once she realized something. After finding out about Joe last night, he clearly didn’t believe she was a gold digger any longer. So might he now realize she hadn’t been unfaithful to Liam? And could that mean in six months’ time she would be in no danger of losing Nicole once that letter with the lawyer was destroyed? That there would be no need to drag Keith Samuels into court to testify against her? That she might actually be able to tell Dominic she loved him?
If she dared risk her heart.
But what if she risked her heart and he didn’t feel anything stronger than fondness? What if he didn’t love her? Couldn’t love her? Did she want to risk her heart then? She swallowed as her spirits dampened. Perhaps it was a question best answered closer to the time. He no longer had a low opinion of her, and that was a start.
She lifted her face away from Nicole’s hair and tried to act nonchalant. “Penny called me just before,” she said, watching as he stopped filming. “You put five thousand into her account.” She tilted her head. “It wasn’t a mistake, was it?”
“No.”
“Then thank you.” She had to stop herself from saying she would pay him back. This time she would accept his generosity in the spirit it was given. “I told her about the job for her husband, too. You made her cry.”
He actually looked a little embarrassed. “I’m glad to help,” he said, then looked the other way and jerkily went to turn the camcorder on again.
She was rather bemused by his discomfort. “Let me have that please, Dominic. It’s my turn to record you and Nicole together.” She smiled. “That way she’ll see how handsome her father is, too.”
His head reeled back. “Her father?”
She empathized with what he was feeling. “Yes, that’s how she’ll see you. Like I do with Joe. You’ll be her father in every way that matters.”
He seemed to swallow a lump in his throat. “Yes, of course.” But he didn’t move.
She was the one to move forward. “Here. You hold her.” She swapped Nicole for the camcorder. “How does this thing work?”
He didn’t comment. He was looking down at Nicole in his arms, and she suddenly knew the moment was getting to him. She let him have this time.
Then, “How does it work?” she reminded him gently.
Finally he looked up, then blinked as if coming from a long way off. He focused on her. “Right. This is what you do,” he began.
Over the next couple of hours, the Christmas tree was delivered and Nicole napped in the shade nearby while they ate a light lunch poolside. Then the little girl woke up and Dominic insisted on feeding her lunch while Cassandra went to prepare the dinner for this evening. Midafternoon, they all had a dip in the pool before eventually it was too much for Nicole again and she started to cry. Soon she had fallen asleep in her crib.
Then Dominic drew Cassandra into their bedroom and made love to her, and afterward she fell asleep curled up against him. If she had to wish for a better belated birthday, she couldn’t. She just hoped that tonight’s gathering for the family dinner and to put up the Christmas tree wasn’t going to spoil things. She wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. So much of that relied on his parents.
Eleven
Cassandra felt nervous a few hours later when Dominic opened the front door to both his parents and his brother Adam. She prayed the evening went well. Goodwill to all men—and women—she added, hoping her in-laws could put aside their feelings for her tonight.
Nicole looked like a little doll in her red reindeer dress. And Dominic looked so very handsome holding the little girl in his arms. She knew she looked quite nice herself, in a sleeveless green dress cinched at the waist with a silver belt, yet it was more about what they looked like as a family. She actually sensed the possibility the three of them could be a real family one day.
If only Laura and Michael would consider her a real part of their family, she thought with a silent sigh. Looking at her mother-in-law’s slightly red-rimmed eyes as she kissed Dominic and Nicole, she knew she’d set her hopes too high. There had been no kiss for her again. It was obvious she didn’t want to be here. Correction—she didn’t want her to be here.
And then Laura touched