The Doctor's Secret Bride(33)
Michelle sighed with exasperation. It never stopped. Just when you thought you were ahead, you step on a banana peel someone tossed carelessly in your path, and you find yourself flat on your ass. Again. “I’m sorry, Jessie. It isn’t fair. You’ve been waiting for this all year.”
“I feel so stupid. I already told everybody I was going to camp. They’re gonna laugh at me.” Her eyes flashed angrily. “My father is rich and he never gave me anything. He should give me my camp money. I hate rich people. They’re all mean.”
Michelle understood her anger, but not her logic. Jessica was the product of a brief affair her mother Gina had with a local businessman. He’d since married and started a family without ever acknowledging Jessica’s existence. Too scared to fight, Gina let him get away with denying her child support and her daughter’s rightful place in the family estate. If it were up to Michelle, she would have hauled his ass into court a long time ago. But it was not up to her.#p#分页标题#e#
Michelle pulled the girl into her arms. “Jessie, honey, you can’t judge all rich people by the actions of one just as you can’t judge people by the color of their skin or the clothes they wear. I work for some rich people and they are pretty nice to me.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care about anything.”
Michelle sighed. “Do you believe in miracles, Jessie?”
“My Sunday School teacher says they happen. But I’ve never seen one.”
Neither have I. “Let’s pray for one, anyway,” Michelle said, even as she wondered how to go about bringing a miracle in the young girl’s life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Michelle was on her way from ballet when her cell rang. She pressed the Bluetooth clipped to her ear. “Hello.”
“Hi, Michelle.”
She hesitated for a moment. “Hi, Erik.”
“Where are you now?”
“On our way home from ballet.”
“Just as I thought.”
“Is that my daddy?” Precious yelled from the back seat. “I wanna talk to my daddy.”
“Did you hear that?” she asked Erik.
“I heard that. But before you put her on, I called to ask you to bring her to the hospital.”
“The hospital?”
“Yes, um... There’s something I have to do tonight, and she’ll probably be in bed by the time I get home. I can’t let a day go by without seeing my daughter. You didn’t have any other plans, did you?”
She had planned to leave Precious with Mrs. Hayes and go down to the club for some alone time, maybe go for a swim. But Erik spending time with Precious was far more important. He was making a big effort to bridge the gap between him and his daughter, and she wasn’t going to stand in his way. “No plans. We were just going to hang out at home.”
“Is she dressed appropriately or do you need to go back to the house to change?”
“She’s dressed.”
“Good, then I’ll see you in a little bit. Just come into the main entrance and ask for me. They’ll point you in the right direction.”
“Okay.”
“You can put Precious on now.”
No goodbye. Nothing. Michelle pulled into someone’s driveway and made a U-turn. She parked the car on the side of the road, picked up the cell from the passenger’s seat, set it to phone, and handed it to Precious.
“Hi, Daddy. You know what?”
As Precious brought her father up to date on her day, Michelle put the car into drive and started down the main road that led to Route 101 and Manchester.
Erik had left earlier than usual this morning, so she hadn’t seen him since yesterday when he’d taken Precious to their father and daughter event. Last night, she would have thanked him for the money he’d given to the center, but by the time she’d gotten back from visiting Robert, both Erik and Precious were in bed.
Since that first morning when she interrupted him in the kitchen, she paced herself to come downstairs after he’d eaten breakfast, showered, and dressed.
She would lie in bed and listen to his footsteps past her bedroom door on his way to the master suite. She would imagine him stripping off his running clothes and standing naked under the shower. Her heart would race and her body would tingle from the vision of him soaping up a washcloth and rubbing the hard muscles of his chest and arms, moving lower to his washboard stomach, reaching around to his tight delectable buns, then sliding to the front of his strong thighs...#p#分页标题#e#
“Michelle! Daddy wants to talk to you again.”
Michelle blew a puff of air out through her mouth. From Precious’ tone, she imagined that the kid must have been trying to get her attention for a while. She licked her dry lips, took the phone from Precious, and pressed it to her ear. “Hi.” Her voice cracked on that one syllable.