“Lily,” he called and she halted, hand on the door and whirled around to glare at him again, not wishing to lose ground. Even if she hadn’t put a scratch in his armour, he’d have to be an idiot not to understand what she just said and Nate was no idiot.
“What?” she clipped.
He watched her a second and she realised whatever emotion that had hold of him was gone. She knew this because his lips were twitching.
“After… that,” he started, his voice was no longer angry, there was no intensity and there was no gentleness either, he was definitely amused, “I hesitate to mention money again, but you’ve a separate bank account with a goodly amount in it.” He pointed to the paper on his desk that he’d been studying when she’d arrived.
She stomped back around the desk to stand beside him, snatched up the bank statement and stared at it. It was Tash’s school fund.
“It’s clear you could have used that money, I’m wondering why –” he began.
“I never touch that. That’s Tash’s school money,” Lily answered his unasked question, tossing the bank statement down on his desk.
He stared at her, eyes blank. “I’m sorry?”
She turned to him and put a hand on her hip. “Tash’s school money. Tash is a gifted child. It’s not just me who thinks so as a doting mother, so do her teachers. They told me she’d benefit from a special school. Those schools cost money,
lots
of money. I’ve been saving –”
Something shifted in the room and that something emanated from Nate and the power of it made Lily stop speaking. It was something she didn’t understand but Nate didn’t look amused anymore, he also didn’t look blank. His eyes were burning into her so intensely she felt they’d scorch her skin.
“You did without to save money so Natasha could go to a school for gifted children?” he asked.
Lily felt a shiver slide across her skin at the tone of his voice. Again, she couldn’t put her finger on it, didn’t know what it was but it meant something to him, something profound.
“Of course,” Lily said quietly, knowing, in her experience of families, in her experience of people, an experience she
didn’t
know was vastly different from his, that any mother would do the same. Those two words were said with the kind of certainty that someone would declare the sky blue and the earth round. “Can I spend my seven million on that?” she ventured carefully.
Tash could go to the best school in the world with seven million pounds.
Nate didn’t answer her. In another abrupt change of mood, he swept her in his arms and held her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. He buried his face in the hair at her neck and for long moments he didn’t speak and he didn’t let her go.
“Nate,” Lily whispered, “I can’t breathe.”
At her words, his arms loosened but he still didn’t let her go.
Finally, after whole minutes slid by, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes and what she saw made her not able to breathe again. It was raw and aching and the weight of it fell on her like an avalanche.
“No,” he said softly, “I’ll pay for Tash’s school.”
She nodded immediately, not wanting to do anything to deepen that ache in his eyes.
“I’ve already noticed she’s advanced for her age,” he went on.
“Significantly advanced,” Lily told him.
He smiled, that awful look thankfully melting from his face, it warmed and he bent his head to kiss her lightly.
“Significantly advanced,” he agreed against her mouth.
“Like her father,” Lily continued, staring close up into his eyes.
“Like her mother,” Nate parried.
She shook her head and put her hand to his cheek.
“What am I going to do with you?” she whispered.
“Help me select a school for our daughter,” he responded without hesitation. “I’ve already made a shortlist.”
Her eyes rounded at his announcement then she grinned and leaned into him, dropped her hand from his cheek and wrapped both her arms around his waist.
“Okay,” she answered.
Lily pressed her cheek to his chest and she felt him rest his on the top of her head.
And, Lily realised, joy beginning to bud in her heart, that she’d done something ages ago, something that was for Tash, something that no hugs, no afternoon phone calls to his office, no expensive motorcycles could do.
What she’d done for their daughter,
his
daughter, rent a huge, gaping hole in his armour.
She closed her eyes tightly and felt hope.
“Lily?” he called against her hair.
“Yes?” she whispered, her eyes opening.
“Please don’t buy me a King Charles Spaniel. I’m not fond of small dogs.”
She closed her eyes again, this time with laughter.
* * * * *
The motorbike roared up to the front of the house, Nathaniel’s tall, lean body on the front, Tash’s small, lean body holding tight to him on the back.
Fazire did
not
like motorbikes. He had not liked Will’s and he did not like Nathaniel’s. What was in Lily’s head when she bought that bike, Fazire did
not
know. To Fazire, motorbikes were certain death on two wheels.
After her father stopped the bike, turned it off and shoved down the stand, Tash jumped off the back and pulled off her helmet like she’d been doing the exact same thing every day since the day she was born.
Fazire, Laura, Victor and Lily were standing at the front of the house watching the father and daughter pair. Lily went forward as Tash ran to her.
“Did you like it, doll baby?” Lily asked as she arrived at her daughter.
“I loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it!” Tash cried, throwing her arms around Lily and jumping up and down, shaking Lily with her excitement. Then she stopped jumping and she leaned back, her arms still around Lily’s waist. “I tried to make him go faster but Daddy wouldn’t, no matter how much I begged and
pleaded,
” she finished dramatically.
“Thank goodness for that,” Laura muttered, with feeling, under her breath.
Fazire’s eyes turned to Laura and they shared their first look of complete accord.
“Your turn,” Fazire heard Nathaniel’s deep voice say and his eyes moved back to the tall man and he saw that Nathaniel was looking at Lily.
“Oh no,” Lily said, backing up a step then two, “I’m too old for bikes.”
“Oh Mummy, you must go! You must!” Tash cried, rounding her mother and putting both hands on Lily’s behind and pushing forward while Lily still retreated, Nathaniel advancing on her.
“Nate –” Lily said warningly and Fazire understood why. Nathaniel’s face had a set look and he was grinning.
Fazire sighed.
Lily was going to be next on the bike.
Fazire heard a squeal, quickly followed by another one as Nathaniel made it to Lily and lifted her up, swinging her around and with quick, long strides he carried her toward the bike. The first squeal was Lily’s, the second squeal was Tash’s and the little girl was jumping up and down again, clapping.
“Go Daddy, go!” she encouraged.
“Don’t forget her helmet!” Laura called, turning to rush into the house.
“On their first date, he took her on his bike,” Victor said beside him and Fazire’s eyes moved to the man at his side. Victor sounded like he was talking to himself and Fazire realised this was true when he saw the faraway look on Victor’s face. “He never brought her back and I knew he wouldn’t. That night, after he called to tell me she wasn’t coming home, I never would have thought it would have ended so soon.” Abruptly, Victor stopped speaking.
Whether this was because the pain of the memory or something else, Fazire didn’t know but something flashed on the other man’s face as he watched the pair and Fazire’s eyes swung back to Nathaniel and Lily.
“Oh my –” Laura breathed, now back and holding Lily’s helmet.
Nathaniel was zipping his leather jacket on Lily and for some reason Fazire saw this brought tears to Lily’s eyes. After Nathaniel was done with the zipper, Lily threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Not a soft, demure kiss but a kiss the like little Tash shouldn’t see. Surprisingly, because Fazire knew Nathaniel was very careful with these sensitive, private matters, Nathaniel’s arms closed around Lily, pulling her deep into his body, his head slanted and it became a kiss that little Tash
really
shouldn’t see.
“Fucking hell,” Victor murmured words Tash shouldn’t hear but she’d heard a lot of them that day also from her father.
Fazire’s arm shot out and he pulled Tash to him and covered her eyes with his hand.
“Fazire!” Tash shouted, trying to yank his hand away and Lily and Nathaniel realised what they were about, their lips disengaged, though their arms didn’t, and the pair looked at their audience.
Fazire could see Lily blush.
“There are children in attendance,” Fazire snapped across the expanse, dropping his hand from Tash’s eyes.
Nathaniel’s gaze sliced to Fazire but other than that he made no response.
“Fazire!” Tash shouted again, planted her hands on her hips and gave him a pouty look. He glared right back at her. They were locked in a staring contest which Fazire would win because he had lots of practice with Becky, Lily and seven years with Tash not to mention, he was immortal so he had all the time in the world.
Laura moved forward with the helmet and Tash lost the contest as she turned, crossed her arms on her chest and looked toward her parents.
“Can you let Tash read to you tonight? We might be awhile,” Nathaniel said to his mother.
“Of course,” Laura replied, clearly pleased with the offer to spend more time with her granddaughter.
Nathaniel turned to Natasha and he didn’t have to say a word. She ran forward and gave goodnight hugs and kisses. The one to Lily was a hug about the waist and a kiss from her mother who bent down to do it. Nathaniel lifted her up, Tash wrapped her arms and legs around him and kissed him soundly on the mouth before she pressed her cheek to his shoulder and, after a few moments locked together with Lily looking on, a smile on her face, Nathaniel set her down.
Then Tash stepped back to hold Laura’s hand. Nathaniel got on the bike, Lily got on behind him, wrapped her arms around him tightly, put her chin on his shoulder and they shot from the curb far faster and far,
far
more dangerously than he’d gone when Tash was on the bike with him.
“He’s the bomb,” Tash whispered, watching them go.
Fazire had had enough. He turned to Victor.
“We must speak,” he announced.
Then without waiting for Victor to reply, Fazire stomped into the house, down the stairs into their new family room.
It was just like the old family room except it had a bigger, fluffier, more attractive corner couch with a big ottoman in the front that could sleep three small, active children. Fazire liked this couch, the old one was comfortable but he could retire on
this
couch. This couch was more comfortable than the hundreds of cushions that made his bottle a home. There also was an enormous flat screen television set affixed to the wall. Fazire liked this television too. His Westerns came alive on that television. Clint Eastwood looked like he was actually in the room. There were also nicer, sturdier, more attractive bookshelves and more of them so he could have much more space to fill photo albums and put framed pictures.
In fact, Fazire liked the whole house. He liked the KitchenAid mixer and blender. He liked the new refrigerator which was like the ones in America that actually had room enough to fit food in it for more than a day. He liked Lily’s office and the fact she had time to write.
He liked a lot of facts about Lily. The fact that Lily was smiling again. The fact that Lily was laughing again. The fact that Lily’s face rarely looked pinched and worried about money or Tash or anything.
Anything, that was, except when she looked at Nathaniel.
Fazire had decided he’d done his job well; it just took a long time for it to realise. Like a gestation period for babies. Lily
had
asked, with her wish, that she and her lover go through trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, Fazire was a wee bit
too
good at granting his wishes (he always had been, he thought with little humility). When he tied Lily’s life to Nathaniel’s with her wish, he’d chosen the exact right man and she’d been given everything she wanted.
However, at fourteen years old, she didn’t understand that all those terrible troubles the heroines in her books went through in real life hurt. That the words were just words on a page, but in real life, the pain was immense. Trials and tribulations to prove your love were exactly that,
trials
and
tribulations
.
And Lily wasn’t through with hers. Neither was Nathaniel. Not just yet.
Victor followed Fazire into the room and closed the door behind him.
“What now?” Victor asked, wary eyes on Fazire.
Fazire wanted to float. He really,
really
wanted to float but he kept his feet on the ground for now.
“Tell me,” he commanded in his best genie-voice.