Daddy by December (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series) (9 page)

“Parents,” the uniformed
attendant called out, “please make yourselves comfortable in the waiting
lounge.  The movie will only take forty-five minutes."

Meg's eyes widened in
surprise and she turned to look at Drake.  "That long?  I hope she can sit
still through it."

"I'm sure she
will," Drake said with confidence.  From what he'd seen of Jessie he had
no doubt that she would adapt to her situation.  "Don't worry.  She'll be
fine.  Let's grab a seat by the windows."

Meg seemed to take his
word for it because she relaxed visibly then walked ahead of him, heading for
the seats along the plate glass windows.  She plopped down onto the padded bench
and patted the seat beside her.  "We might as well relax," she said
with a crooked smile.  "We have a long wait."

For a moment Drake just
stared at her as the brilliant smile lit up her face.  Maybe it was just him. 
He was probably in a state of euphoria but as she smiled all he could think
was, I want this woman in my life.  What would it take to get her to marry
him? 

Whatever it took, he
would do it.  He'd been waiting ten years and three months now and this time he
would not let go until the woman smiling at him became Mrs. Meg Duncan.

****** 

Why was he staring at
her like that?  Meg’s smile wavered as she tried to figure out the strange
expression on Drake’s face.  His body was here but with that faraway look in
his eyes and that half smile she could see that his mind was miles away.  Then,
as if suddenly snapping out of a trance, he shook his head and began walking
over to the bench where she was already sitting.

“Are you all right?”  she
asked as he sat down beside her.

“Perfect,” he replied, and
she could not dispute it when she saw the pleased expression on his face. 
Whatever he’d been thinking about had certainly made him a happy man.

And, for what it was
worth, she was happy, too.  She was having a wonderful time with two people
whose company she enjoyed – her beloved Jessie and now this man who was
stealing her heart a little piece at a time.  And there was nothing she could
do to stop him.

Dressed in khaki slacks
and a soft brown wool sweater he looked both casual and cultured at the same
time.  She loved the way his gray eyes sparkled as he laughed with Jessie.  He
seemed to have so much fun with her.  Who would have known that the big-shot
billionaire would actually take the time to make her daughter feel special? 
She’d listened to hours of narration about his life, had taken the notes and
prepared the outline, but nothing he’d said had given her as authentic a
picture of who he was as the hours he’d spent with her child.  She was seeing a
side to him which she was sure few knew existed.

As Drake slid back onto
the seat all the way and crossed his arms, Meg looked down at her hands.  Okay,
so he was here beside her.  Now what?  Were they going to spend the next
forty-five minutes just staring out the window?  Her mind raced, trying to find
a topic of conversation that would interest him.  What did men like to talk
about, outside of sports, cars and women?  She knew very little about the first
two, and for the third, she could hardly have a conversation with a man about
women.

She cleared her throat
then glanced over at him.  “So…since we left college you’ve been pretty busy
building your investment empire.”

He shrugged.  “You know
all the details.  I’m counting on you to pump some excitement into the boring
story of my life.”

She narrowed her gaze
as she looked at him.  “You became a billionaire in under ten years and you
call that boring?  I should be so lucky.”

“Hey, you can be a billionaire
writer.  Look at J. K. Rowling.  I’ll be looking for your name on that list
next.”

“Yeah, right,” she said
with a laugh.

After that they fell
silent again, with him staring at the people milling around in the lobby at the
end of the hall and her alternating between staring at her hands and out the
window.

Finally, she decided to
be brave and ask him about that part of him he had not shared with her during
the interviews.  “Uhm…may I ask you a personal question, Drake?”

“Sure,” he said as he
turned toward her.  “Go ahead.”

“For a man as
successful as you…and as handsome, why didn't you ever get married?”  She could
feel herself turn red even as the words left her mouth.  She’d actually asked
the question that had been on her mind all this time.  Holy cow.  What must he
think of her?  Miss Nosy Parker, he was probably saying in his mind.

She didn’t regret asking
the question, though.  Ten years was a long time for a man as attractive as he
was to stay unattached.  She was curious.  But when she got his response it
stopped her cold.

“I was.”

She gasped.  “You was…I
mean, you were?  You were married?”

He nodded and gave her
a smile that seemed full of regret.  “Yes, a long time ago.”

“Did she…pass away?” 
He looked so sad that she had no doubt he’d lost someone he’d loved dearly.  As
unfair as it was the thought made her heart hurt.  The green-eyed monster was rearing
its ugly head.

“No, nothing like
that.”  He shook his head.  “She lives on, and very comfortably I might add.”

“You’re divorced,
then.”

He sighed.  “A more
accurate word is annulled.”

“What happened?”

He looked away then he
tightened his lips.  “The marriage lasted all of three days.”  He sighed.  “I
was stupid.  I started dating a woman I met at a business conference.  Only two
months into the relationship she announced she was pregnant.”

He'd spluttered when Claudia
had given him the news and she’d laughed at his shock.  “Those things happen
sometimes, Drake,” she’d told him.  Of course he knew that, but they’d used
protection.  But, then again, condoms weren’t one hundred percent protection.  She’d
insisted they get married within the next month.  She wanted to be married
before her pregnancy became obvious.  He hadn’t objected. 

As Meg watched Drake as
he told his story she could see his face grow rigid and there was a bitter
twist to his mouth.  She could tell that what was to come would not be good.

“We left the next day
for our honeymoon,” he said.  “The south of France, her choice.  I didn’t
really care.”

“We booked the
presidential suite in the grandest hotel, La Belle Provence.  The day after we
arrived I got out of bed fairly early and told her I was going for a jog to
work off some of my jetlag and wake myself up.  She just groaned and rolled
over and went back to sleep.”   Drake drew in a deep breath then exhaled
slowly.  “At least, that was what I thought.”

Meg frowned.  That
sounded ominous.  She was dying to know what happened next but when he fell
silent she did not push.  He needed to tell his story in his own time.

“It wasn’t till I got
down to the lobby that I realized I’d left my cell phone.”  Drake was not
looking at Meg now.  He stared straight ahead as he spoke, looking as if he’d
been transported back in time.  “I was quiet, going back into the suite.  I
didn’t want to wake her.  I’d just grabbed the phone from the coffee table when
I thought I heard voices coming from the bedroom.  I decided to check."

His jaw tightened and
he spoke through clenched teeth as he said the next words.  “She was on the
phone, talking about how she’d ‘bagged’ me with a fake pregnancy.  Said she was
going to wait another week or two before telling me about the miscarriage.  Of
course, she was going to make that up, too.”

“Oh, my God.”  Meg’s
hand flew to her mouth.  How could a woman be so devious?

“Apparently, it had all
been a set-up.  The whirlwind romance, the rushed marriage.  She’d targeted me
long before I even knew she existed.  Based on the rest of the conversation it
seemed the plan had been in place for over a year.”

Drake shook his head. 
“I got rid of her so fast she didn’t know what hit her.”  Then he laughed and
the sound was harsh and bitter.  “That’s the last time I’ll let a woman make a
fool out of me.”  He snorted.  “Pregnancy.  I fell for the age-old trick.”  He
shook his head again then to Meg’s relief, he chuckled.  “Let’s hope that now
that I’m the ripe old age of thirty-four I won’t fall for a stupid trick like
that again.”

She laughed with him
but inside she was pained by what he’d gone through.  The nerve of that woman,
to try to trap him with a baby.  In this case, a fake one.  Some women would
stop at nothing to trap a rich man into marriage.

Trying to lighten the
mood, she decided to change the subject.  “I started writing chapter one this
week.  It’s going great.”

As she’d expected, his
face brightened.  “Good.  I’m looking forward to seeing your first draft.”

“We’re still a couple
of months away from a full draft but I’m happy with the way it started off. 
It’s really flowing.”

“Great.”

“I’m depicting you like
the urban version of the swashbuckling cowboy of the wild west.”

“What?” 

“You’re the one who
said I should add excitement to your boring life.  Well, I’m doing that.”  She
was smiling now.

“I don’t know…” he
said, putting his hand to his chin.  “Do you really think-”

“Got you.” She burst
out laughing.  “You’re so gullible.”

By this time he was
laughing, too.  “My one major flaw.  I need to work on that.”

After that, the tension
dissipated and it was as if Drake had never brought up the sensitive subject of
his disaster marriage at the hands of a femme fatale.  They fell into
comfortable conversation and lost track of time so that when Jessie burst into
the waiting lounge with the rest of her group in tow they looked at each other,
surprised.

“Has it been forty-five
minutes already?”  Meg couldn’t help asking.

“Guess so,” Drake said,
then opened his arms as Jessie ran toward him.

She hopped onto his lap
as if she’d been doing that all her life then whipped a toy out of her pocket. 
“Look what I got.  A baby dinosaur.”  She reached over and shook the green soft
toy under Meg’s nose.  “Here, Mommy, I’ll let you play with it first.”

“Thank you, sweetie.” 
Meg took it and smiled her gratitude.

“Hey, didn’t you bring
me anything?”  Drake put on a sad face and even added a pout.

Meg had to laugh.  He
was actually a good actor. 
Move over, Brad Pitt
.

“I’m sorry, I only got
one toy,” Jessie said, her eyes full of regret.  “Don’t be sad.  You can play
with it after Mommy’s done.  I’ll go last, okay.”

“You’re such a
sweetheart,” Drake said.  “Now you’ve made me so happy I don’t even need a
dinosaur anymore.  Not when I have you to play with.”  And he tickled her till
she giggled and writhed and squealed for him to stop.

That evening as Drake
drove them home with Jessie snoring softly in the back, Meg leaned back in her
seat and sighed.  It had been a wonderful day and she could not have asked for
more.  Did she dare hope that he would spend more time with them?  She would
love many more days like this and so would Jessie.

For now, though, she
would savor the afterglow of this one.  She glanced over at Drake as he drove
and, as if he felt her eyes on him, he looked across at her and smiled.

And that smile, simple
as it seemed, was all it took to make her spirit soar.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Meg was on a high for
days after the outing with Drake.  She was in such a good mood that she’d got
up before dawn each morning and worked for three solid hours before Jessie even
began to stir.  Then once she’d dropped her off at school she went right back
on the job, not budging from her computer till it was time to get Jessie. 
Then, when her daughter was asleep, she worked for two or three hours more as
if she’d been shot with a double dose of adrenalin.  For two weeks she kept up
the pace so that long before the date she’d set, she had Drake’s first draft ready.

During this productive
period Drake called a few times and each time she’d been happy to give him a
positive progress report.  What made her even happier was that he never forgot
to ask for Jessie.

Finally, the day came
when she would see him again.  She would be presenting him with the completed
first draft of his memoir.  First, though, she had to drop her daughter off at
her parents’ house in Woodridge.  The little girl would be spending the weekend
with her grandparents as she did every so often.  She loved roaming the
wide-open spaces of her grandparents’ property and playing with the many pets they
had.  She loved Alexis, the german shepherd and Caleb, the rooster but her
absolute favorite was Sasha, the siamese cat who was queen of the home.  She was
a mild mannered cat who would allow Jessie to put a bonnet on her head and
place her in her toy pram and push her around the yard.

“Yay,” Jessie yelled as
they pulled into the yard.