The Billionaire's Fake Fiancee - Lauren Wood Page 0,33

too much TV, I think. But my wife doesn’t care. Whatever keeps them quiet and out of the way.”

I was barely taking in their words as they started commiserating over their frustrations about life with children. Even though their interaction with their kids consisted of maybe an hour tops every night at the dinner table. They let their wives handle the rest, and they passed most of their duties onto the nannies.

I was much more interested in Olivia’s wide, fascinated eyes as she carefully constructed things out of the wooden blocks. I watched as she tried to figure out how all the wooden levers worked on different toys and move the knobs and sliding shapes in every direction she could. The toys seemed simple to us, but to her they held an endless stream of possibilities to explore and discover.

“Excuse me, gentlemen,” I stated, sliding down from my stool. “I think I’d like to observe my participant more closely.”

I exited the observatory room, leaving both of them to gripe and moan, and made my way back out to Ben and Olivia. I tried a number of different things in how I presented the toys to Olivia and mimicked different ways for her to play with them. I was especially interested in the way she repeatedly chose to cradle a small wooden doll over the more realistic, modern ones in the room.

Ben and I barely spoke as we moved around the room, but the tension between us was undeniable. Sometimes our hands would brush up against each other as we handed Olivia different toys. Or our legs would touch as we leaned down around her. I tried to stay focused, but it was definitely a challenge with him around.

I looked up every so often, noticing the way Chuck glared at us. He was searching for anything he might have to go off of to expose us. I could only hope that the times we had slept together created enough of an energy for our engagement to be believable, and that it would overshadow the obvious tension between us of a different kind. The one that was obviously full of frustration and annoyance.

“You’re really good with her,” Ben noted after we had been playing for a while. “When you do have kids of your own, you’ll be a great mom. That’ll be some lucky kids … and a lucky guy.”

“Thanks. I could say the same for you. Olivia’s lucky to have you as her fun uncle,” I told him.

“She likes me because I give her all the chocolate!” He faked an evil laugh at her, pulling small pieces of wrapped chocolates from his pockets.

She happily took one into her hand and started eating it, but then she pointed to a box of large wooden beads. They were painted in an assortment of colors, but she plucked out one of the brown ones and held it up, smiling.

“Chocolate!” she said proudly.

“Sure, but we never put that kind of chocolate in our mouths,” Ben warned.

She studied the small brown ball in her hands, then offered it to her doll’s mouth instead.

“That’s right,” he encouraged her. “That chocolate is for your doll.”

My brain started sparking with an idea. I picked up another bead, a pink one, and held it up for her. “Olivia, what do you think this is?”

“Bubbagum,” she grinned.

I tried it several more times with different colors, and loved the way she came up with a different pretend name for each of them. I scribbled down notes and knew I had just landed the perfect angle for my pitch.

14

Ben

Being around Kate again was a reminder of why I enjoyed it so much the first time around. A reminder that I really didn’t want or need. But I made the best of it and soon we were wrapping up for the day. After changing Olivia’s diaper, I met Kate in the front so she could show us out.

“Was today helpful?” I asked.

“Very! It was super insightful. I have some great ideas and I owe it all to Olivia,” she replied, playfully touching her finger to the tip of Olivia’s nose. “And to you. For bringing her,” she smiled.

“Happy to help.”

“Ben!” Greg called out to us just as we were headed for the door. “Good to see you again.” He held out his hand for a firm shake.

“Yeah, I wasn’t so sure we would,” Chuck mumbled.

Greg looked at Chuck and laughed. “If anything, we’ll be seeing more of him around, once they tie the knot! I’m looking