Gemma

“I don't understand why you don't invite him up to Orchard View for the weekend,” Mom said as she sat on my bed and played with Amelia.

“Because he invited Amelia and me to his beach house,” I answered.

“His beach house in the middle of the winter?”

“It's not the middle of winter. Its early spring!”

“No difference as far as the weather is concerned. It's still cold outside. You're going to be wet and miserable. Who likes a wet and miserable beach?”

“I like the beach; it doesn't matter what the weather is. It will be nice, the waves, the water. It will be fine." I didn't mention that I was looking forward to cuddling together in front of a fireplace. Cold weather meant warm romantic gestures. “Amelia will be so disappointed when she can't play in the water. Won't you sweetie?” Mom asked Amelia.

Amelia wasn't paying any attention to our conversation, too wrapped up in playing with her baby doll.

“Maybe she will. Maybe she won't know the difference. The point is, he invited us to go for the weekend.”

“It's all rather last minute.”

“That's why it's so exciting. You know, spur of the moment invitation. No time to think, just pack our bags and go.”

“You did say Amelia likes him," Mom said with a sigh.

“She adores him.’

“Then why are you trying to hide him from me?"

I rolled my eyes, glad that she couldn't see my face. “I'm not trying to hide him so much as I want to make sure of everything before I spring you and John on him."

“I know your brother can be a lot,” she said.

“A lot?" I laughed. John would have disowned me if he could, but he was legally obligated to me because of the properties w owned in partnership per our father's will

“Are you worried John wouldn't approve of your friend?”

“John would totally approve of him. He has what John would consider” I turned and added finger quotes as I spoke— “a proper background. He's pedigreed and from money. And that's all-John cares about.’

“You know, I don't care about the same things John does,” Mom said.

“I know. You want him to be nice. You want him to be kind. You want him to love and take care of me and Amelia."

“I want him to be somebody you can fall in love with and who will love you in return” She climbed off the bed and hugged me.

I hugged her back. “I think he's somebody who could do that. Until I know that this is really going to be something, I don't want to risk that fallout. You understood why I didn't come home for over three years. Do you think you can try to understand this?”

“I'try to understand you every day. Some days are more trying than others.” She left with a laugh.

I knew in my heart that Chase would love and take care of us. He had been kind when he didn't need to be when I was an annoying little girl. I just hoped he could handle everything I was about to throw at him.

Isighed and pulled out another outfit of yoga pants with an oversized tunic. I looked at my clothes. I needed to tell Chase. I had been weeks since we were together. This baby was only going to get bigger and push me along in front of it. Even thoug! Iwas pretty sure I wasn't exactly showing, I was already curvy and round and getting rounder. My style and clothes had changed. Somebody was bound to notice sooner than later. He needed to know before other people figured it out.

If everything went well this weekend, I would tell him. I should tell him anyway, even if things didn’t work out.

My phone buzzed with a text. I couldn't help myself but smile when I noticed it was from Chase.

“Pack a swimsuit”

What? Oh, he must have had an indoor pool or his condo’s facility had an indoor pool. That made sense. I pulled open the drawer that held my swimsuits. I sorted through a few and figured the two-piece would fit. The top was supportive, and the bottoms covered a multitude of sins.

“He said we need swimsuits,” I said to Amelia. She ignored me, perfectly engrossed in her play.

My phone pinged again with another text from Chase. I flopped on the bed in front of her with the phone in my hands.

She pushed it away and made eye contact.

“Hi baby," I said. “We're going to go on a trip with Chase. Do you remember him?”All content is property © .

“Tace," she said.

My heart zinged with pride. “Yes baby, Chase.”

“Pay Tace."

“You want to play with Chase? Me too, me too."

I pulled her into my lap and snapped a selfie of the two of us and sent it to Chase.

“I think Amelia misses you,” I texted.

My phone rang. I answered the video call and Chase's face filled my phone screen.

Amelia touched the phone, reaching out for Chases image. “Tace."

“Hi beautiful girls," he said. “Are you almost ready?”

“I'm frantically packing. I got your text, swimsuits? Really? Do I need towels?”

“Everything you will need is already there, except for swimsuits”

“What about pajamas?” I teased.

“I was hoping we wouldn't need those,” he said with a smirk.

I covered Amelia's ears.

“There are children present, I said with mock indignity.

“Send over your address so I can come to pick you up.”

Ishook my head.

“I'l have a car drop us off. That way you don't have to rush.’

He sighed. “You don’t want me to know where you live, do you?”

“Think of it as me protecting you from my family. If you pull up tonight, they will bombard you with a million questions and we will never leave,” I said.

“Fine. I'll text over the address for your driver.”

“Thanks. I should probably get back to packing.”

“Gem,” he said, “I look forward to seeing you."

I kissed my finger and placed it against his image before the screen went black as the call ended. A moment later a text with an address that I didn't recognize came through.

I returned to my frenzied packing. I was packed, next was Amelia's stuff. I had to be prepared for every eventuality with her. There was a bag for diapers and another one with toys. I thought I had packed a lot of clothes. It was only a weekend away. But I had to pack even more for Amelia. I never could guess how many clothes she would go through. Sometimes she went through as many as three or four outfits in a day. Sometimes it seemed like more food made it onto her clothing than in her mouth. She was a toddler and she made messes.

“Ready for an adventure?” I asked her as we gathered our bags in the foyer waiting for our driver. She smiled and nodded as I gathered her up. “Pay Tace," she said again.

Every time she said it, my heart swelled.

Iinstalled the car seat as our driver loaded bags into the back. Once in the car, I didn't pay attention to where we were headed until I didn't recognize our surroundings. We were nowhere near Chase's downtown loft.

“Are you sure this is the right way?"

“Yes, ma'am. This is the address you gave me."

Ihad to trust that he knew where he was going. I leaned back in my seat and played with Amelia's toys trying to keep her occupied.

I looked up when the car stopped. We were at a gated entry to what looked like an airfield. The gates slid open, and the driver pulled through. Stopping when we reached a hangar.

Chase opened my door. I looked up at him before I got out.

He held his hand out to me. “Come on, it's a surprise.”

“Are we going to Nantucket?” I asked. “You didn't mention you're a pilot”

“0h, 'm not. I don't fly planes. I pay people to fly planes,” he said.

I sighed with relief. Too many rich men thinking they knew how the world worked ended up crashing their own planes. Lots of famous people too. I wasn't ready to be included in that statistic.

“I hope you packed for the beach,” he said as he leaned into the car to unbuckle Amelia from her car seat.

My driver pulled our bags out of the trunk and handed them to a uniformed man, who looked like a pilot.

“How's my girl?" he asked Amelia. He wiggled a finger into her ribs, and she squirmed with a giggle.

I had hoped she would say his name, so he could be as proud of her as I was. But she was quiet around him.

“50, you really aren't going to tell me where we're going?”

Chase shook his head. “What did you expect?”

“Well, honestly I thought we would be driving out to the Hamptons for the weekend."

“Why the Hamptons? And if you say because all the best families—"

“No,” I cut him off. “My family happens to have a property out there. So, I automatically assume everybody means the Hamptons when they say they have a beach house.”

“Well, my parents used to. So, you aren't too far wrong. But we are not going to the Hamptons.”

I followed Chase up the stairs into the small jet. Amelia's car seat was already installed into one of the chairs. But Chase insisted on holding Amelia in his lap.

My stomach did an extra flip as the airplane took off. I watched nervously for Amelia's reaction. Chase had her full attention, She was happy and giggling. Insisting he meet her had been the right thing to do.