Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover (Billionai - By Bretton, Barbara Page 0,47
but me."
He started to speak when Megan turned suddenly and made for the knot of children at a dead run.
"What the hell--?" He hadn't heard or seen anything out of the ordinary but she'd reacted as if she'd heard a warning siren go off.
By the time he joined them the crisis was past. Megan held a little blond girl in her arms while Jenny glowered at the two of them. It wasn't hard to fill in the blanks.
"Apologize this minute, Jennifer." Megan's tone brooked no nonsense.
Jenny's stubborn little chin grew more stubborn before his eyes. "No."
"Into the house, young lady." Megan pointed toward the back door. "Go up to the guest room and think about what you've done. When you're ready to apologize you can come back down."
He watched as his daughter stormed across the lawn, muttering dark threats under her breath. She had his temper and Megan's stubbornness and the combination was as explosive as a hand grenade.
Against his better judgment he fell into step with her. "So what did you do back there?"
"Stace is a big crybaby," Jenny said. "I wanted to ride the pony and she wouldn't let me."
"Maybe it was her turn."
"It wasn't her turn. It was my turn." She looked up at him, her small face a portrait of righteous fury. "It's my birthday and I get to do what I want."
"Birthdays don't give you the right to hurt people."
"I don't like you," she said. "You're not nice to children."
"Neither are you," Jake said.
Her brows drew together in a frown that was so purely Megan that his heart seemed to slam against his ribcage in recognition. "But that's okay. I am a children."
"Being a grown up doesn't mean you can be cruel to other grownups." At least not in a more perfect world than the one in which they lived.
She considered him thoughtfully, her big golden eyes, so like his, serious. "Do you have a kangaroo?"
Where did that question come from? It took him a moment to shift gears. "If you apologize to your friend I'll tell you about the kangaroo who lived in my backyard."
"No," she said. "Stace is dumb." A sly look crossed her face. "You're dumb, too."
With that she ran into the house and slammed the door behind her. That's my daughter, he thought, and I don't even like her.
And what was worse, the feeling was mutual.
#
Sparkles the pony left not long after Jenny was banished to the house to think about her transgressions. Her absence put a bit of a damper on the party but Megan called on every trick in the book to keep the kids occupied and happy.
Miguel called once to say that, to everyone's surprise, Ingrid's labor looked to be a long one. "Don't worry," Megan said. "Everything's fine here. Just give Ingrid my love."
"Why is it taking so long?" Stace asked, her blue eyes wide. "Mommy said the baby comes down the slide from her tummy. It only takes me a second to slide down a slide."
"Well, it's not quite a slide, honey." Megan was acutely aware of Jake's presence. "The mommy and the baby have to work very hard to make it happen. That's why they call it labor."
A little girl named Patrice piped up. "My daddy said mommy called him a stinking son of a--"
"Why don't we have play a game of statues?" Megan broke in, and not a minute too soon.
They stared at her as if she were speaking in tongues.
"What's that?" asked Stace.
"We never heard of that game," said another child.
Jake, who'd been watching the whole thing with unnerving intensity, stepped forward. "I know a story."
The children turned en masse to look at Jake and Megan was once again reminded how flirtatious little girls could be. If she didn't know better she'd swear she heard the sound of Cupid's arrow piercing a dozen tiny hearts.
"That's very nice of you," she said formally, "but I'm sure you have to leave."
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do."
"I'm not going anywhere, Meggie."
The little girls listened with rapt attention.
Megan lowered her voice. "Don't do this to me, Jake."
He turned toward the girls. "I'm not good at telling fairy tales," he said, offering a dazzling smile, "but I can tell you all about Australia."
Jenny must have been watching from an upstairs window because a few minutes later Megan noticed her daughter standing near one of Ingrid's favorite orange trees. Jake was telling a funny story about shearing an unwilling sheep. All of the little girls were laughing.