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“Ten thousand views on what?” Emma asked, pointedly avoiding eye contact with either of us while her father pulled me into his lap.
I looped my arm around Neil’s neck. “A nail polish tutorial I posted on YouTube. India Vaughn posted it to her Tumblr and it’s just exploded!”
“Congratulations.” Emma took a bite, chewed thoughtfully, wiped her mouth and said, “I wondered what you were doing to fill your time lately. Dad said you were quite invested in your job at Porteras.”
Neil had been talking about me to his daughter? I wondered what kind of things he had said about me. I had been diligent about not listening to the conversations Neil had with Emma, because I didn’t want there to be any feelings of resentment at my intrusion.
I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes at him.
“I think this is something you should celebrate,” Neil said, happily changing the subject. “Maybe you and Emma could go out and grab lunch. Do a little shopping?”
Emma looked up, her spoon halfway to her mouth, her eyes huge. “Yes... I suppose we could.”
It was clear that the unspoken was, “We could also jam shards of broken glass under our fingernails.”
“Emma, if you have other plans—”
“Nonsense.” Neil wasn’t going to allow either of us an escape. “You and Emma need to get to know each other better, and Sophie, you need to get to get out of the house. You’ve been cooped up here for far too long.”
“Look at what you’re wearing, for god’s sake,” Emma said, resignedly backing up her father. “Dad’s right. We should go out, if only so you can get some color. And that’s coming from an Englishwoman, Sophie.”
I’d begun to understand Emma’s language, I thought. She was teasing me... or not. Maybe she was being honest. Or maybe not. But she wasn’t maliciously unrestrained, as she had been the first morning we’d met. She was talking to me the same way I’d heard her speak to her father. In other words, as a part of the family, or just someone she didn’t totally hate.
“Okay.” It had been a while since I’d washed my hair. They may have had a point. “Give me a second to shower?”
“By all means,” she said, her green eyes flaring wide.
After I’d thoroughly de-funked myself, I stepped into the closet and rummaged through my clothes. Neil came in and leaned on the doorway. “I want you to have fun today.”
“We will,” I promised him. “I haven’t really had a chance to see the city.”
“Don’t expect Emma to be much for sight seeing,” he warned. “But she’ll shop like a demon. Take as much cash as you’d like from the safe in my office.”
“Neil—”
“Don’t.” He raised a hand. “Consider it payment for your full-time nursing services.”
“Then give it to Josh,” I said dryly, adjusting my towel under my arms.
“Sophie, let me be perfectly blunt.” He walked toward me slowly with the cocky half-smile I had been missing lately. “If you don’t take some money, I’m going to start stuffing your purse with fistfuls of cash whenever you’re not looking.”
“I just don’t want to bankrupt you by going spend crazy or something.” Actually, I didn’t want Emma to think I was a gold digger.
“I appreciate that, since I’m so close to abject poverty,” he said with a grave sense of false sincerity. He regarded me seriously for a moment. “I’m not sure if you understand exactly how much money we have.”
“We don’t have any money,” I reminded him. “You have money. I have... a rapidly dwindling savings account back in the States.”
“We do have money,” he stated again. “I didn’t bring you all the way over here so you could have different scenery during your financial hardship. You told me once that you wanted to share your life with me, and I think a part of that is letting me share my wealth with you.”
“Okay, but you’ve been rich your whole life,” I reminded him. “You know how to be rich. How do you know I’m not going to just freak out and start spending like crazy all over the place? I don’t want to negatively impact your bank account, and I don’t want it to become a point of resentment between us. And you know I don’t communicate well about money. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“Ah.” He said with a nod. “You’re concerned that your inability to talk about money in a frank and impersonal way coupled with my open-handed nature will create some kind of financial issue?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m uncomfortable with this stuff, remember?”
“Maybe this will put your mind at ease. I don’t think it’s even feasible for you to outspend the money I make in a day from my investments and income from Elwood and Stern.”
“I didn’t know that.” My throat was super dry all of a sudden.
