Have Yourself a Curvy Little Christmas: A Perfect Fit Holiday Novella (A Perfect Fit Novel) (2 page)

The bastard knew she was pregnant when he disappeared. When she told him, he glanced at her stomach and sneered with disgust.

Too bad. You had a really nice body. Maybe you can get it back after you give the kid up. I know you aren’t thinking about keeping it. I wouldn’t allow you to care for my goldfish. There is no way you can care for a child.

Up until that moment she had thought about giving her child up for adoption. There were a lot of lonely couples who wanted children. Her own parents had adopted a child. Her little sister, Ellis, had turned out pretty damn good. But when Virgil said she couldn’t care for a child, she knew she had to prove him wrong. She knew she had to prove everyone wrong. She was capable of good things. She could be a good mother.

“Mr. Rowe’s office is on the third floor. Will you be able to manage with the little one for three flights? There is a service elevator in the back if that would be better.”

“This house has an elevator? Well, damn.” She took in her surroundings and realized that she shouldn’t have been surprised. The house was enormous, practically museum-like. She felt out of place in it, like her dirty boots shouldn’t be allowed to touch the floor. “I can carry him. The piece-of-crap stroller I got from the thrift store broke a month after Dash was born. I have to carry him everywhere. I’ve got arm muscles that can rival any professional wrestler’s.”

The housekeeper gave her another look and discreetly glanced at Dash before she ascended the stairs.

“I know I probably won’t be staying long, but I would feel a little better if you told me your name.”

“My name is Dovie, ma’am.”

“Dovie! What an awesome name. It suits you. It’s sweet and delicate. Unlike my name. I always hated ‘Dina’ growing up. My real name is Adina, but that’s not much better. There’s no romance in it, but I was named after my mother’s great-aunt. My stepfather got to name my sister. Her name is Ellison. She was named after his grandfather. But her name is kind of cool. People always remember a girl named Ellis.”

“That’s quite interesting, ma’am.”

“I’m babbling. I know.” She pressed a kiss to her son’s smooth cheek, hoping that it would soothe her frayed nerves. It did slightly. There was nothing that smelled better than a clean baby. “I’ve haven’t seen Virgil in a very long time. I’m surprised he agreed to see me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” A sad look crossed Dovie’s face before she turned away and continued up the stairs.

Dina stopped talking and tried to gather her thoughts before she faced him again. This meeting was too important to screw up.

Dovie stopped at the top of the stairs and gestured down the long hallway. “Mr. Rowe is just through that set of double doors, ma’am. His personal office is the first door on the left.”

“You’re not going in with me?”

Dovie smiled gently at her. “Miguel will assist you from here.” She walked away leaving Dina feeling truly alone.

Stop it!

She shook her head, trying to shake herself out of her stupidity. She had to do this. Dash deserved it.

So she walked down the long hallway, taking in her surroundings as she tried to ignore the fact that her heart was nearly pounding out of her chest. This part of the house felt different. A little more modern. A little less warm, with its dark mahogany wood and tasteful modern art lining the walls. She couldn’t imagine Virgil here. His quarters. His office. When she had known him he had never worked. Never had a place he called home. Hotels seemed to be his preferred residences. Maybe he had changed in the past year. Change was possible. She knew she had undergone some. Maybe that’s why he agreed to see her. Maybe he was ready to take a role in his son’s life. Or maybe Virgil was going to throw her out on her ass. It wouldn’t matter if he did. She wasn’t going away easily.

She walked through the double doors, finding a handsome man wearing a dark suit and tie. Even though he stood straight, almost regally, she knew he was no butler. He almost reminded her of one of those Secret Service men, or some kind of trained assassin. He looked like he didn’t take any shit from anybody, and that’s why she smiled when he began to walk towards her. She couldn’t picture this man spending any time with Virgil. Virgil was a man who hated order and rules. This man looked as if he lived by them.

“Ms. Gregory.” He approached and gave Dash a very long look.

She knew Dash didn’t look very much like Virgil. He had dark brown hair and dark eyes. Skin that was almost olive. His father had been light, angelic looking, with hazel eyes and sandy blond hair. She would go for a DNA test if she had to. Virgil had been the only man she had been with for a very long time. Dash was his son, even if Virgil wanted nothing to do with him.

“Please follow me.”

They walked through a set of double doors, past a tiny room with only a bed in it, before they walked into a wide-open space. At first all Dina could see was books, shelves and shelves of them, but it was only when she heard the doors shut behind her that she noticed the man sitting behind a simple sleek black desk.

“Ms. Gregory.” The man didn’t look at her. His eyes were only focused on her son, who was looking back at the stranger. But he was no stranger to her. She knew him because she had spent two long awkward days in his presence. He was Benjamin Rowe, head of Rowe Steel and Rowe Communications and about a half-dozen other businesses that had made him a billionaire. He was Virgil’s brother and he hated her.

Shit.

Virgil she could face, Virgil she knew, but Ben was one of those men who were hard to read. He was humorless and serious and responsible. All the things his brother wasn’t.

Ben stood up and walked towards them, and Dina had to force herself to not to step back. He was huge and even though he wore a refined three-piece suit and glasses there was something a little dark about him. Not dangerous, but dark. She had the same reaction to him now as she did when she met him nearly two years ago.

“You’re not Virgil,” she managed to get out.

For some reason she didn’t expect to find Ben there. She always pictured him as a man who traveled the world. London one week, Paris the next. But she remembered what Virgil had told her about Ben. That he was nearly a recluse. That his wife’s death had sucked what little life he had left out of him.

“Look, if he sent you to deal with me save your breath. This is between me and him.”

“This boy…” Ben never bothered to take his eyes off Dash. “This is Virgil’s son.”

“Yes.” Dina was surprised that there was no question in his voice. Like he knew it was a fact. “You believe me.”

She looked at Dash and then up at his uncle. It struck her then how similar they looked. Dash was dark like Ben. They had the same eyes. The same-shaped nose. Ben could be his father. How had she never noticed before? But then again she tried never to think about Ben.

“I may have had a few hazy nights these past few years,” Dina said, “but I know I have never slept with you.”

“No.” Ben’s eyes finally snapped to hers. And in the warm room a chill—no, more like a tingle ran down her spine. Two years ago she hated when he turned that intense stare on her and she hated it now. Nobody ever had that kind of power over her, the power to make her feel … Self-conscious. That’s why she fell for Virgil and his lazy glances. Virgil had a kindness about him. He had a way about him that pulled people in. Not Ben. No wonder why the man lived in hiding.

“What can I do for you, Ms. Gregory?”

“I-I,” she stuttered, still a little flustered by his long observation of her. “I need to see Virgil.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

“Oh, you better make it possible. I spent five days on a bus with a ten-month-old baby to get here. Five days. I’m sure you’ve never ridden a bus, so you have no idea how much they suck. You tell that bastard that I’m not going anywhere until I see him. He needs to do the right thing by his son.”

“I wish I could make him do the right thing.” Ben looked weary for a moment. “More than anything I would like to make him accountable for this.”

“I can make him accountable. I’ll go to court. I won’t let my baby suffer.”

“The courts won’t help you, Ms. Gregory. I’m afraid Virgil is dead.”

Chapter 2

I Have No Gifts to Bring …

Ben watched Dina pale. She stumbled backward, as if the news of Virgil’s death was a physical blow. He reached for the child, for the nephew he never knew about, and took him from his mother before she fainted. “Sit down,” he ordered, wrapping his free arm around her body and guiding her to the couch near the window. He couldn’t help but take note of the scent of her hair. Like strawberries and cream. Even though she looked like a homeless person at the moment, she smelled like something he would like to eat.

What a strange thought.

Especially coming from him, especially about Dina. He didn’t like her when they first met two years ago. She talked too much. She laughed too loud. She said the wrong things, but there was something about her that kept him watching her the entire time he was near her. He looked at her now, at her pale face and big sad eyes. Dina must have loved Virgil. He didn’t think so then. He thought she was just going to be another one of Virgil’s girls, but he was wrong. He was wrong about many things.

“Take off your coat. It’s warm in here.”

“Would you stop barking at me, jerk face?” she said, but she obeyed him, her hands shaking a little as she unzipped the ugly puffy green jacket she was encased in.

“Ma?”

It was then Ben realized that he held a child in his arms. He had never held a baby before and stared at the small powder-scented boy with wonder. He had always wanted children. He and Karen had tried for years, but they never got their wish.

“I’m okay, baby. Can you please take off his hat?” she said to Ben. He did as she asked, revealing a mass of dark curly hair. He looked just like Ben did when he was a baby. There had been women who claimed that Virgil had fathered their children. Each time a paternity test was issued, each claim had proved to be false, but this time when Ben saw the little boy who was supposed to be his brother’s, he knew this woman told the truth.

He tossed the hat on the couch and carefully unzipped the boy’s coat. He was dressed nicely in a little sweater-vest, blue corduroy pants and a button-down shirt. Much better than his mother, who looked as if she had gone shopping in a dumpster.

“What’s his name?” Ben asked, looking at his nephew again.

“Dash.”

“Dash?”

“I thought he looked quite dashing when I saw him.” She looked from her son to Ben. “I hate to admit this, but he looks just like you.”

“I noticed the resemblance.”

“Is that why you believed me? I thought you would have had a doctor here to do a DNA test by now.”

“That’s not necessary, Ms. Gregory.”

“Dina,” she corrected. “Geez, you make me feel like I’m back in grammar school when you call me Ms. Gregory.” She drew in a couple of slow deep breaths, trying to calm herself before she looked at him with wide eyes. “What happened to Virgil?”

“Skiing accident.” He looked at Dash and then back to his mother. “Vodka and the slopes don’t mix.”

“Ski accident.” She shook her head. “What a rich-people way to die.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s just that you never hear of regular people dying that way. ‘John Smith, plumber from Toledo, died in a tragic ski accident today on the slopes of Aspen.’ But Virgil … That seems just like the way he would go.”

“Does my brother’s death amuse you?”

“Of course not.” Her eyes flashed. “He was the father of my son and I may be mad as hell he walked out on me, but I would never be happy that he’s gone. And you can go to hell if you think that.”

He stared at her for a moment, his respect for her going up slightly. No one had ever told him to go to hell. They never had the guts. “You were with him for six months. I know you must have cared about him.”

“Yeah. He could be an asshole, but he was my friend too.”

Ben nodded; somehow in her inelegant way she expressed exactly how he felt about his brother. “You look very different than the last time I saw you.”

“You try having a baby and not gaining any weight. I know I’m a little more bountiful than usual, but I like me and if you don’t you can shove it.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t beautiful. I just said you didn’t look the same. I prefer you this way.”

She was taken aback by his comment. He hadn’t meant to say those words, but they weren’t a lie.

“I always thought you looked a little gaunt before,” he said to cover how he truly felt.

She was beautiful then but even more so now. Despite her ratty clothes and messy hair, he had a hard time pulling his eyes away from her. And his body—it reacted to her, wanting to move closer when his brain told him to back away. She was lush. Her skin was peachy. Her wild auburn hair was thick and healthy. He imagined what she would look like all cleaned up. He imagined her on his arm. Which was an odd thought, a dangerous thought, because he had promised himself that after Karen there would be nobody else.

“My, my, sir. If you keep up with those outrageous compliments you might swell my head.” She rolled her eyes. “So what now?” She stood and took little Dash out of Ben’s arms and kissed her son’s face. “I guess I need his death certificate.”

“For what?”

“I can get Social Security from the government. Right?” She looked so unsure. “I think I heard that. Because Virgil is dead, Dash is entitled to those benefits.”

He nodded.

She pursed her lips. “Do you think it will take very long? I rented a motel room for tonight, but my bus leaves the day after tomorrow and I have to get back to work soon or I’m going to lose my job. And I can’t afford to lose my job. Do you think you can get the certificate to me by tomorrow?”

“I’m not giving it to you.”

“What?” She looked up at him in shock. “I need that. I need it for him. Listen, I’m not asking you for anything except what my son deserves. I know you hate the fact that I tainted the Rowe line with my blood, but get over it. My kid is part of your family whether you like it or not.”