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I nod and start to lay out the pieces the models are wearing, checking for stray threads and small marks that need to be taken care of. The pieces need to be immaculate. “Don’t tell her that. When I tell her she’s too young to do something, she’s very quick to remind me she’s five—a whole handful.”
Michelle laughs. My heart constricts when I think about my little girl. When I fell pregnant with her and realized I had to be a single parent, I didn’t know she would change my life as much as she did. I saw it as a stumbling block. I wasn’t ready. I had a plan for my life and children was only a part of it much further down the line.
But sometimes, these things happen. And having Ava changed my life for the better. She’s my ray of sunshine. She’s the reason I get up every morning and keep pushing to be bigger, better, to get more designs out and make more money.
So that I can give her the life she deserves. I may not have been able to give her the family I wished I could—it’s just the two of us. But I can make sure she has everything she could ever want.
“You’re lucky you have someone you can trust to look after her,” Michelle says.
I nod. Maria is my mother’s sister, and she’s lived in Paris most of her life. She’s one of the reasons I could take the leap to go over and start fresh. If I didn’t have a support system in Paris, I might never have been able to pull it off. But Maria is there for me, always willing to look after Ava or help me out with something, and I can turn to her as if she’s my mother. I can lean on her and cry on her shoulder if I want to.
Maria means so much to me. And Ava loves her like a grandmother, too.
I lift the next piece to the light. The sheer fabric has a sheen to it that catches the sun that falls through the window and brings it to life. “I just can’t wait to get back and cuddle her,” I say.
“As soon as this show is done, you should head home. If we need to stay behind to take care of business, I’ll do it.”
“I don’t know if we’re going to do anything here,” I say and carefully fold the clothes, putting them into plastic packets with the models’ names on them. “I don’t know if it will work.”
“Of course, it will work,” Michelle says and emerges from her clothes rack. She pulls her hair back into a ponytail. “Your stuff is incredible.”
“Ourstuff,” I correct.
Michelle rolls her eyes. “There’s no reason you should give me credit for your designs. I work on the business end. I’m happy with that, trust me. And when we open our branch here, I’ll find someone to mentor to do the same thing.”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” I say.
Michelle comes to me and looks me square in the eye.
“Faith, Raven. That’s what you need. You’re better than you think you are. And everything we’ve done led us up to this point. In a week’s time, nothing in your life will be the same.”
I smile and she hugs me.
“Stop expecting everything to go wrong,” she says when she lets go of me. “And let’s go out tonight for a glass of wine before we kick off the festivities tomorrow.”
I agree, even though we need to get to bed early before the week starts. It’s going to be crazy, and we need to be on top of our game. But getting out for a glass of wine sounds divine. I haven’t thought of anything other than work since the moment we touched down in New York.
Well, aside from one small slip-up.
Noah.
I came to New York a week ago to make sure everything was as it should be. The first night, I ran into Noah in a new restaurant.
Noah, the man I left the country to escape.
Noah, the man who broke my heart, even though it should have just been a one-night stand.
Noah, the father of my child.
We used to know each other in college. We were in the same group of friends and went out together from time to time. But he was the dumb jock who loved attention, the star of the football team, the guy who everyone loved, handsome as hell and good in bed. Which he never failed to proclaim—and everyone he’d been with confirmed.
Just thinking about it makes me roll my eyes.
It had been a drunk night together, and I slept with him. I shouldn’t have done it; he wasn’t my type. I liked the quiet, sensitive type. I needed a grown-up, someone who could be an adult with me.
But that one night had changed everything. Not just how I felt about him, but the rest of my life, too.
When he didn’t return any of my calls back then, when I needed to tell him I was pregnant, I got the picture. Despite knowing each other enough that I should have been able to tell him, he was a slippery eel. Sometimes silence speaks louder than words, and he was clear.
