Bella gasped and darted a look over her shoulder. “Daddy, presents.”
“I heard,” he told Bella. Then to Everly: “You’re back early.”
She pushed to her feet and fished in the bags as she climbed the stairs to meet him. “I missed you guys.” She spoke to Bella, who danced around Everly’s legs. “I picked up some coffee for Daddy.”
She pulled a silver pouch from the shopping bags and handed him a bag of his all-time favorite coffee. Coffee he rarely drank because Lucia couldn’t find it at the big grocery store where she shopped and never had time to go to the local farmer’s market. Everly was clearly talking to the staff more than he realized.
He looked at the coffee’s label with more emotions joining the tangle. “That was nice of you.”
“Me, me, me,” Bella chanted.
“Bella,” he chastised.
“Of course you.” Everly crouched on the stair in front of Bella and drew a wooden board out of a bag and presented it to Bella, who gasped. “It’s a puzzle.”
Bella ran her fingers over the vibrant paint.
“It has layers,” she told Bella. “The sloth is in the background, the monkey is in the middle, and the toucan is in the front. So you take out
all the pieces, then put the sloth together first, the monkey second, and the toucan last. I’ll teach you how after dinner.”
“Wow.” She lifted it toward Austin. “Daddy, look.”
Everly glanced up at the same time. With her hair in a braid and her dimples flashing, she threatened to take his breath away. Austin pried his gaze from her pretty face and looked at the puzzle.
“It’s great,” he told her.
“And…” Everly drew out some fabric and shook it out, holding up a traditional Costa Rican dress. It was white muslin, the top and skirt edge embroidered with colorful flowers. “I thought you’d look beautiful in this.”
Bella clutched the puzzle to her chest and reached out to touch the fabric. “So pretty.”
“What do you say, Bella?” Austin said.
“Thank you,” she told Everly before falling into her for a hug.
The sight reminded him of just how quickly Bella had attached herself to Everly. And Austin had mixed feelings over that.
Everly laughed and patted Bella’s back. “You’re welcome, sweetie.”
“Why don’t you go change into your bathing suit?” Austin told Bella. “I’m going to talk to Everly a minute, then we’ll swim.”
“Okay.”
She turned away, but Everly called her back. “Bella.” She pulled a mass of flowers from her bag. “These are for Lucia and Renalda.”
She tucked her puzzle under one arm, the dress under another, then grabbed the flowers before hopping down the stairs, calling, “Lucia, Renalda, presents!”
Everly Callaway was too fucking good to be true. “Let’s talk in my office.”
Austin’s frustration toiled inside him until he was annoyed to irrational levels. He wasn’t going to mince words. If she needed to get out of their lives, she had to do it now before Bella—before both of them—grew any more attached to her.
“I want to talk to you too.” She rested her bags on the corner of his desk and faced him. All the lightness she’d shared with Bella was gone, a new seriousness sobering her expression.
He set the coffee on the corner of his desk, asking his questions before she took the conversation in a different direction. “Tell me about your mother again.”
She frowned and shook her head. “What about her?”
“The truth about her. I know she’s not dead.”