“Okay,” she finally said, and to her surprise Marcus picked her up off her feet and whirled her around. She smiled cautiously at first, then let herself sink into his strong arms. Something about them felt just about right.
“You have made me a very happy man,” he said.
Kyra set her head against Marcus’s shoulder, hoping that she hadn’t opened a floodgate she would never be able to close.
6
Even after the revelation that Kyra was pregnant, and the upsetting phone call from his father, Marcus thought the first night at the estate was a success. The next morning, he, Kyra and Ava had shared a lovely breakfast together, Kyra thrilled by the pancakes the chef had made just for her. When Kyra had expressed that she felt tired, he’d seen his opportunity.
“Why don’t you take a nap,” he suggested. “I’ll play with Ava for a few hours while you rest.”
Kyra had taken him up on it, and he was enjoying playing LEGOs with Ava.
“What are you building?” Marcus asked the little girl.
“A castle,” she told him. “Do you live in a castle?”
“Nope,” he said. “Do you?”
She giggled. “No, I live in an apartment.”
“Me too,” Marcus said. “Neato.”
Ava giggled.
The doorbell rang, and Marcus got up to answer it.
“Delivery for Marcus Ashton,” a man in uniform said.
“That’s me.”
The man began carrying packages of toys, clothing and shoes, sized for women and children, and Marcus realized this was their first shipment of donations for the shelter.
“Let me help you,” he said. “Ava, you want to play outside for a minute while I make sure everything gets unloaded properly?”
“Sure!” she said and followed Marcus out to the driveway.
He tasked two of his assistants with helping unload the vast array of items, then stood taking inventory of everything.
“Wow, check this out,” Marcus said as he discovered a box of skateboards and placed them on the driveway. Ava made her way over to have a look. “My brothers and I used to ride these when we were kids.”
“Cool,” Ava said. “Can I try?”
“I’ll show you how it’s done,” he said and hopped on one of the boards. He’d forgotten how much coordination was required and quickly fell to the ground on his first two tries. Finally, he made it down the driveway.
“That was awesome,” Ava said. “My turn.”
“Okay.”
Marcus helped her climb onto the board and spent the first half-hour teaching her how to balance herself by putting her arms out to the side and stepping off the board if she felt she was about to fall. Ava was a great student.
“You want to try it on your own?” he asked when he felt she was ready.
She nodded and excitedly hopped onto the board. Halfway down the driveway, she fell sideways and let out a loud cry. Marcus hurried to her.
“Can you stand up?” he asked after inspecting the ankle that appeared to be injured.
“It hurts,” she cried and tears poured out of her eyes, slaying him with guilt. He never should have allowed her on that board.
“I think we need to get you to a doctor,” he told her. Should he wake Kyra? Tell one of the staff? He didn’t know what to do but felt time pressing in on him.
Marcus scooped Ava into his arms and placed her in the backseat of his sports car, alerting one of the servants to the situation. On the way to the emergency room, he called Kyra, but her phone went to voicemail.
“Kyra, please don’t worry, but Ava hurt her ankle. I’m taking her to the hospital.”
After explaining what had happened and exactly where they were heading, he wondered if he’d made a huge mistake. Maybe taking care of Ava or any child was too big an undertaking for him.
Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to prove himself worthy.
Because maybe he just wasn’t.
As the limo pulled up at the hospital, Kyra didn’t even bother to wait for Marcus’s driver to come around and open the door. Instead, she burst from the backseat and rushed inside.
What had she been thinking, leaving Ava in Marcus’s care?
She hurried to the registration desk.
“I’m looking for a little girl,” she sputtered nervously. “Ava Rogers?”
“Of course,,” the woman replied, smiling. “The one with the handsome prince.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Kyra said and rolled her eyes. She was totally unimpressed by the handsome prince at the moment.
“I’ll call for a nurse to take you back to her room.”
Kyra charged into Ava’s room and began firing questions.
“What happened?” she asked. “Are you alright?”
She noticed Ava’s foot was in a cast. “What the hell?” The words exploded from her lips, and her eyes fell on Marcus, who was sitting next to Ava, close to her bed, holding her hand.
“Get out,” she said to him and pointed to the door.
“Kyra—” he began, surely ready to spout some dumbass excuse, but Kyra didn’t let him finish.
“Out!” she yelled.
Marcus squeezed Ava’s hand, which enraged Kyra to no end, and left the room, looking forlorn.
“Baby,” Kyra said, tears in her voice. “Are you okay? Tell me what happened.” She couldn’t cry. She didn’t want to upset Ava further.
But Ava didn’t look upset. Ava looked happy as a clam.
“I’m okay, Auntie Kyra,” Ava told her. “I have a broken anchor,” she said, and Kyra let out a strained laugh.
“A broken ankle you mean?”
“Yeah.” Ava nodded and pointed to her cast. “The nurse lady put a pink cast on it, and lookie what Marcus made for me.”
Kyra’s eyes followed Ava’s finger to the image of a goofy-looking dog that Marcus apparently had drawn on her niece’s cast.
“He barks when you scratch his nose,” Ava said and scratched her cast. “Well, the prince makes him bark, I guess.”
“How did you get hurt, baby?” Kyra asked.
“Oh, me and that prince were having the time of our lives,” she said, her smile growing. “He was teaching me to ride on a skateboard, and he told me what to do if I started to slip, but I forgot—and then I fell.”
“Oh no.”
“Yeah, but then I got to ride in his fancy car, Auntie Kyra. It’s the fanciest car I’ve ever been in in my whole entire life. But it didn’t have pop in it like the limo. If it did, it would have been perfect.”
“Were you scared?”
Ava shook her head. “That prince talked to me the whole way to the hospital, and I almost forgot that my anchor hurt.”
“Ankle,” Kyra said, laughing in spite of herself.
“Yeah. He kept me safe,” she said. “I really like that guy. Do you like that guy?”
Kyra smiled at Ava, feeling guilty for going off on Marcus.
“I don’t know him very well—but yes, I think I like him. I’ll be right back, okay, Ava?”
She got up and walked out into the hallway, where Marcus eyed her nervously.