Chapter 30
Felix
I couldn’t take my eyes off Nora, and neither could Cici. Nora had always come across as a simple small-town girl, and now she looked sexy in that black dress, with her long, smooth legs crossed under the table. She fluttered her thick, dark lashes, and I watched the way her sumptuous lips grazed the wine glass as she drank from it.
“I feel like I know nothing about you,” I found myself saying when there was a lull in the conversation between Nora and Cici. My daughter was taking up all of Nora’s attention.
She looked at me, with her clear blue eyes sparkling, and I thought I saw her cheeks flush.
“Well, there’s Minnesota, which I can go on about,” she said. Cici giggled.
“Yeah, I’ve heard all that. Or, rather, overheard,” I replied and Nora sipped some more of her wine.
“What else do you want to know?” she asked, and I breathed in deeply. I had no clue where to begin asking her questions…I felt like there was a whole world to be discovered with her.
“What’s your favorite color?” Cici interjected and Nora and I laughed.
“I like yellow,” she said, and Cici squealed.
“Just like me!”
Nora looked back at me and sighed, licking her lips lightly.
“I guess, the biggest thing to know about me is that I got bored in Minnesota. I helped my granddad run a local grocery store, till he passed away. I might have stayed there, looking after the store, if he was still alive. But once the house was empty, I felt like I needed to go out, to see the rest of the world. And here I am, in Hawaii,” she explained.
Nora was blushing and smiling as she spoke, and I was glad to see her in a better mood. Her outburst from that morning still haunted me, but now it seemed like she had gotten over it, forgiven me for whatever I’d done wrong, and I was relieved.
“And what about you? I know you’re a billionaire hotelier already,” she commented, just as two waiters started bringing in the appetizers to the table. I watched as Nora flicked open a napkin and helped Cici lay it on her lap. That wouldn’t have been something I would have thought of doing.
When the waiters left the room again, I looked into her eyes. Cici was struggling to cut the asparagus and bacon spears with her cutlery, so Nora helped her do it. I cleared my throat.
“I’ve had a pretty straightforward life, I suppose. I grew up in Florida. Mom raised me on her own; I never knew my dad. I studied hard, worked harder, and made some good investments in the stock market pretty early on in life. By the time I was twenty-five, I was part-owner of my first hotel,” I explained.
Nora looked impressed; she nodded her head. Cici was watching me wide-eyed as well, and I realized that she didn’t know those things about me either, whatever detail she could understand.
“And the rest is history…” Nora said, with a smile that went up all the way to her beautiful eyes. I realized that her smile warmed me, it made my stomach clench, and I drank some more of the wine to relax.
“When did you meet Mommy?” Cici asked, out of the blue. Nora stared at me with panic in her eyes; I could see she was afraid of what I would say…if I might hurt Cici again with a bad explanation.
I cleared my throat and looked at my daughter.
“When I was twenty-nine. We met at a party in New York; your mommy was the most beautiful woman there,” I said. It seemed to please Cici, and she smiled before she turned to Nora.
“I have lots of pictures of her. My mommy was beautiful,” she said. Nora smiled warmly at her and nodded.
“I bet, because you are beautiful,” she replied.
Nora looked back at me, and her eyes looked subdued. I could see that she was sympathizing with me, she felt sorry for my loss…just like everyone did who knew the story. I didn’t need sympathy. I needed help with raising Cici. I needed to be taught what to do to be a better parent.
“What do you think of San Francisco?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“It’s the first big city I’ve lived in…so it needs some getting used to, but I’m getting by. I think I like it there,” she replied, and Cici giggled excitedly.
“I want you to stay in San Francisco forever and ever,” Cici exclaimed, throwing her arms around Nora. Nora hugged her back and I gulped, finding that my throat had gone dry.
It was my fault that Cici had grown so attached to Nora. I shouldn’t have exposed her to someone who couldn’t be a permanent presence in her life. It was another bad parenting decision I had made. I cleared my throat.
“Should we look at the main course choices?” I asked. Cici nodded her head excitedly, and I could sense Nora’s eyes on me. I knew she had forgiven me now; she didn’t hate me anymore. I felt relieved.
We ordered the main course, which Nora helped Cici with, and then the desserts were ordered, and within an hour, Cici was beginning to nod off. There was constant chatter at the table. Nora was an easy person to talk to and she filled us in on stories about her childhood, told us about her roommate Katie, and entertained Cici with as many anecdotes as she could think of.
I wasn’t just discovering more about Nora, but I realized that I was getting to know my daughter too.
When Cici yawned for the third time, Nora looked at me.
“I should go put Cici to bed,” she said. I stood up, just as she did, and watched as she lifted Cici up in her slender arms.
“I won’t be longer than half an hour,” she told me as she left the room.