Page 65 of Billionaire Retreat

Nearly three months had passed since my father’s stroke, and Griffin, to my surprise, had been around the whole time. He left every other weekend to attend to business, but always came back. He even showed up one weekend with Jackson and his wife. It had been a nice visit. Griffin had promised Sadie he’d bring back her cousin, Rory, when he went to California next time.

He talked about Rory so warmly that I wanted to meet her. I’d pretended not to notice that the only person who hadn’t come out to meet Sadie was her grandmother, but I didn’t dwell on it. Sadie was clearly loved and I wasn’t going to let the absence of one person from her life make her feel otherwise.

The past three months hadn’t been easy on any of my family, but Griffin had been a big help. I hadn’t expected that. Kenny had returned to work a week after Dad’s stroke, but he checked in on Dad all the time, so it was almost as if he had never left.

With Kenny gone and Mom busy taking care of Dad, I’d thought I would need to put Sadie in daycare during my peak working hours, but Griffin had stepped in and for the past three months he’d taken care of her. It had freed me up not only to get work done, but to also help Mom take Dad to his appointments.

I’d worried at first about how things would work out, but I needn’t have worried at all. Sadie and Griffin were inseparable. She wouldn’t eat dinner without Daddy. She wouldn’t go to bed unless he tucked her in. She even insisted that he take her to preschool story time, which had been our activity. I had to admit, it had made me a little jealous.

As I’d asked, he had given me the space I wanted. He didn’t ever talk about us as a couple. He only talked about us as parents. And I told myself that was fine. That was what I asked for, wasn’t it? He was just honoring our agreement. Our agreement was that he could have a relationship with Sadie, but I was off limits.

But I would be lying if I said there weren’t days where I wanted his attention, when I wanted him to disregard everything I said about us that day in the mall and just take me into his arms and hold me. I missed sex with him too, that was a given, but I could satisfy myself in that arena... all while thinking of him.

It was the other part, the emotional part, which was hard for me. Every time he smiled at Sadie, the wall I placed around my heart cracked a little. Each time he tucked her into bed or stopped her from tripping and falling into a wall—she was so clumsy—made me feel closer to him. And he treated me with the utmost respect. He never crossed any boundaries. It was as if the man who had followed me and practically stalked me around the set in California no longer existed. In his place was a family man who dedicated all his energy to making his little girl happy. And as a result, that little girl’s mom was falling in love with that man.

I’d realized it early on and knew part of my hesitation about him being in her life was this exact scenario. I’d worried I wouldn’t be satisfied with just him building a relationship with Sadie... that I would want a piece of him too... and I had been right. That’s exactly what had happened.

Griffin had always occupied a space in my heart, but this new aspect of him, being a father, seemed to complete him. It seemed to make him a better man and it pulled at my heart.

I hid it well. I kept our conversations centered around Sadie. I never let him catch me staring at him. I was doing well, but why did I feel so miserable?

Every Sunday we went to my parents’ home for an early dinner and this time, I wanted to look nice. I wanted Griffin to notice me. I did my hair and put on a little makeup, hoping Griffin would notice. He arrived right on time and I instantly patted my hair and made sure my makeup looked alright.

My dad noticed and frowned. “Are you and the co-founder a thing now?” He still called Griffin Sadie’s co-founder. He said he was still waiting for Griffin to “prove” himself, whatever that meant.

“What? No. What gave you that idea?”

“You’re sprucing yourself up like you have a big date or something. You did the same thing whenever you’d go out with that geeky boy, what was his name? Brandon? Brent? Barry?”

I rolled my eyes, feeling like a teenager again. “Tim, Dad. His name was Tim.”

“I was close...”

I shook my head. “You weren’t even on the right letter.”

He laughed and made his way to the table. He was walking and talking without an issue. Aside from the barely perceptible sloping of his eye, you couldn’t tell that just three months ago he’d suffered a stroke. I knew that his hand on one side was still a problem sometimes, but it wasn’t something that was outwardly noticeable.

While his back was turned, I snuck another look at my makeup and tried to appear nonchalant when Griffin came through the door with flowers for my mom, like he did every Sunday. He never gave me flowers, I thought to myself. He whispered something in my mom’s ear and she laughed like an infatuated school girl.

“Aren’t you guys chummy?” I said.

They both looked at each other in confusion and then back at me. “Don’t be jealous, sweetheart. He hasn’t ever been in the presence of such a beautiful woman before,” she said.

I made a face at my mom and she laughed. “Fine, you want some attention. Griffin, tell my daughter how beautiful she looks.”

I blushed. “That’s not necessary.”

He looked at me and let his gaze drift from my face to my neck, to my cleavage, to the rest of me. It felt like he spent minutes devouring me with his eyes, when in fact, it had only been a few seconds. He met my eyes and said, “Breathtaking as ever.” He turned away from me. “Now, Mrs. Charles, what can I help you with?”

“Mrs. Charles was my mother-in-law, call me Ada... I insist.”

Great, now they were on a first name basis, I thought to myself, trying to forget the way Griffin’s eyes had devoured me seconds ago.

We all sat down at the table and I felt self-conscious as I sat across from him, although it was always where I’d been seated since this dinner became our Sunday tradition.

“So, Griffin, how are you liking Georgia?”

“It’s growing on me,” he said, giving my dad an easy smile. “I used to go to Atlanta on business trips sometimes.”

“Hotlanta is what I used to call it back in the day.” I looked at my dad in surprise. He never called it Hotlanta.

Mom rolled her eyes at him. “Stop trying to sound cool.”

“Trying? I am cool. Aren’t I, Sadie?”

She nodded enthusiastically before taking a big bite out of a fried chicken wing.

“She has a great appetite... I wish I had her metabolism,” my mom said looking sadly at the pudge that was starting around her middle.

“You’re beautiful,” Dad said, kissing her cheek.

Sadie giggled and said, “Kiss Mommy, Daddy!” I immediately froze but she kept cheering. “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

“Oh, go ahead, don’t disappoint the child,” my mom said helping herself to another round of mashed potatoes.

I smiled tightly at Griffin. He was looking at me wondering what to do, when Sadie said, “Get up, get up. Go kiss Mommy.”

He got up slowly made his way around the table and kissed me gently on my cheek, just as my dad had done to my mom, and I pretended to be unaffected by it. It was over quickly, but the feel of his lips against my skin, his nearness, the light scent of his cologne were all going to be on my mind tonight, whether I liked it or not.