Chapter 7- Tristan

Tristan

"Can we go for ice cream, daddy? You said we could go later."

I pinched my forehead helplessly. We were in the middle of the damn winter and with this kind of temperature, it would be a pain in the butt to find an ice cream vendor anywhere. If I could risk having my daughter go down with the flu to please her, that is.

The little girl had me wrapped around her tiny pinky finger but I wasn't budging on this one. "By 'later' I meant when the temperature is right. You can't have cold food in the winter."

Her response was to scrunch her nose in displeasure. I thought she was going to fight some more—like she always did when she couldn't have her way—but she suddenly bolted off, disentangling her hand from mine.

"Aurora!" I followed her, just in time to catch her throwing herself into some woman's arms.

"Hi, sweetheart." The woman gently tousled my daughter's hair and looked up. Our eyes locked moments before I saw her mutter a curse.

Yeah, the feeling was mutual. What the hell was she doing here?

She'd appeared beside my daughter during our vacation in Italy, haunted my dreams for two nights afterward and my daughter wouldn't shut the fuck up about her new friend.

My daughter straightened up excitedly. "Daddy, this is Bella. The one I told you about. Isn't she pretty?"

Hell yes, she was. That much had been obvious even though our meeting in Italy was too brief for me to see her clearly. But now that she was right before me, I couldn't find the right words to describe her. Beautiful couldn't quite cut it.

Thick waves of platinum locks framed her shoulders from the high ponytail on her head and disappeared to her back, displaying a long, fair neck that made me feel like a damn vampire. I wanted to suck it. I must have lingered my eyes on her neck for much longer than was necessary for a first meeting as she cleared her throat. I finally met her eyes and I was even more stunned. Those were probably the most intense blue eyes I'd ever seen and even though she was wearing oversized glasses, they did nothing to hide the gems under those thick lashes. She licked her lips and I could swear I felt movement in my pants. Yeah, I wanted to do that too.

It was a good thing Rina spoke up before I made a fool out of myself.

"Mr. Lexington, meet your new nanny, Bella Clair. I have had a chat with her and she meets all the requirements."

"That will not be necessary," I spoke, my mind clearing off from the stupor I had been in.

Rina clearly misunderstood the situation. "Great. Bella, why don't you get to know Mr. Lexington and…"

"Find someone else." I elaborated before Rina went on a ramble about remuneration.

"Mr. Lexington, you didn't even interview her." She was confused. So was I. What was this woman doing here? I told Rina to take Rory away for snacks and asked her just that. "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't know…"

I cut her off. "Are you stalking my daughter? Is that how low you want to stoop to get my attention?"

Her eyes flared. Like hell, she had the right to be angry with my words. I had almost felt bad for how I had treated her during our first encounter but her being here was justifying my actions.

"Seek your attention?"

I looked around. "Is there an echo in here?"

She shook her head as if in disbelief. "I have no desire to seek your attention, you stuck-up asshole. I saw an advertisement for a gig and figured I could use the quick buck and…"

"And you happened to bump into a gig regarding the very child you stalked in Italy."

"I was not stalking her!" She clenched her fists.

"How do you explain your appearance in that bathroom and then your appearance here? It's not even the same country." I inched closer. "What do you want from me?"

She rolled her eyes and took a step back. Then she laughed as if it finally made sense. "You think I'm interested in you."

That wasn't impossible. I'd seen the way she looked at me when I came in and besides, dozens of women thought the way to my heart was through my daughter and tried their best to impress her. She probably read my response to my face.

"I'm not interested in assholes who take every kind gesture as a scheme. I was only trying to help, asshole." She huffed and stuck a hand out in my face. "And most importantly? I'm a married woman!" I glanced at her hand and raised a brow. Of course, she was married. She probably clenched her fists so hard earlier that her wedding band disappeared.

As if realizing her hand had nothing to prove her marriage, she forced a smile and turned towards the exit. "Good luck finding someone else. It finally makes sense why I got the job so fast. No one wants it."

_______

"I'm sorry. We closed early for New Year's and cannot accept any child now." The woman on the other end politely declined Aurora. I sighed. She was full of shit. They were still up and running and often celebrated Christmas and New Year's with kids whose parents worked on those days.

No one wanted to see Aurora again after sitting her once . She caused trouble wherever she went—though I couldn't blame her. Losing one's mother had never been easy on anyone and for Aurora, it meant acting up whenever she got the chance.

I often brought her to my meetings whenever I could but that didn't always go well. What she needed was not my attention. It was something I could never be able to give her—a mother.

I hung up with a sigh and she was beside me in seconds, showing me what she had been drawing. "I can stay on my own when you go to your meeting."

My heart broke. Six-year-olds should be busy playing tea parties and dressing up. Not offering mature solutions for problems that weren't their fault, to begin with.

"This is beautiful." I pulled her attention back to the drawing she had given me. It was a butterfly.

She smiled for a few moments and gave me the kind of look I dreaded. The one she gave me moments before asking why she doesn't have a mother when other kids do. "Does everyone hate me because I'm a bad girl? No one likes bad kids."

This was worse. I squeezed her tiny frame. "No, honey. Of course not. You are a good girl and…" I didn't want to lie to her. Everyone adored her before she acted up a storm. I shut my eyes. "And you're the most important thing to me. You know what? How about we play all day tomorrow?"

I had a meeting I'd been waiting for for months—one that would break Lexington Conglomerate if I missed—but nothing was more important than my daughter.

She nodded against my chest. Then she sighed. "Did Bella leave because I made her sad?"

"No. Bella had her own things to take care of and couldn't sit you." I lied.

"Oh." She sighed sadly, clearly not buying it. Not after I told her a million times that her nannies had to leave because they had things to take care of.

"Will she come back if I write her a letter?" She asked innocently.

My eyes squinted, recalling how upset she had been when I told her her new friend wouldn't be sitting her. She seemed to like the woman despite only meeting her twice. If anyone had a chance at keeping Aurora company without going crazy with her antics, it was that bizarre woman.

So, after reading my girl a bedtime story and having probably enough booze to lose my damn mind, I did something I would never do if I were sober.

"Hey, Rina, send me the contact information of that Bella girl."

"Bella Clair?" She asked hesitantly.

Bella Clair? Were her parents trying to make a tongue twister? I didn't know I was holding my breath until I let it out. "Yes."