Denny glared at me. I held out my arms for her and told her to come sit on my lap.
“Denny and I were just talking about your art studio.” I smiled.
A beautiful smile graced her face as she looked at me. “What art studio?”
As I glanced over at Denny. He rolled his eyes. “The one I’m building you so you can paint.”
Ellery threw her arms around my neck and hugged me. “Connor, I’m so excited! So tell me about this studio of mine!” she said excitedly.
“Yes, Connor, tell Ellery your plans for the studio,” Denny said smugly.
“We can discuss it later,” I said as I tapped her on the nose and shot Denny at look. “You’ll love it, but I have to finish something up. Please let me surprise you, baby.”
“Okay, but you know how impatient I am.”
“Yes, I know you are,” I said as I heard Julia cry.
Thank God for Julia, I thought to myself. Ellery got up from my lap and walked out of the office. Denny got up from his chair and shook his head. “You better get moving on those plans for that art studio you just promised her.”
“I’m going to do that right now,” I sighed.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Paul. It went to voicemail, so I left a message for him to call me back right away. He could locate a place for Ellery’s art studio.
***
As I walked out of my office and passed the living room, I noticed Ellery sound asleep on the couch. I grabbed a blanket from the closet and gently covered her with it. I needed a scotch, so I walked over to the bar and poured myself one. The smoothness going down the back of my throat soothed me, as did the sight of my sleeping wife. My eyes gazed at her as my mind was punishing me for keeping something from her. A few moments later, she opened her eyes and looked at me from across the room.
“How long have I been sleeping?”
“I’m not sure. You were asleep when I came out of my office,” I said as I walked over to her, sat down on the edge of the couch, and pushed a few strands of hair from her face.
When she sat up, she took the glass from my hand and took a sip. As always, she made the same face when she drank it.
“Why do you take a sip when you don’t like Scotch?”
“I was thirsty.” She smiled.
I leaned closer towards her and brushed her lips with mine. Her lips responded seductively as she hardened our kiss. Just as I laid her back and hovered over her, kissing her passionately, my phone rang. Taking in a sharp breath as I broke our kiss, I pulled my phone from my pocket and saw that Paul was calling.
“Baby, we have to continue this later. I have to take this; it’s Paul.”
“It’s all right. Go ahead and take your call. I’ll go check on Julia.”
“Hey, Paul,” I answered as I walked into my office and shut the door. “I need you to find me a space that I can convert into an art studio for Ellery.”
“I’ll get on that right away, Connor. Do you have a certain area in mind?”
“Somewhere close to the penthouse. I think she’ll like it better if she’s close to home.”
“Got it. I’ll call you when I locate something.”
I had a good feeling about this art studio. It was something that I should’ve done a long time ago, but with Ellery’s illness, the wedding, and now Julia, she didn’t really paint too much, and I didn’t give it any thought. Perfection was what I needed the studio to be. It needed to be a distraction from the daily grind of the trial.
Chapter 18
Ellery
As I picked up Julia from the changing table, my phone started to ring. I held her up over my shoulder and walked over to take it from where it was sitting on her dresser.
“Hi, Peyton.”
“Hey, Elle. I thought we were going to see that bitch in jail.”
“We are. The day we talked about it was visiting day, so now we have to wait until next week.”
“Oh okay. I was just wondering because you were really adamant about going and then you never mentioned it again. I thought that maybe you’d changed your mind. Actually, I was hoping you’d changed your mind.”
“No, Peyton, I haven’t changed my mind.”
“Okie dokie, Elle. What are you doing?”
“Staring at my sexy husband as he’s standing in the doorway. I’ll call you later.”
As I hit the end button, Connor walked over, took Julia, and sat in the rocking chair. My greatest love was watching my husband with his daughter. I took the new clothes I bought for Julia and hung them in the closet. My stomach tied itself in knots when Connor asked me a question.
“What haven’t you changed your mind about?”
I stood facing the inside of the closet as I hung up the clothes one by one. My skin started to feel fiery and nerves set in. I needed to think of something fast.
“What?” I innocently asked.
“I heard you say to Peyton that you haven’t changed your mind.”
“Oh, that. It was about going with her next week to look at flowers for the wedding.”
“Why would she think that you’d change your mind?”