18
BENJAMIN
“Ta-dah!” I said, sliding a plate onto the kitchen table across from Harper with a dramatic flourish. “Grilled cheese!”
Harper’s nose wrinkled as she eyed my charred-black attempt at a sandwich. My bear agreed, turning up his nose at the dish as well. So I wasn’t a cook. Not in my skill set.
“I miss Lia,” she said, her shoulders slumping down in her seat. “Why can’t she come over for dinner anymore?”
I miss Lia, too, I thought sadly. But I couldn’t say that. That would just make things more confusing for Harper. Instead, I had to put on a brave face.
“Miss Lewis is your teacher,” I said carefully. “You see her at school.”
Harper had been asking for Lia every night that week, ever since our encounter at the museum. Every day, Harper had gotten more and more desperate for Lia to come over for dinner or a Disney movie marathon, and every day, it had gotten harder and harder for me to explain why Lia wasn’t coming around anymore. I had been trying to keep my explanations vague, but I knew Harper was losing patience with me.
Harper wasn’t the only person I owed an explanation to. I needed to tell Lia the truth. But ever since our encounter at the cafe, she had all but vanished. She was not on the playground when I went to pick up Harper. She wouldn’t return my calls or texts. She had cut me off, cold-turkey.
And honestly, I couldn’t even blame her. I knew the second I walked into the cafe that agreeing to meet with Julia Owens for a second time had been a mistake. Julia had practically begged for a second meeting to finish up where our last interview had been cut short. She had insisted that she still had questions she needed answered for the profile she was writing for the Times and since I knew it was my fault for walking out on our interview, I had reluctantly agreed.
I had thought meeting in a public cafe would spare me from her blatant attempts to get into my pants, but I was wrong. As soon as I sat down, she made it very clear that the only ‘unfinished business’ she was interested in was her quest to fuck Benjamin Johnson. Well and to get more on the shifter story.
The Johnson Clan; Billionaire Bears
And while I had told Lia the truth about us, I wasn’t about to confirm the whole city’s suspicions. We did have a human client list as well, and if some of them were seen with shifters, investors would end them. People were still so closed minded. I couldn’t afford for that story to go public.
I had been right in the middle of turning her down, once and for all, when Harper had rushed into the cafe. I had tried to defuse the situation but that all went out the window when Harper blurted out that Lia was my girlfriend.
I only lied to protect Lia. To spare her from the tabloid headlines that would inevitably follow: ‘Johnson Hotel Mogul has secret affair with Teacher at Estranged Niece’s Private Shifter Pre-School!’
Lia wouldn’t just lose her privacy. She would lose her job. She was already on thin ice before, and a newspaper scandal would no doubt destroy her prospects at Vivatin Day School. I thought I was doing the right thing, but when I saw how much my words devastated her, I realized I had gone horribly wrong.
“Tell you what,” I said, picking up the plate of grim grilled cheese to change the subject. “Why don’t we forget about Uncle Benjamin’s sad attempt at cooking and just order Chinese? How about that?”
Harper’s face lit up, and she nodded enthusiastically. I may not have known the right way to explain Lia’s absence, but I definitely did know the way to my niece’s heart, noodles.
“Will Miss Johnson be having the usual?” I asked, as I reached for my phone and tapped open the food delivery app. “Chicken lo mein?”
“And two spring rolls!” Harper nodded excitedly.
“Two!” I gasped. “How can one little girl eat two spring rolls?!”
“One for both of us, silly,” Harper giggled. I felt my heart melt a little, and I tapped the order into my phone.
I knew the lo mein was only buying me time. I would have to answer her questions eventually. I would have to offer a better explanation for why Lia suddenly wasn’t around anymore.
And that’s not all I would have to explain.
“Harper,” I said, setting my phone down. “There’s something we should talk about.”
Harper blinked up at me.
“It’s about your mommy.”
In between my attempts to reach Lia, my brain had been in overdrive trying to figure out the best way to tell Harper the truth about her mother.
The day after the cafe fiasco, I got a call from the family attorney. He informed me that my sister had relapsed and left rehab. I believe ‘dropped out’ was the term that he used over the phone, but knowing my sister, I imagined that the truth was more dramatic than that.
I wasn’t shocked to hear that Celeste’s latest attempt to get herself together had failed. But I was shocked by what he revealed next. Apparently before she had left rehab, my sister had been in touch with the attorney. She had requested paperwork be drawn up, granting full custody of Harper to me. My parents, and my brothers, were going to flip.
“She said you were a better parent to Harper than she ever could be,” the lawyer had relayed.
I had gone through the spectrum of emotions. Shock, sadness, concern. And finally, I had settled on relief. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to send Harper back to an unstable home with my unstable sister. And, selfishly, I was relieved that I wouldn’t lose my niece.
While I was more than happy to accept the full responsibility of raising Harper for the foreseeable future, I wasn’t sure how she would react. Would she be happy? Devastated? Confused?
“What about my mommy?” Harper asked now, blinking up at me. She didn’t look afraid or forlorn, just curious.
“Well,” I took a deep breath, “She loves you very, very much, Harper, but… sometimes love isn’t enough. Your mommy knows that you need more than love, and she knows that she can’t give you all of the things you need right now.”
“I know that, Uncle Benjamin,” Harper said bluntly. “I love my mommy too, but she’s a hot mess.”
I had to fight the urge to laugh at my niece’s sass.
“So,” I said. “How would you feel about living with me permanently?”
Harper twisted her face into a thoughtful smirk, then the expression melted into a smile.
“I’d like that. A lot.”
“Good,” I smiled back, relieved. “I want this to feel like your home, Harper. And I want us to be a family.”
“But...” Harper said thoughtfully, her smile fading. “A family is supposed to have a mommy and a daddy.”
“Not all families are the same. Families are people who love and care about each other. Remember our clan is made up of many types of families, there’s Gamma and Grandpa, and Uncle Dillion…”
“I want Lia to be part of our family,” she interrupted.
“You and me both, kid,” I sighed before I could stop myself.
“So why don’t you just ask her?” Harper asked as if it was that simple.
“I wish it worked like that,” I said, “But it’s complicated.” Especially with a human, I wanted to add.
“You say that about everything,” Harper rolled her eyes. “Maybe you should just grow a pair and apologize already.”
“Harper!” I gasped. “Where did you learn to talk like that?”
She just rolled her eyes at me again.
“Please,” she said. “I’m a kid, not a dummy.”
I felt my heart swell with affection for my ridiculously sassy niece, and I grabbed her in a hug. My bear relished in her scent. She was ours now, forever. A real member of the clan.
“You are wise beyond your years, you know that?” I ruffled her hair.
“Enough talk,” she scoffed. “Let’s figure out how we’re going to get Lia back!”