Chapter 17 #2
“What are we going to tell her?” Bliss asked Raleigh. “Is she going to be coming back again? What’s she going to think when I don’t get a ring? Not to mention the fact that Connor is never here.”
Damn it. She was going to work herself into another panic attack if he didn’t do something.
He grabbed her chin between his fingers and turned her to face him.
He was about to tell her he’d take care of everything.
Take care of her and her three little miracles.
And if that meant telling the Talon he’d panicked and lied, that’s what he’d do.
Bliss’s safety, her heart, and her mind were now his responsibility. She just didn’t know it. Yet.
But the anger and resentment in her eyes hit him like a punch to the throat. She stared up at him, waiting for him to explain himself. Even after the blunder he’d made, he needed to see faith in her eyes. Faith in him and his ability to make things right.
So he kissed her.
Not a peck on the cheek, or a brush of the lips, but a full-on kiss, deep, hard, and wet.
After a moment of surprise, she tried to push him away.
The struggle didn’t last long, though, before she was kissing him back.
If that was all they had, the physical attraction between them was intense.
But it was more than that. He could feel it.
Somehow, she still trusted him to keep her and her daughters safe, or she wouldn’t have called.
He made a silent vow never to let anything harm her again.
It was more than just physical trust, though. He wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but he knew he wanted more than her body. He wanted her spirit, her laughter, her mornings and nights—every little piece of her she shared with him.
“Um, guys. There’s a lady waiting on the porch to inspect the house, and the longer she’s out there, the madder she’s going to get. So, if you two could put that on pause for later, I have a few things to go over with Bliss.”
Bliss held a trembling hand to her well-kissed lips. With one last glare at him, she turned to Raleigh. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
Connor grinned. He knew what came over her. The same thing that had come over him. He started to speak, but Bliss elbowed him in the stomach. Since Raleigh was right, he decided to let that go for now. When they were alone… well now, that was different. But right now she needed to focus on Raleigh.
Eyes twinkling, Raleigh held up the paper the Talon had given him. Connor’s smile faded. “Bliss, who have you left in charge of Sophie, Sadie, and Nori since you’ve been in Darling?”
Bliss jerked at the question. “No one except Winnie. Why?”
Raleigh nodded, reading the paper again. “That’s what I thought. These are some pretty serious allegations. I’m going to need a list of the places you’ve taken them, and the names of anyone who talked to you while you were out, in any way that suggested you couldn’t care for the children.”
Bliss began to tremble, so Connor pulled her closer. This time, she didn’t even struggle.
Turning to Raleigh, he said, “You need to tell us exactly what’s going on here, Raleigh. You’re scaring Bliss.” His words came out sharper than he’d intended. Raleigh broke into the same kind of knowing smile Reid had the night before.
Raleigh nodded. “Sorry. Allegations of abuse and neglect have been made. Wait, who watches the twins at Bundles of Joy?”
Bliss gasped. “Sandra Wainwright.”
Connor’s chest seized as Bliss glared at him as if he’d done something wrong.
Was this all his fault? Sandra could be vindictive, but this would be unhinged, even for her.
Had she staged that entire scene at Books-N-Brews yesterday because she knew what was about to happen? Fuck! No wonder Bliss was pissed.
Bliss continued, but her voice was different now.
She was still scared, but there was fire in her voice, too.
“She does a good job with the twins, but I’ve always gotten the feeling she didn’t like me very much.
” She aimed another glare his way. “I didn’t know why until recently.
It was nothing blatant enough for me to report to Ivy.
It was more of a feeling.” She gave her attention back to Raleigh.
“I just thought it was weird because I’d never met her before I started working at the daycare.
Do you think she had something to do with the allegations? ”
It was Connor’s turn to flinch. Sandra fucking Wainwright.
He’d dated the woman on and off for the past year, but she wasn’t worth the effort. The woman was petty and bitter and didn’t have a Little bone in her body.
Every instinct screamed at him to hunt her down right then and get some answers. If she did this, he would make it his mission to make her regret it.
He hated it, but Sandra's making the allegations made sense. If that was true, then, yeah, this whole situation was his fault. He wanted to rip something into microscopic pieces. When Bliss realized he was the one who’d brought this whole mess to her door, it was going to be that much harder to mend the bridges he’d burned the night before.
But he’d die before he let her suffer because of someone else’s spite.
But when he thought about it, maybe this was a good thing. If it was Sandra, he could go talk to her and get her to rescind the allegations. His jaw clenched at the thought of talking to her again. He’d shut that door for a reason.
But he’d talk to her in a heartbeat if it would clear all this up for Bliss. He wished he’d known she was the viper looking after the twins. He’d have warned Bliss to be careful.
“Connor,” Raleigh called his name, drawing him out of his head. “I take it you recognize that name.”
“You could say that. Sandra and I dated on and off for about a year and a half. I broke it off with her—shit, I broke it off with her three months ago.”
“So, a few weeks before Bliss moved back to Darling.”
Connor ground his teeth before snarling, “Yeah. Not just that. We had a bit of a dust up at Books-N-Brews yesterday. She said some things about Bliss I didn’t appreciate, and I set her straight. But I never thought she’d do something like this.”
He said that last part for Bliss, even though he couldn’t even look at her. Even though she had no right to feel betrayed, he couldn’t take seeing it in her eyes. Every flicker of hurt on her face was a dagger to his gut.
She leaped off his legs. “That witch! Do you mean to tell me she’s trying to get my children taken away from me because she’s jealous? Argh! That makes me so freakin’ mad.”
She paced the room, never looking at Connor. It was like he wasn’t even there anymore. He tried to take comfort in the fact that she was angry at Sandra instead of him, but he wanted her back in his lap. He needed to make her feel like the world felt safe again.
Raleigh held out a hand. “Calm down. You’re going to wake the girls. Worse, Ms. Talon is going to hear you.”
Bliss froze, hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
Her gaze shot directly to Connor, then darted away.
He might be grasping at straws, but he took that as a good sign.
When she was afraid or needed comfort, she looked to him first. She might not want to, but she did.
That was enough to feed the fire in him to protect her.
Raleigh stepped closer to Connor and motioned for Bliss to do the same. “I think I have a solution to your problem. It’ll work, but you both have to be all in.”
Bliss answered first. “Of course. Anything. Just tell us what to do.”
Us.
She’d said us. Connor took that as a good sign, too. In her mind, they could be a team, even if it was only for the time it took to deal with Child Protective Services. They were a team. Them against the world. That was how it should always be.
He nodded at Raleigh. “I’m in. Just tell us what to do, and we’ll do it.”
Raleigh grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that.
I’m going to go talk with Ms. Talon. She’s going to do a walk through the house and have a look at the babies, but not touch them.
You two are going to sit on the couch, too consumed with your love for each other to worry about her.
When she’s gone, I’m going to my office to set up a plan because I’m relatively sure she’s going to be able to get a court hearing out of this, which we are going to win—”
Bliss broke in, protesting. “But it isn’t true. How can they get a hearing if it isn’t true?”
Fuck it. She was getting upset, and she was too far away.
He reached for her, snagged her wrist, and pulled her back onto his lap.
She struggled for a few seconds, then calmed and relaxed onto him just like before.
The tightness in his chest relaxed, and he could breathe again when her body relaxed against his.
For the first time since he’d gotten the call, the storm inside him eased.
Raleigh continued. “They can because this is a small town at heart. It’s more about who you know than what you did. I’m on this, Bliss. I promise. We’ll go to court, and we’ll win. Then this whole unpleasant situation will disappear. Isn’t that right, Connor? We know exactly what we need to do.”
Raleigh stared at him like he was missing the obvious.
Connor wasn’t missing anything. He’d give anything for his girl not to be in this ridiculous situation.
But since she was there, he was going to be the one to get her out of it.
And hopefully rebuild the trust he’d lost. He would fight, scheme, lie, or get engaged and married—whatever it took.
She was his.
His Trouble.
His everything.
He knew what they needed to do, and doing it didn’t upset him at all. The only thing he didn’t know was how Bliss would react. But after he found the perfect ring, he was going to find out. And this time, he wouldn’t let anything come between them.
Not a woman. Not the law. And definitely not the fear of the future.