They arrived at the cheerful, crowded diner, with its big windows overlooking vintage booths with Naugahyde seats. Jenkins pulled the SUV into the loading zone directly in front of the diner.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Leonidas asked.
“No,” Daisy said.
Leonidas watched as she disappeared into the busy, bright diner. He thought of the morning they’d first met. She’d taken one look at his expensive designer suit and laughed. “Nice suit. Headed to court? Unpaid parking tickets?” With a warm smile, she’d held up her coffee pot. “You poor guy. Coffee’s on me.”
They’d ended up spending the rest of the day together. If it had been one of his typical dates, he would have taken Daisy to the most exclusive restaurant in Manhattan, then perhaps out dancing at a club, then a nightcap at his mansion. But he’d known it couldn’t be a date, not when he couldn’t even tell her his real name.
So they’d simply spent the afternoon walking around her neighborhood in Brooklyn, visiting quirky little shops she liked, walking down the street lined with red brick buildings, ending with the view of the East River, and the massive bridge sticking out against the sky. Daisy greeted people by name on the street, warmly, and their eyes always lit up when they saw her.
It had been a wild ride, one that would put the roller coasters at Coney Island to shame. She’d made him come alive in a way he’d never imagined. Joy and color and light had burst into his life that day, from the moment he’d met her in this diner. It had been like a vibrant summer after a long, frozen winter.
But it could never be like that again. He would never be Leo again. Daisy would never look at him with love in her eyes again.
No. They would be partners. He wouldn’t, couldn’t, ask for more. Not when he had nothing more to give in return.
Waiting in the back seat of the Range Rover, he tried to distract himself with his phone. He had ten million messages from board members and designers and marketing heads, all of them anxious about various things; he found it difficult to care. He was relieved when he finally heard the SUV’s door open.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“I quit.” Daisy gave a wistful smile. “Claudia—that’s my boss—said she didn’t need me to give notice. Turns out my job sitting at the cash register was not actually that useful, but she couldn’t fire a pregnant single mother.” She paused. “But now that I’ve got a billionaire baby daddy...”
Leonidas smiled. “You told her about me?”
She paused, then looked away. “Not everything.”
Silence fell as his driver took them out of Brooklyn, crossing back over the bridge into Manhattan.
Leonidas watched her, feeling strangely sad. He fought to push the emotion away. Work, he thought. Work could save them.
“So you haven’t heard of Vertigris or Helios,” he said finally. “What about Bandia?”
Still looking out the window, Daisy shook her head.
“It’s a small luxury brand that does only maternity clothing and baby clothing. We could go there to look for your coat.”
“Okay.” Her voice was flat.
“Or Astrara. Have you heard of that?”
Daisy finally looked at him, her face annoyed. “Of course I’ve heard of Astrara. I don’t live under a rock.”
Finally, she’d actually heard of one of his brands. He was slightly mollified. He maybe should have started with Astrara, as famous as Gucci or Chanel. “Which do you prefer to visit first? Bandia? Astrara? One of the others?”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters,” he said. He waited.
Daisy sat back against the seat. “Bandia,” she sighed. “It sounds like it has the most reasonable prices.”
Leonidas was careful not to disabuse her of that notion as they arrived at the grand Fifth Avenue boutique. After pulling in front, the driver turned off the engine. Tourists passing on the sidewalk gawked at them.
“Even in Manhattan,” she grumbled. “Everyone stares at you.”
Hiding a smile, Leonidas turned to help Daisy out. “They’re looking at you.”
Biting her lip, she took his hand, but to his disappointment, dropped it as soon as she was out of the SUV. As they walked into the boutique, Bandia’s shop assistants audibly gasped.