His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) (24 page)

He took a deep breath and blew it out. “Can you believe I’m
nervous?”

Melody hooked her arm through his and pulled him towards the
exit. “Don’t sweat it; you’re a natural. Besides, I haven’t met a lady who has
resisted your charm yet.”

Ruiz’s bark of laughter was heartwarming. It was nice to
hear the lightness in it after that dark cloud he’d been carrying around since
the previous night.

 
“Thanks for the
boost of confidence. Let’s just hope that’s true when she’s sixteen and I have
all her dates tied up in the basement with my barely fed Rottweiler as a
warning to keep away from my daughter.”

Melody laughed, not because of how ridiculous he sounded,
but how plausible that was. There was nothing he believed in more than
protecting the ones he loved, she saw it first hand when he ran into danger
without a thought to himself when Tyler called crying for his uncle to go help
his daddy and mummy. She still got the chills from that night.

When they got to the suite, Ruiz went straight to Jackie,
where she stood in the middle of the living room with Esme on her shoulder. She
was wide awake, her big brown eyes staring intently at Ruiz as he approached
her. Her pink lips hang open, a few drops of milk hanging on her lower one.
First he pulled off his jacket his eyes fixated on Esme that he missed the
chair when he tossed it. Melody picked it up and held it to her chest as she
watched Ruiz take Esme from Jackie, cooing and speaking softly to her.

“I think it’s time for you and me to get to know each other,
don’t you?” he asked and Esme responded with her wide eyed stare. Melody was
worried that she’d burst out crying. Her daughter was one of those who’d go off
with anyone and not make a fuss until she was hungry, wet, or ignored.

He sank onto the couch, Esme on his chest still staring at
him like he was the eighth wonder of the world. Ruiz kept whispering to her,
kissing her rosy cheeks and pressing her little hands to his lips. It was so
beautiful to watch that it brought her to tears and it was good to see she
wasn’t the only one. Jackie was using Esme’s spit-up blanket to wipe her tears.
Melody took her nanny’s hand and they quietly slipped into Melody’s room to let
father and daughter bond alone.

“
Vraiment!
You did
it. You finally brought your family together!” Jackie cheered.

Melody laughed through her tears. “Yes and I pray to God
this is the start of something wonderful. We deserve to finally be happy, to
finally have our dreams come true.” She fell onto the bed with a dreamy sigh.
“Finally, we get our happily ever after.”

Chapter Eleven

Ruiz watched Melody in her element. Giving orders,
dismissing and accepting whatever was brought to her for inspection with a wave
of her hand and a slight head jerk, tapping on her iPad and speaking—it sounded
more like rapping to him—into her Bluetooth in French before she yelled across
the large hall at a staff member who was either hanging a drape wrong or doing
something not to her liking. He was quite impressed with her multitasking
skills and her impressive eye sight—she could spot mistakes twenty feet away.
Like other countries in Europe that once had monarchies, the hotel had a grand
ballroom replicated from the last documented image of the royal ballrooms.
Riana said it added to the richness of the hotels and the ballrooms gave off a
fairytale vibe that she was completely in love with. She may just fall into a
depression when she saw what Melody had done to the place. The last he heard of
the plans was she was turning the room to match her modern winter wonderland
theme, moving most of the relics to storage. Not everything had gone up so
there wasn’t much he could say, but for what he could already see, Melody was
doing a great job.

“You’re mommy has quite the imagination Esme,” he spoke to
the sleeping baby strapped to his chest.

Melody turned around and spotted them. The conversation she
was having with Erin, the interior designer, came to a stop when she saw Esme.
And like always, something he had come to notice and love, her eyes lit up and
her lips spread in a beaming smile. He especially loved how she put everything
on hold until she’d snuck a kiss and a hug with Esme.

“What are you doing here?” Melody cooed as she came to them.

Ruiz turned to the side to give Melody a better view of
their sleeping daughter through the side gap of the baby carrier. “She was
taking a tour of the hotel with her daddy, doing some final checks. I only
noticed she was fast asleep when I asked for her opinion on the foyer center
piece.”

Melody caressed Esme’s plump pink cheek. “Good job, buddy.
The last thing we want is for daddy to make any decisions on décor.”

“Hey! I have style,” he retorted in feigned offence.

Melody looked up at him with a blank stare—something he’d
come to learn the meaning of—and said, “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

He sighed. “Not this again. How many times do I have to
apologize? I wasn’t ignoring you on purpose. I was busy tying up loose ends
with the new management.”

He’d been running around the past month, working his ass off
to keep the deadline Reno had set for him. It hadn’t been easy, especially
finding a reliable managing staff and settling things with the bank after
Antonio’s mess, but with Jon Luc’s help, especially on the legal side with the
bank, everything had finally come together. He was surprised and proud of
himself. Along the way, Melody hadn’t gotten the amount of attention she’d
wanted and she was stuck the entire day in the suite with Esme and Jackie
because he didn’t want either of them going out, not with Antonio’s sudden
disappearance from the face of the earth. Even the police were having a
difficult time tracking him and his associates down. Now he was taking a well
deserved rest and he wanted to do that with his family.

Melody pulled Esme’s little hand from under her chin and
kissed it before gently placing it back. Esme loved sleeping with her fist
under her chin no matter what position she was in and it made her look like the
thinking man. Ruiz found it hilarious and emailed Reno a picture including that
of the Thinking Man. He too found it hilarious and so did the rest of the
family when Reno forwarded it to them. Well, everyone except Melody.

She shrugged, walking away from him. “I would know what
you’re talking about if I knew who you were.”

Well it was a good thing Ruiz had a surprise and that was
one thing Melody found irresistible. With a heavy sigh, he set the bait. “Too
bad you don’t know me because I had a surprise for you. Now I have to call and
cancel everything.”

Like a bear to honey she ran back to him with a skip and a
giggly cheer. “A surprise? What is it? I love surprises!”

With a cocked brow he said, “And who might you be young
lady?”

“Ow, don’t be a pest!” She slapped his upper arm. “You knew
how I was going to react when you mentioned a surprise now what is it and where
are we going?”

“Now if I tell you, it wouldn’t be a surprise,” he teased,
knowing the suspense would drive her up the wall.

They opted to walk, something they’d adapted to doing in
Paris. The days grew warmer with spring settling in and everything seemed
better and the air of doom lessened around him with each day he spent with
Esme. The little girl gave him hope of better tomorrows and forgotten yesterdays.
The lightened weight on his shoulders made him more open more accepting and
trusting of Melody, which was great for their little family because with each
passing day he couldn’t imagine a life without them.

Ruiz hoped Melody loved his surprise. It was another trip
down memory lane, but this trip was one he was sure remained in both their
hearts even during their separation. How could it not be?

“Do you think she’s warm enough?” Melody clucked like a true
mother hen, pushing up onto the tip of her toes to peek into Esme’s little
cocoon on his chest.

It was Esme’s first day out since the day Melody brought her
from the hospital and mommy was acting a little neurotic.

“How could she not be? She’s zipped under my jacket, and
adding to my body heat she’s been bundled up like it was the middle of winter!”

Melody stopped walking on her tip toes and glared at him. “I
just want to make sure she doesn’t catch a chill.”

Ruiz wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into him. He
kissed her forehead and said, “It’s okay to be over protective, it’s a mother’s
right. A little neurotic, but still okay,” he finished with a chuckle that
earned him a pinch in his side.

When they got to the Latin Quarter, Melody fell silent. Her
hands dropped from his arm and she stopped walking. He ended up taking tow more
steps without her before he stopped and turned to her. Ruiz had expected a
reaction, but he didn’t expect the shell shocked look she had on her face. It
worried him. Had he made a mistake?

For the past month since she forced him on the Eiffel Tower
had been sedated. He’d occupied himself in his work and daughter, and Melody
had…he was ashamed to say he had no idea what she had been up to, but she did
make sure they took meals together, like a family—breakfast, lunch and dinner—without
fail. And when there were moments of doubt, when fear would suppress the
courage Melody credited him for having in abundance. But in those moments she
would go to him, their daughter in her arms, asleep or awake, and remind him he
did deserve to be happy despite his past. He didn’t know how it happened, but
he had moved into Melody’s room, the one she shared with their daughter. Lucky
him, she seemed ecstatic about it.

One night, when Esme’s crying woke him, he witnessed the
most precious thing. Melody was rocking in the rocking chair speaking softly as
Esme nursed at her breast. He didn’t hear much, just enough to know it was a
conversation about him, but the sight and sound of his daughter feeding drowned
it all out. How were fathers not jealous of the closeness between a child and
its mother during this critical age? He sure was. Knowing he and Esme would
never share what she and Melody shared when she breast-fed. Thus, the very next
day and each one that followed, he would take Esme to work with him for the
better part of the day and the afternoon. She was strapped to his chest when he
had to move around and he got a specially employed employee who carried the
things he needed plus Esme’s baby bag. Then the tables were turned and Melody
became the jealous one because of the bond he and Esme were forming and without
her. Life was actually beginning to feel normal.

“I hate to say this, but it’s so much prettier in the
spring,” she whispered with a shy smile.

He turned to look at the garden. It truly was more beautiful
in the spring.

The trees were full and green, the lawns an immaculate
emerald. The garden was full of blooming beds of different colorful flowers.
The snow had been hiding beautiful sculptured flower beds and iron-pressed
walkways. It was full today with the sounds of music and children playing
happily. It looked like half of Paris was there to celebrate the warm weather
as the gardens were filled with lightly dressed visitors having picnics and
playing games and every tree bench and the benches lined on the paths and near
the sculptures was filled with people either reading, cuddling and just people
watching. People shared walkways with ponies and the water bodies were littered
with sail boats—both human and toy size. The garden looked like it had come
alive in the spring after a long sleep during winter. It was beautiful.

He turned back to her and held out his open hand to her,
“Come on.”

She took it and they walked hand in hand into the Luxembourg
Garden, the place where they were married. It was just the two of them, the
priest, an American immigration attorney and God. It was beautiful and
intimate. He knew she was sad their family wasn’t present, but Ruiz had been
anxious to marry her especially after her lengthy complaint about him not
moving forward. He’d noticed she’d been trying to get him to propose the day
before he actually did. It was hard not to notice with her waving her left hand
with her mother’s ring on her finger in his face and even harder to feign
ignorance.

“I bet you didn’t expect it,” he said with a laugh. “I bet
you didn’t expect me to ever propose.”

She playfully punched him in the shoulder. “I’d thrown out
so many hints I was beginning to think you’re obtuse!”

He wiggled his left hand fingers in her face and said,
“Really?”

Her jaw dropped and she punched him in the shoulder again,
this time harder. “You rot!”

He laughed unzipping his jacket when Esme fussed. She was
awake. Great timing. He pulled his jacket off and handed it to Melody. Then he
took Esme out of the carrier, unclasped it from his body and also handed it to
Melody.

“Put these in the bag and I’ll carry her in my arms. Don’t
worry, she’s warm enough.”

She placed the bag on a chair mumbling, ‘I’m not neurotic’
and began stuffing the carrier and his jacket in it.

Ruiz kissed Esme’s forehead and watched as she completely
came awake. She blinked a few times, looking around searching for something
familiar before she turned to face him.

“Hey princess, you awake yet?”

She placed her head against his chest in response, her curly
hair tickling him under his chin.

“Don’t fall asleep again. Mommy and I want to give you a
tour.”

He turned her around so that her back was to his chest and
she was sitting on his arm while he held her in place with his other hand to
her torso.

“This princess is Jardin du Luxembourg. You’re mommy and I
got married here.” The only sign he had that she was still awake was the grip
she had on his thumb.