Thiswas her life. And she would have to live up to it.
CHAPTER NINE
HUNTERGOTUPwith Peyton and was handing her over to the newly arrived nanny when Amelia came to find them. She was dressed, but her hair was in a messy clip and she was still befuddled with sleep.
“Why didn’t you wake me? Isn’t she hungry?”
“I gave her a bottle.” Amelia had started pumping so he could feed her. “And we’ll be out tonight, so I thought you should sleep in.”
He tried reading her expression, but she became wrapped up in chatting with Matinder, so he left them to it.
The truth was, he had left her sleeping because she’d almost killed him last night. He’d awakened wanting her—that was constant—but he’d also been disturbed by how close he’d come to simply letting go last night.
He’d been tense after a long, restless day of ruminating over Remy and Eden. The oddest thing about that news was, once the initial shock had worn off, he discovered he didn’t care.
He cared about them as people, especially Remy. Hunter had met Remy in their first year of university. They had both been bored with the basic prerequisites they’d been forced to endure, going through the motions of earning paper credentials for work they already did. Unlike their classmates who were learning the theory of business, they had been deep in the practical trenches of their respective family corporations. Hunter had been leading Wave-Com’s R&D team. “You’re young,” his father had told him. “Keep us ahead of everyone else.” Remy had been running his family’s airline with his grandfather. He’d been flying planes longer than he’d held a license to drive a car.
Aside from the tragic fact that Remy had lost both his parents while still in high school, Hunter had always envied him. Remy’s family, spread among Paris, Montreal, Martinique and Haiti, was closely knit and very supportive of one another. Remy was good-looking, charming and smart. Everyone admired him for being a pilot and a talented vintner among his many other accomplishments.
“Chin up. No one likes the cable guy, but we all need him,” Remy had noted once, proving himself sarcastically funny as well.
Remy was, simply, a good friend. As the court case had begun taking its toll on Hunter, when he’d still been reeling from his father’s death, trying to keep the wheels from falling off the bus while fighting legal eagles and his dragon of a stepmother, Remy had insisted, “You need to unwind.”
The weekend was supposed to be golf, a few drinks and no phones. When the server at a microbrewery had flirted with Remy, Hunter hadn’t been the least surprised. He’d been taken aback that Remy suggested, “Ask your friend to join us.”
Hunter had been lousy company and said so, but Remy had said, “For God’s sake, man. Buy a pretty woman a drink and let her smile at you for an hour. That always cheers me up.”
Now he came to think of it, that was the last time Hunter had spent any time with Remy. He had congratulated Hunter on the legal win. Vienna had hosted a small party to celebrate and Hunter had invited Eden since they had begun to date. Remy had arrived, but quickly mentioned another engagement.
When Hunter had called to ask him to be his best man, there had been a brief pause and a cryptic remark about a business rivalry with Eden’s brother Micah. It had sounded like old news and something that happened across the pond.
“Who else would I ask? No one else would put up with me,” Hunter had insisted.
“Then it would be my honor,” Remy had assured him.
He had made an appearance at the engagement party, but hadn’t lingered. He had attended Hunter’s bachelor party, which had been another golf weekend, this time in British Columbia’s wine country. Remy had jokingly had “the talk” with Hunter, asking, “Are you sure about this marriage?”
At least, Hunter had thought he was joking.
As far as he knew, Remy and Eden had only met once before Hunter had reintroduced them, but now Hunter wondered. And even though he found the pair’s rushed marriage strange, he discovered that he felt no envy for Remy. He should. His friend was marrying the woman Hunter had thought would be his ideal match. Hunter could no longer imagine being married to Eden, though. Not now that he was with Amelia.
He wasn’t sure if he’d been misguided in his thinking when he had proposed to Eden, or was falling into the trap of self-indulgence with Amelia. Either way, it seemed he couldn’t and shouldn’t trust his own judgment.
That inner conflict had been eating at him when he met up with Amelia in their bedroom.
She had leaped on him in a way that had been gratifying. Too gratifying. His cynical brain had wondered if she was beginning to recognize her power over him and exercise it. Yet when he had asked her what she wanted, she had said,You.
Possibly the most ominous demand of all.
He mentally balked at letting down his guard. The barriers he had erected against her had to stay in place, for his own peace of mind, but he could tell she was nervous about tonight. He felt her agitation as she handed Peyton off to him, heading into a spare bedroom to have her hair and makeup done.
Hunter felt guilty for putting her through this. He had a learned aversion to parties, but a man in his position had no choice about attending at least some of them. Vi had always been a sport about going in his place when it made sense, but there was no avoiding this one.
This first appearance as a couple was inevitable, he reminded himself. He couldn’t do anything about the clouds hanging over them, so he and Amelia would just have to power through.
Hewas nervous, he realized as he poured himself a second drink while waiting for her. This was the first time in a long time that he was escorting someone so important to him.
He shrugged against that word.Important. It wasn’t wrong. Not only was Amelia the mother of his child, she was his wife. He cared about her, which was only right. A person ought to care about their spouse, but he didn’t like how vulnerable his depth of caring made him feel. He didn’t like how helpless he felt taking Amelia to a party where she would be measured against Eden.