“You too, Dad,” Erik said, with a lot less enthusiasm than Michelle expected from him.
Erik Sr. turned to Michelle and gave her wide smile. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing a friend along, son.”#p#分页标题#e#
Precious giggled. “Michelle’s not Daddy’s friend, Grandpa. She’s my nanny.”
The poor man was clearly taken aback. “This is Michelle?” he asked, blinking in confusion. “Michelle’s the nanny? Felicia told me you’d met a beautiful young woman. She didn’t tell me she was the nanny.”
“Yes, Dad, this is Michelle Carter. Michelle, my father, Erik LaCrosse, Sr.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. LaCrosse.” Michelle offered him her hand.
“The pleasure is mine. You are very lovely, my dear. My son has always had exceptional taste,” he said with a warm smile as he gave her hand a hearty shake.
“Thank you, Mr. LaCrosse.”
“Please, it’s Philippe. As a matter of fact, why don’t you just start calling me Dad?” He gave his son a hearty slap on the shoulder. “Good job, my boy. Good job.”
Erik growled beside her.
“Let’s get inside where it’s cool. It’s a sauna out here.” Philippe turned and followed Precious who was already racing back up the steps.
Michelle slammed the back of her hand into Erik’s stomach, and knew it hurt her more than it hurt him. “Thought you said he wasn’t anything like your mother. He’s worse. He just told me to start calling him Dad.”
Erik groaned. “I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Well, consider me scared.” Michelle walked toward the trunk to get the bags.
“Michelle, the servants will take care of the bags,” Erik said to her.
Servants? They had servants?
“Come on, let’s go.” Erik held his hand out to her.
Michelle took it, wondering how she was going to survive the weekend in a house filled with servants and Erik’s father’s speculating eyes watching her every move. And what the heck had Felicia told him about her and Erik? Lady friend? Really.
Philippe showed Michelle to her room, a spacious chamber on the west side of the house that overlooked tennis courts and a green wide meadow. The room was decorated with antique French furniture, like most of the other rooms she’d passed on the first floor.
Her room was separated from Precious’ by a bathroom, just like in the Amherst house. Only this marble bathroom was three times as big and came with a Jacuzzi and sauna. Erik’s bedroom was two doors away, with a library and a sitting area separating it from Michelle’s. Yasmine wasn’t going to believe it when she told her where she’d spent the weekend.
Michelle unlaced her sandals and dropped them on the Victorian rug at the side of the bed. She stretched out on the embroidered linen bedspread and stared up at the cathedral skylight ceiling. Everyone was meeting in the family room in twenty minutes before going in to see Danielle who was presently napping.
She wondered about the bizarre love triangle between Philippe, Felicia, and Danielle. When Erik had mentioned his father this morning, Michelle had sensed a subtle recklessness in his voice. She had no doubt that the love between father and son was mutual, but seeing them together, she had to admit that there was a concealed aloofness in Erik’s eyes when he looked at his father.
She supposed it stemmed from the circumstances surrounding his birth. She wondered if he resented his father for choosing Danielle over Felicia all those years ago. Or maybe it was the doubts about the method of his conception that bothered him. Since the situation was so ‘twisted’ as he’d called it, he had a right to question how he was conceived. But she was sure he would never ask his parents if they’d slept together, carried on a secret adulterous liaison with Danielle’s permission, just so they could all share a child together. That was just… She shivered at the whole affair.#p#分页标题#e#
“Michelle.”
Michelle turned her head to see Precious standing at her door hugging Bradie in her arms. She sat up in the center of the bed and folded her legs under her. She patted the mattress and Precious immediately ran across the floor and scurried up on the bed next to her.
“Do I have to see Grandma Danielle?”
“You came all this way. It would make her feel better to see you.”
“How come I have three grandmas? Everybody else I know has two.”
“Because you are a very special and lucky little girl. Some children have no grandmas at all, but you are blessed to have three who love you a lot.”
Precious sighed, in the same way a confused adult would have done. Michelle’s heart went out to her. She was still so young, so innocent. There was so much pandemonium in the grownup world that her childlike mind didn’t understand. Heck, Michelle didn’t even understand half of it herself.