Chapter 52 #2
“That’s a brilliant idea. The next break Grayson and I have, we’ll go.”
Kieran falls silent, a sudden tension entering his body. I don’t have to wait long to figure out why. Picking up a poker, Kieran slides a marshmallow on it, absently twisting it in the fire as he casually admits, “I reported the matron.”
My head whips to his face, searching his profile for how he feels, but he’s a locked vault. “How do you feel? What happened? What did they say?”
“That I wasn’t the first to report.”
The heaviness of the situation weighs on my shoulders. “That’s…not surprising.”
“It is to me. She’s still working there.” A muscle ticks in his jaw. “I threw my name around, threatened to go public with my story and shame her until something was done.”
My brows rise. “And what did they say to that?”
Kieran smiles, but it’s dark. “They finally got moving.”
“Bloody wankers.”
Kieran turns to me, humor dancing in his eyes as he gives me a lopsided grin. “You British, love?”
Rolling my eyes, I shove him playfully. “It was in my book I was reading. I like the curse word, sounds better than…”
“Say it.”
I scrunch my nose. “No.”
“Come on, baby, talk dirty to me.”
Bursting into a fit of laughter, I manage to say, “Absolutely not, and stop changing the subject. What happens now?”
“Clever one, you are.” Blowing out a breath, he goes on.
“Honestly, I have no idea. They said there will be an investigation into the claims I’ve made and the current state of the home.
I expressed my concerns about the foster home shutting down and they assured me that if she’s removed that won’t happen. ”
“If?”
“Yeah, I picked up on their choice of wording too.”
“Would you hold to your threat?”
He licks his lips. “It would be the right thing to do.”
Sliding my hand in his, I give it a squeeze. “I hope you’re not forced to do anything you don’t want to. I hope they do their job accordingly and remove her, sentence her too.”
Kieran nods, suddenly changing the subject. “What do you want our life to look like?”
Poking the fire with a stick, I hum to myself, allowing him the reprieve he clearly needs. “To be full of fun and adventures.”
“What type of adventures?”
“Like this. Camping, water fights, trips to the bookstore.” Smiling to myself, I bite my lip. “Kieran, everything you’ve done for me, that’s the life I want to live. The one we’ve already created.”
“It’s a pretty spectacular one, isn’t it?”
“It’s everything I ever dreamed of.”
“But if you could add more?” he asks huskily.
Allowing myself to dream, I whisper, “I want to publish children’s books.”
“You will,” Kieran declares confidently. “It’s not about if, sunshine, it’s about when.”
“Bella said she would love to draw the illustrations for me.”
Kieran’s lips twitch. “I knew she would. You watch, she’ll be up until the crack of dawn drawing and we’ll be getting grumpy texts from Grayson to return his girlfriend to him.”
I laugh as the very realistic text messages I’d receive from my best friend’s boyfriend come to mind.
“He’d absolutely blame us, wouldn’t he?”
“Oh yeah, Bella can do no wrong in his eyes.”
Looking at him out of the corner of my eye, he catches me watching him.
“What?” he asks.
“I want to hear what you want. There’s a lot of worry about me being happy but I want to make sure you get what you dream of, Kieran.”
Kieran stretches his legs out in front of him, the teasing in his tone long gone as he tilts his head back and gazes up at the stars.
“I want to adopt children, a lot of children. I want to give them a home. At the foster home I’d pray that someone would adopt me.
I want to make a child’s dream come true and give them everything they were robbed of.
I want our house to be full of children’s laughter, to be filled with warmth and happiness.
” He turns his head to me then, a smile teasing his lips.
“And I know we can create that together. You’ll be writing books for kids, working with Bella, and I’ll be skating and hopefully teaching one of our kids how to on the weekends. ”
Twisting to face me fully, he whispers, “But before all of that, I want to experience life with you and Emmy. I want to go on adventures and take us all camping. I want to spend our free days in the library, watching my two girls read while I build Legos. I want to come home to you in our bed and wake up to you sleeping on my chest.” He snorts to himself.
“I even want to come home and smell the food you burn.”
I slap his shoulder. “Hey! I’m getting better…sort of.”
“It wouldn’t matter anyways, because we both know I’ll come home and you’ll beg me to fix it and cook for you.”
“Maybe,” I tease.
Kieran leans forward, capturing my lips. “I want all those small moments with you, sunshine, burnt food and all.” His features grow serious. “How would you feel if Emmy called you Mom?”
My heart stutters. “I’d be honored.” A part of me always knew we had a special bond that went beyond me being her nanny.
He smirks. “Good, because I don’t think I can hold her off for much longer.”
“She’s like her dad.”
“Charmingly persistent?”
“Stubborn beyond measure.” Lowering my voice, I whisper, “But there’s one thing we can agree on.”
“What’s that, sunshine?”
“That I’m madly in love with both of you.”
Kieran’s hand slides up and cups my cheek. “About time you stopped running from the inevitably of us.”
Before he can kiss me, I tease, “I still think you’re the only dog that should be in a kennel.”
“And I still stand by what I said the day we met day.”
“Which part? You talked my ear off, Ashford.”
His blue eyes spark. “That I’m going to marry you.”
LAYLA’S LIFE LIST
Have a water fight
Go to second base
Have an orgasm in public
Go on the best date of my life
Cuddle by the fire
Have a man throw themselves at my car (Kieran forced me to write this one)
Get custom bookshelves built for me
Make out with a guy wearing a Ghostface mask
Wear matching costumes
Lose my virginity
Have sex in public
Have someone declare their love for me
Go camping on a mountain
Make s’mores
Fall in love with Kieran Ashford (also written by Kieran)
Be happy