Page 8 of The Billionaire Dating Dad (The Holidates #18)

Dimitri

Six months later

D imitri rolled onto his back and groaned. Fatherhood wasn’t for the timid.

Any moment he expected Maddie to launch herself into his room. He’d take her happy cheer any day to the understandable sadness that had clouded her mood when she’d first arrived at his home.

Maddie had spent the first week rebelling against any attempt to get to know her.

But when it sank in that her mother wasn’t coming back, the next two weeks Dimitri shared his home with a quiet and watchful shell of the spontaneous child he’d met months before.

And it had taken him and his siblings another three weeks to convince her that her new family wasn’t going anywhere.

Not the devil himself could drag him from his daughter.

There were moments he’d been afraid that May’s abrupt departure had broken something in the child that no amount of explaining that May needed to get better would fix.

At least he hoped May would get better. Then Maddie had asked an impossible task — that he would find her mother.

Dimitri swallowed. How could he tell Maddie that May didn’t want to be found, or that she didn’t want Maddie to witness her frail state or the moment she took her last breath? Yet, he’d promised.

He rubbed his bare chest as the promise he made vibrated against his ribs. Dimitri hadn’t been a father long, but he had no intention of breaking the first promise his daughter asked of him.

Dimitri threw off his comforter and was about to get out of bed when Maddie’s voice reached him.

“Daddy! Daddy!”

He stumbled to his knees, overcome with emotion at hearing his baby girl acknowledge him as her daddy for the first time. Get it together, Dimitri. You can’t let her see you this shaken.

He heard her little feet hit the floor the moment she jumped off the bed, followed by her dead run to his room.

Dimitri wondered what percentage of her need to see him the moment she opened her eyes was due to excitement and how much was due to believing he would vanish.

Daddy was here to stay and nothing on earth could make him leave.

To cover up his weakened state, he slipped back into bed.

“Daddy! Are you awake?”

“No.” He stared at her to make sure she knew he was joking before slamming his eyes shut. “It’s too early to rise.”

Maddie climbed onto the bed. “No Daddy, I have to go to school and you can’t be late for work.” She leaned over him. Her hair tickled his nose as she stared into his face. Dimitri dared not laugh at her persistence. “Are you sure you’re asleep, Daddy?”

“Positive.”

She giggled. Maddie pried his right eye open with her little fingers.

Dimitri roared. Flipping her onto her back, he unleashed the tickle monster until she hiccupped. “Come on young lady, time to get ready for school.” He took Maddie’s hand.

After running a gauntlet where he signed Maddie up for every activity under the sun, his sister stepped in and unsigned her up for all but two activities because apparently, Maddie wasn’t a future decathlon athlete.

Now their mornings had turned into a routine only being disrupted on weekends, while their evenings consisted of dinner, watching his daughter practice her ballet, followed by a bedtime story.

Being a father couldn’t be that easy.

He waited in limbo for more bad days than good. For sadness to cloud her eyes. Or the moment his daughter realized he had no clue what he was doing, that he spent a great deal of time praying he wasn’t going to screw up her life.

But when she looked at him as she did now, full of trust, his heart melted.

Dimitri lifted her onto the stool in front of her bathroom sink.

Wordlessly, he dabbed her bubblegum-flavored toothpaste onto his spare toothbrush before handing the tube to Maddie.

It wasn’t planting flowers on the front lawn or creating drawings to hang on the wall, but sharing their morning was their thing and with time, he hoped it would mean as much.

The buzz from their electronic toothbrushes filled the silence.

For the briefest moment, they didn’t need words.

Her quiet questions…the ones she wanted to ask about her mother reflected in her eyes through the mirror.

Just beneath those questions were ones about him — would he leave too? Would she have to move again?

No amount of denying would wipe away Maddie’s doubts. Those reassurances could only be given with time.

He preheated the shower for her. “The water is warm. I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

“Okay. But don’t go too far, Daddy.” She hopped off the stool.

“Alright.” He pushed the stool back under the sink, trying not to overreact to her calling him Daddy.

“Pancakes. My absolute favorite.”

Dimitri stared at his sister from over the rim of his cup. Dressed in a red pantsuit that cost a small fortune, the outfit brightened her tan from last weekend’s family gathering. Katya looked stunning. “Since when do you eat pancakes?”

“Since you started pretending to make them.” She took his cup filled with coffee, gulping the warm dark concoction. “And who said anything about eating them.” His sister braced her hip against the island.

Dimitri smirked. “Maddie thinks hiring the chef counts. She even said I did a great job finding Jack.”

“She’s got you around her little finger, doesn’t she?”

He would argue that his daughter had wrapped herself around his entire hand and heart. “Don’t tell me it isn’t the same for you.”

“Oh, no. Her big brown eyes do not work on me.”

Dimitri shook his head. Giving up hope that she’d return his cup with any decent amount of coffee, Dimitri poured another. “Thanks for taking Maddie to school today.”

Katya flicked her wrist, waving away his gratitude. “Where is my niece anyway?”

“In her room dressing for school.” When Maddie first came home, the family had been shocked at how independent she was.

At times it was easy to forget his daughter was five years old.

Having a staff helped but what he needed was a nanny.

Someone who cared for her needs after school.

He’d gladly rearranged his days but on days when his meetings ran long, a maid, cook, and the driver were not enough.

Katya set her cup on the counter. “Any luck locating May?”

Dimitri roughly swept his hand through his hair. “She didn’t wait a week before putting a for sale sign on her lawn, Katya.” May had meticulously planned every part of her departure. How could he help her when the people he’d hired couldn’t even find her?

“She’d been delaying treatment to spend time with Maddie. She’s very sick, Dimitri, and doesn’t want Maddie to remember her that way in case —” Katya broke off, clearing her throat.

“I should have stayed. Contacted the best doctors… done something other than hop on the plane with our daughter.”

Katya gripped his arm. “Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing.”

“How can you say that?”

“May has no control over her illness. Can you not imagine how that must feel? Losing every… her health, her daughter.”

“So what, Katya? Are you suggesting I stop looking for her?”

“I’m saying we can hope May is trying to get well on her terms,” Katya said. “You need to focus on creating a home for Maddie.”

He closed his eyes. Perhaps his sister was right about giving May the space she needed. There were a few times in his youth when he was powerless. Though each had profoundly transformed his life, at the time he hadn’t enjoyed any of those moments.

“How’s the search for a new nanny?”

Dimitri cringed. The only woman his mind kept returning to was already employed with the Townsons.

Violet. He could offer her more money… even play dirty.

Dimitri shook his head. Dammit to hell if she hadn’t lit his body on fire.

He’d kissed her, and tasted the nectar from her mouth.

No contract in the world would keep his hand from her if she entered his life again.

No, it was best for Violet and his sanity that he stayed out of her life.

His obsession with Violet surpassed physical.

He needed something permanent and he was unsure if she was ready for what that entailed.

“That bad huh?”

His sister had no idea . “Maddie didn’t like the first nanny.”

“Did she say why?”

“No.” He sighed. How was it that he could negotiate new partnerships, and hire heads of entire departments but he couldn’t find the perfect person to care for his daughter?

“Leave finding a nanny to me,” Katya said.