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“Then you should take her somewhere. You two should be alone and talk. Try to make things right.”
He smiled. “We will make it right. Blair and I have our differences, and we might fight bitterly, but one thing remains constant – our love for each other. We have a bond that will never be broken, no matter what.
She might sometimes piss me off and I might annoy her, but we know where we stand with each other.” He finished the drink. “I want everything to be perfect.”
“It will be,” his mother assured him.
*****
“He’s still upset with me.”
“I’m sure he’s not.”
She cast her brother-in-law a wry look that had him shrugging.
“It’s good to see you’re taking his side.”
Setting his nephew securely inside his cot, Clive eased the cover over him and stood there watching Chad’s eyes flicker shut. He was recovering from a tennis injury and had been recuperating at home for the past week.
He spent that week mostly in the nurseries, not caring that he was probably getting on the nannies’ nerves. Blair was back to work and had thrown herself into her numerous charities with gust. In between that, she would zip upstairs or have them bring the babies down to her office so she could spend some time with them.
“You should have seen him when he received the news that you and the babies were involved in an accident. He just stood there, not knowing what to do. I led him out of the conference room like a child. He was shaking.”
Turning away from the cot, he walked over to sit next to her on the comfortable chaise. She had Bella in her arms and had just finished feeding her from the bottle. All four babies were thriving and growing like weeds.
“Let me.” He took the beautiful little girl in his arms and settled her on one broad shoulder, rubbing her back slowly for her to burp.
“Ah, that’s the thing sweetheart.” He murmured, “One more.” He rubbed again and she obliged him.
Blair put the bottle down and went to get Bianca. She had given the nannies the afternoon off so that she could spend some time with them. But in this household, she was never alone with the babies.
One or two of the family members always found their way up and not to mention the staff. The babies were the light and life of the household, and it was pretty obvious that everyone catered to them.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, taking them out on my own.” She made quick work of changing Bianca’s diaper, smiling as the baby grabbed her finger.
“You were thinking that you could just take them for a spin and come back home. Which should have been simple enough if that damned reporter had not taken it into his bloody head to follow you.” His expression darkened as he placed his niece inside her cot. “I wanted to wring his scrawny neck.”
Even after all this time had passed, he was still upset. When he thought of what the outcome could have been, it pissed him off. He looked over at her. “You cannot blame him for still feeling scared and upset.”
“I was the one in the accident.” She hissed as she covered her daughter with the colorful quilt that had been a gift from Millicent. Her worries about the woman her dad had married had been for nothing.
Her stepmother was proving herself to be a great comfort to her dad. And was bent on taking care of him. That had taken off a tremendous amount of pressure off of her. Now she could rest easy, knowing her father was in good hands.
“And he was the one who had to get the news that his entire family was involved in a vehicular crash.” He came to stand next to her and placed a hand over her shoulders. “it almost killed him.”
She sighed and leaned against him.
“I suppose you’re right.”
“You know I am.” He kissed the top of her head. “Now, can I leave you to fend by yourself?”
“Leaving us already?” She teased. “Who’s she this time?”
Tilting her face up, he brushed her lips on her cheek. “No one you know. Until I find a woman who comes close to having your qualities, I will continue to seek and search and settle for what I can get for now.” He rubbed her shoulders before walking over to look at the girls’ sleeping. There was a wistful expression on his handsome face.
“My brother hit the jackpot.” With a wave, he was gone.
She wandered around the lovely pink and cream nursery, straightening this and rearranging that. A stuffed elephant was askew on the shelf, and she fixed it. She had received so many gifts from people she did not even know and had donated a number of things to children’s homes and the hospital.