Page 675 of Hell Hath No Fury
An awkward, tension-filled silence fell between us, and I took that as my cue to leave.
CHAPTER FOUR
Foster
He was obsessed.
There was no other word for it.
Ember Bonet had become an obsession.
At night from his bedroom window, he’d watch her swim, like a stalker, waiting for her to return safely into the house before he’d go to bed. When he got home from work, he wanted her to linger, and not because he didn’t love spending time with Georgie but because he liked the changes he saw in G around Ember.
Upon taking her advice that night in the office where she’d smiled at him and he’d felt the beauty of it, he’d talked with Georgie and assured her of his love. And every night since, after he read to her, he’d tuck her into bed and tell her how much he loved her and how glad he was they got to be together now.
Between that and Ember’s influence, Georgie was back to her old self again, proving kids really were resilient.
At work, he interviewed nannies, but he had a hard time picking one when the woman next door had captured G’s heart. But he knew it wasn’t fair to Ember to keep asking her to work her schedule around his daughter, so he’d narrowed the choices down to three women.
And he needed to choose soon.
Not just for Ember but to give Georgie stability, and selfishly, for him.
Because he needed to get over Ember.
He needed to rid himself of this overwhelming desire to be in her company all the time.
“Why?” Colt asked when Foster confided in him about his attraction.
The answer: it all came down to his parents and having Georgie so young.
Carolyn got pregnant when they were in college, which was a mammoth disappointment to his father, Edward Darwin. His father was the president of an insurance corporation, and the Darwins had been leading members of New England society for over a hundred years. His mother was Madeline Bourne—her family really did date back to theMayflower.
As their only child, Foster was required to act, think, and succeed with the family reputation always in mind. Having a kid at twenty was the end of the world for the Darwins. Determined it wouldn’t derail them, they insisted Foster remain at college and tried to force him to marry Carolyn. He refused. Another point against him. But he did stay in college and accepted his parents’ help with childcare.
For the first couple years, Foster wasn’t the best father. He’d worked hard at business school, but he’d also been working his ass off to make connections. Through hard work and a bit of luck, he met Colt, and the rest, as they say, was history.
However, one weekend, it was his turn with Georgie. She was barely two and toddling all over the place … his parents had fallen in love with their granddaughter, and he was watching his father have a conversation with G.
And he realized … his father washaving a conversationwith his daughter.
Foster hadn’t been there for her first word, and now she was speaking in sentences.
He hadn’t been there for her first crawl or her first step.
While he loved his parents and knew they loved him, he’d vowed he’d have a closer, more hands-on relationship with his kids. And he was already failing.
At that moment, everything changed.
Carolyn wanted to finish school, so he asked to take Georgie more. They split their time with her down the middle. He was in a great situation to be able to afford a nanny while he worked.
But he wasn’t in a situation where he could disappoint his father again.
Something he had to remind himself constantly as he followed G and Ember down onto the busy beach.
How had he gotten himself into this?
Oh, right, he had a hard time saying no to his daughter at the moment. And this Saturday, as if she knew a new nanny was on the horizon, G had begged him to ask Ember to spend the day at the beach with them. She’d done it in front of Ember so there was no way out of it.
