Laura noticed the blush on Jessa’s face when she and her son went to the backstage. “Thank God you came! The little girl has been looking for you. You’re not answering my calls.”

“My battery is low,” Nick replied, whose face is also red.

“I left mine at home. Sorry, Laura.” Jessa said.

“Okay, no harm done. Here she is!” Laura exclaimed as Daphne jumped happily when she saw her father and Jessa.

“I told my teacher to place your names in the front seats.” Daphne kissed each one of them as Nick scooped her up in his arms. She’s wearing a pretty red gown and her hair is neatly tied up in a ponytail. “I’m going to sing.”

“You know how to sing?” Jessa smiled at her.

“Daddy taught me a lot of things, Mommy. He can sing, too.” Daphne hugged her father. She went down from Nick. “Go to your seats. Watch for me, okay?”

“Don’t get too excited. Your heart, baby.” Nick kissed her on both cheeks as his daughter only nodded. “Take care and you will be the best.”

“I am and that’s because you’re both here.” Daphne said and ran away to go back to the dressing room.

Laura watched her granddaughter go. She turned to the two. Something must have happened before they got in here. If she only had the choice, she wants Jessa for her son. For these past weeks of spending time with her and seeing her concern for Daphne, she realized how capable is the woman of being the new mom for her granddaughter and the woman that is meant for Nick. But of course, she doesn’t have the right over the matter. Nick is a stubborn man and he had his own mind to do what he wants to do with his life. But she also wants to guide her son towards the path that she’s sure will bring happiness to him, and that’s having Jessa as part of it.



~~~



Even though she is not Daphne’s real mother, she’s proud to watch the little girl confidently sings alone on the stage with her own rendition of a Judy Garland song from an old famous movie. Daphne danced along with the song and it wasn’t as if this is the girl with a heart problem. She’s full of life. Her dazzling smile radiates a unique ambiance inside the auditorium that hooked the audience on her performance.

“She’s wonderful!” she silently exclaimed. Her smile fades away when she met Nick’s look. She gave him a discreet glare. Nick turned back to his daughter’s performance on stage.

Jessa shakes her head when she remembered what happened earlier. When Nick kissed her again, she gave him a sound slap on the face and a hard pull on the hair. Nick got the message and they stared in silence for a while.

“I just don’t kiss anyone especially my boss,” she glared at him.

“You know what? You’re nuts!” Nick arranged his hair.

“Why? Because I didn’t fall on your charms? Excuse me, Mr. Carter, but I don’t like men who lies to their children.” With that, she went out of the car.

The show was done an hour later and Daphne received a recognition award for her talent. Nick decided to treat everyone for a dinner in a restaurant. He and Jessa are still not talking to each other except for the moments when they need to act that nothing’s going on in front of Daphne. When they got into the parking lot, Laura and Daphne went ahead of them because Jessa’s seatbelt got stuck and Nick is still trying to help her get out of it.

“You can breathe, it’s okay,” Nick teased her.

Jessa frowned and pushed him away. “I’m not holding my breath for you. Do you think that I’m attracted to you? Do you think that your kisses affected me? Please. Spare me.” Nick only grinned and teased her as if he’s going to kiss her again. Jessa pushed his shoulders away, feeling very irritated. “What’s with this teasing, Nick?”

“Nothing, I’m just amused.” Nick grinned wider.

Jessa glared at him and she turned back to fumbling with her seatbelt. “Damn! What’s wrong with this?” She gets busy with it that when she realized that Nick is not helping, she looked up. She saw him talking with a woman. The woman is laughing at something he’s telling her, even giving him a light push on the shoulders as if something is really funny from what Nick is saying. “Nick!” She called but he doesn’t hear her. She tried it again. “Nick!”

“What?” Nick turned to her. His look gives a meaning that she’s interrupting something between them.

“I thought you’re going to help me, darling.” She smiled sweetly.

Nick raised an eyebrow and the woman beside him is also looking at Jessa. He walked back to the car and helped her with the seatbelt. In a few minutes, Jessa was free from the seatbelt.

“Who is she?” The woman asked behind Nick.

“I’m her girlfriend,” Jessa replied quickly.

“She’s my girlfriend,” Nick said at the same time.

The woman frowned. Just when she thought that she can flirt with the cute doctor, he already had a girlfriend. Nick turned to her. “I will tell Dean that you want an appointment,” he continued from what he’s been telling her earlier. “By the way, this is Jessa, my girlfriend. Jessa, this is Gretel, a friend of mine.”

Jessa smiled wider when she saw the surprised look on Gretel’s face. They shake hands. This woman is classy, someone who came from the high-class society where Nick is and she somehow intimidates Jessa. If this is the kind of woman of whom Nick keeps friendship with, how many can they be? “It’s nice to meet you, Gretel.”

“Yes, same here.” The bangles in Gretel’s wrist created a noise when they shook hands. She has a smooth, clear skin, a beautiful hair, well-manicured hands and great body. Gretel is the epitome of a rich and pampered daughter. Jessa used to envy women like her but she tried to overcome it. It will only lead her to nowhere. She would rather focus on more important things like putting up a business of her own and give her mother a good life. “By the way, I have to go. I have an early flight tomorrow to New York to meet Daddy.” Gretel tells them. “Bye, Nick.” She kissed the man on the cheeks and then she’s gone.

Jessa watched her go as the paparazzi met her when she went her way towards a chauffeured car that was waiting for her. “That’s the kind of woman I want,” she heard Nick said. “Nice girl, smart and responsible. I’ve known her since we were kids.” She felt as if somebody hit her in the heart. Of course, Nick will never notice her and look at her at the same way he did towards Gretel. For him, she’s just a person he paid to be Daphne’s ‘mother’ for a while until he finds the courage to tell the truth.

Jessa never thought it will come to this. Nick is a nice person after all and she found some qualities in him that are really charming and that attracted her to him. In just a short time that she’s posing as Daphne’s mother, there’s a wishful thinking that it may come true. But that’s just a silly dream. Nick will never look at her in the same way he does to Gretel and to other women who’s in the same level of society as his. She would rather pretend to be irritated whenever he would try to kiss her than to give in to her feelings and respond to his kiss with more passion. So, she will just choose to be contented on moments like this when Nick is close to her or when they are pretending to be a couple. It will be better that way. It will be safer than to let herself be hurt if Nick finds out about her feelings. She will only keep it to herself.



~~~



“That’s her? That’s the woman he wants for Daphne?”

“Yes.”

Two pairs of eyes watched as Nick turned to the woman with the mid-back length auburn hair with a mix of honey blonde, brown and black natural streaks. She has sun-kissed brown-olive skin that showed her Native American heritage. Her body has an athletic-built but not muscular. Nick tells something to her in which the woman frowned and gave him a light punch in the arm. He only chuckled as he took her hand and led her to the restaurant.

“Her name is Jessamyn Adams and everyone calls her Jessa.” The man said beside a woman inside a heavily-tinted car. “They say that she’s Nick’s girlfriend and his daughter is already calling her ‘mommy’.”

“What’s her background?”

There was a shuffling of papers as the man read the investigative report. “She’s a struggling entertainer before she met Nick Carter. But before that, she finished a course in a massage school to become a therapist. She worked in various spas here in LA. At the untimely death of her father and with a shaky relationship with her brother and sister, she struggled to take care of her mother. That covers everything about her.” The man said.

“How did they meet?”

“Every one who knows them wondered as well. Jessa just suddenly came to the picture and Nick’s been introducing her to everyone ever since.”

The woman beside him drew a deep breath. “I need to do something. I won’t let this thing pass.” She unlocked the car door.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to give Nick the best surprise of his life. I’m going to show up there and tell him that I’m back.” Tania said and went out of the car.