The Tycoon's Toddler Surprise (2 page)

“I know.  You’re lucky,
Miss
y
,” she said softly, then shook herself out of the beginnings of melancholy.  “But who knows, maybe I’ll say something
in one of these letters
that will get through to him and he’ll realize that he has a little girl who would love to meet him one day.  They’ll meet, he’ll fall in love and our world will be as perfectly chaotic as yours.”

Missy rolled her eyes once again.  “You’re dreaming.  Mikhail will never leave his
billion dollar
empire and you know it.”  She paused for a pregnant moment and then ventured into the topic she’d been trying to open up for a while.  “Kristen, I think it’s time
for
you
to
consider a divorce,” she said, holding her breath as she waited for Kristen’s reaction. 
“We’ve all discussed it and we all agree,” she said, implying that her other sister, Debbie, and two brothers, Harmon and Greg, agreed with Missy’s comment. 

It wasn’t long in coming.  Kristen heard the words and stilled, not a muscle moving in her body as she absorbed the implications of what her sister had said.  Her lips wouldn’t move, couldn’t form the words as her heart ached at the idea of severing ties with Mikhail. 

“I’m not ready for that yet,” she finally was able to say, although her lips were numb and her stomach clenched painfully. 

Missy watched her younger sister carefully.  “Well, at least that wasn’t an absolute ‘no’ so I think you’re making progress.  But I’d like you to think about it.  I know you still think about him a lot,” she said and put her hand on Kristen’s as her baby sister looked
back
, blinking the tears away, “but there are other men out there, men who could be a real father to Victoria and a husband to you.”

“Victoria has a father.”

“No, she doesn’t, Kristen.  She has a distant male persona who she knows only through stories you
tell
her and news articles you cut out for her
about his business interests
.  A real father is someone who is there for her when she falls off her bike, who will dry her eyes when she comes home after her first bad date, and who will be cheering for her in the audience when she’s up on a stage performing for the first time.  Right now, Mikhail doesn’t appear to want any of that.  Meanwhile, you’re here and the men around you are panting after you, waiting for any small sign of encouragement before they might dredge up a bit of courage to ask you out.”

Kristen’s eyes snapped over to her sister’s.  “
What
men?”

Missy laughed.  “Are you kidding?  Tom over at the hardware store has been lusting after you for the past year.  George from the grocery store purposely
stocks
the produce aisle at the same time you
shop
each week just so he can say hello and there are at least five other guys who have joined the church so they can see you on Sundays.  Are you blind?”

Kristen looked away and shrugged.  “I’m not ready to date yet.”

“I can see that.  But you’re going to be some day.  And that day is going to come when you realize that Mikhail has cut you out of his life.  If he’d wanted any kind of relationship, even a long distance one with his daughter, he would have shown it now after three years.  Her third birthday is next week.  Do you really think he’s going to show up?”

“Of course not.  He’s got that big thing in Tokyo next week.”

“I bet you sent him an invitation anyway, didn’t you?”

Kristen sighed.  “Yes.  Okay, you’ve made your point.”  She was quiet for a long moment  “I’ll think about it. Okay?” 

Missy put her arm around Kristen and gave her a quick hug.  “I’m not trying to be the mean one here.  I’m just the messenger.
”  She paused for a long moment before saying, 
“We all think you should move on.”

She thought about that and her hurt eyes looked back at her friend and sister.  “Then you’ve all been talking about me?”

Missy nodded. “Of course we have.  That’s what families do.  We talk and harp and horrify until we get our way, then we admonish you for following our advice and messing up your life by not following your own instincts.  We’re good at that,” she said and grinned
,
unashamed. 

Kristen burst out laughing and shook her head.  “You’re incorrigible. “

“You betcha!” she said
and put her arm around sister’s shoulders, hugging her gently
.  “So how about if we get this brood back to the house for lunch before they start to lose their minds from
too much fresh air?
”

Kristen sighed and stood up. “I’m with you.  Just let me run this over to the mail box.  Can you watch Tory for just a moment?”

Missy rolled her eyes, but walked over to the slide where Victoria had just slid down, landing on the soft mulch and rolling onto her tummy so she could race back around for anoth
er trip down the slide.  Missy
almost caught her niece but the little girl was much too fast and didn’t want to waste time brushing off the mulch that now coated her tummy, afraid she wouldn’t have another turn at the slide.

Thirty minutes later, seven kids were settled around Missy’s kitchen table.  Her three were leading the way while their older brother’s
two
were settling the younger ones into their chairs
and their sister’s only child to date was sitting in a high chair next to Victoria
.  Victoria watched with a giggle as they all dug into the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Missy placed in front of them. 

The other adults
were off grocery shopping
or
doing errands while Missy and Kristen took care of the kids.  They rotated each week having a Saturday morning off unless there were sports activities and even then, most of the clan showed up for those to cheer on their cousin, niece
s
or nephew
s
. 

As Kristen poured milk for all seven kids, she grabbed a peanut butter and jelly triangle herself, hungry after having skipped breakfast this morning in order to get all the invitations finalized
for Victoria’s birthday party
.  It was tough work being a single mom but she
wouldn’t
trade a single moment with Victoria, loving her daughter so much it almost hurt at times.  And if the nights were cold and lonely, she just threw on another blanket and grabbed the extra pillow from the opposite side of the bed to snuggle up to at night. 

She laughed as Missy placed a tray of sliced apples on the table and the older kids begged for
potato
chips instead, saying they were too old to be eating baby food like apples.  Missy shrugged her shoulders at that argument and simply put extra apples on
Ethan’s
plate,
her
oldest
that
was turning ten this winter. 
Ethan
didn’t blink an eye at the extra fruit but when Jennifer, his younger sister by three year
s
turned to whisper in her cousin’s ear,
Ethan
slyly placed the fruit on her plate.  When Jennifer turned back, she noticed the fruit and looked confused, but almost immediately knew who the culprit was. 

Missy and Kristen watched as the fruit was snuck around to the various plates, all the kids snickering about how slick they were to get rid of it.  Meanwhile, Victoria happily ate her own apple chunks that had been cut up so she wouldn’t choke on them, oblivious to the older kids’ machinations. 

All seven kids were settled into Missy’s play
room a few hours later when
Harmon
and Laura showed up.  There was a great deal of chaos as they rounded up their kids, plans were made for a pizza get together for the following night and then they were off.  It was easier for Kristen to round up Victoria since her daughter was more than ready for her afternoon nap, happily clinging to
her mother’s
arms as she snuggled down, already asleep as she was strapped into her car seat. 

Kristen didn’t pick up the phone
that
night
when it rang, preferring to spend
a quiet night reading
with Victoria
, playing games on the floor and having a tea party with her stuffed animals.  But once Victoria was settled in for the night, Kristen pulled her laptop closer and did what she did every night, surfing the internet for anything relating to Mikhail that would give her the smallest connection to the man who had turned her world upside down from the moment she’d met him. 

She sighed as she pushed the computer away and turned on the computer, feeling foolish for wanting such a vicarious connection to a man who obviously didn’t want anything to do with her or the beautiful daughter they’d created together. 

She thought about that first night and wondered, if she knew now what would happen, would she do it all over again? 

She smiled into the unseeing television for thinking such a ridiculous thought.  Mikhail had seen her across the room at a corporate party and from that moment on, there had been no stopping him. 

That night had been magical, she thought. 

Four years ago….

Kristen took another glass of champagne and inconspicuously looked at her watch.  Ugh!  Still at least one more hour before she could leave without being impolite.

Had she really only been here thirty minutes?  It felt like three hours! 

“Relax,” her friend Kim said as she moved in beside Kristen.  “If you glance at your watch one more time people are going to think you’re impatient to leave.”

“Is it that obvious?”

Kim laughed.  “If you want to make partner in the next five years, you’re going to have lots of these little social events to attend.”

“Can
’t
I just be a competent lawyer?”

“You’re more than a competent lawyer, Kristen.  Now you have to learn the social side.”  She picked up an appetizer from a passing waiter and ignored the handsome man’s interested glance.  “And it wouldn’t hurt if you cozied up to Jonathan Meyers.  He’s been glancing your way all evening.”

Kristen hid the disgust that welled up inside her.  “Jonathan has been asking me out for weeks.  I’m running out of excuses and he’s becoming a nuisance.”

Kim shook her head.  “Just sleep with the guy and get it over with.  He won’t relent until he’s slept with all the junior personnel.  He considers it a rite of passage in our firm.”

Kristen was able to smother the shudder of revulsion, but just barely.  “I think I’ll stick to winning in court, thank you very much.”

Kim shrugged and smiled.  “Suit yourself.  But don’t blame me when I’m senior partner before you,” and she sidled away, heading in the direction of Jonathan herself with a welcoming grin on her lovely features.  Kristen shook her head, wondering why a smart, intelligent woman would demean herself in that way. 

Kristen looked away, irritated because Kim was probably right but that wouldn’t be the way she’d make it.  She was a good lawyer, if somewhat inexperienced.  But the men in the law firm didn’t have to sleep their way to the top, so she’d just avoid that trap and keep digging in, getting the work done and doing it better than the others. 

Unfortunately, Jonathan didn’t agree.  As he turned and noticed her, he raised his arm, indicating she should join his group. 

Kristen took a deep breath and slowly let it out, then squared her shoulders and moved forward, prepared to do battle if it meant not being sexually harassed in the office. 

As she moved, the people in his group shifted slightly and a taller man appeared. 

Her foot stumbled slightly as she watched him.  He wasn’t just tall, he had broad sho
ulders
, salt and pepper hair
and black eyes
, tanned skin and a look about him that said, “
Approach
only if you dare”.  She didn’t dare.  She
wanted
to run the other way, to hide somewhere safe.  Because this man, with his piercing eyes and an aura that emanated danger signal
s
, not in caution yellow but in flashing, blinding red, was watching her as if she were his next meal and he hadn’t eaten in over a week.
Damn, that hair should have made him more approachable, but the grey mixed with the black just made him look sexier and much more sophisticated than any other man in the room. 

“Kristen, I wan
t to introduce you to Mikhail Benovich
.  He’s our newest client and flew in for a meeting we’ll both be attending tomorrow.”  Turning to the other man, Jonathan explained, “This is Kristen Miller.  She’s one of our brightest up and coming lawyers and I’m sure she’ll be a huge asset to our team.”

Kristen extended her hand, praying he wouldn’t notice the slight shaking as his warm hand engulfed her smaller one.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr.
Benovich
.  I look forward to helping however I can.”

“I’m sure Jonathan wouldn’t have put anyone on the team who wasn’t up to the challenge,
”
he said, his
piercing blue eyes watching her green ones
carefully.