“Okay, I’ll take care of it.” Her normal, jovial tone retu
rned.
“Thank you…” I sighed and ended the call.
Gina’s reaction to the error with the purchasing order was technically my fault. I always treated every mistake like it was the end of the world, even when it wasn’t. I was trying to be better about it because a couple of small mistakes were unavoidable at a company as big as Alcott Inc. It certainly wasn’t going to cost us an account like the error that caused Martin Construction to find a new distributor. We didn’t screw up an entire order and jeopardize their business. It was a couple of minor items that we could overnight to Anderson Wholesale, and they would appreciate the extra steps we took to fix the problem—it would cost us some money, but the account would be fine. If it was a big deal, they would have called instead of just sending us an email. We had a longstanding business relationship, and they weren’t a new client like Martin Construction. Anderson Wholesale knew we had a good track record and made things right when simple errors occurred.
Alright, now that the mini fiasco is over, I can finish getting ready for my guests.
Melanie didn’t take much time to celebrate her victory in the courtroom after the emergency hearing was canceled. She had a lot on her mind, and I understood that she wasn’t going to draw an easy breath until the custody battle was over. There seemed to be other things troubling her as well, but she didn’t open up to me about them. Truthfully, I had my own troubles to deal with—namely, the Carnation Club. I didn’t like having security watching my house—or following the girl I cared about and her family—but it was a necessity.
We had danger lingering in the air with Jackson, and the jury was still out on the pink carnations. I still couldn’t figure out if they were supposed to be some sort of twisted game, or if the person behind them had sinister intentions. There was another thought too—the person who was sending them might have actually saved my life. They could have been at the Pembroke Hotel when I got stabbed because they sent something to Melanie so she would know to come to the hospital. They were intertwined in my life somehow—and the last message made me think that they believed my relationship with Melanie wouldn’t last. Either I would break Melanie’s heart, or she would break mine.
That isn’t going to happen. They obviously have no idea how much I care about her.
I walked to the front door when I saw Melanie’s car outside and an unmarked car that belonged to Craven Security parked next to my driveway. The windows were tinted, but I knew that Leo was inside. I would have waved if I didn’t want to potentially alarm Charley. I assumed she had no idea that they had a security detail following them. That would be hard for a four year old to understand, especially since she had no idea what could have happened when they took their trip to the city. They made the right decision by not telling Charley about her father once he got arrested, and I had a feeling they had a backup plan in place if Jackson managed to show up at the courthouse. There was a reason Charley was with her grandmother the entire time, and they never stepped foot in the courtroom.
“Hi!” Charley waved to me as soon as I opened the door.
“Hello, Charley.” I smiled and replied with a wave of my own. “Are you ready for the grand tour?”
“Yep!” She ran up the steps and didn’t wait to be invited inside—she just darted right past me.
“I can’t blame her,” Melanie laughed as she walked up the steps. “I would have been excited to explore a place like this when I was her age too. She’s been talking about it nonstop—and about you.”
“Luckily, it’s mostly childproofed after raising two girls here.” I pulled Melanie into my arms and hugged her. “But we should probably keep an eye on her just to be safe.”
“Especially if she decides that one of your expensive paintings needs to be touched up.” Melanie grinned and looked past me.
“Ah, yes—I didn’t think about that…” I quickly walked into the house. “Charley? Don’t wander off…”
Charley was very well behaved while I gave her a tour of my house. Alcott Manor hadn’t been that interesting to me in years, but seeing it through a child’s eyes was a whole new perspective. My girls grew up there, so they didn’t look at everything with much wonder, but Charley certainly did. She thought the whole estate was magnificent and kept saying that it looked like something out of a magazine, or a movie—which made Melanie question what kind of movies her daughter had been watching when Lydia was supposed to be monitoring the remote. Normally, I could give someone a tour of the house pretty quickly, but Charley wanted to look at everything, so it took several hours to coax her back to the living room.
“Lunch should be delivered soon.” I looked at my watch.
“Are we going to have pizza?” Charley tilted her head and smiled.
“No, I’m having cheeseburgers and fries delivered from a local diner.” I leaned forward to whisper, even though I knew Melanie could still hear me. “I also ordered milkshakes.”
“You can get milkshakes delivered!?” Charley’s eyes lit up. “I want to live here! All we can get delivered at our apartment is pizza and stinky Chinese food.”
“I guess you’ll just have to visit more often.” I leaned back and laughed, but Melanie didn’t seem to be that amused.
“Can I watch television while we wait?” Charley turned her attention towards the screen on the wall. “It’s so much bigger than the one we have at home!”
“Let me see if I can find something appropriate.” Melanie reached for the remote and turned it on—thankfully, she found some cartoons for Charley to watch.
“Now that she’s distracted…” I pulled Melanie into the hallway.
“Don’t even think about kissing me.” She narrowed her eyes. “Milkshakes? Do you really want to turn her loose in here while she’s on a sugar rush?”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” I shrugged. “She went right to sleep in the car after she had dessert at the restaurant in the city.”
“She always falls asleep in the car.” Melanie tilted her head to the side, and a smile slowly formed on the edge of her lips. “I’m going to enjoy watching you chase her around the house.”
“I’m still injured, remember?” I put my hand on my side and pretended to grimace—it was feeling a lot better.
I soon found out; Melanie wasn’t kidding; Charley was like a completely different child once she got hyped up from the sugar in the milkshake. She declared that we were going play Hide ‘n Seek—then darted off before either of us had a chance to protest. Alcott Manor had a lot of places to hide, and playing it reminded me of doing the same thing with my girls when they were much younger. Melanie and I took advantage of our turn to hide—we chose the same spot and made out for a little bit before we heard Charley outside of the closet, we were in. The game went on for a couple of hours before Charley finally lost interest—which was good because I was quite exhausted. It had been a while since I had to keep up with a four-year-old.