Suddenly One Summer (FBI/US Attorney #6)(89)
“All right, I want you two to be honest with me about something.” Nicole turned first to Ford, then Victoria, giving each of them a long look. “No bullshit.” She paused. “Does this dress make Zoe look like a pilgrim?”
Victoria exhaled, having been braced for something else. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pilgrim wearing pink.”
“But it’s too fancy, right? Like we’re trying too hard?” Nicole asked.
Seeing the anxious look on Nicole’s face, Victoria pushed aside her own feelings and did what she did best—focused on someone else’s problem. “She looks perfect, Nicole.” Walking over, she tickled Zoe’s tummy. “Because she is perfect. And Peter and Melanie are going to love her.”
Sitting on her mother’s hip, Zoe just stared up at Victoria with those big, brown eyes.
“Not even a smile for me, kid? Tough crowd,” Victoria teased.
Zoe held out her arms.
Nicole aw-ed and handed Zoe over. As Victoria smiled and bounced Zoe on her hip, Ford walked out of the room and headed into the kitchen.
“Huh. I wonder what’s gotten into him?” Nicole said.
Victoria glanced at Nicole, suddenly noticing that the younger woman’s gaze seemed rather knowing.
Luckily, she was saved from having to answer by a knock on the front door.
“Okay. Show time.” Nicole took a deep breath and then exhaled. She opened the door with a smile, introducing herself to Melanie and inviting her and Peter in. The couple looked very nervous—but also excited—as they stepped inside the apartment.
Peter’s eyes softened the moment he saw Victoria holding Zoe.
“There she is.” Swallowing, he walked over and touched Zoe’s hand. “Hey there, Zoe. It’s really nice to meet you.”
In response, Zoe squirmed and reached for Nicole. Victoria handed her over, and everyone chuckled when Zoe ducked her head against her mother’s shoulder and peeked at Peter with one eye.
“She gets a little shy around strangers.” Nicole blushed, quick to amend that. “Not that you’re a stranger, stranger.”
“Well, I suppose I am a stranger,” Peter said gently, still smiling at Zoe. “But we’re going to change that.”
Not wanting to be in the way, Victoria moved off to the side as Nicole, Peter, and Melanie took seats around the coffee table and began to talk among themselves. She watched for a moment and then, thinking that everyone seemed to be getting along just fine without her, she headed toward the kitchen.
Looking out the window over the sink, Ford turned around when she walked in. “Sounds like it’s going well in there.”
“Aren’t you going to say hello to Peter and Melanie?” she asked.
“Sure, on my way out. The room felt a little crowded.” He leaned against the sink, gripping it with his hands. “So, you did it, Ms. Slade. You brought your first family together.”
She remembered that moment in the car, when he’d been teasing her. That is an unexpectedly beautiful way to describe what we’re doing here, Victoria.
“We did it,” she corrected him.
“Right.” He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Then he looked away, and the only sound in the room was the chatter of Nicole and the Sutters talking in the background.
And it was in that moment, standing across from Ford on the opposite side of the kitchen, that Victoria realized something.
She hated this distance between them.
She had done this. She’d pushed Ford away and now she very well may have lost him for good. Or maybe she’d never had him in the first place. Maybe what they’d had was always just a casual fling for him, and he’d already moved on. Maybe she would only make things even more awkward if she told him how she felt. And maybe, quite possibly, she was going to end up crushed at the end of this.
But there was only one way to find out.
Why on earth would I ever allow someone to be able to hurt me that way again?
Because you find someone who’s worth facing your deepest fears for.
Indeed she had.
Thirty-two
THE DRESS WAS killing him.
Not only did Victoria look incredible in it—the cream color showing off her silky, golden skin—but it looked like the kind of dress a woman would wear on a date. And he didn’t want to think about Victoria going on dates, because that got him wondering, again, where she’d been on Friday night. Or more important, who she’d been with.
His jaw tightened every time he thought about another man touching her. But what bothered him even more—if she had, in fact, been with another guy—was the fact that she’d spent the night. Because not once, during the entire time Ford had been sleeping with her, had she done that with him. Sure, she’d stayed late, but after they’d had sex every which way and were both so spent they could barely move, inevitably she’d gotten dressed and had made some excuse about sleeping better in her own bed. And he hadn’t pushed back, because on some level it made sense—her bed was only ten feet away, after all—and also because, at the time, he’d figured that her not sticking around until morning would make everything less complicated in the long run.
Yet here they were, nevertheless. With her wearing a dress that some other guy might be unzipping later tonight and Ford gripping the sink so tight at the mere thought, he was lucky he didn’t dent the stainless steel.