Hollywood Prince (Hollywood Royalty #3) - Natasha Madison Page 0,111
“I’m going to get dressed and go down and feed your daughter,” she says, and I nod as she walks into the walk-in closet to get dressed. Twenty minutes later, I’m walking down the stairs, and I head to the family room. “There he is,” Erin says, and I look at her with my daughter in her arms. “The car is here, and I just finished feeding her.” She turns and hands Annabella to her mother, and I look back and see Ryan coming out of the bathroom in his own suit. I turn around when I hear heels clicking on the floor. She is wearing a one-shoulder black dress that hugs all her curves, coming to her mid-thigh and then it is sheer until her knees.
“The sooner we leave, the sooner we get back,” I tell them and grab my wife’s hand and walk out the door. We get into the car, and when we get to the red carpet, Ryan gets out first, and then slowly, she gets out. When I get out, the fans go wild. “I’ll be right back,” I tell her, and she nods, holding her clutch in her hand. I walk across the street to sign some autographs and take some pictures. When I walk back over, I see that Erin is talking to Tyler, and he smiles at her.
“Don’t you have your own wife to talk to?” I joke with him, and he just smiles.
“She’s home,” he says. “I just can’t stop trying to knock her up.” He shrugs, and I just laugh.
“I know that problem,” I say, and Erin gasps, looking at me. “It’s like a challenge.”
She shakes her head, and Tyler tells me he is going to see me in there. He walks the red carpet and poses for pictures but doesn’t stop to talk to any of the reporters. “Shall we?” Erin says, and I grab her hand in mine, and we walk the red carpet. She tells me which reporters to stop and talk to. She still works for Hillcrest but only for me. It was a compromise we both agreed to. I didn’t want her to work, and she didn’t want to stop working. In the end, we both win.
“Carter,” the male reporter greets me. “Great seeing you.” I nod at him. “What do you think about the buzz going around that this role is going to have you winning the Oscar?”
I shake my head. “I try not to get swept up in all the social media rumors. I already have the best award waiting for me at home,” I say, mentioning Annabella.
What a difference a year makes. This time last year, I was a shell of a man living an empty life, and then one day, in a blink of an eye, it changed, and I wouldn’t trade it for all the money in the world. I would give all this up just to go home to my girls at night. I bring Erin’s hand up to my lips, and she smiles at me. You could give me all the awards in the world and call my name to the stage a million times over and nothing can take the place of that smile. Nothing can take the place of being proud to be by her side, proud to be Annabella’s dad. But most of all, proud of the man she made me become.
Epilogue Two
Erin
Six months later
“Is she okay?” I ask my husband, who comes into our bedroom, and I hear my daughter in the monitor calling him.
“Da da da da da da.” I shake my head and look at him. He’s beaming, and it’s not just because he is sweeping through all the award shows. No, he’s beaming because our daughter’s first words were da da.
“I have to get ready.” He comes to me and kisses my neck. “I wish we could skip tonight,” he says, and I shake my head. “We could order Chinese.” He tries to get me to change my mind, but there is no way in hell I’m letting him get out of the Academy Awards when he’s up for best actor in a motion picture. The day the nominations were announced, we were going on a night of not sleeping. Annabella was teething, and I swear he looked like someone was stabbing him each time she cried.
“I am going in the guest room to get ready,” I tell him, and he looks at me. “Or else you’ll destroy my hair.”