In his arms, she could see a future, even with so many other things going on in her head.
In his arms, she could hope.
14
Mace curled into the woman in front of him and held back a groan. He had to be quiet since his daughter was sleeping down the hall. But since he knew her door was closed as well as his, he may be able to take advantage of exactly what he’d been thinking about when it came to having his best friend in his bed.
Adrienne leaned into his hold as he slowly trailed his hand up under the shirt she wore and cupped her bare breast.
“Mace,” she gasped.
He leaned forward and kissed her neck. “Need to be quiet, Addi. I’m going to fuck you, slide my cock between your checks, and pump into you from behind, but I’m going to need you to keep your voice down so you don’t wake Daisy up. Think you can do that for me?”
She nodded and pressed her plump backside into his raging erection.
“Fuck me,” she whispered. And he bit down on her shoulder.
She wiggled into him, and he slid his hand around to gently brush her clit. Her legs immediately parted for him, and his cock slid between them easily, greedily.
“In me.”
In answer, he lifted her leg slightly, one hand on her throat, the other on her thigh as he slid into her hot, wet heat. They both moaned, and he took her lips to drown out the sound. They were loud if they wanted to be, and more often than not that was their desire. This morning, however, they had to be quiet. He thrust in and out of her, shallow at first, teasing them both, then full and deep until she was rocking into him as he moved, and they were both panting quietly. She’d reached around and grabbed his ass, forcing him even deeper, and soon, they were moving as one, practically shaking with need.
She came first, her pussy clenching around him, and he soon followed, fully awake now and sated.
He waited until their breathing had slowed down a bit before kissing her shoulder and patting her mound. “I’m going to slide out. Stay there, and I’ll go get a washcloth to clean you up.”
She smiled lazily at him, and his heart did that twisting thing he’d been so afraid of. “Okay.”
He left her then, in his bed, sticky from his orgasm, and knew if he weren’t careful, he’d fall right in love with her.
And the scariest part…he was afraid he already had.
Mace had the morning off while Adrienne had to go into the shop and open with Ryan. He didn’t mind since it gave him time to think about what they’d done the night before and that morning, and to get his house in order after a long week of getting into the groove of things with Daisy living there full-time. He needed to start getting better at cleaning up after both of them and teaching Daisy to do some more chores. Sure, she was still a baby in his eyes, but his parents had taught him responsibility early on, and he wanted to make sure that his daughter learned the same things. When Daisy had first moved in, he had been lax in thinking about what she needed to do regarding chores and other things. She was a decently tidy little girl, but her toys had started to spread over the house. Jeaniene’s parents had reluctantly packed up—or had hired someone to pack up—Daisy’s things at her house, and now her room and the living room were overflowing with little-girl things. And while he loved the fact that she now felt as if she were home rather than just visiting her daddy for the weekend, finding balance wasn’t easy.
Daisy was currently organizing her dolls by size so they could be placed on the shelf he had put in that morning once Adrienne left for work. She had already picked up the rest of her toys from her floor and put them in the large trunk that one of Adrienne’s cousins had built by hand for her. There were apparently so many Montgomerys being born within a small timeframe that they had made a couple of extras, and Adrienne’s parents had shown up with it the day before. They had smiled and had been sure to come when Daisy wasn’t around so there wouldn’t be any weird questions, but the fact that they had brought a toy chest for his daughter meant something to him. And he knew even if he weren’t seeing their daughter, they probably would’ve brought it anyway. That was just the kind people they were—the kind he wanted Daisy to know. But again, finding that balance where she didn’t have to rely on them being the parents of someone he was seeing rather than just amazing people who could be a part of her life was a whole other hurdle.
Mace ran his hand over his face and sighed. He was making everything way too fucking complicated, but the thing was, life was convoluted, and his situation was more than most.
His phone rang at that moment, pulling him out of this thoughts, and he quickly answered it, recognizing the number as that of his lawyer. He held back a wince, remembering the amount of the check he had just signed over to the man, but he answered politely anyway. The guy was making sure Daisy could stay in Mace’s life beyond the six months his ex was out of the country. He was worth any money it took to make that happen.
“Mace, did I catch you at work?”
“I’m going in later. This morning, Daisy and I are just cleaning up the house.”
“Good, good.” The man let out a sigh, and Mace stiffened. His lawyer was never one to show any emotion other than the determination to do what was right and necessary to win.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Or rather, I don’t think you’re going to think anything is wrong once I tell you what I’m looking at. But, Mace? You’re probably going to want to sit down while I explain it.”
Mace sat down on the coffee table since he wasn’t sure he could physically make it to the couch based on the tone of the other man’s voice. “What is it?”
“She signed over custody, Mace.”
He blinked, the roaring in his ears intensifying as each moment passed. He couldn’t quite comprehend the meaning of those particular words. His mouth went dry, and he tried to speak, only to find himself unable to say anything.
“Mace? Okay, I’m going to guess you’re speechless, so let me explain to you exactly what this means. She is signing over full parental rights to you. She’s not even asking for visitation or putting in any addendums for when she moves back to the country. According to her lawyer, who is an ass, by the way, the job is going so well over there, that they are already talking about extending her stay. I don’t know what this means for her, and frankly, I don’t care other than the fact that she is throwing in the towel and giving Daisy to you full-time, all the time. I don’t know if she ever wants to see that little girl again.”
Instead of the massive relief he probably should have been feeling to know that the fight was over for him and he would have Daisy in his life the way he’d wanted this whole time, he only felt monumental anger towards the woman who had taken so much from him at the beginning and was now abandoning their daughter as if she were nothing.
“That’s not what we went for. We wanted full custody for when she was gone and then talk about partial custody or some form of heavy visitation rights for when she was back. She wasn’t supposed to give up everything. She wasn’t supposed to abandon her daughter as if she was in the way of her professional aspirations. What the hell am I supposed to tell Daisy?” He had been keeping his voice down, aware that his daughter was in her bedroom with the door open. But she had on music, and he just hoped to hell that she hadn’t heard anything he had just said.
What was he supposed to tell her when she asked when was she going to see her mom again? What was he supposed to tell her when two years passed and she was still in his home under his full-time care, and her mom was nowhere to be seen? Why had his ex given up? Was her work so important that she could honestly forget everything she had supposedly fought for at the beginning of Daisy’s life?
He couldn’t understand it at all, and every time he asked himself another question, he just got angrier. It was all he could do not to throw his phone across the room and scream at the world for the situation Jeaniene had put him in. He’d spent the past month trying to figure out how to be a
full-time dad to a little girl who looked at him as if he could carry the world on his shoulders, and now he would have to tell her that everything she’d thought was true was wrong.
He hadn’t hated Jeaniene when the first custody agreement had been put into place. He hadn’t even hated her when she left Daisy on his doorstep with no warning. But now that he knew she would inevitably break their daughter’s heart, yeah, he hated her. And he hated himself for ever being with a woman who could do that.
Adrienne popped into his mind and how he knew she would never do that to someone she loved, or hell, anyone at all, but he quickly pushed those thoughts to the side. He couldn’t put her in the same sphere as the thoughts that were currently swirling around in his brain. It wasn’t fair to anyone, and frankly, the more he added on to his shoulders right then, the more he knew he might just break and not be the man he needed to be for his daughter.
Jeaniene had done this to him. And he was going to find out why.
“Mace? You still there?”
He let out a curse, remembering that he was still on the phone with the lawyer. He gruffly said, “Yeah.”
“I know this is a shock, but it’s a win. When and if she comes back to the country, she will have no rights when it comes to Daisy. If she changes her mind and wants to see her daughter, it will be up to you and how you want to handle her entering Daisy’s life again. It’s all up to you. Come in tomorrow, and we’ll go through all the paperwork. But I have to say, Mace, though I know it’s going to hurt Daisy, and I don’t know how you’re going to handle actually telling her, you are not going to lose her because of anything having to do with papers and lawyers. She’s your daughter through thick and thin, and now the papers say that, too.”
Mace nodded and listened as his lawyer went through more of the legalities that honestly went over his head. He would go through every single paper and ask questions about anything he didn’t understand before he signed anything. And, frankly, he was going to make sure his ex did not want to change her mind. Because as much as he wanted Daisy in his life full-time, he didn’t want to be the one who stripped away her mother from her life. But, really, Jeaniene was the one doing it to herself. Jeaniene was the one giving up without a fight. It wasn’t as if he were fighting to keep her out of Daisy’s life completely. No, she was doing that.
By the time he’d hung up with his lawyer, his stomach ached, and his head pounded. He knew he needed to tell Daisy soon, or he would let the conversation rot and fester in his mind and in the space between them. But how the hell did he tell her? He figured by now there had to be a few parenting guides on it, but honestly, all he wanted to do was call Addi and ask for her advice. And because that was the first thing that came to mind, he didn’t do it. She had so much on her plate, and he was afraid that the more he tangled her up in every aspect of his life, the harder it would be to go back to the way things were when she realized his drama was too much.
That his life was too much for her.
Before he could truly ponder what those thoughts meant, Daisy walked out of her room and came up to where he still sat on the edge of the coffee table.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?”
He swallowed hard and knew he needed to do this like it was a bandage. Quick and fast, yet so not painless. His daughter was so bright and caring, she could sometimes get pulled into herself as she thought long and hard about what she needed to do or say in order to work through what she was feeling.
Because he knew he just needed to start and that hiding everything would only hurt them both in the end, he stood up from the coffee table and went to pick her up and hold her close to his chest. She wrapped her little arms around his neck and kissed him softly on the tip of his nose.
His heart melted for her even as it broke. His little girl was everything and so damn strong. So, he would be strong for her. He went to sit on the couch and rested her on his lap so he could meet her eyes as he told her some of what was going on.
“Is it about Mommy?”
He froze, wondering again how he had been part of creating this insightful and wonderful little girl. “Yes, how did you guess that?”
She patted his cheek. “You always get really sad right here when you think about Mommy.”
Jesus, he needed to do a better job of hiding that. It didn’t matter what else was going on around him, Jeaniene was still Daisy’s mom, and he needed to keep from being an ass about it.
He kissed the top of her head so he could gather his thoughts. “Your mom might be staying in Japan for longer than we planned.” Why he’d said we then he didn’t know. There had been no planning when it came to what Jeaniene had done for her job. And he’d had no say when it came to how everything was handled. And now he was going to have to figure out how not to break his daughter’s spirit even as he raised her to be a strong, independent woman. Being a single father wasn’t easy at the best of times, it wasn’t going to get any easier now.
“How long?”
“I don’t know, baby. I really don’t. But no matter what, it’s you and me. We’re going to be okay. This is going to be your home from now on, sort of just like we talked about when you first came. You’re still going to the same school, and you’ll still have the same friends, but you can stay with me for a lot longer. I love you, Daisy, and I love that you’re here with me. But it’s just the two of us. I know your mommy loves you, but right now she has some adult things for work to do, and that means you and I get more time together.”
He knew he was just blowing smoke now, but his daughter wasn’t old enough to understand exactly what was going on, and frankly, he wasn’t exactly sure himself. How was he supposed to explain the intricacies of whatever the hell was going on in his ex’s mind when he had no idea how to even put it into words? He hoped he was doing enough, but in the end, he wouldn’t know until something was wrong, and that thought worried him more than he cared to admit.
“I want Mommy. Just the two of us? What about Aunt Addi? Is she going away to Japan, too? Because I don’t want to miss her like I miss Mommy. I like her. And she makes you smile so you like her, too. Don’t let her go to Japan with Mommy. Okay? I want Mommy.”
Tears fell down her cheeks, and her little body shook as she broke into sobs. He hated himself, and he hated Jeaniene for what she was doing to their daughter. But there was nothing he could do except hold Daisy close and let the sobs finish rocking her body. She was so tiny to have so much within her.
But while all of that was churning, Mace knew he’d made a mistake. Not a little one that could be easily rectified, one that had thrown off the balance of everything that he’d tried to make work. Sorrow filled his gut, but he ignored what he would have to do and hugged Daisy to his chest.
“Just the two of us, baby,” he lied hoping he could find the strength to make it true. “Addi is my best friend, so she will always be around, but she’s not going to Japan like Mommy. She’s not Mommy.”
“Okay.” And with the resiliency of a child who didn’t quite comprehend the delicate emotions running through the air, Daisy went back to her room and turned on her music again.
And Mace quietly broke inside, knowing he was going to have to do the one thing he’d promised he wouldn’t do.
Break his best friend’s heart. Because he had seen the start of love in her eyes and felt the same thing running through him. But he couldn’t risk Daisy. He couldn’t risk hurting her again. Because once the reality of the situation with her mom fully hit her, he was going to have to find some way to help her heal. Whether it was through professional help or just with his family. But he couldn’t do anything to make things worse and make Daisy think that Addi was a replacement for Jeaniene. It wasn’t fair to any of them.
Dammit.
Mace dropped off Daisy at his parents’ house later since it was the weekend and she didn’t have school. He went to work and tried to act as if everything was normal and his whole center of being hadn’t changed monumentally. Shep would be i
nto work for closing that night since it was his turn, and Ryan had an appointment he couldn’t miss, so he’d left as soon as Mace walked in. That left him and Adrienne working side by side as they had countless times before at MIT and their prior shop, as well. She’d given him a weird look when she asked him what was wrong, and he’d lied and said everything was fine, but she didn’t question him. Thankfully, they were beyond busy with appointments and walk-ins. It made him think that maybe all of the issues surrounding them hadn’t hurt the shop as much as they had thought. But even those worries were in the back of his mind because he was trying to figure out how to let one of the brightest parts of his life go.
He was such an asshole, yet in order to be the father he needed to be, he had to be an even bigger asshole than he already was.
Adrienne would hate him. He knew it. Her family would probably hate him, too. It was going to make working with her and the rest of them almost impossible, yet he would just have to deal with it unless it hurt her too much. Because this was the bed he’d made, and now he had to lay in it. This was why he had tried not to do what they were doing to begin with. He had known that everything was too tangled and complicated, yet he had gone forward anyway, thinking that they could handle anything. He was wrong. So damn wrong. And he needed to figure out a way to make it work again. Because in the end, he had to put Daisy first. She deserved to be first in someone’s life. Her mother had already put work and her own personal dreams ahead of what Daisy wanted and needed to survive.
So now, he found himself at home with his best friend standing in his living room, staring at him because he’d been unable to tell her why he’d asked her over while Daisy was still at his parents’. Adrienne had to know that something was off, but he had to do this for Daisy. She was the only thing that could matter, even though so many other things mattered to him, as well. But his daughter had to come first.
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