Chapter 3

Samantha

“Hey baby,” Samantha said, her voice like a singsong.

Erin scampered over towards her, arms outstretched. She quickly picked him up and hugged him tightly. Already at four, he was getting more independent. She dreaded the day when hugging and kissing mommy were no longer at the top of his agenda when he saw her.

Praying that that day was way in the future, she buried her face in his silky hair that smelled like baby shampoo and grass. The latter had her lips twitching.

“Have you been playing outside with Mayor?”

He bobbed his head quickly from side to side. Then, when she frowned, he quickly mumbled, “Bella said I could.”

Her frown deepened—he’d started to lie to her. Why was that?

Because he told the truth in the end, she didn’t remark on it. Instead, murmured, “Good!”

Samantha had been trying to encourage him into playing in the yard. Wanting him to have a childhood more like her own, but on the odd times Janice watched over him, she’d always made it plain how she disapproved. That it wasn’t safe outside.

For anyone.

But especially with the wealth the family had at their fingertips.

Though she came from a different background, she could empathize. As per the terms of the prenuptial agreement and Jamie’s will, Samantha had been left nothing, not that there was much after his debts had been settled, but she didn't even get a cent of the gigantic life insurance sum either. It had all been held in trust for her son. Until he reached his majority, she managed the estate. So, she knew exactly what kind of pull all those noughts in the bank balance could have.

Erin was in danger of being kidnapped, but they had the best security, and she refused to let her son feel like a prisoner growing up. Especially in the safety of his own backyard.

To that end, she’d bought him a dog. A German Shepherd pup he’d named Mayor. She wanted the pair to bond, and was hoping that after enough training, Mayor would attack if anyone was to threaten her son. Guard dog and friend… She hoped such an end was achievable.

He peeked up at her through his bangs. They were overlong, reminding her he needed a cut. Something else Janice had prompted her about before.

Truth was, Samantha was more interested in her little boy being a child than a shining example of the Garrett name.

She grinned at his anxious expression when really she wanted to tear Janice a new one – he only started acting this oddly since his last visit with his grandparents. Wondering what her mother-in-law had said to make him seem so nervous, and wishing she could erase it from his memory banks, she murmured, “Did you have fun?”

Finally, his grin appeared. All toothy gaps and pearly white teeth. “I did! Mayor barks when I tell him to sit. Then dances around me until I’m dizzy.” He chortled.

She shook her head. “He’ll learn.” She hoped.

“Of course he will,” Josh inserted smoothly. She blinked, having forgotten he was there, her focus on her child absolute. “He’s only a puppy, right? Give him time.”

Erin squealed in delight. “Uncle Josh! Uncle Josh!” He bounded from her arms straight into Josh’s. Unlike her, her son held no reticence where the other man was concerned. Testament, she supposed, to how often Jamie and Josh had hung out. Although, that could have done some damage in itself. Erin, by the time his father died, had been uneasy around him. Was it telling that her son didn’t feel the same uneasiness around Josh?

Deciding not to question her good fortune considering the charade they’d both have to pull for the foreseeable future, a charade she prayed wouldn’t hurt her son, she smiled at them both. “Dinner time!”

Erin turned big blue eyes on his uncle. Not by blood, but Josh was actually his godfather, so the title fit.

“Is Uncle Josh staying for hamburgers?”

She grinned at his wide-eyed look of delight, and knew the question was more of a prompt than anything else. “I haven’t forgotten,” she teased.

Erin shot her a coy smile, and at that moment he was so like his father, she had to fight not to shudder. Jamie had been so charming, and it was only natural her son would follow in his footsteps in some ways. Normally, that smile amused her, but after speaking of the past with Josh this morning, her stomach roiled at the sight.

Jamie had died just after Erin’s birthday. She had time to undo any damage his father might have done. Nature, on the other hand, she couldn’t change. But she’d do her damnedest to make sure her son wasn’t the sociopath his father had been.

“Just wanted to make sure,” Erin murmured, looking positively angelic with his white blonde hair.

“I promised, didn’t I?” She made a point to bring that up. Erin had a thing about promises. Mostly because Jamie had broken every single one he’d made their son. “We never break a promise, do we?” she parroted, trying to make the mantra stick.

Erin’s head bobbed again. “We never break a promise,” he sang. Then, looking up at his uncle, he murmured, “Are you, Uncle Josh? Are you staying for hamburgers?”

Josh shot her a look and she gave him a tiny nod. “Sure am, short stuff.” He balanced Erin on one arm, and reached up with the other to scrub his hand through Erin’s mop.

Squealing, Erin patted his shoulders in delight. Wryly, she murmured, “That’s code for ‘put me down’.”

Josh laughed and lowered Erin to the ground. He immediately took off, heading to the pile of toys in the family room.

She watched him a second, saw him pull out some toy cars from a box, and nodding in satisfaction, turned to Josh. Though she saw he was looking at her in surprise, she ignored it. “You can stay in here, or, through to the kitchen. Your choice.”

“I can help,” he told her, stunning the hell out of her.

“You cook?” she questioned, coming to an abrupt halt on her way from the family room to the kitchen.

He rolled his eyes. “A man has to eat, doesn’t he?”

“I thought you’d have fancy pants cooks and housekeepers.”

“Oh, I do. But it doesn’t mean I can’t cook.”

When she looked at him, her suspicion obviously bleeding through, he grumbled, “My nanny insisted on it.”

Ah, that made sense.

She didn’t know his mother well, had only seen Elizabeth when Josh’s and Jamie’s families had gotten together. She’d quickly seen that Janice and Elizabeth were of the same ilk; distant mothers who preferred dumping their children in the care of nannies and paid staff to actually having a relationship with them.

The thought fired her up.

She refused to let Erin have that kind of upbringing.

When they made it into the kitchen, Josh whistled. “How did I not know you’d moved?”

She pulled a face. “Why would you care?”

He scowled. “Of course I care. Erin is Jamie’s kid. I’ll always keep an eye out on him. How do you think I know about the puppy?”

Deciding not to question that considering the man had agreed to her proposition, and was willing to go to extreme lengths to keep Erin with her, she murmured, “We moved in three weeks ago.” Though, how he did know about the puppy was weird.

“Why? Jamie said you loved the penthouse.”

At her snort, his scowl darkened. He looked back at the doorway that led to the family room, and, lowering his voice, whispered, “Another lie?”

“Another lie,” she repeated bluntly. “Jamie liked to keep tabs on me. One entrance and exit. Complete with a camera trained on it, twenty-four hours a day. Perfect for a possessive bully.”

It shouldn’t have pleased her, but his white face, blank with astonishment, had a twisted kind of satisfaction flowing through her. She’d told no one about the kind of brutality she’d endured at Jamie’s hands. And though purposely shocking him might have been cruel of her, seeing the astonishment bewildering a man whose reputation was renowned for cool collectedness… Well, it felt like retribution.

He licked his lips, slowly processing her words. She ignored him though. Deciding that, after her vindictive verbal maneuvering, the man needed a break.

Moving about her new kitchen with a contentedness that had been long in the making, she started to make dinner. She’d loathed the apartment where Jamie had insisted they live. Sure, it had been trendy. The heart of Tribeca could be considered nothing else, though she was from a small town, and though the city lights had made her happy at one point, after Erin’s birth she’d changed. Mostly because that was when Jamie had changed the most. He’d always been aggressive, and that had grown worse when she had the baby to look after.

The kitchen was the antithesis of the old one. There, glass and chrome and stainless steel had merged together into one minimalist nightmare. Here, it was more cozy than anything else.

She guessed it needed new cabinets and the like; it certainly needed new white goods. But it reminded her of home, the home she’d had when she was a little girl, the home she’d left after meeting Jamie.

Everything centered around the kitchen table. A large oak beast that seated six in matching chairs with spindly dowels at the back. An old-fashioned fanlight swirled desultory overhead. It might have seemed like an old fitting for a kitchen, but she was glad for it. She intended for the kitchen to be the center of this home. Envisaged a future where Erin did his homework in that spot.

The thought pleased her, and sporting a smile, she headed for the fridge and took out the fixings for the burgers she’d promised her son.

Because Josh had been quiet for so long, she decided to break the ice. “What is it about kids and McDonald’s?” she asked cheerfully. “Erin has never been, and he’s obsessed with them.” She held up the ground turkey patties and the sweet potatoes she had in her hand. “My compromise,” she told him, maintaining that cheerful tone.

He blinked at her, and with a gentle headshake, murmured, “He’s happy.”

That statement had her frowning. “Shouldn’t he be?”

“He lost his father recently, has moved from the only house he’s ever known…” He lifted a hand, rubbed his forehead. “I expected him to be–”

Understanding filled her. “Janice and Frank aren’t happy about it either. They noticed too,” she added when he stared at her blankly. “I kept it from him as best as I could. By the end, though, Erin was frightened. And I’m not sure what I could have done to change that. Jamie glowered. Used to shout a lot, even when he wasn’t railing at me. It used to unsettle Erin.” She shrugged. “There was nothing I could do.”

When he didn’t reply, she shrugged again and got on with dinner.

She couldn’t force him to see that she hadn’t done a damn thing to ruin Jamie’s image in Erin’s eyes. His father had done that for himself. Something that Frank and Janice just couldn’t seem to understand.

Josh would either support her, help her, or he wouldn’t. It was down to him, and though before, she’d have begged him for his aid, not now. Not after she’d just revealed how big a bastard her husband and his best friend had been to her.

She wanted to explore this feeling, needed to enjoy the self-righteous satisfaction in having tarnished Jamie’s image, when it deserved more than a simple tarnish. But completely obliterating.