Chapter 30 #2
“Morning, sunshine,” he said to the little girl. “I saved you some eggs and potatoes.”
“Morning, Mr. Ethan,” she grumped, plopping down at the table beside him. He took food from the covered dishes on the table and put it in front of her. He’d watched Paisley while dishing it out to make sure he didn’t give her too much. When she nodded, he stopped.
Violet stabbed her fork in and ate a bite. Then she started humming. Paisley grinned at him and he grinned back.
A few seconds later, he nearly choked on his coffee.
“Are you going to be my daddy now, Mr. Ethan?”
Paisley’s expression reflected shock. Ethan swallowed the coffee, thankful he hadn’t spit it all over the table. “Uh, well…”
“Baby, why would you ask that?” Paisley said, coming to his rescue.
Violet looked between them like it was obvious. “Daddies sleep beside mommies. And they eat breakfast with you. That’s what Lily’s daddy does.”
“Oh, I see. Well, would it bother you if Mr. Ethan stayed with us all the time?”
She cocked her head and gave him a look. Then she shook it so hard her brain must be rattling. “I like him. He doesn’t yell and he doesn’t make you cry.”
There was a knot in his throat. “I like you, too, Miss Violet. And I like your mommy. I don’t ever want to make her cry, but sometimes adults cry for reasons other than being scared. What if I made your mommy so happy she cried?”
Violet seemed to think about it. “You mean if you gave her a pony and she cried because it was the best present ever?”
This kid. “Exactly like that.”
She pursed her lips in all seriousness. “That’s okay then. But not too often. Crying makes your face hurt. And then you can’t see.”
“That’s true,” Ethan said because he felt like he should agree. He was at a loss for what to say next. It was up to Paisley to decide when and how they introduced the concept of a new daddy, not him.
“How about we let Mr. Ethan stay with us, then? He’ll be here at night when we go to bed and in the mornings when we wake up. He’ll eat with us, and we’ll do things together on the weekend. Does that sound nice?”
“Yes.” Head nodding this time. Also exaggerated.
“Okay, good.” Paisley locked eyes with him. “You can still call him Mr. Ethan if you want to. There’s no rush to think of him as your daddy.”
“I don’t like my daddy. He’s mean. Mr. Park is nice. He plays with Lily and tickles her and talks Korean to her.”
Jesus.
“I know you don’t, baby. But it’s not your fault he’s mean. He’s a mean person because of himself, not you.”
Violet played with her potatoes. “He was nice sometimes. He gave me toys. But then he yelled and slammed doors and scared me. And he made Mommy cry.”
Ethan clenched his hands beneath the table. Paisley’s eyes shone with tears.
“I can’t promise I’ll never be loud,” Ethan said, his heart breaking. “I’m a big guy and my voice is big too. But I’m only mean to people who are mean first. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” she said softly. “You would be mean to my daddy if he was mean to mommy.”
“That’s right.”
Her little mouth flattened into a hard line that reminded him of Eric when he was being particularly stubborn about something. “Good.”
She went back to humming and eating and Ethan let out a breath.
Paisley arched an eyebrow and surreptitiously wiped her eyes.
Ethan reached for her hand and squeezed it.
She squeezed back, and he knew they’d be okay.
Violet was cautious but resilient. Whether it was because Paisley had sheltered her from as much of the bad shit with Trey as possible, or because she was more like Ethan and she made plans for how things would be better from now on, he didn’t know.
All he knew was he loved her and he intended to do whatever it took to make the transition good for her.
When his phone rang, he picked it up and walked outside so he could talk to Seth alone. “Hey, man.”
“Trey walked into McCann Solutions this morning at seven-thirty.” Seth didn’t waste time and Ethan appreciated that trait more than ever.
“Jesus, how’d you find out?” It was eight-thirty. Almost time for him to go to work and for Paisley to take Violet to her aunt’s house since Mrs. Park had to ferry her kids to doctor appointments today.
“Child’s play. I broke into his building’s server. And then I monitored the cameras inside the building. He entered the building at seven-thirty and fourteen seconds to be precise.”
“Huh. Wonder where he was between Charlotte and Destin.”
“Still looking for a rental in his name or his company’s name, but coming up empty. He was in Charlotte on Friday, supposed to fly on Monday, but he canceled the ticket and showed up in Destin this morning.”
Ethan raked a hand over his head. He didn’t like it, but then again Trey was a mercenary now.
He ran his own company and did jobs for the people who could pay.
There could be a hundred reasons why he’d canceled the Dubai trip and why he’d dropped off the radar before reappearing in Destin this morning.
Fact was, he was in Destin. He was nowhere near Sutton’s Creek, which meant Paisley and Violet were safe. At least for now.
“Okay, thanks. You’ll keep looking?”
“Yeah, brother, I will. Gotta head out on that consult today with Shadow, but I’ve got some inquiries out there about McCann. If I find anything, you’ll be first to know.”
Ethan pocketed the phone and looked at the fence where a person had hopped it two nights ago.
It wasn’t so much the fact somebody had come over the fence and cut through the yard.
It was the way they’d stared at the house before they’d moved again.
Was that the behavior of a teen on his way somewhere he shouldn’t be?
Or was it more likely a man with a grudge against the occupant of the house?
“Everything okay?”
He turned to find Paisley standing on the patio, watching him with apprehension on her face.
“Yeah. That was Seth. Trey’s definitely in Destin. He was seen entering his office about an hour ago.”
Paisley put a hand to her chest. “Oh thank God.”
Ethan went over and wrapped an arm around her, pulled her against his side. She was small and perfect and he loved her like he’d never loved anyone else. Except Violet. He was finding that his feelings for her were every bit as deep as those for Paisley.
“He doesn’t know where I am. We’re safe,” she whispered.
Ethan kissed the top of her head. “That’s right,” he said.
But he wasn’t sure it was true.