sat on the couch next to Cameron and smiled when he ran a hand over Emma’s head and back and leaned in and kissed her on the head.
“Baby girl, Daddy will always take care of you. I promise.”
“I don’t want Shelly to be my mother. I want a mother like the other kid’s moms.”
Cameron knew what she wanted. She was right where she wanted to be. He didn’t know what to say, or how to make things better. Sitting beside Marti was where he wanted to be too.
“What do you mean a mother like the other kid’s moms?” Marti didn’t understand. Shelly would be her mom when she married Cameron. She tried not to think too hard about why it bothered her so much. She chalked it up to Shelly not wanting to be a mother and using Cameron. What bothered her most was the whole thing upset Emma.
“I want a mother who is nice and makes me laugh and hugs me like she means it.” She looked up at Marti and said, “I want you to be my mom.” She buried her face in Marti’s neck and cried harder.
“Oh, Sugar Bug. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She hugged Emma tighter and stroked her hair. She turned to Cameron, whose silvery blue eyes held such deep sadness. He looked to be at a total loss for what to do.
“Sugar Bug, listen to me. Your dad asked Shelly to marry him, not me.” Marti should have known the smart little girl would pick out the words she wanted to hear.
Emma turned to her father. “Ask her.”
The sadness turned to hope in Cameron’s eyes. He opened his mouth and nothing came out. She tried to ignore the feelings bubbling inside of her that he actually might have wanted to ask her. Ridiculous. They just met.
Marti let out a nervous laugh. She couldn’t help herself. Ah, to have a five-year-old’s logic. To fix her problem, Emma had decided to trade the mom she didn’t want for one she did.
“Sugar Bug, I’m not laughing at you. It strikes me funny you summed up the solution to your problem by swapping women for your dad. Unfortunately, it isn’t going to happen. Your dad chose Shelly, and she’s having his baby.”
Cameron wondered if Marti realized the way she explained things to Emma it sounded like she wanted to be considered in the running to be his wife. She made it sound like he’d chosen Shelly over her. In this scenario, there was no choice. Marti was the winner, hands down. He frowned over his own analysis of the situation. What did it say he’d rather marry a woman he’d only just met over the woman he’d been seeing for only a month and was pregnant with his baby?
“Let me tell you about when I was a little girl. When I was three, my mom and dad both died in a car accident. I grew up without them. I wished all the time for my mom and dad to come back. Of course, they couldn’t.”
“My mom died when she had me.”
“That’s terrible, Sugar Bug. I bet you miss her.”
“I don’t remember her, or know her.”
“I don’t remember my parents either. My grandparents raised me. That’s how I met George years ago. He and my grandfather were businessmen. They fought many corporate battles.”
“Knight tells me stories about fighting dragons.”
“I bet one of those dragons was my grandfather,” she said and winked at George.
“Marti’s grandfather was the biggest, meanest dragon who ever lived. He was also the most worthy adversary.” George smiled at Emma and Marti. He liked seeing them together sitting next to Cameron. They looked like a family.
“When I was little and first lived with my grandparents, my grandfather was very hard to get along with. He didn’t know how to be a dad to a little girl. After a while, he learned by spending time with me. He used to read the financial and business news to me. It was so boring, I’d fall right to sleep. After some time, I liked having him read to me and I would ask questions. He would sit on my bed and tell me all about corporate takeovers and how to buy and sell stock. Pretty soon he let me sit on his lap in his office while he went over his work papers. I would help him make decisions and we would spend hours together.”