Trouble in Paradise (7 page)

Chapter Five

“T
he girls already ate. They ate swiftly so they could get back to their hair and nail fest,” Galinda laughed. “As you can see they started with me on the hair, but since they wanted me to cook they gave me a break on the nails. They promise they’ll tie me down and make me sit for it later,” she laughed harder. “And they’re planning on getting you too, Bambi. Be afraid; be very afraid because my niece is on some crazy water marble kick where she’s planning to use neon colors to create a “zombie-like” print. What is a zombie-like print?”

Bambi shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I think I’ll hide in my bedroom.”

“Take Sterling with you,” she winked. Bambi gasped. “Oh please, it’s not like I didn’t know what was going on back there. Trent told me Sterling looked at you like a man who was two steps away from breaking every indecency law, stripping you and taking you right there on the beach.”

She laughed herself. Sterling was back in his room getting himself cleaned up for dinner since they had managed to splash water all over the floor, on which his clothes were lying at the time. “Oh gosh, please tell me they don’t know,” she mumbled.

“They’re too wrapped up in the hair and nails to notice right now. Jocelyn loves you. I doubt very seriously that she would be upset if you and her dad got together.”

Bambi knew she wouldn’t be upset at all. They were friends. In some ways she was like a mother to her, but still, she didn’t want her to know she had just been shagging her father in the bathtub.

Dinner, a little time with the girls and then two sleeping teens later and Sterling was walking her back to the guest house. He had a small bag in his hand that told her he was definitely planning to stay. Galinda told them to have fun and assured Sterling she would keep watch over the girls while he was occupied elsewhere. And after that he was most definitely occupied elsewhere—in her bed to be exact. She had no idea the man would be such an amazing, gentle and well diversified lover. There were things he did that she didn’t even know could be done, yet he had done them and she had come each time.

While he stayed the night in her bed he was quick to leave before the sun could crest the sky. He wanted to be coming out of his room for breakfast, not coming into the main house via the kitchen access point. She understood that. So when he left her bed she got up, did her routine as usual and dressed in comfortable clothing for their day out. By the time she got to the kitchen Sterling, Jocelyn and Chloe were already sitting at the breakfast nook table having rather large bowls of Kellogg’s Smart Choice cereal. Galinda was in the shower, they had said while sliding a bowl over to her so she could fix her own cereal. Thankfully they still had some fresh fruit in the house that she could add to her breakfast. Had she actually bought the ingredients she spent the morning shopping for yesterday then they would have more fruit. She gave Sterling an apologetic smile as she grabbed the last pear. He grinned and shrugged while waving a permissive hand her way.

“Thanks,” she sat down on the other side of Chloe while Sterling sat adjacent her next to Jocelyn. A few stolen glances at each other in between listening to two energetic teens rave about their new hair and nail do, the morning workout Jocelyn helped Chloe through and the importance of eating clean, of which Jocelyn seemed to be overjoyed to speak about, left Bambi with a smile on her face. This felt like home. Being in Tahiti, sitting here with Sterling and Jocelyn felt like family. She knew Jocelyn wasn’t her daughter, but if she had one she would want her to be like her—smart, funny, dedicated and sassy while still being sweet. She was so much like her father. Bambi was sure Jocelyn had the drive within her to succeed at whatever path she took in life. Right now she was leaning toward nutritionist and fitness guru she had said. She would be good at it. Her backup plan wasn’t so much a backup. “I can do my dad’s job and yours too, Bambi.” She was going to go for the gusto and do everything she wanted to do. Given her ability to soak up her father’s knowledge Bambi didn’t doubt her plan would be successful.

“You’re going to college,” Sterling shook his finger at her with a smile on his face.

“Why bother? I can learn everything I need to know working for the two of you.”

Sterling shook his head.

Bambi laughed. “I hate to break it to you, but if you want to follow through with the nutritionist thing you’re going to have to go to school and get all of those boring certifications before you can practice.”

“Hmm…is there a way around that?”

“Not a legal way,” she shook her head. “Go, meet people, take advantage of some of the internship and work-study opportunities and you’ll find that the time will fly by and before you know it, you’ll have so much knowledge to take into practice with you. Besides, each year I have to go to conferences and see what’s new in the field too. You’ll always be learning no matter which one of our professions pull you the most.”

“She’s right,” Sterling admitted.

“Fine. But only because I trust you both. I’m going to live with Bambi while I do college for sure.”

“Oh, news to me, but okay,” Bambi laughed. “If it’s okay with you, Sterling.”

“I think I have other plans for both of you, but we’ll talk about that later.”

“Oh, Dad don’t rain on my fun. Bambi is like the best.” She turned to Chloe. “I wish she were my mom.” She looked at her empty bowl. “Oh well, we’re done and we are going to go make our hair look fabulous before we go explore Tahiti.” She giggled as she and Chloe cleared their dishes from the table and skipped off down the hall toward their rooms where they planned to do a lot of work on hair and makeup.

“You should be her mother,” he said.

“What?”

“You’re good with her. She loves you. You love her. You should be her mother.”

“Not possible. She has a mother.”

He snorted. “Fine, call it step-mother, but you’ll still be more of a mother to her than Jordana is.”

She couldn’t disagree with him there, but wait…what was he saying? Her spoon froze half way to her mouth as she raised her eyes to look at Sterling.

“Marry me; please?”

“Yes,” she said swiftly on a laugh before settling her excitement. “You meant to ask me that; right?”

He laughed. “Absolutely. I planned to ask in a more romantic spot than the kitchen table, but when the courage hits me I feel it best I act.”

She smiled widely before getting up from her seat and going to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “Yes, a thousand times yes.”
 
One small kiss turned into something bigger when Sterling cupped the back of her head in his big hand, tangled his fingers in her soft curls, and held her firmly in place. The sound of giggling teenagers pulled them out of their moment. Bambi blushed wildly, suddenly feeling bashful in light of their discovered secret—recent secret seeing as though they had just both let their affection for each other be made known to each other.

“It’s about time, Dad.” Jocelyn had a huge smile on her face. Bambi wondered what she would think if she knew her father had asked her to marry him.

“Well I hope you’ll still feel that way at the wedding,” Sterling blurted the words out, but Bambi could tell from the smoothness of his voice that he very much meant to say it. There was no easing into the transitional news, but that’s the way Sterling was. He wasn’t the type of man to ease into anything. He just went for it, spoke his mind and did what he had to do. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t realized he felt anything for her. If he had felt something for her she figured he would have come to her the same way he approached everything else—no fear, no mercy. But then she realized, he really loved her and it scared him. He had been married before. He had a teen who was soon to be a woman while Bambi didn’t have kids and hadn’t been married. He had most likely looked at his life and wondered if she would want to take it on. He was afraid, and something about that warmed her heart more.

“Married!” Jocelyn squealed as she ran over to the table tossed her arms around her father and then straightened up so she could hug Bambi too. “Yay! It’s about time for that too. I always knew you should get married again and I hoped it would be Bambi. She rocks,” she gave her father a fist bump that had Bambi laughing.

The day spent together had gone well. They had fun with Sterling finally seeing more than just the office hub. Every visit he made seemed to be just about business—two days in and out with no frill. It wasn’t as if he went frequently, but at least twice while she was doing a training program elsewhere so she hadn’t been able to go with him. And from what she had heard, those trips had not been trips about fun or getting to know the office personnel more. Those trips had been all business, fixing problems, making arrangements and then getting on the plane to jet set off to his next location.

Jocelyn had never seen Tahiti so it was her first time and just like any first time visitor she seemed to have stars in her eyes and heaven on her mind. She dropped the hint about maybe living here once she finished college—since her father had insisted she go, she had added. Bambi figured she was letting him know to save a spot for her at the Tahiti hub because she was going to want a job too. Sterling gave a knowing grin, but never a promise. He was going to keep her guessing and working hard to earn that spot and Bambi knew that. But at the end of the day she was sure Sterling would prefer she work at the hub where his trusted men could keep eyes on her and make sure she was safe than if she just came to Tahiti and opened a nutrition and fitness center. She was teetering on both, and Bambi knew Sterling was already plotting the best way to keep his daughter safe by way of a near shadowing personal bodyguard.

Overall the day had been amazing. Only twice did she have that hair raising feeling like something wasn’t quite right, like somebody was watching her. But with a casual, yet thorough, scan of her surroundings she didn’t see anybody. She figured she was just on edge after seeing Peter the day before and she needed to get past that.

“What are we looking for?” Sterling had mumbled in her ear. The man was too skilled and observant for his own good. “Your body language changed. What are we looking for?”

We, he had said, because he was the kind of man who wouldn’t let her walk alone. “Nothing,” she turned to him and smiled. “I just had a weird feeling. I guess I’m still reeling from yesterday.”

“Hmm,” he nodded before scanning their surroundings with much more perceptiveness than she had appeared to do. He looked like a military man scouting for the enemy. After a long glance around them from all positions he gave a slight hint of relaxation before wrapping his arm around her and walking with her. She could tell he was still on guard and for that she was sorry. He shouldn’t have had to be on guard. This was his day off—or at least it was supposed to be. But when she thought about it with clarity she realized this day off wasn’t about him; he had scheduled it for her, so that she could take some time to deal with what happened. He, however, was still very much on the clock. He had taken her on as both fiancé and charge. She was now one of his charges, one of the people he would protect. She never thought she would be in this position. She never thought she would need to be here. She had avoided so much through the years, places, opportunities, simply because she didn’t want to have to chance running into Peter and here she was, working in Tahiti on a project she dreamed of doing for years and her biggest fear had come to haunt her. The man she had tried hard to avoid all these years, telling Sterling she couldn’t make the San Diego trip with him the times he went simply because she had to get things together for other units, but that she would send her assistant with packages to hand out instead, turning down the first offer to move out to San Diego and do a beach workout DVD series…she had done all that silently trying to avoid possibly running into Peter or somebody in his circle of family friends.