Chapter 18
Sydney
I blink my eyes open to the bright morning sun. That might’ve been the best night’s sleep I’ve ever gotten. I don’t think I’ve ever slept that soundly.
I roll away from Maverick and stretch my arms above my head. I glance in his direction and find a sleepy smile playing on his lips.
“I love waking up with you in my bed. I think you should move in.”
“I can't just move in with you.” I roll my eyes.
He’s ridiculous. I'm fairly certain if I agreed to marry him, he’d plan a wedding for tomorrow and happily say ‘I do’ after only a week of us dating secretly.
“You can, you just feel like this is moving too quickly. I’d love it though. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Syd. I wish you could understand how much I want you here.”
“Maybe we can stay here on the weekends you don’t work,” I say softly. I don’t want him thinking I don’t want this just as much as I do.
“I’ll never work another weekend in my life,” he teases me.
“I’m serious!”
“So am I, Syd. I’ll hire more people if I need to. I want to make sure I can spend as much time with you guys as I can.” He tugs me into his arm and presses a lazy kiss to my lips.
“I don’t want you completely changing your life for us.”
“Baby, I’ve been waiting for the right woman to come along and make me want to change my life. I figured while I was single, I’d work a lot to keep myself busy. As soon as I found the woman of my dreams, I planned to work a lot less and focus on my family.”
“So, you always planned on having an instant family?” I smirk at him.
“Nah, but after I met you, I changed my mind.” He presses another soft kiss to my lips. “I think we need to get up and make some breakfast though. I'm getting pretty hungry.”
“I'm sure Danny’s already awake. He’s an early riser.” I sigh, pushing the covers off my body and stretching one more time.
“What about Bree?”
“That little girl would sleep her life away if I let her.” I chuckle.
“So… We wanted to talk to the two of you…” I begin, but don’t know where to go from here. It feels weird to talk to my kids about my dating life.
I glance up at Maverick, unsure of how to break the news to them. He silently asks me if I want him to do it and I nod my head. I trust him to do this.
“How do you guys feel about spending more time here or with me at your house?”
“I’d love it!” They both say at the same time.
“Why? What’s going on?” Danny glances from me to Maverick and back again. His brows are furrowed as he tries to figure out what’s going on.
“Your mom and I are dating. We really like each other and we want to see where a relationship could take us,” Maverick explains slowly.
“So… What does that mean for us?”
“Well, Maverick will be around more. He might pick you up from school or take care of you while I'm working. We’ll probably see him more and more. Maybe spend the weekends here when he has off.” Sydney nibbles on her bottom lip, unsure of how the kids will respond.
“Will you still help me with baseball?” Danny’s brows pull low as he thinks about what this means for him.
“Of course. It will be nice to be able to come to your games too.”
“You mean you plan on coming to my games?” His brows shoot up his forehead and he stares at me for several long seconds, waiting for me to answer.
“I plan to come to every game, but I can’t guarantee I’ll make it to every one of them with work.” Maverick glances at Bree. “I plan to come to every ballet recital I can too.”
“Really?” Her eyes fill with tears almost instantly and the sight makes my chest ache.
Like me, they’ve learned to expect very little from the men in their life. They’re used to being disappointed so they stopped thinking Rob would show up. It’s easier to pretend you don’t care than to allow the pain of knowing you aren’t important enough for your own father to show up.
“My dad never did any of that,” Danny murmurs.
“I'm not your dad,” Maverick says softly.
“I like you better,” Bree mumbles under her breath. “Wait… If you’re dating, does that mean one day you might become my daddy?”
“Bree…” I start, but honestly, I don’t know how to respond to this question.
I’d love it if Maverick and I got married one day. I’d love it even more if he adopted the kids and they could call him dad. They deserve to have someone like him in their lives. Someone better than Rob.
Since we split a few months ago, Rob hasn’t tried to see or talk to the kids a single time. He’s proven time and time again that he doesn’t care about them. I want them to have a man in their lives who loves them as much as I do.
I think Maverick could be that man.
“Maybe. We’d have to get married first,” Maverick says without skipping a beat.
“What are you waiting for, Mommy?” Bree glances in my direction with disappointment clouding her features.
“We can’t just get married, Bree. We need to date for a little bit first.” I sigh. There are going to be so many questions over the next few days, weeks, and maybe even months.
Instead of fighting Maverick to keep things moving slowly, I have a feeling I’ll be fighting all three of them. I’m ok with that though. I'm glad they all want the same thing. I do too, but I'm being more cautious than everyone else.
As soon as the kids stop with the dozens of questions, they both run downstairs to the batting cages and ballet studio. I’m left alone with Maverick.
He holds out his hand and as soon as I take it, he leads me into the living room and pulls me down onto the couch next to him.
“Are you ok?” He asks softly.
“A little overwhelmed. I didn’t expect so many questions, which was probably stupid on my part.”
“Really? I expected more.” He chuckles.
“Oh, I have a feeling they’re coming. Give them a chance to get used to this and they’ll come up with dozens more.”
“But are you happy?” His gaze is focused on our hands. It’s almost like he’s afraid of how I'll respond.
“Happier than I’ve ever been before.”
“Are you sure?” He peeks up at me through his lashes. “Am I pushing for too much, too quickly?”
“I'm positive. And is this moving quicker than I expected? Yes. Am I upset? No. Honestly, I think I need you to push me or I might never take a chance at love again.”
“Does that mean you love me?” He grins, but then shakes his head. “No, don’t answer that. That’s one topic I refuse to push. I don’t want you to say those three little words until you really feel them.”
“How is the bar doing with the dessert pairings? I keep meaning to ask but it’s been crazy around here.” I ask after a few moments of silence.
“It’s been amazing. We sell out before our rush even starts. Brad keeps reminding me to talk to you about increasing the number of desserts we get, but like you said, it’s been crazy. I didn’t want to make anything more overwhelming.”
“You know how you keep telling me to lean on you and let you know when I need help?” I stare into his eyes and after he nods, I continue.
“Well, I need the same from you. We’re dating and that means we need to be there for each other.
I don’t want you to help me, but keep me in the dark when you need something from me.
We’re a team, Maverick. Please tell me what you need. ”
“I think we could double our order and still sell out every night.”
“Really? That’s amazing!”
“Mark’s been saying we should do something similar to what you do at the bakery. We should have a small set menu of things people can get every night, and then have a daily special. I don’t know how that would work though.”
“It’s not a bad idea. If you wanted to buy some of those small cast iron pans for cookies, I could give you frozen cookie dough that’s already formed into balls.
You would simply place it on the cast iron pan and stick it in the oven.
There are a few other things we could probably do, but I’d have to think about it.
Some people do the chocolate lava cakes and freeze them until you have an order, then you just heat them up. ”
“Can the bakery handle that?”
“Yes. I have three interviews this week for some new staff. I’m hoping all three work out because I could really use the help.”
“Your bakery is flourishing, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, it really is. I have a feeling I can thank you for that. I’ve had a lot of people stopping in and saying they tried something at the bar and it was delicious. They wanted to stop in to see what else we had to offer. Do you get a lot of people from out of town?”
“We didn’t used to, but with the new pairings, we’ve been getting more and more.
Brad runs some social media accounts for me.
He’s really been promoting this and getting a lot of attention from neighboring towns.
He said people are commenting and saying they can’t wait to come.
He calls it ‘Sydney’s Sweets and Maverick’s Drinks’.
I have a feeling when he finds out we’re dating, he’s going to push it even more and call us the dynamic duo. ”