"Do something," Bryce eventually entreated, when Kayla slid from his grasp like a greased pig and melted to the floor in a boneless heap. Once at their feet she wailed pitifully.
"Kayla scairt, mummy, Kayla scairt!" she howled. Bronwyn, thoroughly fed up with the theatrics, reached down and dragged the limp toddler up with as much strength as she could muster.
"Mikayla," she managed hoarsely in her toughest, no-nonsense, voice. Kayla was momentarily silenced by Bronwyn's "mummy" voice and her wide blue eyes melted Bronwyn's heart. The poor little thing was understandably scared. Too many changes in too short a time for her. Bronwyn gentled her voice and smiled with what she hoped was cheerful confidence. "It's fine, baby. Sit with your daddy; he'll take care of you." Mikayla glanced over at the swiftly unraveling Bryce with wary speculation in her gaze. Turning to him for protection had evidently not occurred to her.
"Man?" she questioned uncertainly.
"Daddy," Bronwyn corrected tiredly, fading fast. "Go and sit with him." The little girl, clutching her favorite stuffed doll to her chest, took the one small step separating her from Bryce and raised her arms to let it be known that she would allow him to pick her up now. Bryce lifted her into his lap and she curled up against his chest, propping her thumb into her mouth. Huge crocodile tears were streaming down her cheeks. Bronwyn rolled her eyes and leaned back with an exhausted sigh. For a couple of minutes everything was quiet, save for the noisy drone of the chopper. Bronwyn was just settling in for a doze when Bryce spoke, so softly that she could barely hear his voice above all the noise. Not even the headphones she was wearing helped to amplify his voice.
"She's a handful."
Bronwyn opened her eyes and found herself staring straight into his brooding eyes. "Yes." She nodded tiredly. "She tends to be. But she's just frightened right now; this isn't anything that she's used to."
"Tell me about her," he invited, almost reluctantly. It obviously dented his pride having to ask her for anything.
"She's inherited more than just some of your physical traits," Bronwyn said with a smile. "She has a stubborn streak a mile wide and is ferociously independent."
"When did she start walking and talking?"
"She was an early talker." Bronwyn's smile went misty. "She mostly gurgled a lot, babbled incoherently for a while . . ." Bryce was frowning and she stuttered to a halt. "What's wrong?"
"Slow down," he commanded gruffly. "I can't understand a damned thing you're saying!"
Having momentarily forgotten about his deafness, the reminder served as a cruel reality check. She swallowed convulsively, aware of the dry, painful heat in her throat.
"I'm sorry," she whispered before repeating her previous statement as slowly and clearly as she could. Bryce rolled his eyes impatiently.
"I'm deaf, not stupid," he ground out furiously. "Just speak normally; don't babble and don't drawl and keep facing me."
"I'm sorry." She helplessly repeated her apology. She felt hopelessly inadequate. Again, she tried to repeat her previous statement, but she was so nervous by now that she stammered badly. Bryce swore impatiently beneath his breath before deliberately lowering his gaze to Kayla. That easily he ended the conversation. The slight was brutally effective and left Bronwyn feeling thoroughly abandoned. She felt like a complete failure and kept her eyes trained on his face, hoping that he would look back up, but he was talking to the still-crying Kayla. He was so absorbed by his daughter that Bronwyn might as well not have been there.
She eventually lowered her gaze to where her hands were curled into tight fists in her lap, and as she desperately fought the urge to cry, she tried to figure out where and how her life had gone so very wrong. She thought back to their first meeting, which had always seemed like something out of a fairy tale to her-Prince Charming meeting Cinderella while she was still in her rags but falling for her anyway.
It had seemed so perfect . . .
He had been, without a doubt, the most handsome man she had ever seen. It was her first day waitressing at the upscale beachfront restaurant in Camps Bay and she could not afford distractions, especially since she had lied about her qualifications to get the job. Fortunately she had managed to bluff her way through the in-house training without looking too incompetent. Since finishing high school six years ago, she hadn't been much good at anything except looking after her ailing grandmother, her only relative. It had been a full-time job, leaving no room in her life for the socializing other women her age enjoyed. Instead, she had spent most of her day in the company of an infirm old woman and any free time she may have had was devoted to her stash of books. It had been a sad and solitary existence for a young woman with such a sunny disposition but Bronwyn had never wished the task away. Her grandmother had raised her without complaint after her parents had died and Bronwyn had loved the old lady fiercely because of that.
They had scraped by, living off her gran's pension and a small trust fund her grandfather had set up for his wife. After her grandmother's death just two months before, the balance of the fund had been spent on the funeral and Bronwyn had been forced to sell their small semi-detached house. Most of the money made from the sale had gone toward settling outstanding hospital bills, with barely enough left over for Bronwyn to pay the deposit on the tiny flat that she was now renting.
So here she was, trying desperately to do well at her new job, but she couldn't take her eyes off the man who had just walked into the restaurant. He was tall, blond, and beautiful, and he was absorbed in the conversation he was having with the lean, dark man beside him. The two men were as opposite as night and day. The blond was big and bulky, almost Nordic in appearance, while the dark one was lean and lithe, with a definite sexy Gallic look to him. They sat down at one of her tables and her mouth went dry. She hurried over, not wanting to keep such important-looking men waiting and thankfully stumbled only once along the way.
"Good morning . . . Uh, hello . . . How may I . . ." She blanked, having already stuffed up the perky greeting that had been drilled into her during training. The men were looking at her expectantly, and she faltered even more beneath the blond man's icy stare. "Your order," she concluded abruptly. "What is it, please?"
The dark man's eyebrows climbed in astonishment, but the blond remained impassive even though Bronwyn, for a fleeting moment, thought that she spotted amusement flashing in those seemingly cold eyes of his.
"Drinks," she continued desperately. "You probably drink. So you probably want some, a lot, I mean . . ." She felt her face going blood red with embarrassment. The dark man was staring at her in complete amazement, with his jaw dropped practically to his chest. The other man though, his jaw was clenched; he looked like he was exerting enormous control over his emotions. She panicked. He was probably angry, probably used to vastly superior service from this restaurant. She floundered again . . . at a complete loss.
"You look thirsty," she murmured, hoping to prompt them into saying something, anything. "And we have plenty of drinks."
"What would you recommend?" the blond asked unexpectedly. His voice was warm and mellifluous and much gentler than she had expected. It seemed completely at odds with the craggy planes of his face, as well as with his tightly controlled expression. His voice flowed over her like warm honey, and she stood staring at him dreamily without being aware of it for the longest time.
"Miss?" the dark man prompted impatiently. "What do you recommend?"
"Uh"-she snapped out of her daze, embarrassingly aware that she had been caught staring at the blond. "Recommend?"
"Drinks," the blond reminded gently.
"Yes of course . . ." She scanned her memory frantically. "Wine . . . we have wine, and of course we have . . . you might like it, because I quite like it, you see?" They didn't seem to see. God, she was being such a socially awkward ditz. She wasn't usually this bad.
"Like what?" the blond asked.
"The . . . um . . . the milkshake. Chocolate especially." The dark man's brows lowered in complete consternation; he really had the most expressive eyebrows.
"You recommend the . . ." He sounded like he was choking, and his face was going an unbecoming shade of red. "The milkshake?"
"I didn't even know they had milkshakes here," the blond said conversationally. "Did you, Pierre?" The other man, Pierre, seemed incapable of replying, and Bronwyn wished the ground would open up and swallow her, she was so humiliated. Milkshake? What was she thinking recommending the milkshake to a pair of men who had doubtless not had one since hitting puberty?