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“I only have a single glass.”
Bastien chuckled. “You can share that too. I left my cooties in New York.”
“I’m happy to share.” She moved from the water to the blanket and patted the spot beside her. He kicked off his shoes and took a seat.
They sat close enough that their arms were almost touching. Charlotte’s heart raced, but she refused to let this man make her feel flustered, like a schoolgirl with a crush.
Bastien took the glass and filled it with wine before holding it out to Charlotte. She took it from his hands, and their fingers brushed against each other, sending a frisson of awareness through her body. The last time she’d felt that much charge from a touch was when she climbed out of her bedroom window to sneak a kiss with Brandon Bellows. She’d been sixteen.
Ignoring the stirring sensation, she raised the glass towards Bastien in a toast. “To new beginnings,” she said.
“Yes, to better things in the future,” he replied before taking the glass and a sip for himself. “Are you sure taking Ivy to school isn’t a burden? I know you’re busy with the business and stuff.”
Charlotte felt her chest tighten as she thought of her shop. Bastien must have sensed her distress because he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. Charlotte looked into his eyes and saw compassion there.
“As it turns out, I’m going to have some time on my hands.” Charlotte opened up, telling Bastien what happened with her business today—the tragedy, and everything she’d lost due to it—but she didn’t let him know how dire her financial situation was.
“I’m sorry about your shop,” he said, squeezing her shoulder gently.
She leaned into him, feeling his embrace, and allowing it to soothe the sadness that had taken root in her heart. She laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about your sister.” Charlotte knew this man had seen much pain in his life—she’d met his mother.
Bastien sighed and nodded but didn’t take away his arm from around her shoulders. Instead, he kept it there for a few moments before releasing it and turning to face her.
He cupped her cheek and leaned in. She was sure he would kiss her. She didn’t know how she felt about that. Part of her wasn’t ready for anything else, but part of her was. She leaned in, but instead of his lips touching hers, he said, “You’ll rebound from this setback—I know you will.” He finished by giving her one last hug before standing up and sliding on his shoes. “I need to get my travel plans settled. If I can head out tomorrow, I can be back by early next week.”
“I’m here if the girls need me.” She’d never been a mother, but she’d been around her share of children and teens and figured their issues were generally solved with a hug, a meal, or a laugh.
“It makes me feel better that you’re here. I appreciate you.”
“Do you have your phone?”
He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her. She tapped in her phone number. “In case you need me for something important, like, I don't know, a pizza run!”
He immediately sent her a message. When she pulled her phone from her pocket, she found his text.
Thanks for being a good human.
As he walked away, she turned towards the shoreline as the sun slowly began its descent.
CHAPTERTWELVE
Bastien was lucky enough to find a commercial flight out the following day to New York. He usually used private jet consolidator services for flights, but his assistant could find nothing available from Galveston on such short notice. That was fine. He’d use the extra time at the airport and on the flight to get himself organized. He had a lot to take care of and little time to do it. He knew he needed to go through Chloe’s end-of-life folder, which contained her will, but it was too soon, and he felt too raw to deal with it. He settled back into his first-class seat and closed his eyes, thinking about the days that had passed and the ones to come. He had managed so far to sustain the veneer of everything, including his emotions, being under control. But for how long?
His thoughts raced. It was hard enough to say goodbye to Ivy, who made him promise he’d come back to Willow Bay. Was she worried he would abandon her? While he didn’t intend to make the sleepy town his permanent home, he knew he could give it a few months until Ivy had settled into the idea that he was her sole guardian, and they would need to make some choices. She needed time to adjust to the situation.
He chuckled to himself. Who was he kidding? It was he who needed to adjust to the situation. For all intents and purposes, he was now Ivy’s dad. No matter what his intellectually dishonest and manipulative mother thought. Granted, he wasn’t a father or a husband, but he was a damn good uncle and brother—even if he had never settled down. One thing was sure, he would never lead a life of deceit and philandering like his parents. He knew the difference between right and wrong. And he knew we are known by the commitments we keep, not by the ones we make. That alone would make him a better example for Ivy. And it was the key to his success in business as well.
It’s true, he had thrown himself into his work, avoiding romantic entanglement that he might end up pretending never happened, much like his father had done in the past. But Bastien reminded himself it wasn’t like he didn’t forge meaningful connections in life. He could be a father. He was not the lone wolf playboy his family had made him out to be. He mentored and helped build the careers of many talented young men and women who worked for him. There was great satisfaction in watching them grow and develop, and he had earned their trust and respect. He supported up-and-coming artists, sponsored scholarships, and funded many educational and sports programs for kids. People obviously thought he was a good guy or there would not have been so many invitations for him to be a godfather. Right? Wasn’t all that enough? He could be there for Ivy. He knew it.
As he flew from Galveston to New York, in between racing thoughts of his qualifications to be a parent, his beautiful sister, and the life she had left behind, he traded emails with his secretary and planned to turn over his clients temporarily to someone he trusted. He’d never been happier to own Richmond Wealth Management. While he was a hands-on CEO, he’d hired some of the best people—competent and loyal enough to steer the ship while the captain was away.
The plane ride to New York had been a jumbled blur, and as the plane descended into LaGuardia, he sent a text to Charlotte to check how things were going.
Hello Charlotte, I’m checking in to ensure that Ivy and Rachel are doing alright and nothing else has gone wrong.
Charlotte. He had hardly given her a thought during his machinations throughout the flight. Was it because thinking of her conjured her expressive face, her thoughtful gaze and how her presence somehow made it seem like everything was going to be alright? She had made such an impact on Ivy, who barely wanted to leave her side. And Bastien admitted Charlotte had affected him too, but he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. He hardly had room to make sense of and accept the loss of his sister. He was not ready to consider, consciously or otherwise, that Charlotte could be anything more than someone to help in the way she was already. Besides, he needed her help desperately, and he wasn’t about to mess that up, for Ivy’s sake. Anyway, she had made it abundantly clear she wanted nothing more, either. He needed to respect that, too. Bastien put any thought of something more with Charlotte out of his head. He had other things to do than allow himself to fantasize about relationships that, based on his life experience, were only fantasy at best.
He wasn’t one to borrow trouble, but trouble seemed hot on his heels the last few days. In his world, trouble looked like his seventy-year-old mom. She had a face frozen by Botox but a piercing glare that could slice through him like a hot knife through butter. She had the patience of a hungry dog and the attention span of a hummingbird’s wing flitting from one place to the next.
