“Oh, nothing. Well, just that you seem to have quite a fan club back there,” she said, nodding to the daycare. Judging by the smile on his face, Ace knew the effect he had on the women back in the daycare. She’d even venture a guess that he liked all of the attention that they gave him.
“You like that, don’t you?” she asked.
“Like what?” he asked, playing dumb.
“You like that they were practically falling over themselves to help you. I mean, Miss Ashley did everything but wrap herself around you back there and you had her eating out of the palm of your hand,” Trinity said.
“Are you accusing me of being charming, Trinity?” he asked.
“Charming?” she questioned.
“Yes—charming. You make it sound bad that women seem to throw themselves at me. I can’t help the effect I have on the opposite sex. It’s not my fault that women seem to love me,” he teased.
“Not all women,” Trinity grumbled under her breath.
“Hey, this was your idea, and now you’re pissed that I introduced you to Arabella’s teacher?” he asked.
“I’m not mad at all,” she said. “I just think that you might lead women on with that charming personality of yours, is all,” she accused.
“Have dinner with Arabella and me,” he said. Ace was changing the subject or trying to throw her off. Or maybe he was making the point that his charm would get her to agree to have dinner with them.
“What?” she asked.
“Well, I just asked you to have dinner with us,” he said. “Arabella will be having a bottle of our finest formula and I can have my assistant order us dinner. You can spend time with Arabella while I finish up some work. It’s a win-win situation really. Arabella needs someone to hang out with tonight while daddy works on building his empire, don’t you honey?” he asked. Trinity peeked over the back seat and smiled at her sleeping niece.
“She’s asleep,” she said.
“Yeah—she always sleeps in the car. Sometimes, when she can’t settle at night, I take her out for a quick ride around the block. That usually puts her out for the night.”
“You know, I never asked how old she is,” Trinity said.
“She’s six months old,” Ace said, a smile playing with the corner of his lips.
“What happened between you and Charity?” Trinity asked. Ace’s frown quickly faded. “I mean, I can guess what she did to screw things up, but I can be a good listener if you want to tell me the story,” she offered.
“How about you agree to dinner with me and I’ll tell you the story of how your sister dumped me for one of my closest friends?” he asked. Yeah—that was pretty much what she guessed had happened. Her sister was always looking for the next best thing and she never cared who she had to hurt to get it. Dinner was a small price to pay to find out what happened between Ace and Charity. Plus, she’d get to spend time with Bella and that was what she came for—wasn’t it?
“I’d love to have dinner with you and Bella,” she agreed.
Ace shook his head and smiled at her, “Arabella,” he corrected.
* * *
She gave Arabella her bottle and even gave her a quick bath. Ace’s office had all the comforts of home and she wondered how many nights he had spent in his office over the casino. Her niece was such a happy baby and by the time their dinner was delivered, Bella was asleep on her shoulder. Having the sleeping infant cradled against her chest did crazy things to her biological clock. She hadn’t given a family and kids much thought before tonight but taking care of Bella hit her right in the feels.
“You’re a natural with her,” Ace whispered. He leaned over where she sat on the sofa with the baby and kissed Bella’s little head. God help her—he smelled good enough to eat. His overly long dark hair was disheveled from him running his hands through it while he was on the phone, putting out fires. The way he sounded every bit the confident business man made her girl parts feel as if they were on fire. How a man could look like sin and be confidently in control; made her hot. He was her type—well if she had a type. She understood the appeal of why her sister had fallen for him, but she wasn’t her sister, and falling for his charm wasn’t going to happen.
“Thanks,” she breathed. “She makes it easy—Arabella is a good baby.”
“Have you been around kids a lot?” he asked.
“Yeah—I babysat in high school and college to earn money to help pay my tuition. I was a nanny for a family during my first year of law school, but then things got to be too hectic with my studies, so I had to go back to just babysitting when I had the time.”
“You ever think of having kids of your own?” he asked, taking his daughter from her arms. She immediately missed her niece’s weight against her body.
“Well, it would help if I had a man in my life. I mean, I’ve heard that’s how the whole baby thing works.” Trinity stood and crossed his office, pulling the to-go cartons from the bag.
“No boyfriend then?” he asked.