Page 46 of His Secret Virgin
Not used to telling my father no, I didn’t know what to say. My shoulders sagged, feeling helpless.
Mom got up and came to put her arm around me. “Don’t look so blue, sweetie. We’re going to have fun just like we always do.”
“But Val’s going to be so disappointed.” I knew Christopher would be disappointed and so would I, but Val was the only name I could say out loud.
“She’ll get over it,” Dad said.
Then Mom got a bright idea. “I know, let’s invite Valerie too.”
“No,” I said quickly.
Dad looked at me with an odd expression. “And why not?”
“She won’t want to go. She hates outdoor stuff.” I didn’t know what to say, but that came out of my mouth so quickly. It seemed I could lie pretty easily.
Mom patted me on the back. “Let her know that you won’t be joining her next weekend. We’ll have a nice time, you’ll see. I want to get back to this movie and finish it before I fall asleep. And you’ve got work to get up early for. It’s nearly eleven now. You came in later than you did last Sunday night.”
It was much harder to pull myself away from Christopher this time.
Heading back to the stairs, I picked up my bag off the step then went up to my bedroom. My only hope was that Christopher would help me figure out a way to get out of this.
The next morning I hurried to work, only to find Christopher hadn’t come in yet. Then around eleven o’clock, Mrs. Kramer told me that he’d gone to meet the men from China in Concord. I’d forgotten all about that meeting.
He would be bringing them back for the meeting sometime after lunch. That meant he’d be busy with them all day and even into the evening. We’d never get a chance to talk.
Suddenly, I hated the fact that we couldn’t talk in the open. That I couldn’t pick up the phone and call him.
“Where’s Daddy?” I heard a woman say as I stepped out into the hallway.
Mrs. Kramer stood in front of Christopher’s office door as two tall, willowy blondes dressed to the nines stood in front of her. “He’s with some clients. He’ll be busy all day. Tomorrow the clients will be leaving, and he can see you two after that. I don’t want you girls to bother him today—or tomorrow morning either.”
One of them rolled her eyes. “We haven’t seen him in days, since he went out of town this weekend. He came in so late last night and left so early this morning that we didn’t get to talk to him. And we wanted to talk to him about a surprise we want to give our mother. We need his approval for it.”
Jealousy spiked through me at the thought that he would have anything to do with a surprise for his ex-wife. But Mrs. Kramer quickly put their idea to rest. “If it has to do with your mother and him, I can tell you what he’ll say.”
“I know.” The shorter of the two nearly identical girls said. “But Mom really wants to spend the Fourth of July weekend at our lake house, and that’s next weekend.”
I hadn’t even realized this coming weekend was the holiday. And with me having to go with Mom and Dad, what if Christopher did end up spending the weekend with his daughters and ex-wife?
Mrs. Kramer gave a quick reply, “That lake house is your father’s home. And you both know very well that he does not want your mother there. Now, why are you two trying to make them spend time together when you know what happened between them? Your father was very hurt by what your mother did. I thought you loved your father and understood this.”
“She won’t stop bothering us about it, Mrs. Kramer,” the taller of the two confessed.
“Then I’ll give her a call,” Mrs. Kramer said. “After all she’s done to him, I’m not going to allow her to bother him. You two run along now. I’ve got work to get to.” Mrs. Kramer turned and found me standing just outside my office door. “Miss Hancock, there you are. I need you to get the conference room ready. Hurry now.”
I rushed passed the three women, Christopher’s daughters not even bothering to glance my way, which made me feel oddly insignificant. I immediately understood why he worried about his daughters finding out about us—there’s no way in the world that he and I could have a relationship that those two were aware of.
As I hurried to get the conference room ready, I stopped a moment to look out the window. I saw Christopher walking up the sidewalk, his daughters meeting him halfway. He hugged them both, then shook his head as they said something to him.
Those girls had asked him about their mother coming for the weekend anyway!
I just knew they had. I could tell by his reaction and the stern look on his handsome face.
The men I’d expected to see with him were nowhere to be seen, so I hauled ass to see if I could speak with Christopher if only for a second. Heading down to the main floor in his private elevator, I knew that would be the best way to get a tiny bit of alone time with the man.
When I got to the lobby, the doors opened and Christopher stepped onto the elevator with his head down, not noticing me. He pushed the button to our floor. “Hi there,” I finally said, grabbing his attention.
He spun around then frowned at me. “Emma!”
