The Billionaire's Housekeeper Mistress (15 page)

‘M
Y
B
ROTHERS
always wear jeans,’ Daisy told Ethan before he dressed on Sunday morning.

He obligingly took the hint and dressed in jeans.

‘It’s better if we go in my car,’ she said as they were about to leave.

The green eyes turned hard and resolute. ‘There’s no hiding who I am, Daisy.’

True, but he didn’t have to rub their noses in his wealth with a flash BMW. She returned a challenging look. ‘This is a first meeting. Do you want my family to see you or your car?’

It was a major test, and to Daisy’s intense relief, Ethan acknowledged her point. ‘Okay, we’ll go in yours.’ His mouth quirked in wry appeal. ‘Will that help you relax?’

She heaved a sigh to loosen up the tightness in her chest and managed a wobbly smile. ‘I can’t help feeling a bit anxious. I want them to like you.’

He smiled back, taking her hand and squeezing it. ‘I want that, too.’

It lifted some of the burden from her heart. As she drove them both to Ryde, she kept telling herself Ethan
had shown himself master of any situation and he would handle this one as well as he’d handled the barbecue with the tradesmen. However, that wasn’t really the problem. If their relationship was to have any chance of a long future, this visit would be the first of many, not a single occasion that could be easily negotiated. The big question was whether he would want to repeat the experience or prefer to back off from it.

She parked her car in the street adjacent to the one where her parents lived. ‘Which house?’ Ethan asked, eyeing the nearby residences.

They were all ordinary brick houses, as was her parents’, their architecture very basic. Nevertheless, it was a good, friendly neighbourhood, neat, tidy, gardens well tended, and Daisy was not about to apologise for its lack of class. This was where she came from and where she would come back to if Ethan couldn’t accept it.

‘Not here,’ she answered. ‘Around the corner. Our house is in a cul-de-sac and all the children will be out playing street cricket. I don’t want the car to be in their way. It’s not far to walk.’

‘Street cricket?’ Ethan looked bemused.

‘It’s a family tradition. Every Easter Sunday morning.’ She nodded to her brothers who’d spotted her car and were waving at them. ‘That’s Ken and Kevin standing on the corner, watching out for any incoming traffic and fielding any long balls anyone hits.’

‘Sounds like fun. Can I join in?’

‘If you want to. Though you’ll need to meet everyone first. Mum and Violet and my sisters-in-law will be in the kitchen preparing lunch.’

They alighted from the car and Daisy watched her
brothers eyeing Ethan over as they walked up to meet them. They were older than him, in their forties, and they were both grinning as though they were happy to see their baby sister with a man in tow. They made the introductions easy, warmly welcoming Ethan and calling out to the children to say ‘Hi!’ to their aunt Daisy and her friend. The game was briefly interrupted for yelled greetings and clamours for Ethan to play with them after he’d said hello to Nan and Pop.

There was no awkward hitch in any of the introductions. Ethan impressed everyone with already knowing their names and enough about them to strike up a friendly conversation. When her father led him out of the kitchen to join the street game, her mother gave Daisy a big hug, declaring him a lovely man.

‘He is a bit much, though,’ Violet commented with a worried look. ‘What I mean is…he must be used to women falling all over him and getting his own way. Be careful about giving him your heart, Daisy. He might not be good husband material.’

‘That was part of why I was reluctant to become involved with him,’ she confided, understanding precisely what her sister meant. ‘But the more I’ve come to know him, the more I like him, Violet. Not for his wealth or his good looks. They were stumbling blocks to me, too. I don’t know where this relationship is going. I just like being with him. Okay?’

‘Okay.’ She smiled and raised her hand. ‘Fingers crossed that it works out fine for you. Now tell us more about him.’

Daisy carefully chose to give what she thought was sympathetic information, concentrating on Ethan’s family background—parents wrapped up in their
academic careers, how he learned to love cooking from his grandmother, being sent to boarding school, his pleasure in games. It seemed to satisfy the general curiosity and gave a more rounded view of the person he was.

Her mother was roasting the traditional leg of pork with all the trimmings. The men had already set up a long trestle table in the family room with the twenty-four chairs needed to seat everyone, and as the women chatted, they did all the settings with colourful Easter motif serviettes and bon-bons. The centrepiece was a large round white chocolate mud-cake with a hole in the middle which was filled in and piled high with brightly wrapped miniature Easter eggs. They mixed a fruit punch for the children and put out wineglasses for the adults. It all looked wonderfully festive and Daisy hoped Ethan would enjoy what was always a rowdy luncheon with her family.

She slipped out to the back garden and hid her Easter eggs for the treasure hunt before the children trooped inside from the street. When everything was done and ready they called everyone in to clean up and sit down, which they did in high good humour. From comments flying around, Ethan had endeared himself to the children by hitting lollipop catches when he was batting, and the easiest to hit balls when he was bowling. Masterly control, Daisy thought, and was pleased he’d applied it to make the game more fun.

She actually started to relax over lunch. Ethan happily joined in the many topics of conversation raised, though he listened more than he talked. He complimented her mother on the pork crackling—the best he’d ever eaten. He laughed at her brothers’ jokes. He really seemed to be having a good time.

After the cake had been served and eaten, the children were allowed to leave the table and go on the treasure hunt. They leapt from their chairs excitedly, eager to add to their hoard of chocolate—all except Joshua, who remained seated, counting and recounting his share of eggs from the cake. Violet left her seat to coax him into joining the others. He ignored her efforts and when she took him by the hand, he lashed out, hitting her arm to leave him alone, then flying into a major tantrum, screaming and throwing a flurry of punches at her.

They were all used to this kind of sudden eruption from him, but Violet was upset and embarrassed that it was happening in front of Ethan, breaking into tears and throwing them a helpless look of despair at her inability to control her autistic son. Her husband, Barry, rushed to her side, swooped on Joshua, lifted him up to his shoulder and carried him out of the room.

‘I’m sorry…sorry,’ Violet cried, covering her face with her hands.

Her mother enveloped her in a hug, patting her back and speaking soothingly, ‘Don’t take on so, dear. We all understand.’

‘It’s spoiled the day for Daisy,’ she wailed.

‘No, it hasn’t,’ Daisy insisted, going to her sister to add her comfort. If Ethan was put off by a child with a condition that sometimes defied control, then so be it. No family was perfect, but it was a poor family that didn’t give each other support when it was needed.

To her astonishment, Ethan joined her, appealing to her sister in a gentle voice. ‘Would you mind if I tried something that might interest Joshua, Violet, calm him down?’

‘Oh, dear God, what?’ she cried.

He whipped what looked like a slim black notebook from his shirt pocket. ‘Look! It’s a Nintendo braintrainer. Daisy told me Joshua was fascinated by numbers. I can bring up a program that might catch his attention. How about you take me to him and we can give it a go?’

Violet shook her head at him in wonderment. Daisy, too, was amazed at his initiative. Her mother took charge. ‘Go on, Violet. Give Ethan a chance of focussing Joshua’s interest on something.’

‘All right,’ she answered dazedly, and led him off to the bedroom wing.

Daisy and her mother started clearing the table, needing to do something. The rest of the adults left their chairs to help.

‘You’ve got a good guy there, Daisy,’ Ken commented approvingly.

‘He was great with the other kids, too,’ Kevin remarked.

She flushed with pleasure in their liking of Ethan, though she felt constrained to warn them it might not be a serious relationship. ‘We haven’t been together long,’ she started.

‘You don’t have to be to know you’ve found someone special,’ her mother slid in with an arch look.

‘Yes, I wouldn’t be letting him go in a hurry, Daisy,’ Keith’s wife tagged on.

‘Rope him in and nail him down,’ Keith advised with a grin.

They all laughed, though Daisy couldn’t help thinking they were missing the point. There was no question that Ethan was special. The problem was whether she was special enough for him. He was certainly
making an extraordinary effort to draw her family onside with him. If he managed to pull Joshua into a state of contentment again, he’d be the hero of the day.

Her mother had opened Ethan’s gift box of chocolates and put it on the table for everyone to help themselves and they were just sitting down again to relax over cups of coffee when the three missing adults returned with smiles on their faces.

‘I can’t believe it!’ Violet crowed happily. ‘Ethan showed Joshua how to do Sudoku puzzles on that Nintendo gadget and he’s enthralled with it.’

‘Problem is, he won’t want to give it back, Ethan,’ Barry said ruefully. ‘If you tell me how much it cost, I’ll pay you for it.’

‘No, please…I’m happy for him to keep it.’

Barry shook his head. ‘Can’t let you do that.’

‘To tell you the truth, I didn’t buy it for me. I bought it for him, Barry.’

There was a moment of stunned silence.

Ethan shot Daisy an ironic grimace, then explained how he’d come to do it. ‘I’d already made the purchase before Daisy said I wasn’t to bring gifts for the children. She’d told me about Joshua’s fascination with numbers and it struck a chord with me because numbers have always played a big part in my life. Anyhow, I slipped it into my pocket, just in case the opportunity came up to share a game with him. I honestly have no use for it, myself.’

More silence that sent prickles all the way down Daisy’s spine.

This was the kind of buying-power thing she’d wanted to avoid—obvious evidence of how easily Ethan could acquire anything, cost no object.

The expensive gift could hurt Barry’s paternal pride.

It could instantly undermine the liking Ethan had earned earlier, making her family see him as the bigshot financier, intent on buying himself into their midst, so wealthy himself he was beyond empathising with the difficulties they’d faced and were still facing though their situations had improved. Partly because of him.

Although a gift could be welcomed out of sheer need, the giver could be deeply resented. Daisy was painfully aware of how negatively she had reacted to Ethan until she’d come to know him.

Violet broke the uncomfortable impasse. ‘That’s very thoughtful of you, Ethan. Very kind,’ she said appreciatively.

‘Yes,’ Barry backed her up, grimacing over his own lack of understanding of his son as he added, ‘I’ve always found Joshua’s fixation on numbers weird. I would never have connected it to a game he could play.’ He clapped Ethan on the shoulder. ‘I’m glad you did. It might be a step forward for him.’

They were smoothing over his gaffe in not accepting Barry’s offer to pay.

The iron fist squeezing Daisy’s heart eased its grip.

Ethan gestured an apologetic appeal to the rest of the family. ‘I hope the other children won’t mind him having it.’

‘Not at all, ’Ken replied cheerfully. ‘They’ll be too busy feeding their faces with chocolate. Like us. The three of you had better sit down and indulge yourselves before we polish off this whole decadent box you brought for Mum.’

‘If you’ve scoffed all the ones with caramel fillings, Ken, I’ll scalp you,’ Violet threatened, quickly coming to look.

‘Haven’t got enough hair left to worry about,’ he retorted, grinning evilly at her.

Everyone laughed and Daisy’s pent-up tension was finally expelled. Ethan resumed his seat beside her and she gave his hand a quick squeeze, grateful for what he’d done for Joshua and relieved that no one seemed to be holding his generosity against him, not on the surface anyway. What they thought privately would probably never be discussed in her hearing. She could only hope that his kindness overrode any niggles about the gift.

The party mood was quickly re-established.

Daisy relaxed again.

Keith opened a bottle of champagne and insisted they all have a glass of it because he had things to say and people to toast. Her oldest brother enjoyed making speeches, which were always amusing, so as Keith took his stand, glass in hand, Daisy was smiling in anticipation, not expecting the tenor of this speech to be different today.

‘This past year has been a difficult one for all of us. It’s great to have it behind us with better times to look forward to,’ he started seriously, drawing murmurs of agreement from around the table.

‘The first toast I want to make is to our baby sister. The rest of us were not in a position to help Mum and Dad when they needed it, and Daisy took up the slack like the little champion she is. We all think the world of you for contributing all you did, Daisy, and if there’s anything we can ever do for you, you have only to ask.’

More murmurs of agreement.

Daisy flushed with embarrassed pleasure. While it was lovely to have her resolute support of their parents
appreciated, she couldn’t help wondering if her family had gone out of their way to welcome Ethan just to make her happy. It fitted with Violet’s distressed cry about spoiling her day. Was there genuine liking for him or an act put on for her sake?

‘To Daisy,’ Keith went on.

They all toasted her.

‘Next, I want to thank Ethan for taking on Dad’s investments and giving him his expert advice, turning what looked like a black hole into a gold mine.’ He grinned at Ethan. ‘That was a real bonanza, and for us to see the worry lifted from Mum’s and Dad’s faces, to see them enjoying life again…you’ve done us all a power of good, Ethan. We salute you.’