeth Fairchild. Or from the pain and damage that vile woman caused.

I know Nikki fears that she would walk in her mother’s footsteps as a parent, but I also know that would never happen. I know her heart, and that’s not who she is.

But as much as I want to take the fear from her—as many times as I’ve promised to protect her—I can’t protect her from the demons of fear and self-doubt.

I can only try to reflect back to her the strong, capable woman I see.

I can only hope that she will continue to find her own strength.

Because, dammit, I’m jealous of my brother. I want a child. Nikki’s child. Our child.

And I have to believe that one day, some precious little imp will call us Mommy and Daddy.

Charles got a lab to rush the test. It’s positive. I’m Ashton Stone’s father, and he fucking hates me.”

- Enchant Me

Chapter 5: Someone’s Missing

They all moved to the pool deck, then followed Maggie’s directions as to where to stand, finally ending up in front of the pool, the infinity-style edge behind them so that Damien assumed the final photo would show them standing on a vast spread of calm water that appeared to seamlessly join with the sea.

“Okay,” Maggie said. “I think we’re ready. If you can all just—oh.”

“Is something wrong?” Nikki asked.

“No, no. I just realized we’re not all here.” She turned her attention to Damien. “Where’s your oldest son? Where’s Ashton?”

“I’m afraid he can’t make it. He’s out of the country, actually.” Damien had been disappointed when he’d called Ash after Evelyn told him about this last minute interview. Though it would be an understatement to say that it had been rough learning he had an unknown son last year, he couldn’t deny that things had turned a full one-eighty.