If I had cash, I’d have left enough for my share of the bill. Since Levi is off the rest of the day, I leave Amelia in his care. They can do whatever they want. I need time to myself to cool off.
ELEVEN
Levi
“What was that?” I scold Amelia after Clare leaves.
She stares up at me with bright-blue eyes and thick, dark lashes. It’s easy to see where someone might mistake Amelia for Clare’s daughter.
But Avril was wrong. Amelia ismine. And I made it known when I pulled her aside and reamed her for speaking like that to my nanny and daughter.
Avril and I had a smoking-hot connection, but it was purely physical. When I knew that I’d be coming to town, I’d reach out, and we’d get together and hook up at night after work.
But I never wanted more with Avril.
“You’re mean,” Amelia says, and folds her arms across her chest.
“Eat the rest of your lunch,” I say, and nod toward the plate in front of her.
“No.”
The kid is certainly defiant.
I let out a heavy breath, exhausted. I could blame it on the jetlag, but I think it’s as much Clare as it is running into Avril.
Avril always made it clear she wanted our hookups to become more. Not that we’d have to live in the same city or even the same country, but she wanted to be tied down long enough to have someone take care of her. Pay her bills. She was looking for a sugar daddy.
I may be a real daddy, but the other part I’m not interested in playing, which is why I can’t fathom what the hell just happened.
Amelia’s mother just died. Why would she be speaking about wanting a new mother? It doesn’t make sense. The kid should be grieving.
Unless Clare put that thought into my daughter’s head while I was talking with Avril. That’s the only explanation that makes sense.
Clare told Amelia to say that she wanted her as her mother, not Avril.
Amelia bursts into tears, her bottom lip jutting out and pouty.
With an exhausted sigh, I slide my chair out from under the table. “Come here, Amelia.”
“I want Clare Bear,” she says, the tears heavy and falling quickly like a rainstorm in the heat of summer, unleashing its fury.
“It’s okay. We’ll see her back at the hotel.” I can’t imagine that she’d go anyplace else. She’s still my daughter’s nanny, and she doesn’t have much money on her. The prepaid card I gave her could get her a few nights in another hotel, but she’ll be hard-pressed to fly home last minute.
“You’re mean,” Amelia says, and I grab a clean napkin, wiping my daughter’s tears and runny nose.
“I wasn’t trying to be mean. I was being honest. There’s a difference.” Not that I expect Amelia to fully understand.
I always have women vying for my attention, wanting me solely because of my wallet and not who I am.
Clare isn’t like that. At least, I thought she wasn’t. Maybe Avril got into my head.
I pull Amelia into my lap and sit back down at the table. Her sobs are silent, less dramatic, but still as emotionally raw.
“Do you promise that Clare didn’t put you up to this?”
“Up to what?” She sniffles and rubs her snot on my shirt. I’m glad I changed out of my suit before meeting the girls at the Louvre.
“You said you wanted Clare to be your mommy. Why did you say that?”