Page 26 of Billionaire Retreat

She thought about it long and hard and then she said, “Ok. I’ll live here.”

I laughed and picked her up. My mom reached for her and said, “Go ahead and finish up your work stuff. I’ll get her into a bath and then to bed.”

I kissed Sadie on the forehead and she hugged my neck. “Love you, Mommy,” she said, burying her head in the crook of my neck. The next two weeks were going to be painful. God, how I was going to miss her.

I passed her over to my mom and blew her a kiss. “I’ll see you in a little bit, sweetheart.”

She smiled at me and waved goodbye as my mom walked down the hallway into the bathroom with Sadie in her arms. She was tall for her age. Mom told me that at Sadie’s age, I’d just been… well… round.

I turned back to work, responding to emails and finishing up some tasks on my own web page that I was revamping.

About half an hour later, I made my way to Sadie’s room. Sadie had helped me paint it with every color of the rainbow. She had a rainbow that she’d made during story time at the library that hung above her vibrant green headboard. Stars of various shapes and colors hung from the ceiling. It had been quite an art project to say the least.

The lights were low so the little stars attached to the ceiling began to glow courtesy of the glow in the dark spray paint we had used to create them.

“How’s my little monster?” I asked, pinching her nose playfully.

She swatted at my hand and giggled. “I’m not a monster.”

“Oh really?” I said, tickling her and then roaring like a lion. She couldn’t stop giggling and I heard my mom laughing from the doorway.

“You two are silly,” she said.

“Mommy is super silly!” Sadie yelled.

I nodded. “I sure am.” I tucked the sheet around her and thanked my lucky stars that she wasn’t going to fight me about going to bed tonight. I figured it was because her granny was here. Sadie was always on her best behavior when her granny and grandpa were around.

I found her favorite stuffed animal, a duck-billed dinosaur that I couldn’t readily identify, and stuck it next to her. She promptly wrapped her arms around it and began to snore.

“Well then,” I whispered, hoping not to wake her. I bent down and kissed her forehead. I sat there next to her bed for a moment watching her sleep, when I felt my mom’s hand on my shoulder.

“She’ll be fine, Sunshine. Trust me.”

Sunshine was her childhood nickname for me and every now and then she still used it. She said I’d been like a ball of sunshine lighting up her days. I could relate. It was exactly how I felt about Sadie.

We slowly crept out of her room and I left the door slightly ajar, in case she woke up and needed me.

I sat down at the small dining room table and sighed.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I feel so guilty leaving her. Not that you’re not capable of taking care of her, Mom—”

She raised a brow. “I think she’ll be ok. You know, I do have some experience with kids.”

I smiled, catching her meaning. “I know she’ll be fine, I’ll just really miss her.”

Mom nodded. “I get it. It was hard for me to go back to work after I had you. If it weren’t for the fact bills needed to be paid, I would probably have quit.”

“That would have been a terrible decision. You’re the best doctor this town has ever had.”

She smiled proudly. “I know.”

I laughed. My mother had always been confident. Never arrogant, but self-assured. She always seemed to have everything under control and she never lost her cool. I think that’s what made her such a good doctor, she was confident in her skills and cool under pressure, pretty much how she’d been as a mother.

She always made me feel safe and protected. She was always patient with me, even when I was at my worst. I only hoped I would be half the mother she was.

“So, are you excited about the role? I know it’s not Hollywood, but who knows, maybe some agent will see you and say to himself, ‘That one there! We have to hire her! We just have to!’’’ she said, imitating a newscaster voice which made me laugh.

“Did you just try to sound like an anchorwoman?”