my steering wheel, gripping it tight enough to turn my knuckles white.
Though I’d had every intention of driving away when I’d left Catherine’s poor excuse for a house, my car was as far as I’d gotten. Anyone else, and I would have. After all, her living situation wasn’t my concern. As long as she showed up to work on time and did her job, I didn’t want to know anything else.
Yet, here I was, climbing out of my car and walking up the crumbling steps of her front porch. I raised my fist, knocking lightly on her door.
When she opened it, her tiny daughter tucked in the crook of her arm, I sighed, confirming what I thought I’d seen the first time.
Catherine was tired. It wasn’t just the smudges of purple beneath her puffy, bloodshot eyes I’d easily attributed to being a new mother. This went deeper. The fiery woman who’d written clever insults about me had been dulled, and it pained me to see her this way.
“You can’t live here, Catherine.” I tipped my head to the side. “Come with me.”
Her mouth fell open. “What?”
“I don’t know why your home is in this condition, and I won’t ask you to tell me, but I can’t leave you here. I have a big house with several spare rooms. Plenty of space for you and Josephine. Come now.”
“To your house?” she repeated flatly.
“Yes. To my house. You can stay as long as you need.”
“Why?”
After seven frustrating weeks of lagging replies to my emails, allowing Catherine to live in my home would put her right at my fingertips. Any questions I had, I could just ask rather than waiting hours for her to find the time to answer me.
She’d get a safe house with real floors and a working kitchen, and I’d have my assistant within reach. It was a win-win. I just had to make her see it.
“You’re my employee. You can’t possibly work at the level I need if you’re living in a home like this. Besides, I have all these empty rooms I’m not using. There’s no reason for you to say no.”
Her brows dropped. “There isn’t?”
“We’re wasting time standing here. Daniel is getting comfortable, and Josephine looks like she’s ready to sleep in a room with real floors. Let’s go.”
“Elliot, I—”
She turned away, but not before I spotted the tears welling in her eyes. She might have thought me a bastard, but what I’d said was true. This was no place for her and her baby to live. They deserved a far nicer place to lay their heads.
I expected a fight. In fact, I was prepared for it, so when she heaved a heavy sigh, her shoulders slumped, and whispered, “Okay,” I was shocked into silence.
It took a while, but Catherine had managed to limp around and gather some things for her and Josephine. I folded up her bassinet and carted boxes of diapers and her play mat to my car.
When I’d issued the invitation, I hadn’t considered all the paraphernalia that came along with infants. For such a small person, Josephine needed a lot. So much, her things filled my trunk.
Catherine and the baby followed me to my house just outside of downtown. When I’d bought the place four years ago, West and Luca had briefly questioned why I’d wanted a single-family home and not a condo or apartment in the heart of the action.
The answer was simple: I liked my space. The idea of sharing walls with strangers made me shudder. If I was home, I didn’t want to hear anyone but the people who lived with me.
Since I’d always lived alone, I enjoyed the quiet when I returned from a long day.
Catherine pulled into the open garage slot beside me and quickly climbed out. Opening her back door, I unlatched Josephine’s car seat from the base. She was fast asleep from the short car ride. Her long lashes brushed the top of her apple cheeks.
Babies weren’t my thing. I’d never paid attention to them before now. But this one struck me as exceptionally pretty and sweet.
I led Catherine through the side entry of my house, passing through the kitchen, dining room, and living area. When I hit the stairs, I realized she was no longer behind me.
Catherine was in the middle of my living room, her hands on her hips, turning slowly with a look that could only be described as awe. Pride sliced through my desire to get this over with as fast as possible so I could return to work, and I walked back over to her.
Her wide eyes met mine. “Wow, Elliot. I expected a sleek penthouse in the sky. How old is this house?”
“It was built in the early 1900s. I’ve had it for four years. West helped me make it as environmentally sound as possible while keeping the historic integrity. Luca lent me his designer to make it, and I quote, ‘cool,’ since my taste leans toward ‘old man.’”
She snorted a soft laugh. “Well, mission accomplished by Luca. It’s both cool and gorgeous.” Her smile was tentative. “I can’t believe you spend so much time in the office when you have all this to return to.”
“It’s just a place to sleep.”
I realized my mistake when her smile dropped and she bent to pick up Jo’s car seat. Catherine had just left her “place to sleep,” consisting of plywood floors, a ripped-up kitchen, and a crumbling foundation. Downplaying this house was incredibly out of touch in any circumstance, but in this case, it was bordering on cruel.
I cleared my throat, unsure how to correct my misstep. An apology seemed trite, and I doubted she wanted me to point out the disparity in our living situations. We were both well aware.
I chose to push forward. “Let me show you the spare rooms. Obviously, I haven’t had the chance to prepare them, but everything’s clean and the beds are made.”
I took Jo’s car seat from her hands, and she didn’t fight me. The baby was as light as a feather, but the seat was like a load of bricks. Better I carry it than Catherine, who’d undoubtedly been doing all this on her own the last seven weeks.
The bedroom I showed her met her approval, based on her low gasp and her hands clutching at her chest.
The room was a mirror to mine, with a glass fireplace beside the king-size bed and a seating area that was empty for now on the other side.
“There’s a room right next door for Jo—”
“No, she can sleep here.” Catherine walked around the fireplace to the carpeted area meant to hold a pair of armchairs or a love seat. “This is perfect for her bassinet.”
“She doesn’t have her own bedroom?”
“She does, but she’s so little I’m not ready for there to be walls between us.”
Catherine had taken Jo out of her car seat and laid her in the center of the bed. Her arms were splayed above her head, and her legs were tucked up against her as she slept. I’d never been around babies, but this one seemed especially small and delicate.
“That makes sense. I don’t think I would be either,” I stated.
Her soft smile was back as she peered up at me. “Would you be able to set up the bassinet before you go back to the office?”
“Of course.”
I brought up their bags and the bassinet from my car. When I walked back into the bedroom, Catherine was on the bed beside Jo, curled up at her side. She watched me carry the bassinet to the spot she’d chosen on the other side of the fireplace, a crease between her brows.
I worked quietly so I didn’t wake the baby. It only took me a few minutes to set up the bassinet and plug it in. When I turned it on, it rocked slowly from side to side.
Seemed like a nice place for a baby to sleep.
Turning it off, I circled to the other side of the fireplace to let Catherine know, but her eyes were closed. She’d fallen asleep fast. With me in the room. That just showed how truly exhausted she was. Catherine had never let her guard down around me. Even on international flights, she remained awake and alert the whole time.
I took a long look at them, Catherine and Josephine peacefully sleeping together. Anyone with half a heart would have been affected by this scene. Some might have said I didn’t possess a quarter of one, but I felt it then, thudding against its cage.
“Bye, girls,” I whispered before turning toward the door.
“Elliot?” Catherine’s croak wasn’t very audible, but I’d heard, glancing back at her over my shoulder.
“Yes?”
She ran her index finger along Jo’s cheek. “It has floors.”
“What does?”
Her tired eyes flicked to mine. “Joey’s room has floors.”
She let her eyes drift closed, and I continued on my way back to the office. Daniel had probably gotten far too comfortable in my absence, and we really couldn’t have that.
