by Natalie Ann
“I’d like that,” she said smiling. “You’ve got my number to reach out when you’re ready.”
His smile dropped, but he nodded. She turned to help Adele with one of her dolls and the doorbell rang two minutes later.
The three of them sat at the island and ate their pizza and talked about Adele’s school and friends. She found out all of Adele’s favorite things—and there were a lot—and then she took her leave.
Seth stopped her at the door while Adele stayed in the kitchen. “I really do appreciate you doing this.”
“My pleasure. Again, you’ve got my number if you want to reach out again.” She put her hand on his and felt a heat sprint up her arm. She wouldn’t push or beg, but she hoped he accepted her offer. He looked like he needed it maybe as much as she did. “No pressure.”
9
Ready To Move On
“Daddy!” Seth grunted when he felt the small body of his daughter jump on the bed and hit him in the shoulder. “I want to find the eggs.”
“I’m getting up,” he said. “Or I will if you let me.”
Adele moved off the bed, then ran out of the room. He threw the covers back and stood up. Long gone were the days he slept in his underwear, knowing his daughter could do exactly what she did. He’d had pajama pants on when he got in bed last night, but he was hot and sweaty thinking of the day with Ava.
When he pitched a solid tent and there were no signs of it going down on its own, he reached under the covers and did what he’d been doing for too long.
Longer than he wanted and his body was just screaming for a release with a woman. He’d dated someone a year ago for a few months. Not long enough to introduce her to his daughter, but plenty of time to see her naked when he had daycare and could get out.
The connection just wasn’t there for long term and Michaela got fed up with what she considered him dragging his feet. When it came down to it, he did not like the way Michaela would brush Adele off and wasn’t ready to move on because of that.
And when Ava made the comment last night to call when he was ready, he realized that maybe he finally was.
He went into his bathroom and did his business, then brushed his teeth fast. There was no time for a shower yet, as he was lucky that Adele was giving him time to empty his bladder.
When he got in the hall she was standing at the top of the steps dancing in place. “I didn’t want to go down without you because I know you don’t like that.”
He didn’t like her going downstairs in the morning before he was up. She had a TV in her room and if she woke before him she could turn it on to entertain herself. It was not that he slept late, but on the weekends, he liked to sleep later than five and his active daughter could hit the floor running.
Most kids couldn’t get out of bed, but Adele just wanted to go and go. On school days she was hard to get up, on the weekends, it’s like her internal clock was reversed.
“Good girl,” he said. “Now let’s go see what the Bunny left you.”
She raced down the stairs like he fully expected and went into the family room first, looking for her basket that was always left on the coffee table. “Chocolate,” she screeched.
Of course there was chocolate in it. What Easter basket wouldn’t be complete without chocolate and jelly beans? But there wasn’t much of it because like normal it was the first thing his daughter saw and wanted. She was hyper enough without the sugar rush.
“There is more than chocolate in there,” he pointed out when he got to the room.
She removed the clear wrapper and then reached in. “Crayons, and coloring books. A Barbie.” There was a victory dance over that. It was getting harder and harder to remember which ones she had and didn’t. “Nail polish and bracelets. Daddy, the Bunny got me more stuff for my hair.”
“He did.”
“The Bunny is a boy?” Adele asked.
Oh man, here we go again. His daughter questioned so many things that he wasn’t sure he had the answers for. “It’s a figure of speech. I’m not sure if the Bunny is a boy or girl. Does it matter? Just like Santa, I bet the Bunny has helpers so it can get everything done for all the boys and girls on the same night.”
“That’s true. And the Bunny knows me so well. It’s all my favorites.”
He laughed, thinking of how Adele told Ava all her favorites yesterday. A list a mile long and never stopped growing. He supposed he should be happy about that since it made life easier to buy things for his daughter.
“Why don’t we get some breakfast and then we can both shower and go to Grandma’s. What do you want to eat?”
“Can I have muffins?”
“I don’t have any muffins in the house,” he said. “You should have said something when we were at the store yesterday.”
“I was thinking of tomato soup,” she said, frowning.
“We can get some next week. How about one of those frozen waffles you like so much?”
“Yes, please.”
That was easy enough, so he went to the kitchen to pull the fluffy creations out of the freezer and popped them in the toaster oven. He’d make three and have two himself.
While they were cooking, he started to brew his coffee knowing he’d need a shot of caffeine to get through the day after his sleepless night thinking of another woman.
Two hours later, they were both showered, dressed and Adele’s hair braided when they walked into his mother’s house.
“Happy Easter,” his mother said, moving toward him to kiss his cheek and then hug Adele. “Did the Bunny bring you something good? Oh, look at your hair.”
“Daddy did it. Ava showed him how.”
“Ava?” his mother asked, lifting her eyebrow. “What am I missing here?”
“Daddy knows Ava from work and we ran into her in the store and I said her hair was pretty in a braid and asked if she could show Daddy how to do it. Then she came over for pizza yesterday afternoon and taught him. She’s really nice. She said maybe another day she will teach me how to do it on my dolls, but she had to leave after we ate.”
“Interesting,” his mother said. “Adele, why don’t you go in the living room and see what Grammy got you for Easter?”
Adele had already shed her jacket and Seth reached down to get it from the floor as he watched his daughter run the short distance to the living room.
“It’s not the time,” he told his mother.
“We’ve got a few minutes, so fill me in.”
He sighed, knowing she meant well. “Dr. Ava Mills. She had an issue with her account a few weeks ago that I helped her out with.” He wasn’t going into details, but it wasn’t often that he spent time with customers and he didn’t want his mother to think Ava was an employee. He’d never do that. “As Adele said, we ran into her at the store yesterday.”
“Does she live on the island?”
“She is transferring here in June, I believe. She just has a rotation here now.”
“Mills, you say? As in the Mills that are related to the Bonds?”
“Yes,” he said quickly. “Again, not the time.”
“Answer me this. Was it a one time thing that Adele pressured you both on or more?”
He wasn’t sure how to answer it just yet. “I’m not sure.”
“What do you want though?”
He thought and finally said, “More.” But there was guilt there too. Did he have enough in him to give to his daughter and a woman? It didn’t seem it in the past.
“Then I’m even happier,” his mother said. “Whether it works out or not, the fact that you want more means you are ready to move on.”
“Is it smart to?”
“Seth,” his mother said quietly. “You’re thirty-six years old. Too young to remain single the rest of your life and you know it. You’re meant to be a family man. You’re meant to have more than one child.”
“But that isn’t a reason to jump.”
“After three years I’m not sure there is a person on the face
of this earth who would think you are jumping anything. Or maybe that is the issue. You want to jump something?” she asked, grinning at him.
He hated when she talked like that and embarrassed him. “Don’t go there.”
“Fine,” she said, patting his arm. “What kind of doctor?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to admit this, but his mother could find out easy enough. “Obgyn.”
“Oh,” his mother said, her smile dropping. “Talk about jumping into an ice bath without a blanket to warm up with after.”
“I don’t hold all of that profession guilty for what happened. You know that. It’d be stupid when stuff happens that we can’t control.”
His mother smiled. “That’s the exact answer you should have.”
Not that far away, Ava was dealing with a million questions of her own from her family. She’d thought she’d gotten a lot of them out of the way when she returned before dinner, but her mother was determined to throw her under the Greyhound with her brothers holding tickets to board.
“So did you tell your brothers that you went on a date yesterday afternoon?” her mother asked when they were all in the living room while dinner was cooking.
“I’d hardly call that a date,” she said.
“Let us be the judge of that,” Hudson said. “What and with whom?”
She scowled at her mother. Leave it to her to get everyone going. “Do we really need to do this?”
“Yes,” Carson said. “You’re in the middle of something serious and need to focus on getting that mess straightened out.”
“Don’t remind me,” she said. “I’m doing everything I can to get it worked out. Hailey is on top of it. I’m meeting with Eli and Griffin next week.”
“Smart,” her father said.
“Of course it’s smart,” she said to her father. “You and Mom made the suggestion.”
Her brothers laughed at her while her father sat there grinning.
“Ava went on a date with Seth Young. He’s been very helpful during this situation.”
“Oh,” both of her brothers said at once. “That’s good.” She hated when they both said the same thing at the exact same time.
“Really? You hear his name and now it’s fine I went on a date? That’s kind of hypocritical.”
“No, it’s not,” Hudson said. “Is that how you two met? He asked you out at the bank?”
She hated having to explain so much but would if it would get them off her back. “No. He was very helpful, as I said. I ran into him at the store yesterday.” She proceeded to explain the situation with Seth’s daughter and her bringing up braids.
“Do you know what happened to his wife?” Carson asked her.
“No. We didn’t get into that. It didn’t seem to be the time or the place either. I was there because Adele asked me. So, as you can tell, it wasn’t much of a date.”
“But you said you’d show her how to do it another time,” her mother said.
“That isn’t my decision to make. I put it out there, but Seth has to make the call.”
“Do you want to spend time with him?” her father asked.
“Wow, we are getting pretty personal here,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind spending time with him. He’s a widower. Three years and I got that because Adele said she was only three when her mother died and she’s in first grade. I can do the math. I’m not sure he’s ready though.”
“Do you think his daughter is pushing him?” Carson asked.
“She’s six. I doubt she knows how to be that manipulative. Nor do I think she’d do it anyway. It’s easy to see Adele is his world and I know that.”
“Are you okay with that?” her father asked.
She sighed. “I would be, but it’s moot because it may never turn into anything other than pizza at his house and a braid tutorial.”
“This is Amore Island,” her mother said. “Anything is possible if you open your heart and mind to it.”
Another thing she didn’t want to hear. “As you all have said, I’ve got other problems to deal with not only with my credit and identity but I also need a place to live. I’ll be here full time in about six weeks and Drew is still looking for places for me.”
“He’ll find something,” her mother said. “If not, you know you are welcome here even if it’s just short term. Going back and forth on the ferry daily is going to be hard. You don’t want your life split like that.”
“No,” she said. “I don’t. But I’ll figure it out like I always do and have in the past. I’m going to try to live my life as normally as I can and if that means I see Seth again, great. If not, then I move on. Just like life does.”
But the truth was, she’d love nothing more than to move on with Seth next to her at the same time and see if they could explore what she was feeling.
10
Took Care Of Their Own
It was hard to explore what she was feeling when she hadn’t heard a word from Seth in days. Seven days to be exact.
And as for moving on, she was trying and that was why she was walking into Eli’s office late Saturday morning to meet with him and Griffin. She’d been on the mainland all last week and luckily wasn’t on call this weekend and was able to make the trip over. She’d stay the night at her parents again while she drove around looking at houses for sale.
She was itching for her own place and debating about using her trust fund. And the minute she said that last week, Hailey jumped up and down and said she’d sit on her before she’d let that happen. That the last thing she should do is start acquiring assets when there was so much in the air that could be taken away.
She should have realized that and had to remind herself to have patience when she didn’t normally. Looking didn’t mean buying though.
“Ava Mills here to see Eli,” she said to the front desk. She knew there was no way she could get to the penthouse where Eli resided. Not only that, he was probably walking around somewhere like he always was.
“Let me page him,” the young clerk said. She knew paging didn’t mean over the speakers like in an office or hospital, but to Eli directly. When the phone rang a minute later, it was picked up with the worker saying, “Ava Mills is here for you.” She hung the phone up. “Follow me.”
The worker moved out from behind the desk with Ava trailing behind and down a hall that said employee access only. A badge was swiped and the elevator door was opened. “Only for Eli?” Ava asked, grinning.
“No. All staff can use it; however, none of us can get to the penthouse without the code or security overriding it. Eli said to go right up. He unlocked it to his floor.”
She held back her snort over how secure her cousin was but then realized it was probably smart too. If there was one thing Eli was, it was smart. “What if another staff wants to get on at a different floor while it’s unlocked?”
“They won’t be able to until this elevator is on the way back down.”
She nodded her head and should have figured that. When the doors shut, she took the quick trip to the top. She’d never been in Eli’s place before. Never had a reason to. Sure, she’d been in the casino; most of the family had at different points. Especially when it opened a few years ago.
Glam and glitz had been his plan and he made his statement. This wasn’t a small casino you might see in Vegas with gaudy flashing lights and drunks sitting at tables all night with rough five o’clock shadows and bloodshot eyes. This was fashioned after those in Monte Carlo but scaled down in size. Didn’t mean he catered to only the wealthy, just that Eli wanted to give off that vibe.
When the doors opened, she walked right into a foyer with white marble floors. “Fancy,” she said out loud.
Eli popped his head around a doorway. “Come in here and have some coffee with me. I just got up about thirty minutes ago.”
“Was this too early for you?” she asked, moving into the kitchen. “Oh wow. I hadn’t known what to expect, but when I thought penthouse I figured it’d be more like Hu
nter’s.”
“Nah. Hunter is more subdued.”
“That’s the understatement of the year compared to this,” she said. Hunter and Kayla’s penthouse suite above The Bond Retreat was almost calming. She’dbeen there once last month when she went to visit Kayla and baby Ben, that Ava had delivered, to bring a gift.
But Eli’s penthouse was something that spoke of classy wealth. The white and gray marble floors carried into the kitchen. She was pretty positive the black counters with swirls of white were also marble. She was sensing a theme. But it wasn’t dark with the white cabinets either.
“I like the finer things,” Eli said, grabbing a coffee mug and pouring her a cup. “So you’ve got yourself some trouble.”
“I’m not so sure it’s trouble as much as a nuisance. Hailey is on top of it. It’s only forty grand and though that is a lot of money and not something I want to pay out, I would if it would put a stop to this and clear up the debt.”
“But it won’t clear up your credit,” Eli said. “And though you could pay cash for a house, why would you, correct?”
“Yeah. I’m not into emptying my trust fund even though it’s mine to do that with. It doesn’t seem necessary at this point. But the credit issue is hurting me from getting a loan.”
“It will get straightened out I’m sure. Griffin is on his way over. He’s running a little late this morning himself.”
“He lives here?” she asked.
Eli smirked at her. “Of course he does. What good is security if my best man isn’t close by?”
She wanted to ask why he needed it but figured it might be more for show than anything. She’d never heard anything in the family about a risk or threat, but she’d never asked either.
“You said over and not up or down,” she pointed out.
“You catch on. My penthouse is the only one on this floor, but there is a small apartment next to it. He has his own elevator to move around the building and entrance to get here.”