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Her cell phone rang and Emma slipped it out of the pocket of her jeans, and saw that it was Meghan.
‘Hey,’ she said as she answered the call and Meghan drew her breath in sharply.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Am I okay? Yes.’ Emma gazed out of the window at the view of Central Park, and then glanced at the remains of her perfectly toasted bagel. ‘I’m fine. Just finishing breakfast.’
‘Cavelli isn’t...he’s being decent to you?’ Meghan asked cautiously.
‘More than decent. He already has a bond with Ava. He even got up with her in the night.’ Emma pictured Larenzo wearing nothing but his pyjama bottoms, the lamplight washing over his bronzed skin, and she suppressed a shiver of desire.
‘Really,’ Meghan answered, the disbelief audible in her voice.
‘Yes, really. I told you before, Meghan, Larenzo wants to be a part of his daughter’s life.’
‘I didn’t realise you’d become his champion,’ Meghan retorted, and Emma sucked in a breath.
‘Meghan...’
‘Seriously, Emma, you’ve changed your tune since yesterday.’
‘I haven’t—’
‘How do you know Cavelli isn’t just pretending he’s interested in Ava—?’
Emma recoiled at the suggestion. ‘He’s not. Anyway, why would he?’
‘I don’t know, maybe he’s trying to polish his image for the public? Whatever it is, I don’t trust him, Emma, and you shouldn’t either. I know the charges against him were dropped, but you know the saying, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.’
‘And sometimes there’s just smoke.’ The fierceness of her response surprised them both. ‘In any case,’ Emma continued, ‘you know as well as I do that I can’t keep Larenzo from seeing his daughter.’ And she didn’t even want to any more. Not when she’d seen how tender he was with her.
‘You still don’t have to live with him. I talked to that lawyer again and mentioned that Cavelli had practically blackmailed you into living with him. It could provide evidence that he’s unfit—’
‘Meghan.’ Shock as well as anger blazed through her. ‘You have no right to talk about my business with a lawyer.’
‘I’m looking out for you,’ Meghan cried. ‘Emma, obviously you still have some feelings for this man. That’s understandable, considering your shared history. But I think you’re in over your head. You don’t know Cavelli, or what he’s capable of. And someone has to be responsible and think about Ava—’
‘I am thinking about Ava,’ Emma shot back. Her voice shook with the force of her feelings. ‘Trust me, I am. And Larenzo is very good with her. I don’t want to keep him from Ava’s life, no matter what happened in his past.’
‘And what if it turns out he really is dangerous?’
‘It won’t. I trust Larenzo in that.’
‘How can you trust—?’
‘I just do, Meghan,’ Emma cut her off, knowing she meant it. ‘And I need to go now. Ava’s starting to fuss.’
Ava, who was happily chewing on a bagel, looked at her curiously. Emma disconnected the call and flung the phone onto the kitchen counter. Her whole body was trembling.
She wanted to deny everything her sister had said; she wanted to scrub her brain and pretend she’d never heard it. And yet beneath Meghan’s older-sister I-know-best attitude, Emma knew there was concern and perhaps even truth.
She still didn’t know Larenzo at all. It just felt as if she did.
Ava threw the bagel onto the floor, and Emma decided it was time to go out for the day. All of New York was waiting for her to explore, and she could certainly use the distraction.
She fetched Ava’s coat and hat and then buckled her into the stroller, armed with an arsenal of snacks and toys to keep her daughter entertained. Then she hit the streets.
Central Park on a crisp autumn day was one of the loveliest places on earth, Emma decided as she wheeled Ava along the twisting, tree-shaded pathways. She could hear the distant laughter of children on a playground, and some tourists were posing for photographs in front of the statue of Christopher Columbus. Every colour seemed sharp and bright, as if the whole world had been brought into crystalline focus.
As Emma strolled along Ava watched everything avidly; they made it all the way to the Central Park Zoo where they both watched the animal statues dance around the iconic clock. Emma bought a hot dog from a cart and shared it with Ava, enjoying people watching from a park bench, and then when her daughter fell asleep in her stroller she walked back uptown, stopping in front of the gorgeous esplanade with Bethesda Fountain as its magnificent centrepiece.
Every step she took felt as if she were breathing life back into her soul. She hadn’t realised until then just how much of a rut she’d been in, living with her sister and staggering through her days. It had taken Larenzo’s suggestion to get her out of it, and for that she was grateful.
Ava was starting to stir, and so Emma walked back towards the apartment on Central Park West. She stopped at the playground directly opposite the park’s entrance and unbuckled Ava from her stroller before putting her into one of the baby swings. Ava chortled with glee as Emma pushed her, enjoying the autumn sunshine on her face.
She didn’t know how long she spent in the playground with Ava, savouring the day, but it must have been more time than she’d thought for the sun was starting to sink behind the buildings on Central Park West when a hand suddenly clamped down hard on her shoulder.
Emma whirled around, her heart seeming to leap right into her throat, and saw Larenzo glaring at her ferociously.
‘Where have you been?’
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