“I understand. I was shocked, too, but I’ve had several months to process this.” Nash glanced down to Lily who was toying with the hem of her dress lying against her tanned thighs. “I think Lily and I will go and let you all talk things over in private.”
He extended his hand to Lily and assisted her up. She presented a killer smile to Damon and patted his arm.
“You’ve really been blessed with this news,” she told him. “Shocking as it may be, your family has grown and you’ve gained a wonderful son.”
Damon embraced her and patted her back. “Rose would’ve loved you.”
Nash knew Damon and Lily had bonded pretty well during the filming of Damon’s life. Lily had played Damon’s late wife and the two had often discussed the late Mrs. Barrington. Damon was all too eager to share stories and memories of his wife.
Guilt and a new set of nerves settled deep in Nash’s gut. There was still one more piece of damning information he had to reveal. He’d grown beyond the man who initially settled in here to spy on his rival and to have a heated affair.
Now Nash wanted a family, both families, and he had no choice but to destroy any amount of progress he’d made. Once the truth revealed itself, any hope of having a relationship with the Barringtons or Lily would be gone.
“I just hope once the film is out, people will see how amazing this family truly is, and not just in the racing world.” Lily made her way around the room and hugged Tessa and Cassie. “I’ll be in town for a while,” she informed them. “Perhaps we could go to lunch or something?”
Cassie smiled. “I’d like that. I assume we can find you at Nash’s?”
Lily laughed. “Yes, but please don’t let that get out.”
“We’d never say a word,” Tessa assured. “I’m glad you’ll be here awhile. Now that Cassie and I have a little more free time, we could use a girls’ day out.”
Nash watched as the sisters he’d just inherited bonded with the mother of his child.
Failure wasn’t an option. Not when he had this much at stake. All he could do now was wait for his assistant to get back to him on whether or not Damon would take the deal. Until then, Nash was at a standstill and unclear of his next move.
Ten
Insomnia was a cruel, unwelcome friend.
Lily tried her hardest not to make too much noise as she searched the kitchen for her guilty pleasure. Unfortunately, Nash didn’t keep cocoa or chocolate syrup on hand.
With the gallon of milk in tow, she closed the refrigerator door and thought how she could get her chocolate milk fix. Being a chocoholic was her downfall, right behind the grilled cheese. Hey, she could have worse addictions. Granted, food obsessions in LA were unheard of, considering women there opted to starve themselves so they were skinnier than their so-called friends. Lily loved food too much for all of that nonsense.
And she had a weakness for chocolate milk.
With a brilliant plan in mind, she jerked open the freezer and instantly spotted a gallon of chocolate swirl ice cream. Perfect backup in a pinch.
Grabbing the largest glass she could reach in the cabinet, Lily found a spoon and scooped a hefty helping of ice cream into her glass before she carefully poured milk over it. She saw nothing wrong with having a chocolate float at two in the morning. One good thing about the pregnancy, she could totally blame her crazy cravings on the baby. Of course, even when she wasn’t pregnant she’d wake up in the middle of the night for chocolate milk, but nobody needed to know that.
Using the spoon, she stabbed at the hunk of ice cream at the bottom of the glass in an attempt to break some of it up into chocolaty goodness. She’d just taken her first sip when footsteps shuffled over the tile behind her.
Licking the milk mustache off her top lip, because she was a classy lady, Lily turned to see Nash looking very sexy and sleepy with his lounge pants sitting low on his narrow waist. His long, disheveled hair fell across his forehead and those bright blue eyes zeroed in on the glass in her hand before darting to the ice cream and milk on the counter.
Even with just the small light on over the stove, she could see the amusement overriding the tiredness etched on his face.
“Don’t judge me.”
She took another gulp and welcomed the coolness as it spread through her body. Who knew being pregnant turned on some sort of internal furnace?
“I don’t even know what to say,” he told her with a smirk. “Is this something you normally do?”
Lily leaned her hip against the center island. “When I can’t sleep I usually get up and have some chocolate milk, but you didn’t have any syrup so I had to improvise.”