Appeal to You (A Beyond the Cove Novel Book 3)

by Jaclyn Quinn

  Nina gasped, placing a hand over her heart. “That’s fantastic news! Tell them I said congratulations!”

  “I will.” Ryder got up to move into the foyer so he could hear better. “Did you hear Nina?”

  “Yeah, I heard her. We had a feeling she’d be happy. I didn’t tell anyone except the boys and Eli’s family. I was nervous as hell.” He chuckled and sighed into the phone. “But I wanted to let all you guys know. The boys gave him guardianship papers and, well, it makes sense to have him be completely a part of our family. So, yeah, we’re gonna make it official.”

  “Wow, man. That’s crazy…in a good way.”

  “I think it’s important for Nick and Dylan, too. Eli and I love each other, and he’s already a dad to them in every way that counts. This just seals the deal.” He laughed again. “You know, so he’s not allowed to leave me.”

  Ryder snorted. “Pretty sure marriage licenses don’t come with handcuffs; although, that would be awesome.” As Ryder joked with his friend, he felt a strange pang of some emotion he didn’t know how to describe. He faced the living room and watched Avery and Chris laugh with Nina and Stan, and warmth spread through his chest. Chris had his new art supplies spread all around. Man, he’d practically jumped through the roof when he’d opened them all. “I’m happy for you guys. Who knew you’d be good at this shit?”

  “Turns out it’s not so hard. It’s easy to love Eli, and the kids are old enough to do most things on their own.”

  “Yeah, but…you and I didn’t have the best examples of what good parents are supposed to be like.” Fucked-up, awful parents? They’d both dealt with that, and the only thing it served to teach them was what not to do.

  “True, but here’s the thing, there’s just something that kicks in when you’re not an asshole and you’re responsible for people you love.” Novak chuckled. “No parent is perfect, Ryder. Hell, Abby was telling me and the boys how she and Will almost forgot Jonah at home when she was in labor with Dakotah. He was like three or something. She was cracking up.”

  “Seriously?” Ryder snorted and then smiled when he saw Avery flick Chris on the ear, and Chris laughed and swatted him away. They felt like his, but at the same time, that terrified him.

  There was a pause on the phone before Novak said, “Keep doing what you’re doin’, man.”

  Ryder focused back on Novak. “Huh?”

  “I’m just sayin’, you got this.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk. You a cheerleader now?”

  “You and Avery could be just as happy as Eli and I are.”

  “Okay, Novak, you need to stop drinking the happy juice Eli’s parents bottle up there. They got trees in the back yard dripping that sappy shit?”

  Novak breathed a frustrated sigh into the phone. “Joke all you want, but the only one standing in your way is you, my friend.”

  As they ended the call, Ryder continued to watch Avery and Chris from the doorway. He let out a small laugh when Avery angled his cell phone above the two of them and they both smiled for a selfie. Without overthinking it, Ryder came up behind them and photobombed one of their shots, making a cross-eyed, funny face at the camera.

  “Hey!” Chris said in a fit of giggles. “We need a good one with all three of us now!”

  Nina held her hand out and ordered, “The three of you sit on the couch. I’ll take it.” Avery and Chris sat first then Chris grabbed Ryder’s hand and pulled him down on the other side of him. “Say cheese!” Nina said, smiling wide as she took the photo. She looked down at the screen and her face softened. “It’s perfect.”

  When Ryder saw the picture, that damn pang of who-knew-what shot through him again. They kind of did look like a family. That’s because you are family, dumbass. But even as he scolded himself, he knew that’s not what he’d meant. Yeah, they were family, in every way that counted, but damned if he wasn’t starting to see a possibility he’d never envisioned before.

  A week into the new year, DCPP and the Office of Licensing finally gave approval for Chris to move in with Avery. The kid didn’t have much stuff to actually move, since his new bed and things for his bedroom had been delivered directly to Avery’s.

  So, instead of a big moving party, the whole family gathered at Avery’s for pizza. Ryder was still finding it surreal to process it all. Never in a million years would he have guessed that Avery helping to look for Chris a few months ago would result in Avery potentially adopting him. This felt like something Ryder needed to repay Avery for, yet he knew it wasn’t something that could ever be repaid. He also knew Avery wouldn’t expect anything like that.

  In a small way, Ryder felt like Avery was doing this for him, but there was no way a man would adopt a child unless it was something he truly wanted. Avery saw in Chris the same thing Ryder had; Chris was a sweet kid who just wanted to feel safe and to be loved. If this fierce protectiveness Ryder felt toward him was any indication, Ryder was most definitely one of the people whose heart Chris had stolen. He was like Ryder in so many unfortunate ways, but Avery adopting Chris was what would make sure his life turned out so much better.

  “How are things with you and Avery? A lot to adjust to, huh?” Eli asked from his seat on the couch next to Ryder.

  Ryder’s mind, of course, went to that inappropriate place it always did as he thought of Avery training him to be quiet while he fucked Ryder’s brains out. “Yup, but learning to adjust has been incredibly entertaining.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Eli then took a sip of his water.

  “I’m not even gonna ask.” Eli shook his head and smirked.

  “How about you? You’re gonna be a husband and practically a dad. That’s crazy, man.”

  Eli looked across the room where Novak and the boys were playing Uno with Avery, Chris, and Stan. “I honestly don’t think much will change. Feels like we already went through the adjustment period.”

  “Still, making it official and all is a huge step.” Ryder watched his friend, trying to gauge how he really felt about the changes coming to his life.

  “I guess. It just feels so…right, though.” Eli shrugged. “I can’t say it’s effortless, because I worry every damn day if I’m worthy enough to help Jake take care of those boys.”

  Ryder whipped his head in the direction of his friend, his eyes wide. “What? Why?”

  “My mom says it’s normal to feel that way, but I’ve never been here before, you know? Neither has Jake.”

  Ryder huffed. “Please, you and Novak are fucking naturals.”

  Eli glanced over at Ryder, a skeptical eyebrow raised. “Would you have said that about Jake a year and a half ago?”

  Ryder thought back, remembering their nights hanging out at the bar. “You have a point.”

  “Jake stepped up because he loves them, and they needed him to. If he can do it, anyone can.” Eli nudged Ryder’s arm. “Even you.”

  Ryder narrowed his eyes at his friend. “Did you set me up? You and Novak with your little sneaky-as-shit pep talks.” Ryder looked back across the room, biting the inside of his cheek to try to hide the smile forming. “You’ve both got the meddling-parent thing down to a science.”

  Eli laughed. “Yeah, I guess we do.”

  “Avery and I are in a good place. He’s adopting Chris, and Chris couldn’t have anyone better in his corner.” Eli put a finger up and opened his mouth to argue, but Ryder added, “I’m not saying I’m not in his corner, I’m just saying Avery… Avery’s a good man, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know.” Eli elbowed Ryder again. “But so are you.”

  A few hours later, it was just Ryder, Avery, and Chris. Ryder had offered to leave, but neither of them had wanted him to, and quite honestly, he hadn’t wanted to, either.

  “It feels like it’s gonna take forever for July to get here,” Chris said, voicing what they all had been thinking. It would take another six months for the state to legally give custody to Avery. Until then, they were in a waiting game with monthly visits by DCPP.

  “Ye
ah, I know, but you don’t want to wish the year away, either. It’ll be here soon enough,” Avery replied, and Ryder had to laugh at the parental response he’d just given. The guy was already well on his way to being a pro at this parenting thing.

  He’d already established some rules for Chris to abide by, like bedtime. His after-school care was still going to be Nina, so nothing much would change as far as when homework would be done.

  When Chris went in his new bedroom to get ready for bed, Ryder pulled his legs up on the couch and leaned against Avery’s side. Avery’s arm came around him, and he gently ran a hand up and down Ryder’s arm. It was probably the most content Ryder had ever felt in his life. He hated the thought of having to get up and go home. As if reading his mind, Avery whispered, “Will you stay?”

  Ryder pulled back and met Avery’s eyes. “Are you sure you want me to?”

  “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want you to.”

  Ryder put his head back down and said truthfully, “I just wanted to make sure. You’ve got so much going on right now.” He laced their fingers together, loving the way his colorful skin looked against Avery’s smooth skin.

  “If I had it my way, you’d be a part of it all.”

  Ryder pulled his head back again, looking for any sort of doubt in Avery’s words, but he found none. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

  “Of course, I do.” Avery held his gaze, not a flicker of uncertainty in his blue eyes.

  “Flaws and all?”

  Avery cupped Ryder’s cheek and sighed. “Ryder, who doesn’t have flaws?”

  “I know, it’s just…you’re pretty damn perfect.”

  “I’m nowhere near perfect,” Avery argued.

  Ryder wrapped his arm around Avery’s waist, leaning his face into Avery’s neck. “You’re perfect for me.”

  “What?” Avery asked in a hushed voice. He gently took Ryder’s chin between his thumb and forefinger so Ryder would look at him again.

  This conversation was getting more serious than Ryder was comfortable with, but somehow, in this moment, he knew he had to push past his comfort zone and man the fuck up. “I’m just sayin’, if I’m gonna fall in love with someone, he better be damn near perfect.” Ryder went for the joke, and to his relief, Avery finally cracked a smile.

  “Then I stand corrected; I’m pretty fucking perfect. You totally lucked out with me, if I do say so myself.” They stared at each other for a minute, giving each other goofy grins, when Avery finally swooped in and covered Ryder’s mouth with his own. When he pulled back, he leaned their foreheads together. “So, just to be clear, are you saying you love me?”

  “Yeah,” Ryder breathed out, his heart pounding in his chest. “That’s what I’m saying.” He swallowed hard then said the three words that had been stuck on his tongue for the past couple of months. “I love you.”

  “Good, because I love you, too.”

  “Of course, you do. I mean, what’s not to love? Do you see this?” Ryder moved his hand in a circular motion in front of his face. “You’re pretty damn lucky your—mmph.” Apparently, time for talking was done as Ryder opened his mouth to meet Avery’s tongue in a deep, toe-curling kiss. But after the words they’d just shared—words Ryder had never said to anyone else—there didn’t seem to be anything else that needed to be said.

  “So, um…” Chris stared at his dinner, pushing his broccoli around on his plate. He’d been in a weird mood the past few days. They hadn’t had any huge issues in the three months he’d been at Avery’s, but Avery couldn’t help but worry that Chris wasn’t happy living there with him.

  Avery looked over at Ryder, getting more nervous the longer it took Chris to spit out whatever was bothering him. “You can talk to us about anything. You know that, right?”

  “Oh, yeah, I know. I guess I’m just confused.”

  “What’s on your mind?”

  Chris shrugged, sighing. “I was thinking about what Mr. Dermont asked me the other day.”

  Oh… “About whether or not you want to take my last name or keep your own?” Avery had asked a colleague, Harry Dermont, to act as representation for the adoption hearing. There was no way Avery would be in the right mindset that day to handle the legal side of things, when he already knew how emotional that day was going to be. Harry was a kind man, married to the same woman for the last forty years, with two grown sons and one grandchild on the way. Avery couldn’t think of a better man to be by their side on such an important day. The thought had even crossed his mind to ask Harry to join his firm. Kevin could never be replaced, but the idea of having a practice that focused strictly on family law and children’s rights was looking more and more rewarding.

  Chris nodded then dropped his gaze again. “I’ve been trying to figure out… I don’t know. It’s probably stupid.” He released a heavy breath, putting his fork down.

  “Tell us what’s going through your mind, kid,” Ryder prodded, in the same reassuring and nonjudgmental way he’d become so good at over the last few months. It still baffled Avery how Ryder didn’t see how good he was with Chris.

  “Well…do you think…do you think Gram would be upset if I changed my last name?”

  Avery gave Ryder a wide-eyed look. Jesus, this poor kid had been through the wringer, and now he was having guilt over changing his name? “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, Chris. You also don’t have to decide this right now.”

  “I know, but…”

  “I don’t think she’d be upset at all,” Ryder chimed in, and both Avery and Chris looked over at him. “Your grandma would want you to be happy and safe and loved. You have all those things here with Avery.”

  He has those things with you, too, Avery thought.

  Ryder continued by saying, “I think she’d really just want you to do what’s right for you. Whether that’s staying Chris Rowan or becoming Chris Hamilton, make sure it makes you happy, you know?”

  “And, if I don’t take your last name, you won’t be upset?” Chris asked Avery, worry covering his face.

  Avery reached across the table and covered Chris’s hand. “I absolutely won’t be upset. Like Ryder said”—even though the man has no clue how good the advice he gave is—“you have to do what’s right for you and figure out what will make you happy. I’d be honored for you to take my last name, but I, in no way, want you to feel pressured to do so. I’m just happy with having you as a part of our family officially, and you will be, no matter what.” Avery sat back in his chair, coming to a decision. “In fact, so you don’t feel pressured, why don’t you make the decision with Ryder and Mr. Dermont? Whatever you decide, I’ll stand by it one hundred percent.”

  An ear-to-ear grin spread across Chris’s face. “I wish Gram had met you,” he said softly.

  Avery’s heart soared then slightly plummeted. He would’ve loved to have met the woman who had given all she had to Chris, but that was impossible. “I wish I had met her, too.”

  Ryder lifted his head, looking at the clock on the wall. His last client had been a no-show, and now he found himself with a shit-ton of time on his hands.

  “Dude, if you don’t stop tapping that damn pen on the counter I’m gonna shove it up your ass,” Kenz growled.

  “Always so violent,” Ryder retorted. Parker snickered from his spot on the couch.

  “You ain’t seen nothing yet; now, knock it the fuck off.”

  Ryder dropped the pen on the glass counter and held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.” He ducked as the pencil Kenz was holding grazed past his head.

  “Hey. I saw that,” Novak said, walking in the door to the shop. “You need to work on your aim, Kenz.” Kenz shot Novak her middle finger in response.

  “Nice. Promoting violence in the workplace. Where the hell have you been, anyway?” Ryder asked, as if it was any of his business. Novak owned the shop, for fuck’s sake.

  “I met my new tenant over at the condo. He needed to sign th
e lease, and I had to give him his keys.”

  “Darn. So no possible new love interest for Kenz, huh? Because she’s been cranky as hell late—hey! Stop throwing shit at my head, Kenz!”

  “Then stop giving me reason to, asswipe,” Kenz shot back. “Just ‘cause you’re all happy as hell lately…”

  It was true. Ryder was the happiest he’d ever been, and he had Avery and Chris to thank for that.

  “No, it’s not a new love interest for Kenz.” Novak chuckled. “The guy said he used to live around here and just moved back from Boston.”

  Parker’s head shot up, his brows furrowed, but he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when Novak said, “His name is Justin.” Pulling a piece of paper out of his back pocket, he corrected, “Not Justin, Jason. Jason Maxwell.”

  All the color drained from Parker’s face. “What?” he whispered.

  “What?” Novak repeated, obviously as confused with Parker’s reaction as they all were.

  “Did you say Jason Maxwell?” Parker put his laptop down on the coffee table and stood up.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Blond hair, blue eyes, about six-foot-one?”

  Novak looked at Ryder and Kenz then back at Parker. “Uh…yeah, I think? I don’t know. I wasn’t checking him out. A woman called last week to see if it was still available. Said she found the ad online, and her brother was looking for a place. ”

  “Fuck. I’m gonna fucking kill her.” Parker began packing his things while the rest of them watched him in confusion.

  “Kill who?” Ryder asked.

  “Sarah.”

  “Your friend in North Carolina?” When Parker didn’t respond, Kenz added, “Parker, you’re not making any sense,” but Parker still didn’t clarify.

  “I gotta go. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Parker mumbled then slung his laptop bag across his chest, pushed the shop door open, and walked out.

  “What the hell just happened?” Novak asked, looking completely perplexed.