She squeezed hard. “One of the top ten phrases. Right up there with ‘I love you,’ and ‘For you it’s free.’”
When she went out with Eve, he sat, looked at Leonardo.
“I need to give Summerset a break.”
“Take a moment,” Roarke advised. “I can promise you he’s enjoying himself.”
“Little shaky, I guess.” Leonardo picked up the wine he’d ignored while Mavis had talked, while he’d held her through it. “I knew it all, but hearing her say it all again . . .”
“It makes it all real again. It makes you wish again that you could somehow go back and save her from all of it.”
Leonardo let out an unsteady breath. “It does. It does just exactly that. Everything got brighter when I met her, and faster. Then, it stayed bright but it all settled in. I could’ve gone on just fine with my work, and the women, the parties. It seemed like enough. Now? All of that could go. I don’t mean the women,” he said, suddenly flustered. “I mean there aren’t any women, not since Mavis. I mean she’s the only . . .”
“I understand.” The tangle made Roarke smile again. “Perfectly.”
“I mean, it could all go away, because I have my girls. It hurts when she hurts.”
“Yes. I understand perfectly,” Roarke repeated.
• • •
I know this is hard on you,” Eve began as they walked to her office.
“I need to say—before—I need to say maybe I’d have been one of those girls if it wasn’t for Sebastian. Or maybe I’d have ended up trading bjs for junk, like Shelby. She bragged about it. And maybe if I’d gotten through all that, maybe I’d still be grifting and getting nowhere especially if I hadn’t met you, if you hadn’t let me in.”
“Couldn’t keep you out.”
“Yeah, you could’ve, but you didn’t. And I’d never know this.” She pressed a hand to her heart. “I’d never know what it really is without Leonardo. I’d never have something so amazing and beyond the mag of the mag like Bella, and have a chance, a real chance, to be a really, really good mother. I want to be a good mother, Dallas, so bad it scares me shitless thinking I might screw up.”
“We both know about mothers who screw up, big-time. You’re not one of those, and never could be. I don’t know much about the other kind, not so much, but I know the kid’s insanely happy. I don’t know what the hell she’s babbling about more than half the time, but she’s happy as a monkey with a box of bananas. She’s safe, she’s not a whiner, and she already knows she can count on you and Leonardo for anything. That seems like it covers the job to me.”
“I want another one.”
“Oh sweet weeping Jesus.”
On a bubbling laugh, Mavis threw her arms around Eve, did her bounce. “Not right away, but not way down the highway either. I want another baby, for me, for my moonpie, and for my Bellamina. I am good at it, and maybe having the weird wigs about being good at it makes me good at it. Whatev, I want a bunch of them.”
“Define ‘bunch.’”
“I don’t know yet. More.” She drew back, swiped her hands over her face as the mix of emotions had flooded it. Looking at the board, she sighed. “I’m so lucky, and they weren’t. We got really lucky,” she said, taking Eve’s hand.
“Yeah, we did.”
“I’m going to look at the pictures, then I want to go home with my man and my baby. I want to put my baby to bed and watch her sleep for a little while. Then I want to have crazy sex with my man. Because I got lucky, and I’m never going to forget it.”
“They got pretty lucky, too, your man and your kid.”
“Damn right. We’re all stupid with happy.”
“Can’t argue. But before you go home to bedtime and sex, I need you to contact Sebastian, set up a meet.”
“Crap.”
“Sooner’s better,” Eve added.
• • •
Roarke came into Eve’s office after seeing Mavis and her family off, found her at her desk with a mug of coffee. And noted the two new pictures on the board, one with a question mark.