I felt so useless standing there, staring at the mess in front of me. I was a fool to think that I could do it all. That I could be Liam’s assistant and take care of my son.
None of this was Samuel’s fault. It was solely mine. I’d put him in this situation. Samuel should have been at home, where his nighttime routine was to eat dinner, take a bath, listen to a story, and then get tucked into bed.
He wasn’t supposed to be out at some upscale party where the next youngest person had a goatee and a mortgage.
I was the reason we were in this situation. Me, and me alone.
I sighed as I shifted my focus to Samuel. Taking care of my son was my first priority. I would worry about myself later.
Samuel was all giggles and coos as I striped him out of his clothes and tossed them into the nearby garbage. There was no washer or dryer back in the hotel room, and the last thing I wanted was for the hotel staff to have to deal with this mess. It was better to throw them out and remove this memory than try to salvage them.
Just as I tossed the clothes into the garbage, there was a sharp knock on the door. It startled me, but I recovered and called out, “Occupied.”
The knock came again, so I turned my attention toward the door. I frowned as I walked toward it.
I moved to stand right next to the door. “Occupied,” I said, more forceful this time.
“Sabrina?” Liam’s voice sounded from the other side.
20
LIAM
Of all the places I wanted to be, standing next to Katie at a stuffy gala where the guests took themselves way too seriously was not at the top of the list. Or the middle. All I wanted to do was disappear into the crowd with Sabrina and Samuel and get the hell away from here. Instead, I was stuck with a woman I didn’t want to be with, talking to people I didn’t care about.
Katie seemed to sense my desire to flee and had wrapped her arm around mine. For the onlooker, it would appear that we were just a normal couple, doing normal couple things. But, in reality, this was her attempt to keep me in the room.
“Ooo, you need to meet Dirk Jones,” Katie said as she tightened her grip on me and started guiding me through the crowd toward yet another man dressed in a suit. “I hear his cologne brand is looking for a spokesperson.”
I was rapidly getting my fill of corporate lackeys. I knew what Katie was trying to do. She wanted to pair me up with deep pockets so the well she kept coming back to would stay nice and full. In the past, I hadn’t really cared. Taking care of Katie meant taking care of Ana.
But I was sick of her greed. I was sick of her being here. And I was sick of her coming between Sabrina and me. It wasn’t lost on me that after she spoke to Sabrina at the mall, Sabrina’s feelings toward me had changed. And not in a good way. I could feel her pulling away, which was the last thing I wanted after spending so much time trying to earn her trust.
Thoughts of Sabrina had me scanning the crowd in search of her. For most of the night, she’d stayed toward the edges of the crowd. With Samuel strapped to her front, I could tell that she wanted to avoid getting into people’s way. As much as I’d wanted to have her join me, I knew she would say no.
She was hyperaware of the fact that she had a baby with her, and I knew she didn’t want to draw attention to him. I didn’t care. I loved that he was here. But I knew Sabrina wanted me to take her position seriously, so I needed to remain hands off.
Confusion brewed inside of me as my search came up empty. I checked all the places that she’d been earlier, only to find that she wasn’t there. I frowned as I glanced over the heads of the people around me, hoping to spot her familiar dark hair, but there was nothing.
She’d disappeared.
Worried that something had happened, I stepped away from Katie, who was currently engaged in a conversation with Dirk, and started to weave through the different groups around me. A few conversations stopped to acknowledge my presence, but I just nodded and kept going.
“Liam?” Katie called out from behind me.
I lifted my hand and waved it in her direction. “I’ll be right back,” I said as I kept scanning the faces around me for Sabrina.
Thankfully, Katie seemed more concerned about not losing whatever deal she was making with Dirk than following me. The last thing I needed was her complicating things more than she already had.
I started to panic as I searched in vain. Where had that woman gone?
“Are you looking for the lady with the baby? The one you came in with?”
I turned to see a waitress with a tray full of champagne flutes. She looked at me with earnest concern.
“Yeah,” I said as I scanned the room once more. “Have you seen her?”
“She was looking for a bathroom.” The waitress nodded her head toward the back of the room. “She seemed panicked.” Her smile was sympathetic.
