"It's usually my job to know things. I kind of dropped the ball on this one." Cade took a step forward and slowly approached the pink bed. She tilted her head to the side when she spotted another pink item by the windows. "I like your dollhouse."
"Thank you." Harley jumped off the bed, and walked towards the dollhouse. Cade followed. "My father gave it to me for Christmas. Be careful with the stairs and the balcony though, I think someone was careless during the move. Father tried to fix it but he isn't very good at fixing things." Remembering the frustrating night for her father had caused her to smile.
"Perhaps I can help you fix it one day. I used to have something like it. My grandmother gave it to my mom and it was passed down to me. She said I should give it to my daughter one day. I guess she won't know if I do or don't."
"Why not?" Harley noticed a slight frown on Cade's mouth.
"She passed away five years ago. She had cancer."
How sad. Cade obviously loved her mother, who had surely taken care of her daughter. It was sad that a loving mother would be taken away from her child.
"My Nan died too." Harley reached for Cade's hand and squeezed it tenderly. Cade squeezed back.
"Oh, thankfully my grandma is still alive and kicking. She's pretty much all I have right now. You'd love her. She taught me everything I know and the things she didn't know she encouraged me to learn on my own." She looked relieved. "We'd better look at the rest of the house before Tina and Zee start looking for us."
Harley nodded, her hand still clasped in Cade's warm hand. If her hand was this warm, Harley could imagine how warm her heart would be.
***
The place was bigger than it seemed, a veritable mansion in the sky. Jax had seen photos of it before signing. His favourite part was the 180-degree ocean view. He stood in front of a floor to ceiling window in his office, laughing to himself at what he dubbed the room. Rock stars didn't have offices. They had studios. His own personal studio was tucked in one of the corners of the penthouse, it had been his second priority. The first was Harley's bedroom. He consulted a designer for it, and the woman had convinced him that every girl wanted a pink bedroom. When Harley saw her bedroom for the first time, Jax didn't see the elation he had expected, nor did Harley throw a fit of rage. She just acted like … Harley, his darling little girl.
Before Nan passed away, she had made Jax promise to take care of her great-granddaughter, knowing full well that her own granddaughter, Fiona, was-and would always be-incapable of caring for a child, much less herself. Nan had been a constant strength for Harley, and Nan was Jax's conscience in the flesh.
Jax had been ready to look the other way when Fiona told him of the pregnancy. They were too immature too young, and too thirsty for success and stardom. Nan had insisted that the baby should at least be born and she herself would care for the child. When it came time for Fiona's scheduled C-section, Jax had just signed a record deal that paved the way for his current celebrity status.
"Come to the hospital now," was all Nan had said over the phone. Still drunk from all the champagne he'd chugged during the celebratory party, he sauntered into the room with the bright lights and beeping sounds. The sight of the small baby with tubes passing in and out of the incubator sobered him up. He couldn't understand what he was seeing. How could his full-term infant be that small? And why was she blue? As he pressed his hand on the chamber's surface, Nan came in with a doctor. As the doctor explained the situation, Nan had placed her hand beside Jax. She had found the best surgeon for the needed procedure. Jax had wanted to hold his child. He wanted to tell his daughter that everything would be fine.
But everything wasn't fine. Not then and not now. "I'm fixing it," he whispered to himself, only slightly aware of the other two people in the room.
"I've set appointments for Harley's new school but Bruno has to let us know when he wants us in L.A." Tina jarred him out of his thoughts. "That is, if you want to go with her."
Jax sighed out loud. He knew what Tina was insinuating. He wasn't the fatherly type, no matter what he tried to do before. Some had even accused him of buying his daughter's love. More often than not, he had sent Tina to buy whatever it was that his daughter would enjoy. That had to stop. For Christmas last year, he personally picked his present for Harley-a pink Victorian dollhouse. What more could a girl want? But when Harley unwrapped it (and Jax took at least another hour to wrap the damn thing after having already spent four hours painstakingly putting it together), he saw the same type of enthusiasm, or lack thereof, that she displayed upon seeing her bedroom for the first time. Not happy, not sad. Not elated, not disappointed either. Just stoicism, the one thing Harley had perfected.