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‘Because you thought you were so capable.’ She suddenly chuckled. ‘But you weren’t completely. You know you never would have closed that Clarkson deal without me.’
‘Iwhat?’
‘You know it’s true. Who was it who came up with that killer concept?’ She tilted her chin at him. ‘Me. It was me.’
His mouth opened. She closed it with a nudge of her fingers to his chin.
‘I liked working for you, Elias. You weren’t all that awful. You just had high expectations. Truthfully your worst failing was that you needed help and couldn’t admit it.’
‘I needed what?’ He looked astounded.‘Help?’
‘You couldn’t do it all on your own anymore,’ she said, amused again by the strangled way in which he’d spoken. ‘I enjoyed meeting the challenges you set. I liked it. You didn’t abuse your power, Elias. You paid all of us well. You were never a bully. Honestly, working with you was stimulating.’ She chuckled and waggled her brows at him because she didn’t mean it inthatway. Well, not entirely. ‘I didn’t resign because I didn’t want to work with you anymore. It was only because I needed to support Shaun and I hoped I’d have the time to settle Lily in before she started school. But I was good at my job. So good you barely realised how much you’d come to rely on me.’
Elias watched the animation in her face and felt an easing of an uncomfortable load inside. Because maybe she was right? He hadn’t talked through the deals with anyone the way he did with Darcie. And yes, he’d given her more and more responsibility because he’d known he could rely on her. She’d anticipated his requirements because she’d understood exactly what he was trying to achieve. Sometimes she saw things he hadn’t thought of. She was more than smart and she did hold her own with him...but she’d still not been completely honest. She’d not been able to be.
‘I thought we worked pretty well together,’ she said when he didn’t say anything.
‘I thought that, too. Which was why I was never going to risk jeopardising that with—’
‘I know. But it’s different now, isn’t it?’
He stiffened. It was. But she didn’t know the whole truth about his parents and why he couldn’t be her boss now they were in a relationship. Because it was too messy, too easily abused. He wanted her to be free to say anything she wanted to him. That honesty meant more to him than anything. And he never wanted to take advantage of her. Never control her.
‘You can’t do it all on your own, Elias.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I bet you’re missing me in there.’
He simply couldn’t answer that honestly. ‘What about a career ofyourown, Darcie?’
Her eyes flashed. ‘I have a career. I’m good at what I do.’
‘But you could doanything,’ he countered. ‘You didn’t have the chance when you were younger, but you could study now if you wanted. Anything you like.’
‘But Ilikedworking with you.’ She leaned closer. ‘Is this because of your dad cheating on your mum with his secretary?’
This was because of so much more than that. So much that he’d never said. The abusive coercion his father had wielded over them all—his secretary, his wife, his son.
‘Because this wouldn’t be like that, Elias. I know you wouldn’t cheat—’
‘No.’ Of course he wouldn’t.
This was about controlling. Not cheating.
He stood up from the day bed and ran his hand through his hair because he couldn’t stand to remember it. ‘Let’s think about it some more.’ He turned from the disappointment shadowing her eyes. ‘We need to get ready for the visit with Lily.’
Truthfully, he was ambivalent about meeting Lily. Primarily he was going because he didn’t want Darcie to go alone. Not again. She’d been alone a lot in her life and he understood isolation. Darcie had been alone through so much, for so long. He wanted her to get what she wanted—which meant he wanted Lily not to be alone, too.
It turned out Lily was a brown-eyed poppet with cocoa-coloured hair. From first glance he saw she was strikingly pretty. She was also shy. But the second the little girl spotted Darcie, she lit up. It was the one area in which he could totally relate to the child.
Then he saw Darcie light up too. Watching her with the girl made something in his bones ache. He’d never spent much time with kids. Never wanted to. Now he didn’t have much choice and he needed to at least try. But it didn’t come easily to him. He felt awkward and not even the encouraging approval shining in Darcie’s eyes could make him feel completely good about it.
But the second visit he had his first genuine, easy interaction with Lily. He made her laugh by inadvertently acquiring an ice-cream moustache when they all had a cone from the truck at the park. Darcie had laughed, too, and the hit of pleasure within him had been insane. Making them both laugh had then become his mission. It had been surprisingly easy to achieve, simply by unleashing his inner idiot.
But after the fourth visit Darcie was uncharacteristically quiet on the drive home. As he followed her into the kitchen he thought through the afternoon. He’d thought it had gone well. They’d had a nice walk through the park; he’d spent some time pushing Lily’s swing while Darcie spoke with the supervising social worker.
Now he watched her pour a glass of ice-water. ‘What happened to make you upset? Did the social worker say something?’
She actually trembled and had to set the glass down before drinking any. She leaned against the bench, her head bowed, and his whole body ached with tension.
‘It’s going to take too long,’ she said. ‘The social worker said they might have to move Lily again.’
